Apple has once again proved that no smartwatch comes close to its fluidity, attention to detail or build quality, this time with the Watch Series 11. The Cupertino-headquartered company has launched the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Watch SE 3 at the same time as the Watch Series 11 (46mm and 42mm). They all have the same S10 processor — a 64-bit dual-core chip with a four-core Neural Engine — with the Series 11 landing somewhere in between, kind of like the Goldilocks of Apple watches right now. It feels like a lot of thought went into it, and, at the same time, it feels expensive enough to be worn to any social event.
Battery life and the rhythm of a day
There are three main features to consider here. First is battery life. You’re going to get two-day battery life from the Ultra 3, but not all of us want an Ultra 3. Apple Watch Series 11 is better than the previous models. The company says 24 hours of battery life, but I’ve found myself on hour 27 with still a per cent of battery life remaining, which means the smartwatch holds up to the claim. The previous models get up to 18 hours on a charge.
There are new watch faces to choose from
Number two is scratch resistance. If you take care of your watch, it’s not a problem, but my wife’s Series 9 is in bad shape because her watch shares a special relationship with walls and similar objects. So this can be a big feature for many. The cover glass is two times more scratch-resistant than on the Series 10.
Let’s talk about charging. You will now be able to give it a quick top-off in 15 minutes and thereby get eight hours of battery life. That, to me, is a make-or-break feature for wearing it to bed. And you still get that zero-to-80 per cent charge in just 30 minutes, like the Series 10.
Freedom to stay connected
Number three is 5G. It means you’re going to have a better connection and also more efficiency in power usage. So, if you’re planning on using your watch phone-free, this one’s a big deal. It’s the kind of upgrade that subtly changes how much you rely on your iPhone — or how little.
Health features that learn from you
In terms of new health features, the most important one is probably the new FDA-cleared hypertension notifications. It’s not yet available in India. It’s not the full-blown blood pressure monitoring that a lot of you wanted on the Apple Watch, but it can be impressive nonetheless.
Choose a Workout Buddy while exercising
Hypertension is the leading modifiable risk factor for heart attack, stroke and kidney disease, and it impacts approximately 1.3 billion adults globally. It’s frequently undiagnosed because it often has no symptoms, many people do not see a doctor regularly, and even during a clinical visit, it can easily be missed with a single measurement. The Watch uses a new algorithm to spot patterns that correlate with high blood pressure. It looks at how your blood vessels respond to each heartbeat. The Apple Watch needs at least 30 days of data to make the call. Once you receive that notification, Apple is clear that this is not a diagnostic tool.
You can then cross-reference with a traditional blood-pressure cuff and export the data as a PDF file to show your doctor. Only the doctor can make the assessment of whether or not you do in fact have hypertension.
The feature was developed with advanced machine learning and training data from multiple studies totalling over 100,000 participants. Its performance was then validated in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants. While hypertension notifications will not detect all instances of hypertension, with the reach of Apple Watch, the feature is expected to notify over one million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
Sleep Score is another feature. The Apple Watch has been able to track your sleep for a while now, but it stopped short of actually grading your night’s rest. The Watch is light enough to be worn to bed. When you wake up in the morning, you are presented with a bunch of information that could be a bit technical, especially when it comes to comparing sleep data.
The rotating Digital Crown and side button help with all the functions
Now, the Watch can give you a score from zero to 100 or low to excellent. What’s cool is that you can also click in to see why you got that score based on the three most important criteria: duration of your sleep, the time you went to bed, and the number of interruptions. You can even see previous sessions in the Health app on your iPhone because this feature is retroactive, meaning it’s already graded the user’s previous night’s sleep.
Many are upset because the feature is also coming to a few older Apple Watches. What’s there to get upset about? After all, most brands don’t make such features backwards-compatible for years.
Dance of software
You still get that slimmer design and that edge-to-edge display, the higher refresh rate that can show that second-hand ticking. And, of course, you have new watch bands and new watch faces, which brings us to the software. The Watch now runs watchOS 26, which introduces Liquid Glass UI with transparency throughout and a more cohesive look across Apple devices. It looks exquisite.
Watch faces like Flow bring the beauty of liquid glass to your wrist. It features a swirling blend of colour that reacts to your movement. It’s highly customisable in terms of both palette and style, and it’s already become a personal favourite. Apple also released the Exactograph watch face, a modern re-imagination of a traditional regulator clock. What’s cool about it is that if you tap on it, it breaks down the hours, minutes and seconds in a clean animation. Once again, it’s highly customisable to any colour or style.
Watch OS 26 also brings several other new features, such as the Notes app and a redesigned Workout app that allows you to pre-select your music. You also have a new Workout Buddy that runs on Apple Intelligence on the iPhone and gives you real-time feedback about eight different workouts. It’s remarkable how it sounds more like a coach and less like a bot. I can see it being genuinely helpful once Apple expands it beyond motivation.
In daily life, a subtle power
What matters most is using the Apple Watch in the real world, with sunlight hitting the screen in all its intensity. The ultra-wide display makes a subtle difference to how much text you can see. The display can get so bright that you can check notifications at any angle, in any scenario, no matter how harsh the light.
Notifications remain one of the key reasons why many people use Apple Watch day after day. It allows one to be less tethered to the phone. Whether it’s receiving a call and picking it up straight from the wrist, replying to a message using Scribble or the physical keyboard, or even sending a voice note, the Watch continues to integrate smoothly into everyday life.
On top of all these are new gestures, like the flick gesture introduced in Watch OS 26. It lets you dismiss notifications easily. Gestures have changed the way I use the Apple Watch — from double-tap to flick. Maybe you’ve got a coffee in hand or are playing with the cat, there are so many instances when your hands are busy. Now you can answer a phone call by simply double-tapping or dismiss a notification with a flick.
Double tap and flick gestures help when you want to operate the Watch without touching it
With Watch OS 26, there are tons of new features. For example, Smart Stack hints, which surface relevant widgets. Whenever you open the camera app on your iPhone, you’ll get a suggestion to open the camera-remote app on the watch. If you play music, it automatically shows the music widget — on iPhone or Watch alike.
There’s also automatic volume adjustment: if you’re in a quieter environment, like a cinema or library, and forget to mute your Apple Watch, the sound lowers automatically. Step outside into the city and it raises the ringer so you don’t miss a thing.
Apple has also launched the Notes app on the Watch, so you can create, view or pin notes right from your wrist. As soon as you create a note on your iPad, it shows up on the Watch. There are even Notes-app complications, and if you want to make a quick note, you can simply tap and dictate — a voice command away from a saved idea.
Make the call
What are the improvements we want in the future? One has to be blood-glucose monitoring — a feature that could change millions of lives. The other would be tweaks to the design, which has roughly remained the same for years. If the iPhone has undergone a massive redesign with the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro, why not the Apple Watch?
The Apple Watch, year after year, is not only the most-sold smartwatch in the world but the most-sold watch in the world. If you have an iPhone, the Apple Watch remains your best choice. Even after multiple generations, you can barely tell where the software stops and the hardware begins. Apple Watch Series 11 continues to offer stiff competition for the real estate of the wrist.
If you bought an Apple Watch a few years ago, you may have thought you didn’t need another. Yet, once again, there’s a reason to buy one. The sum of all the updates on the new offering makes Series 11 a compelling purchase — a blend of refinement, innovation and familiarity that only Apple seems able to sustain.