With Tim Cook handing the CEO baton over to John Ternus on Sept. 1, all eyes will be on the new guy to kick things off with a bang this fall. Ternus’ first major announcement as CEO is expected to be the long-rumored foldable iPhone, but what about the Apple Watch? Early rumors suggest Apple might play it safe… again.
The latest rumors claim this year’s Apple Watch update—Series 12—will likely look and function more or less like the current Series 11. Previously discovered code that hinted Apple would bring Touch ID to its smartwatch has now been squashed by the leaker known as Instant Digital. The semi-reliable leaker said on Weibo that Apple has decided to prioritize battery life for the Apple Watch Series 12 instead of new hardware features.
This is either good news or bad news depending on what you value in an Apple Watch. It’s business as usual for Apple, which hasn’t given its smartwatch any major overhaul since the Series 4, which moved from a rectangular display with sharp corners to one with rounded corners.
Sure, Apple Watch screens have gotten larger over the years. But the current Series 11 is largely identical to the Series 10, save for a 2x more scratch-resistant “Ion-X” glass, slightly longer battery life (with faster charger), and 5G connectivity (on the cellular model).
Everyone is waiting for Apple to add a noninvasive blood glucose sensor—the so-called “Holy Grail” of health sensors—to the Apple Watch, but despite the company’s development over the past decade, it has yet to materialize.
Instead of a redesign, Apple is expected to add new Apple Intelligence (smarter Siri?) features through watchOS 27, which will likely be announced at WWDC 2026. We could also see the Emergency SOS via satellite feature from the Apple Watch Ultra 3 come to the smaller smartwatch.
All in all, the Apple Watch Series 12 is looking like it’ll be a very safe update—boring as that may be, it’ll still sell because people are on now on upgrade cycles.
