Apple Watch Series 12, Watch Ultra 4 Debut With Improved Heart Rate Tracking, New Readiness Feature

Apple unveiled its latest wearable lineup at the annual fall event, with the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 taking center stage. The new smartwatches are powered by the S11 chip, which Apple claims is its most powerful wearable processor yet. Both devices feature a new Health Sensing System, incorporating advanced optical and electrical heart sensors for enhanced accuracy, allowing for continuous heart rate monitoring every five seconds throughout the day.

The Apple Watch Series 12 is available in two sizes - 42mm and 46mm - and offers multiple finishes, including aluminium options in space gray, dark bronze, black, and light gold, as well as titanium variants in natural titanium and radiant gold. There's also a return of the ceramic case, available in pearl white and night blue. Despite the upgraded features, the watch offers up to 24 hours of everyday battery life, or up to 10 hours during outdoor workouts. Charging for just 15 minutes provides 12 hours of additional usage.

In contrast, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 boasts an impressive 50 hours of battery life in total, or 84 hours in Low Power Mode. It also features an Extended Workout mode that can last up to 25 hours, enabling users to track outdoor workouts with full GPS and heart rate readings. A 15-minute charge adds 18 hours of battery life.

Beyond the enhanced heart rate tracking, the new smartwatches introduce a Readiness feature. This feature analyzes the user's recent activity, training load, vital signs, and sleep score to provide a daily capacity score on a 0-10 scale, along with personalized recommendations. The score is broken down into four categories: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It, and updates in real-time as new data becomes available.

The Health app has also been revamped with a more comprehensive view of long-term health, leveraging Apple Intelligence and a new Insights tab.