The next big Apple launch takes place on September 9. It’s the annual event where the new generations of iPhone and Apple Watch Series 12 devices will get the big unveil.

It’s going to feel a little different this year, though, as Tim Cook stepped down at the begininig of the month to make way for new CEO John Ternus .

New leader, new era, massively new tech? Not on the Apple Watch 12 front at least according to pre-announcement reports. Here’s what you can expect from the class of 2026.

Expected Models: Apple Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4

The 2026 Apple Watch family is likely to have two members, the standard Watch Series 12 and the Watch Ultra 4. A fresh SE model is not expected, which makes sense when the Apple Watch SE 3 was announced in 2025. This sub-series has not historically had a new version made each year.

Continuous Heart Rate For Readiness Monitoring

Apple’s Watch heart rate hardware has stayed unusually consistent for many generations, at least from an outsider perspective. It helps that it started off with far better accuracy than most. But a substantial change is coming to either the hardware or how it operates.

At present an Apple Watch takes constant HR readings during exercise and in the three minutes following a session — a key window for looking at HR recovery. But the rest of the day, heart rate is measured at intervals.

Apple doesn’t specify exact intervals, and frequency may be determined algoritmically based on data from other sensors. But it’s believed to happen every few minutes most of the time. The next step is to upgrade to true all-day reading, where HR signals are monitored constantly.

This tied into an expected increased focus on “readiness,” which is one of the key metrics for trendy screenless wearables like Whoop. The latest report suggest we won’t get Apple’s take on such a low-interaction wearable this time, but getting constant HR readings paves the way for one.

Such an approach to heart rate makes it possible to get a far better view on a person’s HRV during the day, or heart rate variability. It’s one of the best indicators of stress — that caused by recent exercise as well as what you might conventionally think of as “stress.”

Apple Watch Series 12: Double The Storage

The maximum storage option for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 may rise from 64GB to 128GB. At present you don’t have any storage options either. Everything from the Watch SE 3 to the Ultra 3 has 64GB storage.

More room can be used to download more music, and to store more offline mapping data. Whether there will be a new reason for extra storage added in this generation remains to be seen. You might think it’s in order to fit an AI model in the watch, but these forms of AI tend to need to be stored in RAM rather than solid state storage — RAM Is a much faster form of memory.

Slightly higher brightness for Ultra 4

Some have suggested the Apple Watch Ultra 4 will have a slightly brighter display than the Ultra 3, which sits at 3,000 nits peak.

This is a way below the 5,000 nits of the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 , but it’s one Apple needs to approach carefully. We’re hitting nit levels of diminishing returns, but higher brightness will still consume more power and generate more heat.

It may be Apple’s stated peak brightness figures are actually a fair bit lower than what the panel is capable of.

New chipset for Apple Watch Series 12

Last year the Apple Watch 11 actually stuck with the same processor as the previous year, an S10 chip. The water treading is apparently over, with a new chipset expected.

Whether Apple calls it the S11 or S12 doesn’t really matter. It’s the direction of the upgrades that counts.

Obvious routes for Apple to take are to have better neural processing, for the beginnings of on-watch AI processing. Or a drive for greater efficiency, to offset higher peak screen brightness and a more battery-heavy approach to heart rate reading.

Apple is expected to reveal all about the Apple Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4 from 10am PT on September 9.