watchOS 27 is leaving some surprisingly recent Apple Watches behind. Apple revealed the next watchOS update at WWDC on June 8, and the fall release only runs on six models.
The survivors are the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, SE 3, Ultra 2 and Ultra 3. Everything older stops at watchOS 26, including the Series 8, the second-generation SE and, most painfully, the original Apple Watch Ultra.
That last cut stings. The first Ultra launched in 2022 as Apple’s $799 adventure flagship, and the SE 2 sat on shelves until recently. So watchOS 27 effectively retires three years of hardware in a single update.
Why watchOS 27 cuts so deep
The dividing line is silicon. Every watch that survives carries Apple’s S9 or S10 chip, which added a much stronger Neural Engine for on-device machine learning. Apple is leaning on that hardware for its new Siri AI push and Apple Intelligence features.
The new release shows where that power goes. watchOS 27 brings updates to Workout Buddy, a dynamic app grid, and a single-tap gesture for Smart Stack widgets. Additionally, Apple says Siri AI will reach a future watchOS 27 beta for developer testing.
The Series 9 scare
Apple briefly made things look even worse. The company’s first compatibility list omitted the Series 9, but Apple then confirmed to MacRumors that the omission was a mistake. Series 9 owners keep their update.
For everyone else, the watches keep working, but they stop receiving new features this fall. However, Apple typically continues shipping security patches for older watchOS versions for a while.
Rivals will happily weaponize the comparison, because Samsung and Google now promise longer wearable support windows. Smartwatch longevity matters more as the devices take on health roles too – Tech My Money recently covered Samsung’s Galaxy Watch study on GLP-1 drugs and muscle loss, and that kind of work assumes hardware people keep for years.
