Ahead of the announcement of the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 later this week, code in the watchOS 27 and iOS 27 betas points to a series of new features for the product line.
The information comes from a new post from MacRumors forums member "pdfu." The findings include:
- New "Readiness" app: An all-new separate Watch app referred to in code as "Readiness," distinct from the existing Vitals app. The watchOS 27 launcher apparently includes it in the default Home Screen layout immediately after the Workout app, and the Watch companion app on iOS 27 references the same app in its logic for arranging apps on the Home Screen. Its name and placement next to the Workout app suggest Apple is preparing a more substantial readiness or recovery experience for the Apple Watch.
- Richer strength workouts: Expanded health infrastructure to store individual sets, repetition counts, weight, equipment, body side, and duration.
- New optical-sensing system: A new sensor family called "Sunstone4p0" with lower noise coefficients, and wrist- and orientation-based channel selection. This could point to revised heart-sensing hardware on an upcoming Apple Watch, featuring improved readings when the reflected pulse signal is weak and specialized sensing according to the watch's placement.
- 128GB storage: A NAND storage profile tied to the T8320 chip for the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 suggesting that they could offer 128GB of storage, up from 64GB on previous models.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously reported that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will tout new health and fitness features.
pdfu has emerged as an intriguing source of code discoveries in recent weeks. The forum member previously spotted references to two unreleased game controllers in the first macOS 26.7 release candidate, identified by the internal names T6502 and T1057, and separately found evidence in audioOS 27 beta 8 pointing to a four-speaker HomePod surround sound system and a new "Party Mode" feature.
