Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) unveiled the Apple Watch Ultra 4 today, featuring a host of new health, fitness and safety features.
The new Health Sensing System powered by Apple’s S11 chip delivers advanced heart rate measurements, step tracking and a daily readiness score.
“The new Health Sensing System and S11 chip take Apple Watch Ultra 4 — our most rugged and capable Apple Watch — to the next level, delivering longer battery life, faster charging, and the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable,” Apple VP of Worldwide Apple Watch Product Marketing Kaiann Drance said in a news release.
A MassDevice review of FDA records did not find any new clearances or approvals for Apple Watch features since the September 2025 510(k) clearance of its hypertension notifications.
Apple said its latest watch is engineered to provide continuous heart rate monitoring with updated electrical and green LED optical sensors, which measure heart rate every five seconds while the user wears the watch.
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In addition to continuous, passive heart rate monitoring, the watch now measures heart rate variability, an indicator of the body’s response to stress and recovery, up to 24 times more often.
With this new system, Apple Watch Ultra 4 is the most accurate heart rate sensing wearable on the market, according to a study conducted by Apple of more than 1,000 participants.
Apple also overhauled the watch’s pedometer, utilizing machine learning algorithms and the S11 chip. With the redesign, this watch offers the most accurate step tracking of any wearable available on the market as of July 2026, according to validation testing done by the company.
Activity, heart rate, sleep score and other health data collected by the watch will all feed into new readiness scores. Users will receive a daily score between zero and 10, with an actionable recommendation of “Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It.”
This feature is aimed at helping wearers decide how to tackle the day based on their health. The scores may update throughout the day as the watch collects data.
A new Health app on iPhone will include insights and longevity tabs, giving Apple Watch wearers detailed information about their current and longitudinal health data. More features, such as a redesigned Health app and Audio Intelligence, will roll out later this year.
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In addition to the data collected by the watch, users will be able to deepen their understanding of their health by scheduling and purchasing labs for more than 50 key biomarkers through the Health app at around 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations in the U.S.
The watch will soon also provide Apple’s Audio Intelligence, including sound recognition, Live Rewind, Siri recap and Shazam. Most notably for those using Apple Watch for health, sound recognition will alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing to sounds like sirens, alarms or babies crying using on-device intelligence.
Apple said Live Rewind and Siri recap will both help users recall what was said in a conversation they had while wearing the watch. Live rewind will show users the last 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet, while Siri recap will create high-level summaries of entire conversations.
“With powerful health and fitness insights including readiness, new intelligent features, and its large, bright display, Apple Watch Ultra 4 is designed to support you wherever you go, from your workouts, to adventures, to everything you tackle in a day,” Drance said.
