It sounds like Apple has run out of ideas for watchOS 27
Summary created by Smart Answers AI
In summary:
- Macworld reports that Apple’s upcoming watchOS 11 appears to lack significant innovation, with Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggesting it will be a disappointing iterative update.
- The main expected feature is a simplified modular watch face that brings the Apple Watch Ultra design to standard models with smaller screens.
- This limited set of features might disappoint users who are hoping for major new features when Apple unveils the update at WWDC.
In about a month, Apple will unveil the latest version of its operating systems at WWDC, and we’ll take a look at the new features Apple has cooked up over the past 12 months. But while iOS and macOS will certainly be full of new features, watchOS 27 may not be that different.
It’s no secret that Apple’s smartwatch has hit a roadblock when it comes to innovation. Since the Apple Watch Ultra arrived in 2022, Apple’s annual updates have been more iterative than innovative, with watchOS bringing only minor upgrades and disappointing new features. According to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, this year appears to be much of the same.
In his latest Power On newsletter, Gurman reports that one of the distinctive features of watchOS 27 will be a version of the Apple Watch Ultra’s modular watch face that is “streamlined” for smaller screens. Gurman describes the face:
It has the same large clock as the Ultra dial, but removes the option of a large complication in the center, the row of three smaller complications above the time, and information placed around the bezel. The result is a large clock that fills the top two-thirds of the screen, with a row of three smaller complications below it.
Adding new faces to watchOS updates isn’t a new development (last year’s watchOS 26 update brought Flow, Exactograph, and WayPoint), but Gurman makes it sound like it will attract a bit more attention. Apple was so proud of the Modular Ultra face that it got its own section in the Apple Watch Ultra 2 press release.
Apple introduced the Modular Ultra watch face in 2023 with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 to take advantage of the watch’s larger screen, “using the outermost edge to present real-time data, including seconds, altitude, or depth,” and offering “the most complications of any Apple digital watch face to customize for sports, outdoor adventures, and ocean and water activities.”
Gurman reports that the new dial “aims to bring a version of the Modular Ultra experience to standard series watches, offering something less dense and more accessible while still giving customers useful information at a glance.” But for many Apple Watch users, it’ll just be a recycled face and another year of waiting for something new worth using.
