Apple Watch Series 12 Review

Design and Screen

• Same strap support
• Slightly thicker bezels
• New colour and material options, including ceramic

I’ve been wearing an Apple Watch, on and off, for a decade now. I’ve used every model, and have built up an unenviable collection of straps. Leather, metal, ones for sports and smarter ones. There’s not another tech product that I can think of that has offered the same accessory support for such a long time. If you have always stuck with the same Apple Watch size, those straps will have always fitted the latest model.

Of course, this is great. Or is it? The Apple Watch has looked pretty much the same since its debut. Materials have changed, sizes have moved around, and the screen has grown – but essentially it’s the same blueprint. Keeping support for the same straps has clearly stopped Apple from completely redesigning the watch, and I think maybe it’s time for a fresh approach. The Apple Watch Series 12 looks nice, but it still has the ‘little computing on your wrist’ vibe that I can’t get fully on board with.

The Apple Watch Series 12 comes in two sizes (46mm or 42mm), various materials (including a returning ceramic finish that looks slick in white) and numerous colours. I love the new dark bronze, and the black model I have here looks equally sleek. 

On the back is the biggest design difference, as Apple has added its new health sensing system. This is for tracking various biometric data, including heart rate and temperature. Apple has increased the surface area for the electrodes that conduct readings and added larger LEDs. It can also now monitor metrics like heart rate more frequently than previous watches.

Whichever watch you choose, they are all water-resistant to 50m and offer cellular versions with L1 GPS. All models are a little heavier than the Series 11, although only by a few grams and certainly not enough to notice.

I’ve got the 46mm watch here, which has a wonderful OLED display which can dim itself so you can always see the time at a glance. It’s a bright panel that’s easily visible even on the sunniest days. It’s also dim enough to look at at night without bathing a whole room in light.

Interestingly, the bezel around the display is noticeably thicker this year – actually, it looks to be the thickest it has been for a few years. On apps or watchfaces with black backgrounds, I don’t see it. On colourful faces, though, it is quite obvious and a definite downgrade.

Performance and Software

• Runs on watchOS 27
• New S11 chip offers speed improvements
• Certain AI features coming soon

As is something of a theme with the Series 12 and the Watch Ultra 4, many of the most interesting features are not available quite yet. The new AI-infused Health app – which will help make sense of all your data – is coming later, as are Siri Recap and Live Rewind.

The latter two sound very clever, as they ‘record’ 15-second chunks of conversation (in a privacy-focussed way, Apple assures, with no recordings saved or actually accessible) and the AI summarises it. If it works, it could be a real killer feature – especially for those who forget small details (like me).

Siri Intelligence is here, replacing the old Siri. Like on the iPhones with iOS 27, there’s a Siri app that gives you a running history of your chats, and the answers the assistant gives are much better and more accurate.  For example, I can ask for the weather, and then ask ‘how about tomorrow’ and it’ll know what I am referring to. The responses are also much faster, both compared to the older Siri and Siri Intelligence running on older hardware. 

Powering the Series 12 is the S11 chip, and this is the first silicon upgrade there’s been on an Apple Watch in a while. Everything does seem a little bit faster, but the real benefit is the extra AI feature it enables – plus the added efficiency.

One feature I really like is how Shazam can now identify sounds when the watch senses music is playing. You don’t need to find the app or widget; just scroll up, and it’s already there identifying what’s playing. I’ve used this multiple times already.

The overall watchOS experience will be familiar to anyone who has used an Apple Watch before. You still can’t set up an Apple Watch on an iPad, and there’s no Android support. That’s not a surprise, though.

There are some smaller visual tweaks in this latest version, like an app grid that shows recently used apps rather than everything that’s installed, and Liquid Glass is a little more prevalent. It remains the best smartwatch for iOS users, simply because it is really the only one that gives you all the features and the best notification experience.

Health and fitness tracking

• Updated health sensors
• Very accurate heart rate tracking
• AI Health features

The Apple Watch Series 12 is headlined by a swathe of new tracking features made possible by the rejigged and improved sensor array on the underside. This new Health Sensing System works in tandem with the new chip to take heart rate readings more frequently than before, upping the accuracy.

The improved sensors power the Readiness score, which determines how ready you are for certain activities, like a long run or whether a rest day might be preferable. Generating your first Readiness score takes an initial seven days, and then it’ll score you on several metrics, including sleep scores, HRV, respiratory rate and wrist temperature.

These Readiness scores are common on rivals, and when I compare the scores I have been getting on the Series 12 to a Whoop MG, they are very much on par, just displayed differently. In simple terms, the Apple Watch is more chill and doesn’t sound quite as strict as the Whoop coach. This is certainly for the more casual user, and I like that.

What I like about the Readiness scores on the Apple Watch Series 12 is that they change throughout the day. I might wake up with a 9, but drop to a 6 after a particularly strenuous morning, then rise again if I recover.

You can delve a little deeper into the scores on the watch or a connected iPhone, although it’s a little fiddly and not entirely clear. A lot of this will change when Apple’s new Health app arrives, as it’ll use Apple Intelligence to act upon the data. It’s a shame this isn’t live upon release, as it’s hard to properly use a lot of these new features without it.

The accuracy of the new heart rate sensor certainly seems improved in my testing. Compared to a chest strap, the scores from the Series 12 across rest, active and sleep are more in line with the strap than the Series 11. It’s drastic, but it is always nice to see more accurate readings.

Another trick of the new sensor is HRV (heart rate variability), and this ties into the Vitals app, along with metrics that were previously tracked. It just gives you another idea of your recovery, and ticks off another feature running watch veterans have been asking for. For me, the data is nice to have, but I can’t do much with it. Hopefully the new Apple Health app will help with this.

Perhaps my favourite new tracking feature this time around is the improved step counting. There’s a new Steps complication that can be added to watch faces, and the accuracy looks to be on par with rivals, at least in my testing. Compared to the Series 11, the Series 12 counted fewer steps every day, but Apple always avoided putting much sway on step counting before. This step-counting compilation and other improved step features are exclusive to the new watch, rather than a watchOS feature.

Battery LIfe

• Much quicker to charge
• Various power modes
• More than a day of use on average

The Apple Watch Series 12 keeps the same 24 hours of use claim as the Series 11. This matches up with my time during testing, slightly underplaying it on those days when you’re not tracking activities.

It’s not strictly a nightly (or daily) charge device, although I haven’t yet got anywhere near two days. Typically I will charge it in the morning, and it’ll last until the following evening. Throw in a few runs using the GPS, and this will decrease.

While the endurance is far from class-leading, it’s welcome that even with the advances in tracking tech – especially the more constant heart rate monitor – that battery life is still the same.

When it comes to charging, this has improved. The Series 12 charges rapidly, with a full charge taking around an hour and 50% in less than 20 minutes. You do need to use the included magnetic puck to get these speeds, so older chargers and docks will revert to the slower speeds.

If those battery stats don’t sound good enough, the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is likely the model for you.

Should you buy it?