Apple Watch Series 12 – Full BOXROX Rated Review

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Signup for Newsletter Fitness Calculators BOXROX Rated Apple Watch Series 12 – Full BOXROX Rated Review By Stuart Miles | Oct 01, 2026 / 10 min read / –> / –> –> Follow Boxrox –> –> Now 12 editions in the making, you might be forgiven for thinking there isn’t much more for Apple to add to the Apple Watch, but with competition coming from all angles, the company is having to stay on its toes to keep alternatives like Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop and others at bay.

Is the Apple Watch Series 12 the one to get? And if you’ve already got a previous model on your wrist, should you upgrade?

There are plenty of new technologies and upgraded features.

There’s a new “health sensing system” with more advanced optical and electrical sensors packed into the rear of the watch that delivers higher-frequency heart rate tracking, allowing it to compete with the likes of Whoop.

Then there’s the new S11 chip that powers everything.

That in turn allows Apple to offer Heart Rate Variability (HRV) scores, represented in the form of a “Readiness” score, and enhanced vitals, promising to improve the sleep tracking functionality amongst other things.

Beyond exercise, there are the new Siri AI and Audio Intelligence features, some of which aren’t yet available but are promised as coming soon. Oh, and there’s a range of new colours and the return of a much-loved material too.

All this sits alongside previous technologies and features, none of which disappear.

You’ll still get and benefit from Fall Detection, Crash Detection, Emergency SOS, cellular options and, for those wanting a bit more, the option of going for the Hermès and Nike collaboration models with exclusive watch faces and straps.

While the design and form factor of the Apple Watch Series 12 hasn’t changed this year, there are new colours and new materials.

The entry-level aluminium model comes in Light Gold, Black, Space Gray and Dark Bronze. The titanium models come in Natural or Radiant Gold. For those keen to push the boat out, polished ceramic in Pearl White or Night Blue. The ceramic options do push the price up (expect to pay an additional £480) but certainly impress in the flesh.

The setup hasn’t changed, and moving from one watch to another (you can still run your old watch side by side if you want) is as simple as opening the box and bringing it near your iPhone.

If you’ve used an Apple Watch before, the experience with watchOS is identical to what you’re used to. The Series 12 still doesn’t adopt the Action button from the Ultra, but it will still take your old straps. iPhone screens might be getting bigger (we’re talking about you, iPhone Duo), but here the sizes are the same as before: 42mm and 46mm.

I’ve been wearing the 46mm black aluminium with a black silicone strap. Standard issue.

The Series 12 weighs just 39.5g, which is light enough to forget about when you’re trying to get to sleep with it on.

And the good news is that even though that health sensing system has gone into overtime delivering your heart rate figures, the battery still delivers a day’s use.

I have become more conscious of charging though, especially given you’ve got to time it during the day rather than overnight.

Form a habit (I’ve been doing it once I wake up and shower) and you’ll be okay, especially considering you can now get 10 hours of sleep tracking with 5 minutes of charge, or 80% charge in 30 minutes. That makes a big difference. Of course, those who really don’t want to worry about battery should opt for the bigger Apple Watch Ultra 4. But having worn an Ultra for a couple of years, I can tell you sleeping with it isn’t ideal.

The proof’s in the pudding, right? And this year Apple has focused on several new metrics to try and give athletes a better understanding of when, and more importantly when not, to train.

You still get the usual workout options, the ability for it to auto-start, track and measure, plus a training buddy that on runs will give you pacing info and key performance metrics, like telling you the last one km was your fastest this month. But the focus here is on helping you understand what’s happening when you aren’t exercising, rather than just when you are.

Heart rate measurement during a workout hasn’t changed from previous models (every five seconds), but you now get readings every five seconds throughout the day, whether you’re exercising or not. You can even get heart rate monitoring as a complication, but I found this too anxiety-inducing and quickly turned it off.

Apple Watch now also uses that data to calculate two forms of Heart Rate Variability (HRV), each with a separate purpose: Recovery HRV (RMSSD), for identifying short-term stress and recovery, used as an input to Vitals and Readiness; and HRV (SDNN), which reflects longer-term cardiovascular health and is a key input to Health Age.

Recovery HRV data is recorded in the Health app, updated every five minutes rather than every two hours as before, and feeds straight into the new Readiness and Vitals apps.

Perhaps frustratingly, for new users at least, it takes seven nights’ sleep to generate this data. Once you get through those first seven nights, the data continues to refine your typical range over time, giving you a better understanding of how your body is performing and feeling.

