Apple Watch Series 12 review: 12 reasons it’s the perfect smartwatch to start your fitness journey
Apple’s dug deep into features that almost anyone — not just the ultra marathon runner in your life — will find useful.
The Apple Watch Series 12 may need a double take to spot the differences over last year’s flagship smartwatch, but looks can be deceiving. It may sport a familiar exterior design, but dive below that sleek surface and Apple’s made some substantial — and impressive — changes to its smartwatch.
The focus with Apple Watch is always health, but this year Apple’s dug deep into features that almost anyone — not just the ultra marathon runner in your life — will find useful. A fully re-imagined sensing system works with Apple’s new S11 chip to monitor your heart more frequently, while new Readiness and Vitals features make all that data considerably more useful to Joe Bloggs. Then there’s watchOS 27, which finally delivers a smarter Siri to your wrist, and a bevy of new fitness tools and ways to interact with your watch.
Starting at £369, the Series 12 isn’t the cheapest smartwatch around (or even the cheapest in Apple’s own line-up). But it’s arguably the best in terms of bang-for-buck. After spending time with the new model, here are 12 reasons it could be the right fit for your wrist.
Apple Watch Series 12: In Short…
- New health sensors track heart rate every five seconds
- Readiness score turns health data into actionable daily guidance
- S11 chip delivers faster performance and smoother everyday use
- Ceramic Shield 2 makes for a 60% tougher display
- New finishes include ceramic, titanium and dark bronze
- Up to 24 hours of battery, with significantly faster charging
- From £369, available now in 42mm and 46mm sizes
1. Heart-rate tracking to set your heart racing
The biggest upgrade to the Apple Watch Series 12 is one you can’t see, hidden away under the display. Apple has completely rethought its Health Sensing System, allowing the Series 12 to take background heart-rate readings every five seconds. That’s 60 times more frequent than the Series 11.
That obviously leads to more accurate readings and analysis of your long term heart health. But it’s actionable in the short term too — the extra data can help the watch better understand activity, improve calorie estimates and provide richer information about stress and recovery.
Apple’s own study compared the smartwatch with a Polar H10 chest strap and several leading wearables, involving more than 1,000 participants. Apple says the Series 12 demonstrated the highest accuracy in its testing. Of course it’s in its interest to say that, but tested against my local GP’s gear, Series 12 proved very accurate.
2. Readiness tells you when to chill out
For the fitness averse amongst us, Apple Watch Series 12 might be among the most friendly smartwatches out there. It doesn’t only tell you to get off the sofa, but also tells you when an actual rest in front of the telly might do you some good.
A newly-introduced Readiness feature analyses your recent activity, sleep, overnight vitals and Recovery HRV to give you a score from zero to 10. From that, the Watch will tell you how hard to push yourself in four levels: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready or Go For It.
It also changes throughout the day as new information comes in, meaning a rough night's sleep or particularly punishing workout can affect the recommendation. I’d go as far as saying it’s the most meaningful feature add-on for the casual fitness fan since the introduction of the Activity Rings on Apple Watch — for a newbie getting used to the strains and aches of a workout on their body, it’ll help them find their feet gradually and safely.
Just note that your Readiness score takes time to build — you’ll need to wear your Apple Watch overnight and use it in workouts and throughout the day for about a week before it gets a good idea of what you’re capable of.
3. Vital improvements
The Series 12's new Vitals tool makes health information easier to digest, with daytime and overnight views covering things including heart rate, HRV, respiratory rate and wrist temperature.
The clever bit is that you don't necessarily have to wait until tomorrow morning to discover something is up. Daytime measurements can flag changes while you're getting on with your day, letting you adjust your plans accordingly. If you’ve got a long term condition you’re monitoring, these regular updates can help you keep on top of a flare up before it kicks in.
4. Same fit, same feel
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it — the Apple Watch Series 12 may be a dead-ringer for last year’s model, but who’s complaining when it’s this comfortable to wear?
The Series 12 is Apple's thinnest Watch yet, measuring 9.7mm for aluminium and titanium models, with ceramic models only fractionally thicker. The rounded design sits closer to the wrist and is intended to be comfortable enough to wear day and night (important for keeping those Readiness scores accurate). I’ve been wearing the chunkier Apple Watch Ultra 3 for most of this year, and it’s been a good reminder that this smaller watch style is definitely the more comfortable of Apple’s range.
The slight change in size has led to a slightly smaller screen size, but we’re talking a few pixels here, and nothing the naked eye is going to pick up on.
5. Good-looking wrist candy
The Series 12 might not have had a big design overhaul this year, but Apple has given you more ways to customise it and make it your own.
Aluminium models come in Light Gold, Black, Space Gray and Dark Bronze, while titanium arrives in Natural and Radiant Gold. And, making a comeback in suitably glamorous (and pricey!) fashion, there are polished ceramic versions in Pearl White and Night Blue.
Those different finishes are going to cost you a pretty penny though. Titanium ups the starting price to £649, while Ceramic is £849 — £100 more than even the new ‘Pro’ level Apple Watch Ultra 4. Those upgrades do also include the cellular connectivity option as part of Apple Watch though — an optional paid-for add-on for the Aluminium builds.
6. Ceramic Shield 2 stands against scratches
Still, the Aluminium models get some industrial design upgrades. For the aluminium models, Apple has replaced the display’s old Ion-X glass with Ceramic Shield 2.
Apple says it's 60 per cent tougher than the Ion-X glass used on the Series 11, while the titanium and ceramic versions get sapphire front crystal for even greater scratch resistance. It's not the kind of upgrade you'll appreciate while sitting on the sofa admiring your new Watch, admittedly, but you’ll be happy for it the next time you stumble out of the pub.
