Hands on with the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4

After Apple wrapped up its “Surprise and shine” event today, we were able to get a look at the new Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4.

Both of the new watches launch September 18th, with preorders available starting today.

The Apple Watch Series 12 once again starts at $399 for the aluminum case option in space gray, black, light gold, and dark bronze aluminum. The natural and radiant gold titanium version costs $699, and the night blue and pearl white ceramic costs $899. Apple says this year’s watch offers up to 24 hours of “everyday” battery life, and now offers up to 10 hours of battery during outdoor workouts and supports faster charging with up to 12 hours recharged in just 15 minutes.

The ceramic Series 12 sure does look and feel nice in person. The night blue version is very fetching, but the stark pearl white is also tres chic on the wrist. The new dark bronze did look a lot darker in person, however. Similar to how the dark green Series 7 looked a bit less green and more black-ish green. There’s a similar vibe with the bronze.

The Series 12 runs on a new S11 chip that powers a few new Audio Intelligence Siri AI features, including Sound Recognition, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap. It also got some health upgrades, including new optical and electrical heart sensors with support for continuous background heart rate sensing that takes readings every five seconds. There’s also a new Health Age feature that compares your health metrics to your chronological age, and a Readiness feature that gives you a score for how to handle the day ahead based on your recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score. The Readiness feature will be limited to the Series 12 and Ultra 4, however, because they require the new heart rate sensor array.

Speaking of the array, this is the first major update on this front in a while. You can definitely see the difference side-by-side. Notably, the Apple reps on hand pointed out that the new Series 12 and Ultra 4 has a “32 petal design”, whereas the older watches had a two-petal design. This refers to the spoke-like lines coming out of the electrode. It should theoretically enable much more accurate readings. You can also see that the optical sensors themselves are situated much closer together. This is to help minimize light leakage.

The Apple Watch Ultra 4 also includes the new S11 chip and Audio Intelligence features. It starts at $799 and comes in natural and black titanium, along with a premium Apple Watch Hermès version. Apple says the Ultra 4 offers up to 50 hours of battery life