Apple opens preorders for Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4, touting redesigned health hardware

Apple has begun taking preorders for its next pair of smartwatches, the Watch Series 12 and the higher-end Ultra 4, both unveiled at the company’s fall product event. The headline feature across both models is a new “Health Sensing System” paired with Apple’s S11 chip, which the company says enables the most accurate heart rate tracking it has shipped in a wearable to date.

According to Apple, the S11 silicon and the new sensing architecture allow the watches to capture heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) readings at a higher frequency than previous-generation Apple Watch models. HRV, a measure of variation in time between heartbeats, has become an increasingly emphasized metric in consumer wearables for tracking recovery, stress, and overnight health trends.

Both devices will ship running watchOS 27, and the Ultra 4 continues Apple’s pattern of positioning that model toward outdoor athletes and users who want extended battery life and a more rugged titanium enclosure, while the Series 12 serves as the mainstream lineup refresh.

Wearables remain a meaningful part of Apple’s hardware business alongside iPhone, Mac, and iPad, and annual watch refreshes are closely followed by analysts tracking whether Apple can sustain upgrade cycles in a mature category. The company’s shares were trading at $315.34, down 0.32% from the prior close of $316.34, valuing the consumer electronics giant at roughly $4.6 trillion.

The accuracy claims will draw scrutiny from the wearables market, where Apple competes with fitness-focused rivals and medical-grade device makers alike. Independent validation of the new sensing hardware’s performance typically arrives in the weeks after launch as reviewers put the devices through controlled comparisons.

What to watch

• Ship dates and sell-through once preorders convert to general availability.
• Independent testing of the Health Sensing System’s heart rate and HRV accuracy claims.
• Apple’s next quarterly earnings report, where wearables revenue will show the new watches’ early contribution.
• watchOS 27 rollout and any health-related software features exclusive to the new hardware.

Source: original release