Apple Watch Series 12 review: Apple is finally... listening?!

So this is the new Apple Watch Series 12.

I’ve been testing it alongside last year’s Watch Series 11 for over a week now, and it’s honestly so refreshing to see Apple finally bring some major upgrades to its smartwatches this time. Yep—I can’t tell you how long I’ve been waiting to say that!

Because I thought Apple was going to settle for the most bland… the most iterative set of changes yet again. But when I heard Apple mention things like

• “all-new Health Sensing System”,
• “most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable”, and
• “Readiness”

during the keynote, I just knew I had to check it out as soon as I could. However, I really don’t like that its price went up in the rest of the world for the base model, even though the Series 12 still costs the same in the US. While this thing also has one of the most controversial features I’ve seen in any Apple device… which I’ll get into in a minute.

So—with all that said—is the Watch Series 12 actually worth it? Or should you get the older Series 11 instead, since that thing is almost 50% cheaper right now in some markets?

Apple Watch Series 12 review: Specifications

• Case: 42 / 46mm, Aluminum / Titanium / Ceramic frame
• Color options:
  • Aluminum: Dark Bronze, Light Gold, Black, Space Gray
  • Titanium: Radiant Gold, Natural
  • Ceramic: Pearl White, Night Blue
• Dimensions and weight:
  • 42mm: 42 x 37 x 9.7 mm, 31.5 - 42.8 gm
  • 46mm: 46 x 41 x 9.7 mm, 38.6 - 52.9 gm
• Durability: IP6X rating + WR50 certified
• Display: 1.89 / 2.04-inch OLED panel, Ceramic Shield 2 / Sapphire crystal protection, Up to 2,000 nits
• Processor: Apple S11 SiP, Second-gen Ultra Wideband chip
• Memory: 4GB RAM, 64GB storage
• Software and UI: watchOS 27
• Sensors: Health Sensing system (2nd-generation electrical heart rate, always-on optical heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature), Always-on altimeter, Ambient light, Compass, Depth gauge, Gyroscope, High-g accelerometer, Water temperature, L1 GPS (with GNSS, Galileo, BeiDou)
• Companion app:
  • Setup: Watch
  • Health data: Apple Health, Apple Fitness
• Battery: mAh unspecified (Up to 24 hours)

See full specs

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Apple Watch Series 12 (42mm) Price:

Apple Watch Series 12 review:

Design and build

• Aluminum, titanium, or ceramic case (42 / 46mm)
• IP6X dust resistant + WR50 water resistant

Alright.

I wanna start with the design, and of course, there’s not much to talk about here.

It looks like the same Apple Watch you and I know and love. With a squarish case, a couple of buttons on the side, one of the crispiest haptics I’ve ever seen on a smartwatch, and a snug fit to be able to put it on all day long. Or when I go to sleep. I don’t need to worry about dust or water damage as well, and yeah… the Series 12 feels truly quite nice to wear.

There are a few new things Apple has brought this time—and one of them is something I’m really, really happy to see. ‘Cause its Aluminum model now uses “Ceramic Shield 2” glass, which is apparently 60% tougher than the “Ion-X” glass we’ve seen on Apple’s older Aluminum watches. I haven’t used it nearly long enough to tell you exactly how it compares, although this should mean substantially better scratch resistance. That’s pretty amazing!

The Watch Series 12 also comes in a luxurious “Ceramic” finish now—next to the usual “Aluminum” and “Titanium” models. Then again, that one is literally more expensive than the Watch Ultra 4 itself, so I’m not quite sure how I feel about it.

Display

• 1.89 / 2.04-inches LTPO3 Wide-angle OLED panel
• Ceramic Shield 2 or Sapphire crystal glass protection
• Up to 2,000 nits of max brightness

And Apple didn’t bother with any major upgrade for the display either.

I’m frankly not worried by that at all, but if you look at these two side by side, I bet you’re gonna notice one thing about their screen immediately. The bezels.

Yes, since the Series 12 has (what appears to be) a sli…ghtly smaller display and a somewhat wider body as well, its thicker bezels are kinda hard to miss. I wouldn’t say it gets on my nerves all that much—not unless I have the Series 11 on my other hand anyway—even though I can definitely see how some people could find this annoying.

Performance

• Dual-core Apple S11 SiP
• 64GB storage, watchOS 27

You know where the Watch Series 12 has a significant upgrade?

