Here's Why watchOS 27 Won't Work On So Many Apple Watch Models

Apple announced the watchOS 27 software update at WWDC earlier this year, but the update won’t be made available to a whole raft of Apple Watch owners. That’s because the update simply won’t be available for some surprisingly recent models.

The Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, SE 2, and the original Apple Watch Ultra will all be left on watchOS 26. These models will continue to receive security updates, but new features will be limited to newer models.

Speaking to TechRadar, Apple Watch and Health product marketing manager Cait Dooley, says that the lack of watchOS 27 support is simply down to performance.

With every software release across every single one of our platforms, we always want to ensure that you have the best experience, so we make power and performance a priority. The great new features in watchOS, including the capabilities of Siri AI and the new tap gesture, work best with the processing power that is in Apple Watch Series 9 and later, Ultra 2 and later, and SE 3.

Apple says that this update will be part of the company’s plans to bring more Apple Intelligence features to the wearable.

That alone means that some older models simply aren’t able to run these features in a way that would be sufficiently performant.

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