With watchOS 27, five older Apple Watch models will lose update support—the biggest change in the history of the Apple Watch. Apple cites increased performance requirements as the reason, primarily due to the new Siri AI. The affected models are the Series 6, 7, and 8, the SE 2, and the first-generation Apple Watch Ultra. Going forward, they will only receive security updates.
Key points at a glance:
At WWDC in June 2026, Apple unveiled watchOS 27. The update brings Apple Intelligence to the smartwatch, but sets a compatibility threshold that’s unusually strict for Apple. The minimum requirement is an Apple Watch Series 9, an Apple Watch Ultra 2, or a third-generation Apple Watch SE.
This means five models are immediately excluded from the update cycle: the Apple Watch Series 6, 7, and 8, the Apple Watch SE 2, and the first-generation Apple Watch Ultra. The exclusion of the first Ultra is particularly bitter, as this premium model once cost around 999 euros. In effect, Apple is cutting three generations of devices from the update cycle in one fell swoop—something that has never happened before with the Apple Watch.
Cait Dooley, marketing manager for Apple Watch and health products, explained the reason for the cut in an interview with TechRadar. Her key point: The new features of watchOS 27, particularly Siri AI and the new tap gesture, “work best” with the processing power of the Series 9 and newer, the Ultra 2 and newer, and the SE 3. Apple prioritizes the best possible user experience with every software release.
Important context: Apple has yet to provide a detailed technical explanation for why older models are explicitly excluded. The “works best” phrasing is typical Apple language, but it leaves open whether the hardware simply can’t handle it or whether Apple is drawing a deliberate line.
A look at the chips nevertheless supports Apple’s argument. The Apple Watch Series 8 and the first Ultra use the S8 chip, whose Neural Engine has two processing cores—the architecture is based on the older A13 Bionic from the iPhone 11. It wasn’t until the Series 9, with the S9 chip, that a four-core Neural Engine was introduced, which processes machine learning about twice as fast and, for the first time, enabled local Siri processing on the watch.
It is precisely this on-device speech processing that is the crux of the matter: Siri AI runs AI models directly on the device instead of offloading everything to the cloud. This requires computing power that the older chips lack. David Clark, lead WatchOS developer at Apple, emphasized that the watch is meant to become a full-fledged partner for Apple Intelligence—a Siri conversation started on the Watch can be seamlessly continued on the iPhone.
The good news: The affected watches won’t become useless. According to Apple, they can still be paired with iPhones running the latest version of iOS and will continue to receive basic security updates. So they’ll keep working as usual—only the new AI features, including Siri AI, won’t be available. If you want to use those, a hardware upgrade is unavoidable.
If you’re already thinking about upgrading, you’ll find details here on the latest Apple Watch Series 11 as well as the more affordable Apple Watch SE 3, both of which support watchOS 27. Our article on watchOS 26 provides an overview of the new features introduced in the previous version.
This case highlights a broader trend: The more AI features become the primary reason for software updates, the shorter the effective lifespan of even high-quality hardware becomes. A watch that works perfectly may be left out in the future simply because a new feature requires a newer chip. Compared to many Android smartwatches, Apple still fares well when it comes to providing updates—but the abrupt cut-off with watchOS 27 is likely to annoy long-time customers, especially early adopters of the Ultra. The public beta is expected in July, with the final release scheduled for the fall.
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