Do You Really Need a New Apple Watch If You Already Have One?

Reviews for the Apple Watch SE 3, Series 11, and Ultra 3^[1] came out today. I’m in the process of reviewing them. I only have two wrists, and there are three Apple Watches to review—so yeah. Besides, I need to collect more health data before I feel comfortable pushing reviews. If you’re reading reviews and asking yourself whether or not you should get any of the new models when they become available this Friday, Sept. 19, maybe I can help you make a decision.

As I said in my hands-on with the Apple Watches after the Awe Jawdropping event^[2] last week, Apple’s trio of new smartwatches are a relatively straightforward refresh. All three models are available in GPS-only or GPS + cellular models, come with 5G connectivity (for cellular models), have S10 chipsets, and include 64GB of internal storage.

Get the Apple Watch SE 3 if you don’t need the latest and greatest that Apple has to offer in a wrist computer and only need the basics like excellent health and fitness tracking, an always-on display for telling the time (finally), and you don’t want to pay too much. The Watch SE 3 is a terrific value starting at $250. The SE 3 gets up to 18 hours of battery life with a single charge.

Get the Apple Watch Series 11 if you want some more bells and whistles like slightly larger and brighter displays, a little bit of thinner design, ECG, blood oxygen tracking (via the iPhone app), and a more advanced optical heart rate sensor for more accurate health and fitness tracking. The Series 11 also comes in titanium finishes, whereas the SE 3 is available only with aluminum cases. The Series 11 gets longer battery life compared to the SE 3—up to 24 hours with a single charge.

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the most feature-packed smartwatch that Apple sells. It’s got everything the Series 11 has, plus an even bigger display, satellite connectivity (emergency SOS and messages), and the longest battery of any Apple Watch at up to 42 hours with a single charge.

That all sounds self-explanatory—options for good, better, and best—but what if you already own an Apple Watch? Should you upgrade beyond getting longer battery life? Because let’s be real, if you’ve had your Apple Watch for even a year and you’re consistently using it to track workouts, the battery is dying at a faster rate than if you’re just using it to tell the time and get notifications. Also, the batteries in Apple Watches aren’t going to last forever; they’ll inevitably go kaput one day or just not hold as long of a charge with time.

If you’re in that boat, you really have to ask yourself this: do you care about hypertension notifications and the new Sleep Score?

Hypertension notifications

Hypertension, also known commonly as chronic high blood pressure, is a life-threatening condition that can oftentimes cause heart attacks or damage your organs. It’s called the “silent killer” because you typically won’t see symptoms. That’s where hypertension notifications come in. The feature received FDA clearance on Monday and will be made available in over 150 countries. The Series 11 and Ultra 3 can send hypertension notifications using data collected from their optical heart sensors, which is then processed through a “machine learning-based algorithm” designed from studies that included over 100,000 participants, according to Apple. “Apple Watch looks at your heart data and searches for patterns associated with hypertension,” reads the hypertension notifications setup screen within the Health app. The Apple Watch is not measuring blood pressure; it’s merely looking for the patterns that may match with hypertension victims.

Setting up hypertension notifications is simple enough, but it’s not something you’ll be able to fire up on command on your Apple Watch. “The algorithm works passively in the background reviewing data over 30-day periods, and will notify users if it detects consistent signs of hypertension,” Apple states in a press release^[3]. Basically, if you’re 22 years or older and you’re not pregnant, there’s no reason not to turn it on. Ideally, you’ll never get a hypertension notification, which would indicate you’re a healthy human and have nothing to worry about. But if you do, at the very least you can take some preventive care if it’s not yet serious. The notifications could potentially save your life.

Sleep score

The other big Apple Watch feature that Apple announced last week is Sleep Score. This is a feature for all three of the new Apple Watches, including the SE 3. For me, it’s a big finally moment, as I’ve long found the sleep tracking on Apple Watches to be lacking compared to wearables made by other companies. Similar to the Activity Rings, Sleep Score is a way to measure three sleeping metrics: duration, bedtime, and interruptions. These three pieces of data are represented in a ring or “donut” as Apple told me (see photo at the very top), and they appear thicker or thinner based on how you achieve each one. You’re then assigned a score and one of five classifications (very low, low, OK, high, and excellent). The idea is that, at a glance, you can quickly see how well you slept and potentially make changes to improve any of the three metrics. In a way, it’s almost like gamifying sleep by guilting you into improving your Sleep Score and then maintaining it.

I’ve been an insomniac for the past year and admittedly my Sleep Score has been ranking “low” the past week. Has the Sleep Score made me feel shameful that I have not corrected my sleep? 100%. But I’m also very good at ignoring it even when I know I have sleeping problems. Of course, that’s just me; I also ignore my Activity Rings more than I should and don’t stand when my Apple Watch tells me to. Like just a few minutes ago when I saw the notification and just blew it off! Most people I know who own an Apple Watch are more disciplined than me when it comes to getting nudged by their smartwatch to move or stand up or do something. Setting my own bad habits aside, Sleep Score is thoughtfully designed.

Now, back to the question of whether you should buy any of the new Apple Watches for these two features. If you want the latest and greatest Apple Watches, then by all means. But there’s really good news! If you own a Watch Series 6 or later, SE 2, or Ultra and later, you get Sleep Score for free in the just-released watchOS 26. If you have an Apple Watch Series 9 or later, or an Ultra 2 (sorry, OG Ultra owners), you get hypertension notifications for free in the same software update. So check your Apple Watch model and think a little bit about whether these features appeal to you or not. You may be able to save a few hundred bucks just by downloading the new update.