The performance. I mean… Apple’s new S11 chip might sound like a small improvement, but trust me, it’s a big deal.

So in case you didn’t know, Apple reuses the design of its iPhone chips for its smartwatches. They’ll have fewer core counts and considerably lower clock speeds, obviously, but that’s “scalable chip design” for you. For instance, the S10 chip on the Series 11 was based on the A15 Bionic. Which we first saw all the way back on the iPhone 13, by the way!

Whereas the S11 chip is now based on the same A20 Pro chip as the iPhone 18 Pro series. Yep. Everything from its dual-core CPU to the GPU and the Neural Engine is based on the exact same architecture as Apple’s newest iPhones!

The Series 12 even doubles the memory capacity from 2GB to 4GB, so yeah, like I said before, this is a massive, massive performance boost.

Fun fact—the iPhone 13 actually came with 4GB of RAM as well!

It’s… absolutely crazy how far Apple’s chip design has come.

I don’t wanna say the Watch Series 12 automatically feels faster or more responsive because of the brand-new chip, but what I’m excited for is what it means for how well it’s going to age over the years. And also all the new features it enables on watchOS 27.

Let's talk about Audio Intelligence!

Including “Audio Intelligence”, which is Apple’s take on a bunch of microphone-based AI features. I found some of them to be genuinely useful, like faster Shazam, for example. 

It automatically detects the song playing in my background… while the same thing takes at least a couple of taps on older Apple Watches. I still wish it worked like the “Now Playing” feature on Google's Pixel phones where I don’t have to manually log all the songs playing in my ambient space, though. Maybe a few updates will do it; fingers crossed.

On the flip side, this guy can also notify me of different important sounds like the fire alarm, smoke alarm, sirens, and car horns. This is such an impressive accessibility tool for those who are deaf or have hearing loss—but as someone with a habit of putting on earbuds at home, at work, or when I’m outside—I can tell you how practical it’s been for me as well.

I can also customize what kinds of sounds I wanna get alerts for… it’s so cool!

There were a couple of occasions when it falsely flagged “car horn” sounds in my experience, but yeah. I want every watchmaker to copy this feature now.

Oh no Apple! What is you doin??

Okay.

Do you remember that “controversial” feature I mentioned in the very beginning?

Well, that’s part of the Audio Intelligence too. There’s something called “Live Rewind” that can create a summarized text of what was said in the last 15 seconds, whereas “Siri Recap” is like having an always-on recorder that “takes notes on your conversations throughout your day”.

Once again—both of them are fantastic features as far as accessibility goes, but you guys see the problem too, right? They’re kinda privacy nightmares!

To be fair, Apple has released an official white paper with all the details on how these two are built with privacy in mind. And there are also a few important reasons why I’d say this is more than just a “trust me bro” thing.

• For starters, everything I mentioned is an “opt-in” feature.
  • Meaning I have to take explicit, voluntary action before enabling them.
• Apple is very clear that it doesn’t technically record, transcribe, or store any kind of audio as well. Not on the watch, not on your iPhone.
• And not to mention, Apple is probably the only major company I’d trust with the privacy of my data given the history.

Even with all that in mind, I can’t help but feel… icky about this, you know?

I mean, what about two-party consent? How can I know that what I’m saying is being actively summarized through the watch? Apple mentions it will play an audible chime every time “Live Rewind” is activated, along with a full-display animation to “alert those nearby that the feature has been activated”… but come on.

You and I both know this is something almost too easy to get around.

I also can’t help but wonder how the general public is going to perceive all this.

Apple may have the legal backing that it’s never actually “recording” anything, although I don’t think people are going to take Apple’s word for it just like that. The watch is actively analyzing your conversations without you necessarily knowing it. To most people, that’s recording.

I really wish I could show you how it all works in real life—but unfortunately—Apple says both “Live Rewind” and “Siri Recap” are coming in beta late 2026.

Health and fitness tracking

• 25+ workout modes
  • With automatic detection support for a few
• Heart rate, stress, sleep, ECG monitoring
• (NEW) Recovery HRV, Readiness score

Alright—let’s move on to its health and fitness tracking now.

‘Cause besides a new chip, the Watch Series 12 gets a new “Health Sensing System” with upgraded heart rate sensors and everything else as well.

