Your Apple Watch Probably Doesn’t Support WatchOS 27.
Apple’s commitment to iPhone hardware support is truly impressive. During its WWDC 2026 presentation , the company announced that iOS 27 would run on all devices currently supporting iOS 26—starting with the iPhone 11, released in 2019. Apple even went to great lengths to tune and speed up the OS on older devices. But for Apple Watch owners, the news isn’t quite as good.
During the same presentation, Apple showcased the watchOS 27 update, which includes a new AI-powered Siri interface , including the Siri app; a new dynamic app drawer; a new one-tap gesture; and much more. But Apple didn’t reveal which devices would support this snazzy new OS. And as it turns out, Apple likely missed the point, because the news isn’t good: a huge number of currently supported Apple Watches won’t receive the watchOS 27 update, coming this fall.
Unlike Apple’s long-standing support for seven iPhone models this year, the much newer Apple Watch will not support the new OS. It appears watchOS 27 will only be supported on the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 2 and 3, and Apple Watch SE 3. That’s it. Apple is ending support for the Apple Watch Series 6 through Series 9. Even the first Apple Watch Ultra will no longer be supported. The second-generation SE model will also be losing support.
While dropping support for older devices is understandable, the loss of the Ultra 1 and Series 9 is the most painful. The Series 9 was released in September 2023, less than three years ago. As for the Apple Watch, hardware updates are slow, and an Apple Watch released a couple of years ago is still fully functional and fast enough for everything you’re likely to ask of it.