Apple Watch Series 11: Release Date, Price & Specs

The Apple Watch Series 11 is now official and sits in the middle of the firm’s 2025 smartwatch range.

With its predecessor, the Series 10, introducing notable improvements like sleep apnea detection and enhanced design, the Series 11 has big shoes to fill.

It also has new competition in the form of the Galaxy Watch 8 series, Google Pixel Watch 4 and others.

While it looks essentially the same, Apple has brought along a selection of upgrades, such as 5G, faster charging and wrist-flick gestures.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Apple Watch Series 11, including new upgrades, release date and prices.

Apple Watch Series 11: Key upgrades

Overhauled health insights and new features 

With the Series 11, Apple has launched watchOS 26 as its latest smartwatch software. This brings a selection of new health tracking features and other changes. 

One of the most significant is ‘Hypertension Notifications’, which can alert users to signs of high blood pressure with data from the optical heart sensor over periods of 30-days. It is awaiting FDA approval as well as other regulators. 

There are also other new features like Sleep Score, to help understand the quality of sleep you’re getting.

Other new features in watchOS 26 include Workout Buddy, live translation, wrist-flick gestures to dismiss notifications and alarms, and more. 

It comes with Apple’s new Liquid Glass interface design, but you don’t need a Series 11 to get all this as anyone with a Series 9, Series 10 or Ultra 2 will get upgraded for free. 

Longer battery life, faster charging and 5G 

A top ask for any tech, but especially smartwatches, is longer battery life. Apple has a history of sticking with the same longevity figures year after year on its gadgets, but the Series 11 brings an upgrade here. 

It now offers up to 24 hours of battery life or 38 hours in Low Power mode, which is up 6 and 2 hours on the Series 10, respectively.

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While it’s better than before, it’s still nothing particularly impressive with the likes of the OnePlus Watch 3 lasting for many days without a charge. 

Charging is also improved so you can now get 8 hours of ‘normal usage’ or sleep tracking with a 15- or 5 minute charge, respectively. 

Apple also has bumped connectivity to 5G if you want data on the go without needing your iPhone with you. 

Tougher design with a new colour 

One of the key things Apple has done to the design (still 42- and 46mm sizes) is make it more durable. It’s still 50ATM waterproof and IP6X dust resistant but now has new Ion-X glass covering the screen, which is twice as scratch resistant. 

Those opting for a Titanium model (the regular one is aluminium) will get an even better sapphire glass crystal display. 

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For this year, the Series 11 has a new colourway in Space Grey in aluminium. This joins the previous options, including Jet Back Aluminium and three Titanium hues. 

Curiously, Apple describes the new Apple Watch as its “thinnest and most comfortable design” despite remaining at 9.7mm and actually getting heavier than the Series 10 by a few grams. 

When is the Apple Watch Series 11 release date?

As rumoured and expected, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 11 at its 9 September launch event with the iPhone 17 range.

The smartwatch has a release date of 19 September, so you can get one soon. Pre-orders are available now.

It wasn’t the only new Apple Watch launched at the event, as the Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3 also arrived.

Here’s a breakdown of when the previous versions made their debuts:

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How much does the Apple Watch Series 11 cost?

Apple has made no changes to the price of the Apple Watch Series 11 in the US, so you can once again pick one up for $399.

However, in the UK the price has dropped to £369 and other models also have a £30 price reduction compared to the Series 10.

Of course, this will get you the smaller 42mm model in an aluminium case with Wi-Fi/Bluetooth (Apple calls it the GPS model). Prices rise if you want 5G celluar data or the larger 46mm model (which has 5G by default).

Here are the full Apple Watch Series 11 prices:

• 42mm, aluminium, GPS – £369/$399
• 42mm, aluminium, GPS + Cellular – £469/$499
• 46mm, aluminium, GPS – £399/$429
• 46mm, aluminium, GPS + Cellular – £499/$529
• 42mm, titanium, GPS + Cellular – £649/$699
• 46mm, titanium, GPS + Cellular – £699/$749

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