Apple Explains Why watchOS 27 Drops Support for So Many Models

[McWetty]

Wow. Only 4 years of support for AWU1 getting major features? Maybe they should do a watchOS Lite that leaves off the stupid SiriAI stuff.

 

[goonie4life9]

Summary: "We discovered that watchOS 27 on these devices just wasn't able to truly delight customers. Fortunately, Apple offers a" wide range of compatible devices and can't wait to help customers upgrade to the best-in-class Apple Watch Series 11, the game-changing Apple Watch Ultra 3, or the Apple Watch SE 3. watchOS 27 will take these devices to a whole new level. We think you're gonna love it!"

 

[JForestZ34]

This is apples way of nicely saying and making you upgrade to get the latest functions. Typical Apple.

James

 

[gummybear2026]

Apple "We don't care about loyal Apple watch customers anymore". Switch to a 3rd party smart watch that better suits your needs.

 

[stynkfysh]

I traded in my Series 1 Ultra at Apple for 200 bucks, then bought a cheap series 11 titanium on sale. And I'll probably never spend 'a lot' on an Apple Watch again, as this has been a reminder that any apple product is a sometimes very temporary mainstay.

Yeah, $800 for the Ultra to have it be incompatible now means I’ll never buy a new one again, and may ditch the platform altogether. I’ve had probably 5 Apple Watches and they have all kind of sucked at answering calls and giving timely notices of important alerts. I was hoping AI would give it new purpose and here I am with a watch that won’t support it.

 

[switz]

When we travel internationally, we leave our Apple Watches at home. We take our Timex twenty dollar specials when going to places where flashy stuff makes you a target. Otherwise we take our Rolex watches to safer locations.

My Rolex (two time zones with date and self winding) that I bought in October 1967 has been serviced over the years. It works just fine.

Upgraded to the U3 this spring trading in the U2. The blood oxygen test was an early carrot, but now have a finger device that does than plus pulse which I need to monitor.

The intentional lack of processor updates for the watch family is the achilles heel for the entire product line. Really no excuse since Watch 1 for the battery not to last 24+ hours as the technology has significantly advanced over the years.

 

[LogicalApex]

No, because phones and watches are completely different products.
The watch is like the old iPod classic, did a couple things, did it very well, but only got about a year’s worth of updates. By the time the next one came out, the previous one still did whatever you wanted it to do that it was designed to do, but no more software updates, no more redesigns, no new games, nothing. But that’s the thing, it still worked. Just like the Apple Watch, you can still pair a Series 1 with an iPhone 17, and despite it not receiving a software update in many years, it still works.

Phones are much different, much more complex, much more open, much more flexible. The phone was designed to do thousands and thousands of different tasks.
The watch? Designed for basically three tasks, notification management, health tracking, and media control. It can do all of these things, no matter if it’s a Series 0 stuck on OS 5, a Series 8 stuck on OS 26, or a brand new watch series 11 that’s still receiving software updates today.

Nah, let's be real here. The answer is money pure and simple.

Apple makes a LOT more money on the iPhone than they do on the Apple Watch. The Apple Watch doesn't sell a ton of apps so Apple isn't getting that sweet nectar of app store gravy. Without that Apple would have cut support for recent iPhones as well.

 

[rotvaldi]

There’s no justification I am waiting the day Cook leaves forreal atlast is a reality coming soon

 

[icymountain]

When Apple itself says it is Siri performance that determines which device will be supported or not by the next OS, we start to realise how broken their view of software development is.
Siri should just be an application and Siri support should not define the OS.

 

[Piplodocus]

My series 5 lost support for new WatchOS a good 3 years ago from what I can remember, so if the next 3 series (S6-S8) all lose support 3 years after that then (depending if you're a glass half full, or empty kinda person) you could more think you were lucky to have support on S6 for so long than you've been ripped off with S8. Or maybe this is crap and I should have been more annoyed about short support for the S5? 🤷🏻

Still working fine using WatchOS 10.6.2 with iOS 26.5 on my iPhone though, albeit the watch battery life is pretty crap now and the mic has packed up. Can still get notifications and use ApplePay, or do a short-ish workout fine regardless.

