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Image: Apple
Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 11, introducing a significant leap in wearable health tech through sophisticated sensing and algorithmic insights.
Gone is the glitz of glossy marketing: this update focuses squarely on deepening the device’s utility as a health companion.
At the heart of Series 11 is a feature likely to resonate with chronic condition monitoring: hypertension notifications.
According to Apple, the new device uses the optical heart rate sensor in combination with background machine learning. The watch analyses vascular responses over rolling 30-day windows. When patterns suggest elevated blood pressure, it quietly notifies the user, prompting informed medical follow-up.
Equally notable is the Sleep Score, delivered via watchOS 26 and informed by multiple data points, heart rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, and sleep-stage data. Its aim? To synthesise these into an intuitive metric that helps users interpret and improve sleep quality.
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Image: Apple
While the Series 11 maintains a silhouette familiar to existing users, the hardware refinements are noteworthy.
Apple noted that at the surface, the Ion-X glass on aluminum models now benefits from an Apple-designed ceramic coating applied via atomic-level vapor deposition, doubling scratch resistance over previous versions.
Under the hood, battery life reaches 24 hours, a meaningful improvement that enables reliable overnight wear, critical for continuous health monitoring and effective Sleep Score tracking.
Rapid charging is also supported: a 15-minute top-up yields up to eight hours of use, according to Apple.
Lastly, Apple said that watchOS 26 introduces refined interaction modes such as a “wrist flick” gesture, along with personalised workout nudges through Workout Buddy, driven by Apple Intelligence.
The UI facelift, dubbed “Liquid Glass,” includes dynamic new watch faces and improved widget flows via Smart Stack enhancements.
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