Apple's biggest WWDC hardware news was what it won't support

Or: my Apple Watch Ultra is obsolete already

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 exactly which of Apple’s gadgets will actually get the updates.

The most interesting case is watchOS 27. Apple’s next smartwatch operating system will only run on the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Ultra 2, Ultra 3 and SE 3. Anyone running an older model is out of luck, meaning it won’t even be available on the original Apple Watch Ultra.

That’s a little surprising. The first Apple Watch Ultra came out in 2022, so this decision means it will only have received three operating system upgrades over the course of its entire life cycle. And this wasn’t a throwaway product — it was Apple’s first significant expansion of the Watch lineup, coming with an all-new design and a $799 price tag. Mine is still going strong; I wasn’t particularly tempted to upgrade to the Ultra 2 or 3.

But now Apple is rendering it obsolete. watchOS 27 is a fairly significant update, bringing a redesigned app grid and the new version of Siri, and it won’t be coming to the Ultra.