Good news, Apple Watch owners. If you’ve got a Series 6 or later, it looks like you’ll be able to install and run watchOS 26.
On June 9, as part of its WWDC keynote presentation, Apple will announce this year’s big software update for the Apple Watch, and the current theory is that this will be called watchOS 26 (as in the year 2026). This will contain new features and likely a redesigned interface, and best of all, it won’t cost a penny to install.
The real question, however, is whether you’ll be able to run it. Not every Apple Watch can run every version of watchOS, because they become more spec-intensive over time as Apple includes more demanding features and more complex graphical elements.
If you had a Series 4 or later you could run watchOS 10 when it launched two years ago, but the Series 4 and Series 5 were both dropped from the list of supported devices when watchOS 11 came out in 2024. Series 6 owners will therefore be scanning the tech news sites nervously to see if they’ll be able to grab the update this year.
The good news is that Apple doesn’t seem to be planning to drop any more devices this year. According to a credible new leak reported by MacRumors, the list of supported Apple Watches for watchOS 26 will be the same as it was for watchOS 11: the Series 6 and later. The only change will be the addition of the late-2025 watches.
- Apple Watch Series 6
- Apple Watch Series 7
- Apple Watch Series 8
- Apple Watch SE (2nd gen)
- Apple Watch Ultra (1st gen)
- Apple Watch Series 9
- Apple Watch Ultra (2nd gen)
- Apple Watch Series 10
- Apple Watch Series 11 (expected)
- Apple Watch SE (3rd gen, possible)
- Apple Watch Ultra (3rd gen, possible)
To be frank, this could have been predicted before the leak emerged. Apple has never cut watches from its supported list two years in a row: watchOS 5, 7, 9, and 11 all dropped models (sometimes multiple models at once), but the ones in between kept things steady. It would have been a major surprise if Apple had swung the hatchet for a second year running.
To be fair, that surprising turn of events could yet happen. MacRumors’ source is a private account on X/Twitter, and while the site insists this source has “a proven track record for upcoming software updates,” it’s impossible to be sure they’re right on this occasion. The only way to know the truth with any certainty will be to tune into the WWDC keynote on June 9. Macworld, needless to say, will be covering all the announcements as they happen.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.