Apple’s new watch software won’t run on some of its older models
Apple just wrapped up its annual round of WWDC announcements, and, as usual, there wasn’t any new hardware. That is not really the point of WWDC, which stands for Worldwide Developers Conference and—occasional curveball like the Vision Pro aside—tends to focus on Apple’s software platforms and how third-party developers can build apps for them. As it does every year, Apple announced new versions of each of its operating systems, now all unified under the “27” banner; this fall will see the release of macOS 27, iOS 27, visionOS 27, and so on. But the most intriguing hardware-related news was learning exactly which of Apple’s gadgets will actually get the updates. Watch upgrades The most interesting case is watchOS 27. Apple’s next smartwatch operating system will only run on the Apple Watch SE 3, Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2 and Ultra 3. Anyone running an older model is out of luck, meaning it won’t even run on the original Apple Watch Ultra. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/12\/multicore.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/12\/multicore-mobile.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Multicore\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Multicore is about technology hardware and design. It’s written from Tokyo by Sam Byford. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.multicore.blog\/\u0022\u003Emulticore.blog\u003C\/a\u003E","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.multicore.blog\/","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91454027,"imageMobileId":91454030,"shareable":false,"slug":"","wpCssClasses":""}} That’s a little surprising. The first Apple Watch Ultra came out