A tough hour-long strength training workout with my PT saw my readiness score drop from 7 to 4. A good night’s sleep pushed it back up to 6, only for it to drop to 5 later that day following an afternoon Hyrox training session. That roughly correlates with how I felt, and I really like that it’s constantly updating to show the outcome of your efforts. Yes, an afternoon nap can make a difference.

The second part of the HRV story will deliver further information around cardiovascular health and be used to create a “Health Age”, but this feature isn’t available at time of writing and is coming later in the year.

The idea is that you’ll get a better understanding of whether you’re overdoing it in training and when to take a step back. Readiness scores run from 0 to 10, with the bottom end of the scale telling you to recover and the top end telling you to “Go for it.”

Readiness combined with sleep vitals is a powerful combination and, as with any gamification feature, it has tweaked my habits already. Sleep is just as important as exercise, and if I want that readiness score to increase, it’s a key factor. Early bedtime’s for me from now on.

All of this data is now sprawled across several pages within the Health and Fitness apps on your watch and your iPhone. I found that it can get you in a bit of a circular loop, jumping from app to app as you drill down into the data, but Apple is promising to solve some of this with a revamped and redesigned Health app due out “late 2026”.

The new app promises an Insights tab to give you daily metrics and trends, as well as your Health Age all in a friendly Apple way.

For now, I found the Fitness app gave me the best quick data I wanted, like Training Load.

Training Load is one of the activity signals that feeds into your readiness score. It helps you see how the intensity and duration of your workouts affect your body over time, and Readiness takes that into account alongside your Move ring and recent intense workouts, plus sleep and data from the Vitals app, when assessing your capacity for the day.

Beyond understanding your health and fitness data, the Apple Watch ecosystem’s real strength is everything else it does. Whether that’s letting you use Apple Pay, unlocking your MacBook without a password, setting alarms and timers, sending messages on the go or much more, it’s hard to live without once you’ve experienced it.

Two more features promised but not here yet are Siri Recap and Live Rewind. Between them, they’ll let you recall what was said in the last 15 seconds (as long as you can press the Digital Crown quickly enough) and create summaries of your conversations throughout the day. I’ve not been able to test these yet but they sound wild.

The Apple Watch Series 12 I believe is for those looking to understand their health but aren’t fully ready to dive into spreadsheets of data and stats that make no sense or are there for the sake of it. That’s not to stay the stats aren’t there, but they are always presented in an approachable way that doesn’t try to overcomplicate things.

There is no shortage of smartwatches and fitness trackers on the market. The new HRV features will appeal to those who have been tempted by a Whoop or an Oura Ring but don’t want the subscription fees that come with them. The Apple Watch Series 12 also stacks up well against Garmin, which has been offering HRV data for some time, allowing you to stay within the Apple ecosystem.

What you want and need will depend on how much exercise you’re regularly doing, and what kind. I’ve found that Garmin, COROS, Amazfit and others let you drill down further into specific exercise types or offer more data for those who really want to deep dive. But in terms of performance, the Watch Series 12 delivers.

Performance: 9/10The new heart rate sensors make a huge difference in capturing your data, and that data is translated into the new Readiness score, updated throughout the day.

Durability: 9/10Although the screen on the baseline aluminium model can be scratched, it’s pretty tough. Upgrade to the titanium model with sapphire glass and it’s near indestructible.

Design & Usability: 9/10Setup is easy, daily use straightforward, and there’s plenty on offer here beyond the fitness elements of the watch. Whether you’ve been an Apple Watch user before or this is your first time, you won’t get confused or lost in the data.

Value for Money: 9/10Starting at £349, the Series 12 is a quick and easy way to start tracking your health without feeling like you need to spend loads or sign up to a subscription to get the most out of what’s on offer.

Community Fit: 9/10If you’re training regularly but haven’t got to the point where the data is everything, this is a good, approachable way to understand how your training is going and start spotting trends in your exercise and sleep to help you improve.

The Apple Watch Series 12 will never deliver the full, in-depth data load of something like a Garmin Fenix, but that’s not what it’s trying to achieve here.

Instead, you get an approachable experience that lets you delve further into the data without being overwhelmed.

When it comes to exercise support, there are plenty of options to track your workouts, and the results, be it strength training, running, swimming or high-intensity interval training, are as accurate as you’ll need.

Even better, once you step away from the gym, the watch comes into its own in many other ways, offering a stylish and accomplished experience.

Stuart Miles has been covering consumer technology since 1998 and has worn a wearable or smartwatch to track his fitness for almost two decades, including the Garmin Forerunner 305, the Nike+ FuelBand, the Pebble and every Apple Watch since he saw it unveiled in 2014. His training mixes strength work, running, swimming, and Hyrox sessions.

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