Macworld

The headline announcements of tomorrow’s Surprise and Shine press event will revolve around the iPhone, but don’t forget the Apple Watch. We’re expecting some quietly valuable updates to the market-leading smartwatch, and a new code leak offers hints about what exactly Apple is about to reveal.

According to pdfu, a regular contributor to the MacRumors forums, the new models (the Series 12 and Ultra 4) will get four upgrades on the previous generation. This prediction is based on insights gleaned from watchOS 27 and iOS 27 beta code. Here are the highlights from what they’ve found:

1. A new optical sensor

watchOS 27 mentions a new optical sensing family called Sunstone4p0, which suggests the new watches will get a hardware upgrade in this area. According to pdfu’s findings, the new sensor seems likely to feature improved signal filtering and lower electronic noise for more accurate heart readings when the pulse signal is weak. It’s also been previously reported that the new watches will have continuous heart-rate tracking, which also somewhat corroborates the need for a new sensor.

2. Extra storage

A storage profile associated with T8320, widely believed to be the CPU of the Series 12 and Ultra 4, is labelled 1024gb. This suggests the new watches will have 1,024 gigabits, or 128GB, of storage, up from 64GB on current models. That’s a lot for a watch and probably means at least some Apple Intelligence stuff wil be stored on the device.

3. A new app

The Apple Watch is about to get a new pre-installed app called Readiness. This feels like something that would be included in the watchOS 27 announcements at WWDC in the summer, but it wasn’t: pdfu thinks Apple “may be holding back some of the biggest features in watchOS 27 for its September launch.”

It isn’t clear what Readiness will do, but the name and placement in the default app grid suggest something to do with preparing for or recovering from a workout. In a partial corroboration of this prediction, Mark Gurman says Readiness will be a variant of the Vitals app and “compete with software from Whoop & Oura.”

4. Better strength workouts

The Workout app is one of the Apple Watch’s greatest strengths. Ironically, however, strength workouts specifically are currently quite weak. You simply can’t record a lot of data about your weights sessions. As of this fall, and based on iOS 27 and watchOS 27 betas, that’s about to change. You’ll be able to record multiple sets, with varied weights and reps, as part of a single workout.

The Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 are expected to be announced as part of the Surprise and Shine event on Wednesday, September 9. For all the latest news and rumors heading up to the event, check our regularly updated Apple Watch Series 12 superguide.