One Reason to Be Glad Your Apple Watch Won't Support watchOS 27

**TL;DR:** One Reason to Be Glad Your Apple Watch Won't Support watchOS 27

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Apple's biggest announcements at WWDC 2026— Siri AI and new Apple Intelligence features —weren't surprising. Leaks and rumors covered most of them well ahead of time, so Apple spent most of the event confirming our expectations. What was shocking, however, was watchOS 27's list of supported devices. Apple only mentioned iOS 27's compatibility during the event, and since that list was the same as iOS 26's, it was easy to assume that would also be the case for Apple's other platforms.

But in fact, macOS 27 Golden Gate drops support for all Intel Macs , while watchOS 27 drops support for the Apple Watch Series 6, Series 7, Series 8, the second-gen SE, and the first-gen Ultra. In short, it was a bit of a bloodbath for Apple's wearables. But that might not be entirely a bad thing, if you're a fan of one Apple Watch feature in particular.

watchOS 27 actually takes away a feature from the Apple Watch In fact, those of us with "older" Apple Watches can rest assured that while we aren't gaining any new features this year, we're also not losing any features, either. That's not the case for users upgrading to watchOS 27. It seems, based on the first watchOS 27 developer beta, that

Source: Lifehacker

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Last updated: June 16, 2026.

Additional context: early-cycle stories often look bigger in headlines than in day-to-day impact. The useful move is to identify the smallest set of facts that would change your decision, then wait for those facts to land.