watchOS 5 Not Available for Original Apple Watch

The new watchOS 5 update, which was introduced at the keynote event of the Worldwide Developers Conference this morning, will not be available on the first-generation Apple Watch models that were released three years ago in 2015.

There were some hints that support might be dropped for the original Apple Watch, including warnings in later watchOS 4 updates after Apple stopped supporting the watchOS 1 SDK.

watchOS 5 will be able to be installed on Series 1, Series 2, and Series 3 Apple Watch models, while original Apple Watch models will not be able to be upgraded beyond watchOS 4.

The original Apple Watch likely does not have the power and battery life necessary for some of the newer watchOS 5 features, including Walkie-Talkie for touch-to-talk communications with friends, richer interactive notifications, automatic workout detection, and updates to the Siri watch face.

Related Roundups: Apple Watch, watchOS 5

Buyer's Guide: Apple Watch (Neutral)

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

poppy10

11 months ago

Imagine if you spent $15,000 on one of the gold plated edition versions of this. So much for being a rival to luxury watch brands. Those last generations. This is dropped after a few years

Rating: 15 Votes

yaxomoxay

11 months ago

I will NEVER buy another Apple watch because of this policy. When I pay an outrageous $700 for a stinking watch, I expect it to be supported for a long time to come. Apple has just become too greedy!

I am pretty sure that the Watch will continue working for all the functionalities you paid it for, for many years to come.

Rating: 15 Votes

code-e

11 months ago

This trusty S0 has held out so long. Looks like I won't be running the beta, but assuming a new Apple Watch is announced in the fall, it's finally time to upgrade!

Rating: 15 Votes

gabriel193755

11 months ago

All I wanted was new watch faces.
What do we get? Walkie-Talkie...

Rating: 8 Votes

witherwings

11 months ago

So the $10.000 Gold Apple Watch series are now obsolete? Good investment!

Rating: 7 Votes

NT1440

11 months ago

Imagine if you spent $15,000 on one of the gold plated edition versions of this. So much for being a rival to luxury watch brands. Those last generations. This is dropped after a few years

People that spend $15K on a watch will never miss that money, or they’re incredibly stupid with their finances.

Rating: 6 Votes

macduke

11 months ago

My S0 is ready to be retired alongside my first generation iPhone and first generation iPad. I should put them all together in a display case or something in the new office I'm building in my basement. If only I had an original Mac! I joined the party too late.

The S0 battery life and performance is already not great. It's best for them to optimize watchOS for newer, faster devices. Looking at iOS, it seems like Apple is now supporting devices even longer once they got to a certain performance level. Hopefully the same happens for the Watch and we eventually get updates for longer once devices get fast enough.

Rating: 6 Votes

OldSchoolMacGuy

11 months ago

Makes sense. No reason to hold everyone else back by trying to support an old and underpowered product. I'll be upgrading to the new watch when they release it this fall.

Rating: 5 Votes

trusso

11 months ago

Got a Series 0 here. Still on watchOS 3, as I'm still on iOS 10 as well. The new features are cool, and it's a little unnerving that those expensive original models are becoming "vintage" already. All that said, I don't need my watch to do much besides tell the time and show me a couple of notifications. I see no reason (personally) to upgrade for some admittedly cool features that I will nevertheless never use.

Rating: 4 Votes

ErikGrim

11 months ago

To be expected. I loved my s0, but it breaking and forcing me to upgrade to s3 was the best thing to happen this year. The series 3 is the first model where it truly came into its own.

Rating: 4 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]