During its “Awe Dropping” event earlier today, Apple unveiled its new 2025 watch lineup, bringing meaningful upgrades at both ends of the range.
Apple Watch Series 11 pushes deeper into preventive health and durability—now with hypertension notifications, a tougher display, longer battery life, and 5G—while the Apple Watch SE 3 adds an Always-On display, faster charging, and expanded health insights at a wallet-friendly price.
Apple Watch Series 11: Everyday flagship, stronger in all the right ways
The headline additions on Series 11 are hypertension notifications and a new sleep score.
Apple says Hypertension notifications analyze optical heart data in the background over 30 days to flag signs of chronic high blood pressure—designed to nudge users toward earlier care.
Meanwhile, the updated Sleep score translates duration, consistency, wake-ups, and stages into a simple metric you can track over time. These arrive alongside Apple’s existing ECG, irregular rhythm, Blood Oxygen, and sleep apnea notifications.
Another major upgrade for Series 11 is the battery now lasts longer: up to 24 hours of battery life, with fast charging that adds up to eight hours in about 15 minutes.
Durability takes a leap on aluminum models with Ion-X cover glass that’s 2× more scratch-resistant; meanwhile, titanium models retain a sapphire front crystal. And with 5G cellular plus a redesigned antenna system, data throughput has improved and reception gets a boost in weaker-signal areas.
The new watches will also feature watchOS 26, which brings a fresh Liquid Glass look, new faces (Flow and Exactograph), a handy wrist-flick gesture, and Workout Buddy—Apple Intelligence-powered audio coaching that uses your heart rate, pace, rings, and training history to deliver personalized motivation.
You’ll also see Live Translation in Messages (with a supported iPhone), Notes on your wrist, and helpful Phone features like Hold Assist and Call Screening when iPhone is nearby.
Series 11 Pricing and Availability
Sizes are still 42mm and 46mm with aluminum (new space gray, jet black, rose gold, silver) or polished titanium (natural, gold, slate). Pricing starts at $399 (U.S.). Pre-orders open today and availability begins September 19.
Apple Watch SE 3: The value sweet spot gets Always-On
The new SE finally adds an Always-On display powered by the S10 chip, so time and notifications are visible at a glance without raising your wrist.
Despite that, battery remains a solid all-day 18 hours, and fast charging is now 2× quicker—about eight hours from a 15-minute charge, or roughly 80% in ~45 minutes. The cover glass is 4× more crack-resistant than the previous SE, and a more efficient 5G modem lowers cellular power draw.
On the health side, SE 3 steps up with sleep score, wrist temperature sensing, retrospective ovulation estimates, and sleep apnea notifications, augmenting staples like heart health alerts, Cycle Tracking, and cardio fitness.
Fitness features remain robust: close your rings, customize workouts, track training load and recovery—and get Workout Buddy coaching in watchOS 26. The S10 chip also enables on-device Siri (including access to Health data), double-tap and wrist-flick gestures, Voice Isolation on calls, and even media playback through the built-in speaker. For families, Apple Watch For Your Kids lets parents set up an SE 3 from their iPhone so kids get connectivity and safety without needing their own iPhone.
In short, this is the most capable Apple Watch SE yet and closes the gap between it and the “Series” models in a big way while still keeping that very low price point.
SE 3 Pricing and Availability
SE 3 comes in 40mm and 44mm aluminum (midnight, starlight) starting at $249 (U.S.); pre-orders start today, with availability on September 19.