I'm not even sure what new functions I'm missing since WatchOS 10 at this point now, but I don't feel I'm missing out much! Might be due a new one this year though.

 

[tipoo]

Then describe a support plan and how many years of support 26 will get, because it's still buggy AF.


After the alarm just would not sync, I did a completely clean wipe of it, and immediately had the lower middle random liquid glass blob back. If most of the fixes are going to 27...It's not like you needed Siri processing power just to fix this bug riddled mess of a platform.

I think I'm just going to sell it for a smart ring honestly.

 

[LogicalApex]

Yeah, $800 for the Ultra to have it be incompatible now means I’ll never buy a new one again, and may ditch the platform altogether. I’ve had probably 5 Apple Watches and they have all kind of sucked at answering calls and giving timely notices of important alerts. I was hoping AI would give it new purpose and here I am with a watch that won’t support it.

It is especially comical since we know the "AI" features on the watch don't require the hardware they are claiming makes it a big deal anyway. The watches that do support it are absolutely running the "AI" bits on the iPhone and the Watch is just streaming data from the phone. Hell, even the iPhone 17 Pro needs to offload its "AI" work to Apple hosted servers since Apple has been so skimpy on RAM they can only run some of it on device. No way the Apple Watch is on par with the iPhone in terms of AI processing capabilities.

 

[Vahn21]

This reasoning is bs and just Apple saying give me more money just like their reasoning for Siri ai to only be on newer phones. Yes it can do local on older phones very well but cloud wise nothing limiting them so just Apple Cash grabbing.

 

[bluecoast]

That would all be fine except they're ignoring a very important factor:

26 was a steaming pile of garbage. And 27 is their attempt at fixing the so many terrible ideas Dye cursed us all with.

Anything that got 26 should at least get 27 without any of the new features except the interface fixes.

This this this.

I’m lucky in that my s9 is supported, but I’d be furious if I was stuck on 26.

Not because I want Siri ai or new features l, but because as you say, on all platforms Liquid Glass is a poorly implemented mess.

I know that my s9’s battery life has significantly declined on 26.

Yes, batteries degrade but the decline on 26 was so noticeable, it can’t be physical degradation only.

So please come back with an announcement about back porting the 27 fixes and optimisations to 26.

We all know that you’ll have to, as millions of users will be vocally very very unhappy.

And until then drop the canned PR lines.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Nah, let's be real here. The answer is money pure and simple.

What does that have to do with what I said?
I never said Apple dropping support this early wasn’t weird and greedy, it is.
But I don’t think comparing iPhone and watch support is particularly useful, they are different products. If your iPhone isn’t receiving software updates, get a new one, or switch to a different brand, you really should be on something absolutely up-to-date and secure.
With a watch, significantly less important that you were on the latest update. As long as Apple continues to push security updates, the watch will continue to do exactly what was promised of it when it released.
You don’t *lose* any functionality by not being on the latest version of watchOS, that cannot be said about iOS or macOS.
In that way, they are a lot more like an iPod or a set of AirPods. You know the AirPods Pro first generation haven’t received an update in forever? Do you care? No, because if you still use them, they still play music.

 

[daniruth]

Follow the money and you will find the reason

 

[Hildy]

So they want us to forgive Siri for years of insolence by having her obsolesce perfectly good hardware?

I bought an Ultra 1 after years of reticence because I wanted to believe that it wasn’t just flushing electronic dollars on something doomed to only work for six years. I guess I was long on my estimate, and I’ll seriously consider whether to make that mistake again.

 

[AppleMega]

Staring at my Ultra 1. $205 trade in value. I could get a refurbished SE 3 for that, that of course will be retired very soon. Seems fair.

 

[bluecoast]

Or, “buy a normal watch that never needs updates and you never need to dispose of”

Or if you want to track biometrics buy an oura - at least they are supported for years and years and you only need to charge them once a week.

But agree.

They're not only supporting it for 3 years. There will be more than a few years of security updates.

