Turns out the biggest new Apple Watch health features don't require new hardware. One of the standout moments at Apple's September iPhone event was the announcement of two new health features on the Apple Watch: hypertension notifications and a new sleep score. Hypertension notifications will alert Apple Watch owners of potential signs of high blood pressure, a condition that goes undiagnosed in millions of people. Sleep Score, meanwhile, grades the quality of your rest on a 0–100 scale.
Because these new features were unveiled on stage as part of the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 announcement at the keynote, many (including myself) assumed they'd be exclusive to the newest high-end models. But upon closer review, Apple is staying true to its promise to roll out features as they're ready and not just when new hardware drops.
Both these features will be coming not just with the new models, but also with the update to WatchOS 26 and could go as far back as the Series 6 and Apple Watch SE (2nd gen) in the case of Sleep Score.
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Hypertension alerts
While it's not the full blood pressure monitoring that many Apple Watch fans were hoping for, hypertension alerts use existing sensors to tackle a serious health concern: a potentially fatal, silent condition that many people don't even realize they're living with. According to Apple the feature is expected to notify over 1 million people with undiagnosed hypertension within the first year.
Much like Apple's irregular heart rhythm and sleep apnea notifications, hypertension alerts work in the background and don't require any extra steps. After a 30-day analysis period, the watch will send an alert if it detects patterns consistent with high blood pressure. Apple is clear that this is not a diagnosis. The feature is currently under review by the US Food and Drug Administration, with clearance expected later this year, but the goal is to provide an early warning that sparks a conversation with a physician.
If an alert does appear, the Apple Watch will recommend that you confirm the results with a traditional blood pressure cuff. All related data can be logged in the Health app on your iPhone, and exported as a PDF for your doctor. That extra step cuts out the typical "wait and track" cycle often required after a doctor's visit and instead lets you walk in with actionable data in hand.
The feature will be preloaded onto the new Series 11 and Ultra 3 and will be part of the WatchOS 26 update on Sept. 15 for the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10 and Ultra 2.
Decoding Sleep Score
The Apple Watch has tracked sleep for years, measuring duration, sleep stages and overall consistency. But it stopped short of giving you an actual score the way competitors like Samsung, Oura and Garmin do. That changes with Sleep Score.
Sleep Score takes your nightly data and assigns a rating from 0–100 (or from "low" to "excellent") based on three main criteria: duration, number of interruptions (e.g. kids and pets) and bedtime consistency -- which Apple says is one of the biggest contributors to quality sleep.
The timing of this rollout is no accident. Apple has a track record of waiting until it has both the scientific backing and enough of its own data to justify launching a new health feature. Sleep Score uses new guidance from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation and the World Sleep Society. The algorithm itself was built and validated using over 5 million nights of sleep data from the ongoing Apple Heart and Movement Study.
Each morning, Apple Watch owners will see their score in the Sleep app on their iPhone, as a complication on their watch face, or directly within the Health app. A deeper breakdown reveals how each of the three factors influenced your score, along with explanations of what went wrong (or right). For example, going to bed later than usual could dock points in the bedtime category and pull your overall score down. While it's not directly prescriptive, the added context helps take the mystery out of what those numbers mean.
Even better, Sleep Score works retroactively. If you've been logging sleep for a while, past data will be automatically updated with scores once you install the new software.
Sleep Score will be available on the Apple Watch Series 6 and later, SE 2 and later, and all Ultra models when paired with an iPhone 11 or newer running iOS 26.