Apple Watch Series 12 (2026): Everything we know so far

If you’re thinking about buying an Apple Watch, you’ll want to know whether or not Apple is likely to launch a new model in the near future. After all, there are few things worse than spending hundreds of dollars on a tech device only to see it superseded by something better (and potentially cheaper) a couple of months later. Macworld is here to help you avoid that nightmare scenario.

At the time of writing, Apple sells three smartwatches: the SE 3, the Series 11, and the Ultra 3. All three were announced in September last year, which means we’re expecting at least one to be updated in the next few months.

In this article we’ve gathered all the information currently available about the new Apple Watch(es) coming in 2026. This includes rumors about the likely release date, changes to the design, the tech specs and features of the new models, and their expected pricing.

For detailed comparison of Apple’s smartwatches, check out our giant guide to the best Apple Watch in 2026.

Apple Watch Series 12 release date: Will Apple release a new Apple Watch soon?

• The next Apple Watch will launch in September 2026

Apple products can be divided into two categories: Those that get a new model every year like clockwork (the iPhone and the Apple Watch), and those that don’t (everything else). In other words, yes, Apple is going to release a new watch soon.

Every September since 2016, the company has announced a new “Series” brand Apple Watch. The schedule is so regular that you can set your smartwatch by it. So the Series 12 will almost certainly make its first appearance at a special press event in September 2026, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro.

As for the precise date, here’s when those press events have been held for the past 10 years:

• Series 1/2: September 7, 2016 (Wednesday)
• Series 3: September 12, 2017 (Tuesday)
• Series 4: September 12, 2018 (Wednesday)
• Series 5: September 10, 2019 (Tuesday)
• Series 6: September 15, 2020 (Tuesday)
• Series 7: September 14, 2021 (Tuesday)
• Series 8: September 7, 2022 (Wednesday)
• Series 9: September 12, 2023 (Tuesday)
• Series 10: September 9, 2024 (Monday)
• Series 11: September 9, 2025 (Tuesday)

In other words, we’re looking for a date in the first half of September, and we can rule out Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends. September 8-9 and September 15 are plausible dates.

What about the Apple Watch SE 4 and Ultra 4?

The SE and Ultra sub-brands are less predictable, unfortunately, than the Series models. Yes, the SE 3 and Ultra 3 were both announced on September 9, 2025. But new models don’t come out every year. The schedule is less regular:

• SE 1: September 2020
• SE 2: September 2022
• SE 3: September 2025

• Ultra 1: September 2022
• Ultra 2: September 2023
• Ultra 3: September 2025

We may get a new SE and Ultra this September, but it’s much harder to be sure since we haven’t got a regular pattern to extrapolate from, nor have we had any leaks from the supply chain. I’d rate the odds at around 50/50 for each.

Apple Watch Series 12 design: Is the new Apple Watch getting a redesign?

• A major redesign appears unlikely

Last summer, a report from DigiTimes raised hopes that 2026 would see the Apple Watch get its first major redesign. But such rumors come up fairly regularly (there was lots of talk about a flat Apple Watch Series X around the time of the Series 7), and so far none of them have materialised.

Indeed, three months later, the Weibo poster Instant Digital insisted that neither the Series 12 nor the Series 13 would get a new look, and that the big redesign was actually coming in 2028. This is how it tends to go: pundits and leakers get publicity from predicting Apple Watch redesigns, and then Apple ends up sticking to essentially the same design because it dominates the market and doesn’t need to take any risks.

Based on this, and the fact that nobody has leaked any radical new CAD drawings or photos of a redesigned chassis from the supply chain, we’d cautiously predict that (aside, potentially, from a slightly larger screen, fractionally slimmer bezels, or a new color), the Apple Watch is going to stay essentially the same for yet another year. But for the sake of variety, we’d love to be wrong about that.

Apple Watch Series 12 specs and features: Will the new Apple Watch get a major upgrade?

• Faster S12 processor
• Possibly Touch ID fingerprint scanner
• Same battery life

Whereas design tends to stay largely the same from year to year, as discussed above, Apple habitually makes worthwhile upgrades to the Apple Watch’s internals.

S12 processor

Let’s start with the processor, and this is one pattern that changed last year. Every Apple Watch from Series 1 to 10 had a corresponding chip, from the S1 to the S10. But the Series 11 came with… the S10 again. Even the Ultra 3 was stuck with the previous year’s chip.

It’s unlikely that Apple will freeze the processor for another year, so we’d expect the Series 12 to get something new. Whether that will be an S11 (logical) or S12 (neater, since it matches the Series number, plus it sounds newer and therefore better) doesn’t really matter to customers, since the labels are more of a marketing tool than anything else. The real-world performance upgrade varies widely from generation to generation; in fact, the S6, S7, and S8 were essentially identical.

