We’re still taking in everything Apple has announced regarding the Apple Watch Series 11, the Apple Watch Ultra 3, and the Apple Watch SE 3, but it’s clear that these wearables are going to come with some serious health tracking upgrades.
In the promotional material for the new smartwatches you’ll see mentions of hypertension detection (pending regulatory approval), a more insightful sleep score for ranking your slumber, and an AI-powered Workout Buddy for more personalized fitness advice.
Before you rush to upgrade though, you should know that these three features are going to be available on a select number of older watches as well – they’re all tied to watchOS 26, which is rolling out to the masses from Monday, September 15.
Hypertension detection
Hypertension, or chronic high blood pressure, often goes undiagnosed but can increase the risk of heart attacks, heart disease, strokes, and a variety of other health problems. Apple reckons that by adding hypertension detection to its watches, it’s going to be able to alert around one million people to the condition within the first year.
At launch, Apple was still waiting on regulatory approval for this, but it’s expected in the coming days. It uses the optical heart sensor on the Apple Watch to analyze how blood vessels are responding to the beating of the heart, gathering data across 30 days and notifying users if something might be wrong.
It’s not a real-time measurement (like a cuff around your arm is), and is not guaranteed to correctly identify hypertension, but it can act as a useful indicator that you might want to check in with your doctor. Apple recommends that if you see an alert, you should log blood pressure readings with a dedicated device for a week, then get checked out by a professional and share that data.
This feature is available on the brand new Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, but it’s also going to be rolled out to the Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Series Ultra 2, with the watchOS 26 update. Those are the models that have the necessary sensing and processing power for this to work.
Sleep Score
Good sleep is a foundation for many aspects of our physical and mental health, and Apple is improving how its watches are able to assess and interpret sleep data. If you wear your Apple Watch while you’re in bed, you can already see the amount of sleep you logged, and the different stages of sleep you were in.
Now there’s an upgrade on the way in the form of a Sleep Score that you’ll be presented with every morning: a bit like a pundit ranking your performance in a sports match. Essentially, it’s job is to take a lot of different bits of data – when you went to bed, how much deep sleep you got, and so on – and present them in a more understandable way, a score you can track over time.
“After each night, sleep score provides an overall score and classification in the Sleep app on Apple Watch, plus a clear breakdown of the most critical components, so users know what to prioritize to improve their sleep,” says Apple. “Users can also choose to easily access their sleep score in a watch face complication or in the Smart Stack, and they can track their sleep scores over time in the Health app on iPhone.”
Like hypertension, this is actually a watchOS 26 feature, not a hardware feature. You’ll find it available on all of the three new watches launched for 2025, as well as the Apple Watch Series 6 or later, the Apple Watch SE 2, and every Apple Watch Ultra.
Workout Buddy
Workout Buddy is coming to the Workout app on the Apple Watch, and was mentioned in Apple’s announcements for the Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch SE 3.
The idea is that you get a digital coach powered by Apple Intelligence, which can give you personalized goals and coaching through your earbuds, based on data you’ve previously logged with your watch.
The examples given by Apple include spoken encouragements to hit your targets for weekly exercise, and announcements of how you’re doing on a run – how quickly you completed the previous mile, for example. If you manage a particular achievement, you might hear Workout Buddy congratulate you.
You’ll find the extra functionality operates through the existing Workout app across some of the most popular workout types: outdoor and indoor runs, outdoor and indoor walks, outdoor cycles, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and Functional and Traditional Strength Training will all be covered.
This is dependent on watchOS 26, but also on having a pair of Bluetooth headphones connected to your Apple Watch, and having an Apple Intelligence-equipped iPhone within range. As long as you meet those criteria – remember Apple Intelligence is on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max models, and all the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 models – then Workout Buddy will pop up on any connected Apple Watch.
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