Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Series 12
Same price and the same single-band GPS, so this is a modest, low-stakes upgrade: a newer chip, 2 more hours of GPS battery life, and a new daily Readiness score, nothing that makes the 11 feel outdated.
AppleApple Watch Series 11
AppleApple Watch Series 12
- •You can find Series 11 discounted now that Series 12 is out
- •You don't need Apple's newest chip, longer GPS battery, or the new Readiness score
- •You want Apple's current model, a longer-lasting battery, and the new daily Readiness score
- •Buying new from Apple at the same price makes the 12 the easy choice
Series 11 covers essentially everything most runners need: accurate GPS, heart rate, recovery insights, and full smartwatch convenience. It won't match Garmin or Coros on training-analytics depth, but for iPhone users who want one watch for everything, it's hard to beat.
The Series 12 brings a new Health Sensing System that reads heart rate every five seconds and rolls it into a 0-10 daily Readiness score, plus a genuinely longer 10-hour outdoor workout battery, up 25% from the Series 11. GPS is still single-band, same as the Series 11, so it's solid on open roads but can drift under heavy tree cover or between tall buildings. If that matters, the Ultra 4's dual-band GPS is the upgrade.
*Estimated — this model's exact GPS battery life isn't published by the manufacturer. All figures are standard GPS mode, midsize case, no solar boost.
†Estimated — this model launched too recently to have an established customer rating yet.
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