I just don't understand this "If I can't run the very latest software the device is obsolete" thinking. It's weird. People say apple is forcing you to buy a new device. Nope. *YOU* are forcing yourself to buy a new device. I still have use a 2019 iMac that I use *every day*. It's stuck on sequoia. But it's still gotten 3 security updates this year. Works perfectly fine. Up until last year i had a nearly 10 year old iPad Pro. I'd still have it except someone decided it needed to be a new prototype foldable iPad...

The notion that a device is immediately obsolete the moment it doesn't get the latest OS is nonsense. And it'd not apple doing it. It's you.

the s8 and ultra are only 3 3/4 years old.

5 years old? Ok.

This does have the potential to really hurt future sales. I have an Ultra 2, so I imagine it's going to be on the chopping block soon.

Regarding watchOS 27, I just don't see anything that would push me to upgrade. Apple is actually removing functions, such as the app switcher. As for Siri Ai, it holds no interest to me. I use Siri on my watch mostly to set timers, and that's about it. Most of my runs are done in doors, and while the improved indoor running tracking sounds tempting, Fitiv Pulse (my workout program) allows me to edit the distance at the end of a workout to match the treadmill's numbers.

So for watchOS 27, I'm out.

If next year, my s9 gets stuck on 27 and 27 optimises the battery sucking ux mess that is 26 & I still get security updates… then I’m good with that.

Less than 5 years of os upgrades for an Apple product is not cool though.

But the main sin is leaving people on the steaming mess of 26 with no downgrade or upgrade path.

 

[SkippyThorson]

Not most of them, but the watches for sure. I've learned the hard way a few times, they're not really even worth getting AppleCare on.

Unless you regularly drop them on concrete, by the time they need service they're obsolete and your annual AppleCare has had to renew at least once already anyway.

This, exactly. I never liked the anodized aluminum look on the Apple Watches. It looked and felt cheap compared to the jewelry-like polished steel and titanium. Don’t even get me started on the luster of ceramic.

The IonX screen is the bigger drawback to me. It’s a soft and scratch-prone. The only watch I ever broke was IonX, and I didn’t even realize it happened. I’ve slammed my steel watches into door frames and against equipment. They all lived.

Now, the first aluminum Apple Watch I’d consider is the polished jet black color of the iPhone 7 days, but dang that lack of a sapphire screen has been a deal-breaker - until now.

Now I’m reconsidering all of it. The Apple Watch is my favorite product by far. I’d leave the phone home before I left the cellular watch… But now Apple just cut 4 of my 5 paired watches with 27… I like swapping the cases as much as the bands.

Neo, old iPhone, new-cheapest watch with cellular. Apple milking users for cash is at an all-time high, and price hikes are on the way. Sigh.

 

[retroneo]

But it doesn't even run on the watch, all via the phone or cloud.

 

[lordofthereef]

Was on the fence about buying one a refurb ultra 1. Kind of glad I didn't. Not that the watch would be unusable, but even a few hundred bucks to be forever stuck on outdated firmware by the end of the summer wouldn't have felt like a good buy. Here's to hoping ultra 4 knocks people's socks off so I can buy a cheap 3 xD

 

[bluecoast]

They have to make it sound like it was the customer who messed up, not them.

Yep. Original watches stopped receiving updates very early on.

Because:
1) Money
2) 3 generations of AW running essentially the same SoC due to point 1.

Hey Cait and David: my iPhone 14 can’t run any AI junk, just like my series 8, yet it is still getting a version of iOS 27 and so will benefit from the other quality of life improvements u actually care about. Wanna explain THAT?

TC penny pinching ensuring that tech generation of watch can only just about run the version of watchOS that it shipped with.

I don’t think it would’ve been beyond Apple to ensure that the S processors kept parity with the A processors.

 

[iStorm]

This is such a cop-out excuse. They could have just not added Siri AI to the watches that couldn't support it.

Imagine if in 2024, they said only the iPhone 15 Pro and newer will get iOS 18 because the older ones aren't capable of running Apple Intelligence. 🙄

 

[HVDynamo]

arm64_32 architecture phase ended.

Except the the S6/S7/S8 SiP used on the Apple watch is based on the A13 cores, which are used in the iPhone 11/11 Pro which IS supported by iOS 27. So…. That isn’t helping explain it.