Our expectation would be an S12 processor with a moderate performance bump from the S10. But processing speed isn’t much of a bottleneck for the Apple Watch anyway, so we should be looking elsewhere for more meaningful change.

microLED screen

Perhaps the screen will get an upgrade? The Apple Watch has always had an OLED screen, and the past three Series models have been capped at 2,000 nits of brightness. (The Ultra 3 can go up to 3,000.) But there have been rumours for some years, dating back to the Apple Watch X theories, that Apple would like to switch to superior microLED tech.

microLED means improved color fidelity and better power efficiency. But the biggest impact could be on brightness. At CES in 2025, Samsung showed off a concept capable of 4,000 nits. There’s a good chance this is coming at some point, but it may not happen in 2026.

Touch ID

Another long-running rumor, but one that gained traction in late summer 2025. Apple has at the very least been exploring the idea of putting a fingerprint sensor in the Apple Watch.

Macworld has seen developer code clearly referring to the 2026 Apple Watch models and mentioning support for “AppleMesa,” Apple’s internal codename for Touch ID. No previous models have featured such mentions in their code.

At the time of discovery, this appeared to be at the prototype stage, so we can’t be sure it’s coming to actual shipped products. But Touch ID on the Apple Watch, whether hidden in a side button or beneath the screen, would be useful for Apple Pay, health/fitness apps, and private messaging, not to mention unlocking the device when its companion iPhone isn’t around.

Blood glucose tracking

Apple often gives the Apple Watch a new health or safety feature from time to time, but it’s been a few years since the last such upgrade. While the Series 8 was the first model to get crash detection, and hypertension and sleep apnea notifications were new on the Series 9, the Series 10 and 11 missed out in that department.

The Series 12 could reverse that trend with blood glucose tracking, yet another long-term rumor.

Really long term, in fact: Macworld reported on this back in 2017, when sources claimed Apple had a secret team of biomedical engineers working on non-invasive, continuous glucose monitoring to help diabetes patients, and it’s since emerged that research on this topic was underway in the Steve Jobs era.

Activity by a British medical sensing firm led to more speculation in 2021, and we understand that the feature reached the “proof of concept” in 2023. This could finally be the year, but the feature remains a long shot.

watchOS 27 and Siri AI

As the latest incarnation of Apple’s smartwatch hardware, the Series 12 will of course run the company’s latest software, which means plenty of new features that haven’t been available in the past (and won’t be available on some older Apple Watches).

watchOS 27 was announced at WWDC in June 2026 and will become publicly available in the fall. For a detailed discussion of its changes and new features, have a listen to episode 988 of the Macworld Podcast.

The biggest news on the software front, however, concerns Siri AI. The Apple Watch hasn’t previously had access to Apple’s AI tech, but that’s all changing this year.

watchOS 27 with Apple Intelligence and Siri AI requires an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Ultra 2 or later, or SE 3. You’ll also need a compatible iPhone.

Apple Watch Series 12 price: Will the price of the Apple Watch go up this year?

• We expect the Series 12 to start at around $429

On June 25, 2026, Apple announced dramatic price rises across most of its range, including iPads, Apple TVs, HomePods, and both desktop and laptop Macs. The Apple Watch escaped unscathed, which is good news, right?

Probably. It’s important to note that Apple’s statement at the time said the company had “now reached a point where we need to begin ⁠raising prices on a number of products, including today’s increases for iPad and Mac.” That suggests that there’s more to come, which may include higher starting prices for the new Apple Watch (and iPhone) models in the fall.

The main point in favor of flat pricing for the watches is their comparatively low RAM allocation. Rising RAM prices are one of the main contributors to the situation, and Apple Watches have far less RAM than iPads and Macs.

But we’d expect a small price increase compared to the Series 11, which (at time of writing!) starts at $399, or $499 for the cellular models. Around $429 seems likely.

Should you wait to buy the Apple Watch?

We think so. Now is a bad time to buy an Apple Watch at full price, and even if you can get one on sale, you should wait if you possibly can.

We’ll get new Apple Watches in September 2026: certainly the Series 12, and potentially the Ultra 4 and SE 4. These devices will have better specs and features than the current models, and should be worth waiting a few months.

While the new watches may be slightly more expensive, the existing models will still be available from third-party retailers or second hand (including Apple’s official Refurbished Stores, both U.S. and U.K.). The moment new models are announced, the asking price for the late-2025 Apple Watches will drop.