Published on 6/22/2026
Apple has dropped support for several generations of its leading smart watch, “Apple Watch,” in the new “Watch OS 27” system, as the company will not send the general update that includes the features of artificial intelligence and the rest of the system’s leading features to these watches, according to a report by the American technical website “TechRadar.”
The senior director of WatchOS software engineering, David Clark, explained in his interview with the technical website that the announcement of “Siri AI” at the annual Apple developers conference that was held in recent weeks neglected to talk about the technology in smart watches and did not talk about it in a way that is parallel to the rest of the devices.
The reason for this is that a large group of the company’s watches will not receive the new update and will not be available to them, which are the watches of the sixth, seventh and eighth generation, the economical “SE2” category, and even the leading “Ultra” watch of the first generation, according to what was stated in the report, which makes it the largest reduction in support that Apple has made in one year.
This means that the “WatchOS 27” update will reach Apple watches of the “Apple Watch 9” category and later, leaving millions of users unable to access the benefits of artificial intelligence, but why this decision?
Need for computing power
Speaking to TechRadar, Apple Watch and Health Product Marketing Director Kate Dooley explained that the priority with the WatchOS 27 update was power and efficiency, so older generations of the company’s watch were not able to operate the system well or take advantage of its full capabilities.
The reason for this is the absence of the neural processing chip that Apple began to integrate into its smart watches starting with the ninth generation and its “S9” processor.
Dooley confirmed that the ninth generation Apple Watch has computing power that makes it able to operate artificial intelligence features with ease and ease without the need to sacrifice performance or some features, according to a report by the American technical website MacRumors.
The report stated that modern generations of watches give the user great ease of accessing the features of artificial intelligence without the need to hold the phone or sit at the computer in order to be able to operate them and benefit from them.
This is thanks to the ability to voice control the watch, direct voice commands to it, and access artificial intelligence directly using voice commands.
It is noteworthy that the sixth generation of Apple smart watches was released in 2020, that is, less than 6 years ago, which is less than the traditional support period that Apple provides for its smart watches, but the rest of the watches were issued after that, so the eighth generation Apple Watch was released in 2022.
This does not mean that unsupported watches will not receive a new update at all, as the watches will receive a watered-down version that does not have artificial intelligence features or advanced features for controlling the watch.
Apple revealed the new artificial intelligence features and the “Siri AI” application during its annual developers conference, which it held at the beginning of this June.
The company intends to unveil the new generation of smart watches during its most prominent annual fall conference, the Apple Event, which it will hold next September, dedicated to the launch of the iPhone 18 series and the new generation of its smart watches.
