Apple starts preorders for Watch Series 12, Ultra 4 with new Health Sensing System

Apple has opened pre‑orders for its latest smartwatch lineup, the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, following the company’s recent product event. Both models are positioned as the next generation of Apple’s wearable devices, featuring a suite of upgrades aimed at health monitoring and on‑device intelligence.

A central focus of the new watches is an all‑new health sensing system. The system incorporates a larger electrode surface to improve skin contact during electrocardiogram (ECG) measurements, and a ring of photodiodes that capture light more efficiently. In addition, the devices use larger, more power‑efficient green LEDs to enhance heart‑rate tracking. Apple states that these hardware changes enable more frequent heart‑rate readings, which are displayed in an updated Heart Rate app and can be added as complications on new watch faces.

The redesigned sensing hardware is complemented by software enhancements. The updated Heart Rate app provides users with more detailed and timely data, while the new watch face complications allow quick access to health metrics directly from the watch face. Apple also introduced expanded Apple Intelligence features, extending the company’s on‑device machine‑learning capabilities to the new watches for tasks such as predictive health insights and contextual notifications.

Both the Series 12 and Ultra 4 retain the form factors familiar to their predecessors, with the Ultra 4 targeting users who need a more rugged design. Pricing and availability details were released alongside the pre‑order announcement, with shipments expected to begin later in the year.

Apple’s announcement underscores its continued emphasis on health and wellness features as a differentiator for its smartwatch portfolio, leveraging both hardware refinements and software intelligence to deliver more comprehensive monitoring capabilities.