Overview
- Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 at its September 9 event and opened preorders for devices that ship starting September 18.
- The headline Audio Intelligence suite adds Live Rewind, which shows a 15‑second transcript on the watch, and Siri Recap, which creates short summaries of ambient conversations.
- Apple says raw audio is processed in a Secure Enclave on the S11 chip, summaries are condensed and sent to Private Cloud Compute, and saved notes use end‑to‑end encryption with auto‑deletion rules.
- Both models include a redesigned Health Sensing System that samples heart rate every five seconds and increases HRV sampling to support a new Readiness score and Health Age metrics.
- Live Rewind and Siri Recap will ship as opt‑in betas later this year in English and require an Apple Intelligence‑enabled iPhone with Live Rewind and Siri Recap limited to iPhone 16 or later, which will limit immediate availability and likely draw further privacy and regulatory scrutiny.