Apple has officially unveiled the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3, with hypertension notifications as one of the flagship new features. But users of recent Apple Watch models will not need to upgrade to access it. With the release of watchOS 26 on September 15, the feature will also be available on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
This update marks a major step forward for Apple’s health-tracking ecosystem. Hypertension is one of the most widespread but often undiagnosed health issues globally, affecting over 1.3 billion adults. Apple states that its new notification system was developed using machine learning models trained on data from over 100,000 participants and validated in clinical trials involving more than 2,000 people. The feature monitors how blood vessels respond to heartbeats using the optical heart sensor and analyzes the results over rolling 30-day periods. If consistent signs of high blood pressure are detected, users will receive a notification.
The company expects FDA clearance and other regulatory approvals later this month, with availability planned in more than 150 countries and regions. Apple estimates the technology could notify more than one million people with undiagnosed hypertension in its first year of rollout. Users who receive alerts are advised to follow the American Heart Association guidelines by measuring their blood pressure for seven days using a third-party cuff and sharing the results with their healthcare provider.
watchOS 26 also brings other new capabilities, including the wrist-flick gesture for quick actions, live translation, and a new Sleep Score metric that uses heart rate, wrist temperature, blood oxygen, and respiratory data to rate sleep quality when paired with an iPhone 11 or later. Sleep Score will be available on the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, all Apple Watch Ultra models, and the second-generation Apple Watch SE and later.
Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 are now available for pre-order and will begin shipping on September 19. But for many existing users, the upcoming software update may deliver enough new features to delay an immediate hardware upgrade.
