iPhone 18 Pro preorders open as Apple launches new Watch and Health app

Apple ↗ 1.75% used its annual September launch event on Wednesday to introduce the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4, pairing new sensor hardware with a sweeping, AI-powered overhaul of its Health app — an effort to close a gap that has let rivals like Oura and Whoop gain ground in the wearables market.

A Smarter Health App

The redesigned Health app, built on Apple Intelligence, introduces an Insights tab that dynamically responds to a user's data, surfacing personalized recommendations rather than leaving users to parse raw numbers on their own. A new "readiness" metric analyzes recent activity, vitals, and sleep, then delivers a daily 0-to-10 score with a plain-language directive: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. The Apple Watch Series 12 also takes background heart rate readings every five seconds — the most frequent sensing ever on an Apple Watch — and measures heart rate variability as often as every five minutes.apple+2

As the Wall Street Journal News Corp ↘ 0.21% noted, the Health app had long been "a significant flaw in the best-selling Apple Watch," filled with data but offering minimal direction on how to interpret it. The redesign aims to change that by letting Apple Intelligence generate insights tailored to each wearer.wsj

Audio Intelligence Draws Scrutiny

Alongside the health features, Apple introduced Audio Intelligence, a set of four opt-in tools that rely on the watch's microphone. Sound Recognition alerts deaf or hard-of-hearing users to sirens, alarms, doorbells, and a baby's cry. Live Rewind transcribes the previous 15 seconds of ambient conversation on demand, while Siri Recap produces AI-generated summaries of longer meetings. A faster on-device Shazam rounds out the suite.macrumors+2

The features drew immediate attention over privacy. Apple stressed that no audio recordings are created or stored and that raw audio is "completely inaccessible to the operating systems, apps, the user, or Apple," according to a privacy report the company shared with Wired. Audio processing is isolated on the S11 chip's Secure Exclave, and summaries are stored with end-to-end encryption. Audio Intelligence will not be available for several months and will arrive in beta late this year.businessinsider+3

Broader Product Refresh

The watches were part of a larger event headlined by the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable phone, which starts at $1,999 and goes on sale October 23. The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399 and the Ultra 4 at $799, with no price increase over the prior generation. Pre-orders for the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max open today, September 12, ahead of an in-store launch on September 18.usatoday+2

As ZDNet observed, the measured rollout of Audio Intelligence may be part of a longer strategy: acclimating users to always-on AI features in familiar products before Apple pursues more ambitious AI wearables of its own.zdnet