7. The S11 chip is doing a lot of heavy lifting
There’s a brand new chip powering the Apple Series 12 show — the S11. As well as keeping the smartwatch snappy and responsive to your prods and swipes, it’s the beating heart and whip-sharp brain behind all the new health sensing and AI features.
It has a faster CPU and GPU, an upgraded Neural Engine (that’s the AI bit) and a dedicated always-on processor capable of handling machine-learning workloads efficiently. More than any other Apple Watch before it, the Series 11 is keeping an eye on your important vitals at all times, and it’s the S11 that allows for that.
8. Power to the Pedometer
This might be cheating — it’s not like the Apple Watch hasn’t tracked your steps since, well, its conception. But the pedometer onboard a smartwatch is one of the most under-appreciated features that we take for granted. For many wearers, using it represents the first step, quite literally, in their fitness journey.
So it’s great to see the Series 12 getting a redesigned pedometer model powered by machine learning. With its AI smarts, it’s able to improve step-count accuracy, making it far more capable to interpret changes in your gait (such as when your arms aren't moving normally when you're pushing a buggy, holding a coffee or carrying a bag).
Paired with a new Steps complication, your more accurate step count can now live directly on your watch face. For someone starting out on their fitness journey, this frictionless entry into exercise tracking is excellent.
9. Siri finally feels like it belongs on your wrist
Of all the new software features that the underlying watchOS 27 operating system gives your Apple Watch, the overhaul of Siri, Apple’s increasingly AI-charged voice assistant, will be the most valuable.
With a wake word or a tap of a button, Siri’s new AI smarts allow it to answer using both broader online knowledge and personal context it’s picked up from interactions with your watch and wider pool of Apple gadgets. With it, you can ask Siri to perform actions using information from your personal data directly from your Apple Watch, such as sharing flight details or creating a Reminders list, with far less manual fumbling needed on your part.
There's a catch for UK users, though: Siri AI is rolling out as a beta, and availability varies, meaning it’s not yet certain when a UK-wide rollout of all the AI features will fully turn up. But what Apple is cooking up here will be a compelling addition when it does arrive.
10. Audio Intelligence could be incredibly useful
Here’s another AI feature set that’s rolling out as a beta in select territories — ‘Audio Intelligence’ — and this one’s as controversial as it is potentially game-changing.
Live Rewind will capture the previous 15 seconds of a conversation and show it on your watch display as a text snippet, letting you catch up if you've missed something (slash help you win a ‘No, you didn’t actually say that’ argument). A boosted Sound Recognition app will be great for the hearing impaired, offering wrist-based alerts when important sounds such as alarms, sirens and doorbells chime, even when your iPhone isn't nearby. And then there's also Siri Recap, which can create high-level summaries of conversations throughout your day.
The catch? You’re allowing Apple to listen to your life in minute detail. These features are opt-in, with Apple saying audio isn't stored and that processing is designed around privacy. But you wouldn’t be alone to feel it equates to something like surveillance, even if Apple promises that’s not the intent or result of the features. What happens, for instance, when those around you who haven’t personally opted-in to the features, question being passively recorded by them? Apple will need to be very clear about the nature of Audio Intelligence if it wants its millions of Apple Watch users to get on board.
11. Same battery, faster recharge
Battery life remains rated at up to 24 hours, just like the Series 11, with a Low Power Mode that can stretch that further to 38 hours.
Same old, sure. But getting power back is a far swifter process this time around. A mere five minutes plugged in can provide up to 10 hours of sleep tracking — perfect for topping up at bedtime after a hard day’s training. 15 minutes connected to power can add up to 12 hours of normal use, while an 80 per cent charge takes just around 30 minutes.
While it still means the Series 11 needs a top up roughly every day, at least this time you’ll be able to sneak in some extra juice in a hurry.
12. All the other good stuff Apple Watch has always had
All this is building on the already-top-tier base that Apple Watch has built over its decade on our wrists.
You've got sleep tracking, ECG, heart-rate notifications, respiratory-rate tracking, wrist temperature, cycle tracking, blood oxygen measurements, hypertension notifications, sleep-apnoea notifications and more. There are also safety features including Fall Detection, Crash Detection, Emergency SOS and Check In, letting loved ones and emergency services keep in touch if disaster strikes.
Then there's the rest of watchOS that you’re probably already aware of: notifications from messaging apps and services, Apple Pay contactless payments, music, maps, workouts tracking, Find My and an ever-growing collection of third-party apps. It’s a mature device with years of improvements and development behind it, all coalescing into this powerful iteration.
Apple Watch Series 12 verdict
The Series 12 is a classic Apple upgrade: even if the outside hasn't changed much, the stuff underneath has.
The new heart-rate sensing, Readiness and Vitals features are the real stars, while the S11 chip lays the groundwork for Apple's increasingly ambitious AI features — whether you’re fully onboard with those ambitions or not. The faster charging is another welcome quality-of-life improvement that will directly aid your all-day health tracking needs.
There are caveats. Battery life is still only around 24 hours, the design (though lovely) remains familiar and some of the flashiest Audio Intelligence features aren't available yet, and raise privacy concerns.
But at £369, the Series 12 is a remarkably comprehensive smartwatch for iPhone owners, with enough new here to make an upgrade from a more recent model justifiable. If you’re completely new to Apple Watch and are looking for a fully-fledged health tracker and life assistant, it’s a no-brainer.
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