Apple Watch Ultra 4 Gets S11 Chip, New Health Sensors, and Up to 50-Hour Battery Life

Apple has introduced Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a new S11 chip and Health Sensing System, longer battery life, faster charging, a daily readiness score, and new Audio Intelligence features. Pricing starts at $799 in the United States.



Pre-orders are open today in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the UK, the U.S., and more than 50 other countries and regions. Store availability begins Friday, September 18.

Heart Rate, Readiness, and Battery Life

The Health Sensing System combines new optical and electrical heart sensors with the S11 chip. Apple says its study of more than 1,000 participants found the system had the highest heart-rate accuracy among the best-selling wearables it tested. The study was conducted in July and August 2026 using devices commercially available as of June.


Larger green LEDs let the optical sensor measure heart rate every five seconds throughout the day. Heart rate variability is measured up to 24 times more often, with separate recovery HRV and overall HRV readings in the Heart Rate app. Overnight vitals can compare recovery HRV with a personal baseline, while a daytime view can show shifts before they appear in overnight data. The Vitals app is intended for wellness purposes, not medical use.



A new readiness feature analyzes recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score. It produces a score from 0 to 10 with one of four recommendations: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. The score can change during the day as new workout and vitals data arrives, and Apple developed the algorithm using Apple Heart and Movement Study data with exercise scientists and physicians.



For everyday use, Apple Watch Ultra 4 is rated for up to 50 hours, or up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode. A 15-minute charge can add up to 18 hours of battery life. Actual results vary with use, configuration, cellular connection, signal strength, and other conditions.


Extended Workout mode can record an outdoor workout for up to 25 hours with full GPS and heart-rate readings, a 25 percent increase from the previous model. Max Extended Workout mode raises that figure to 45 hours for outdoor runs, walks, and hikes while continuing to take GPS readings every second. Both modes use Low Power Mode; Extended Workout omits running-form metrics, while Max Extended Workout also turns off alerts and splits and leaves some metrics unavailable.

The company also says Apple Watch Ultra 4 has its most accurate on-device GPS in a sports watch, based on route-map accuracy against dual-frequency GPS sports watches available in August 2026. A redesigned pedometer model provides more accurate indoor walk and run distance measurements and step counts, with a new Steps complication for the watch face. Apple's step-accuracy claim is based on a 1,000-step test validated with video counting against smartwatches available in July 2026.

Health App and Audio Intelligence

A redesigned Health app is due later this year, starting in U.S. English. Its new Insights tab uses Apple Intelligence to surface health information, while a Longevity tab analyzes long-term data and includes Health Age, which compares certain metrics with a user's actual age. Movement evaluations use vision-based AI models on iPhone and heart-rate data from Apple Watch to measure flexibility, strength, balance, and other factors.

The updated app will be available on Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and iPad models running the latest software, with some features limited to iPhone. Health Age requires an Apple Watch, and some features require users to be at least 18. In the U.S., customers will also be able to schedule and buy a lab panel covering more than 50 biomarkers for $119 at approximately 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations.



Audio Intelligence uses the S11 chip, the watch microphone, Apple Intelligence models on iPhone, and Private Cloud Compute. The feature set includes Sound Recognition, Live Rewind, Siri Recap, and faster Shazam. Sound Recognition can alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing to sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying without a nearby iPhone.



Live Rewind displays the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as text after a double press of the Digital Crown. Siri Recap can generate a title and key points after a conversation, while Shazam can automatically place a detected song and artist in the Music Recognition widget. Live Rewind sounds a chime and displays a full-screen animation and microphone indicator while active.

Apple says these features do not create or store audio recordings. Raw audio is processed in a hardware-isolated Secure Exclave and deleted immediately, while Live Rewind snippets and Siri Recap summaries are end-to-end encrypted in the Siri app when synced through iCloud. Speaker identification is not supported, and Siri Recap is designed to create a high-level summary rather than a transcript.



Audio Intelligence requires Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4. Live Rewind and Siri Recap are scheduled to enter beta in late 2026 and require an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 16 or later, excluding iPhone 16e. They will start in English, will not initially be available in the EU, and features that use server-side models are subject to daily limits.

watchOS 27, Models, and Availability

Apple Watch Ultra 4 ships with watchOS 27, which adds Siri AI in beta, a dynamic app grid with five Siri-suggested apps, Smart Stack suggestions, support for perimenopause and menopause in Cycle Tracking, and a one-handed tap gesture for selecting a Smart Stack widget. Workout Buddy can also work without an iPhone nearby when the watch has Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity, though it requires a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone, Bluetooth headphones, and English or Spanish device and Siri language settings.

The new Siri Modular watch face provides access to Siri throughout the day. Siri AI can use personal context and broad world knowledge through a dedicated Siri app, and will roll out with watchOS 27 as a beta on Monday, September 14. It starts in English, with French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish due in October. The feature will not initially be available in the EU, is unavailable to users under 13, and some server-side requests will have daily limits. Apple says expanded access to features subject to those limits will be offered for a fee in the future.

watchOS 27 will be released Monday, September 14, for Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later. It requires an iPhone 11 or later, or iPhone SE (2nd generation or later), running iOS 27. Apple Intelligence on the watch also requires an Apple Intelligence-enabled device set to a supported language: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, simplified or traditional Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Feature availability varies by device, region, and language.

Apple Watch Ultra 4 is available in natural and black titanium. Trail Loop is offered in dark umber, sand, and burgundy; Alpine Loop comes in desert, dark olive, and burgundy; and a translucent silicone Ocean Band is available in gray, kelp, and black. Apple Watch Hermès Ultra 4 is offered in natural titanium with a new Grand H titanium band that has an extension mechanism for fitting over a wet suit, along with the Fathom and Wonder watch face inspired by ocean depths.