This lets it take background heart rate readings sixty times more frequently and heart rate variability (HRV) readings twenty-four times more frequently compared to Series 11. No wonder the Series 12 is so darn quick at giving me my heart rate data! And just so you know, HRV is quite an important indicator of how your body responds to stress and recovery.

With all this, Apple is making two bold claims here:

• Number 1: The Watch Series 12 has “the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch”.
• And number 2: It also has “the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable”.

Now, the Series 11 was already my benchmark for both of those things.

And when I compared them side by side, the results were… interesting.

Especially when it comes to step tracking, since I was actually getting closer-to-accurate figures from the older Apple Watch more often. The Series 12 was only off by a couple of steps at best, as you can see, but there you have it.

Whereas testing their heart rate data was a lot more fascinating than I thought.

Because when I wore them during intense workouts like a 5K run, where I tried to maintain a consistent pace for each split, I almost got the exact same data from both. From heart rate to calories burned and cadence… it was down to the wire. But when I went out for a casual walk on a random Thursday evening, the Watch Series 12 pulled ahead pretty easily.

Yes—they got similar heart rate readings—but the Series 11 messed up my pace and calories data by some margin. This was when I realized Apple has quietly improved location too. It’s still only using a single-band GPS signal, unlike Apple’s more expensive “Ultra” watches, although the Series 12 is doing such a good job of getting my position on the ground as I was walking through crowded Kathmandu streets.

I also love the new “Readiness” score on the Series 12.

It takes my sleep score, vitals, and my recent activity data to give me a quick indicator on a scale between 0 – 10 to help me decide on my training plan throughout the day. The best part is—unlike the static, once-a-day “Energy Score” on Samsung watches—Apple’s Readiness score updates on its own during the day as well.

Other than this, everything else, like sleep, ECG, and SpO2 tracking, is practically identical on these two. So even though the Series 11 was already quite reliable at health and fitness tracking, the new Watch Series 12 definitely takes things up a notch.

Oh—I almost forgot.

Apple has also redesigned the Health app this time with a whole bunch of Apple Intelligence-generated summaries and insights. There’s a new “Health Age” estimate that shows how faster or slower I’m aging based on my overall health metrics versus my actual age. But these two are arriving later this year too.

Battery life

• mAh unspecified (Up to 24 hours of normal use)
• 80% charge in about 30 minutes

I gotta say the battery life on the Series 12 turned out to be pretty surprising.

Apple wants me to expect “up to 24 hours of normal use” here—just like its predecessor. And given how frequently it’s measuring my heart rate and HRV, I was almost sure I was gonna be left disappointed. But nope. Maybe it’s all the efficiency gains of that new S11 chip, ‘cause the Series 12 has been lasting roughly 40 hours on average for me.

The Series 11 did hang on to a few percentage more at the end, but I’d say this is an incredibly tight battle. Whereas I found the new “Extended” and “Max Extended” modes on watchOS 27 to use less power during workouts to be quite useful as well.

The fast charging speed also sees a slight bump this time.

A quick 15-minute topup now gives me 12 hours of use versus 8 hours on the Series 11, while they both hit 80% charge in half an hour.

Apple Watch Series 12 review: Conclusion

Okay.

So with everything I’ve talked about so far, which Apple Watch should you buy?

Well, the easy thing for me to say would be that you should go with the older Series 11. It costs nearly half as much as the new guy, and for most people, that is absolutely what I feel comfortable recommending. You could spend that extra money on different pairs of bands—or even the new AirPods 5, by the way.

But on the other hand, I actually find the Watch Series 12 to be quite a tempting upgrade. Apple’s new S11 chip, mixed with the redesigned sensors and all the new health metrics it enables, like recovery HRV and “Readiness” score, are genuinely terrific indicators for your general wellbeing. Not to mention, that new chipset has also been paired with 4GB of RAM… meaning the Series 12 is going to age much better over the years.

Especially as Apple leans more and more into on-device artificial intelligence, with things like Siri AI and everything else I discussed throughout this review.

The only major concern I have is those few Audio Intelligence features—with a massive privacy-shaped question around them. I mean… even with Apple’s excellent track record in terms of respecting users’ privacy, a watch that is potentially always listening to me simply doesn’t feel right.

Am I overreacting? What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

• Our video review of the Apple Watch Series 12 is coming soon

Apple Watch Series 12 review: Pros and cons