Index
Editorial Disclosure
Information based on official specs. The author has not had physical access to the product for this report.
Information based on official specs. The author has not had physical access to the product for this report.
watchOS 27 is the new version of the Apple Watch operating system, and it arrives with two sides to the story. The good news: Siri AI lands on your wrist with a new animation, natural conversations, and its own app. The tough news: this is the biggest compatibility cut in Apple Watch history, with five models left out in a single release.
For Spanish-speaking users, there is one detail more concrete than any assistant: Workout Buddy now speaks Spanish and no longer needs the iPhone nearby during workouts.
The compatibility list is now short: only the SE 3, Series 9, 10, and 11, and Ultra 2 and 3 update to watchOS 27. Five models are dropped at once: Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, the original Ultra, and SE 2. Since watchOS 26 supported exactly the same watches as watchOS 11, Apple is cutting off three years of devices in a single update, and the 2022 models are left with barely four years of support. All of them remain on watchOS 26 with security patches.
There was an extra chapter of confusion: Apple’s official page omitted the Series 9 after the keynote, which was odd because it shares the S9 chip with the Ultra 2, which was listed. Series 9 owners installed the beta without issue, and Apple confirmed it was a publishing error; the list has now been corrected.
The cutoff also follows a silicon logic. The Series 7 and Series 8 essentially use the same processor as the 2020 Series 6; the 2023 S9 was the first real leap, with a four-core Neural Engine capable of processing Siri on the watch itself. The compatible list matches the Apple Intelligence list exactly: the cutoff is the AI cutoff. The requirement on the other side does not change much either: watchOS 27 requires an iPhone 11 or later (or a 2nd-generation SE) running iOS 27.
Siri AI is the rebuilt-from-scratch Siri that Apple introduced at WWDC 2026, and on the watch you notice it right away in the animation: an orb that glows and spins on the screen.
The deeper difference is in the conversation. You can ask open-ended questions, request ideas for a workout routine, and follow up without starting from scratch: Siri keeps the thread. It also knows your personal context —your driver’s license number, the door code for your lodging, that note you saved— and performs actions in apps: sharing your flight details, playing the song someone recommended, or changing the goal for your Activity rings.
The other new feature is the Siri app, which brings all conversations together in one place and lets you pin the ones you use most.
Conversations sync across devices: you can start a query on the iPhone and pick it back up on the watch right where you left off. And the apps screen introduces a dynamic grid that builds itself around the apps you use most, with the Siri app always at the center.
The caveats are the same ones seen across the rest of the ecosystem: Siri AI arrives in beta at the end of the year and starts in English. The Watch is not listed in the European exclusion, which applies to iOS and iPadOS. Still, for artificial intelligence features, the watch needs to be near an iPhone with Apple Intelligence, meaning a 15 Pro or newer.
Workout Buddy, the AI trainer that debuted last year, adds the two improvements it needed most. First: it now speaks Spanish, with personalized motivation in a language that sounds natural mid-run. Second: it learns from your history and returns new data, such as your pace, distance, and duration progress, or which heart rate zone you spent most of the workout in.
And it no longer requires you to carry an iPhone: Workout Buddy works with just the watch, with nothing in your pocket or hand. The requirements are still a paired iPhone with Apple Intelligence and Bluetooth headphones, with the language set to Spanish or English.
Cycle Tracking adds support for perimenopause and menopause: when logged cycle patterns suggest a deviation, the app sends an alert, lets users record related symptoms, and surfaces educational resources. The alerts apply from age 40 and do not replace a medical diagnosis.
For indoor workouts, improved motion algorithms measure the distance of treadmill runs and walks more accurately, directly from the wrist.
There is a new gesture: tap your index finger and thumb together once, and the Smart Stack widget opens, useful when your other hand is busy. The Smart Stack also suggests more actions when they are relevant: wishing a nearby contact a happy birthday, seeing where you parked your car, adjusting an alarm before a holiday, or pinning a transit card to check its balance.
Call Context is also added: when you call a business, the watch pulls relevant information from your apps, such as a confirmation code from Mail while you wait for the airline.
Liquid Glass has also been refined on the watch, with more uniform refraction and better contrast so everything remains easy to read.
Find My unifies devices, people, and items into a single app with a map view, instead of three separate apps. Music starts faster, Fitness step counts finally sync with Health, and the system can suggest battery optimizations.
Wallet can now create custom passes for any card or membership with a QR code or barcode —a library card, for example— and pin them in the Smart Stack. And with Apple Watch For Your Kids, you can set up a watch for your child even if they do not have an iPhone yet, using a Child Account and built-in protections to keep them connected and active.
watchOS 27 arrives as a free update in September, alongside the new iPhone models. A developer beta is already available and, starting in July, a public beta. Siri AI arrives later, in beta at the end of the year and first in English.
watchOS 27 is the most ambitious version of the watch in years and, at the same time, the harshest. Siri turns the Apple Watch into more than a notification viewer, and the dynamic grid and Smart Stack move in the same direction: a watch that anticipates what you need. The cutoff has a real logic —the S9 was the first silicon leap since 2020, and without that chip, AI does not run— but that is little comfort to someone who bought an Ultra or a Series 8 in 2022. In daily use, what will be felt most is not Siri, which arrives late and in English, but Workout Buddy in Spanish and without a phone in tow. If your watch made the list, the update is worth it; if it did not, watchOS 26 remains secure, but Apple’s message is clear: the future of Watch starts with the S9.
No comments yet. Be the first!
