Leaked S11 Chip Details Reveal No Major Performance Upgrades for 2025 Apple Watches

The upcoming Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 3, and Apple Watch SE 3 will have an updated S11 system in package (SiP), but it may not bring much in the way of processor performance improvements.

apple watch ultra pink
Apple accidentally leaked some internal information about the upcoming chip, and it turns out it will have the same T8310 architecture as the S9 and S10 chips in the Series 9 and Series 10 Apple Watch models.

It's not unusual for Apple to use the same architecture across multiple versions of the S-series chips for the Apple Watch. The S6, S7, and S8 chips all had the same core technology.

The S9 and S10 chips use two "Sawtooth" performance cores like the A16 Bionic chip, so while it is older technology, it's still a lot of power for a wrist-worn device. It's a 64-bit dual-core processor with a 4-core Neural Engine, second-generation Ultra Wideband (UWB) support, and 64GB storage space.

Though the underlying technology is the same, Apple could make other tweaks. With the S10, for example, Apple redesigned the chip with a thinner profile so it would take up less space inside the watch.

With the S11 chip set to stay largely the same in the 2025 Apple Watch models, it's likely Apple's upcoming S12 chip for 2026 will use a new microarchitecture with performance improvements.

Though Apple's code only gave us insight into the Ultra 3 and Series 11, there were codenames for future devices as well:

  • N227: Apple Watch Series 11
  • N228: Apple Watch Series 11 (Cellular)
  • N230: ‌Apple Watch Ultra 3‌
  • N237: Apple Watch Series 12
  • N238: Apple Watch Series 12 (Cellular)
  • N240: Apple Watch Ultra 4

The ‌Apple Watch Ultra 3‌, Apple Watch Series 11, and ‌Apple Watch SE 3‌ are expected to debut at Apple's upcoming September event.

Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

MacUserFella Avatar
7 weeks ago
This is truly Apple, slapping a new number on it with no changes at all
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
germanbeer007 Avatar
7 weeks ago
that's what everyone is asking for: more performance on a watch. right? /s
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kar98 Avatar
7 weeks ago
The previous upgrade was “you can now have a sweeping second hand always on” and the one before that “no more blood oxygen sensor for you”.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
anakin44011 Avatar
7 weeks ago
I'm so disappointed. I was all ready to run the full version of DeepSeek on my wrist.

Apple is just falling so far behind...our unreasonable expectations...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
socialwill Avatar
7 weeks ago
Still rocking the Ultra 1 and its works like a champ!
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
aj8690 Avatar
7 weeks ago

The S9 and S10 chips use two "Sawtooth" performance cores like the A16 Bionic chip, so while it is older technology, it's still a lot of power for a wrist-worn device.
The watch SIP uses efficiency cores, not performance.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)