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Apple Watch Series 12 might finally convince me to switch away from WHOOP

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Why This Matters

Apple's updates to the Apple Watch Series 12 and the redesigned Health app in iOS 27 close the gap with dedicated fitness trackers like WHOOP, offering more frequent heart rate monitoring and a new readiness score. This matters because it could shift consumer behavior away from subscription-based wearables toward Apple's integrated ecosystem, reinforcing the Apple Watch's position as an all-in-one health device rather than just a companion gadget.

Key Takeaways
Worth a Look

Apple Watch Series 12 — This is the exact device the article centers on, praised for its improved heart-rate sampling and new Readiness scoring that rivals dedicated fitness trackers like WHOOP. If you want a single wearable that combines smartwatch convenience with genuinely better health tracking, the Series 12 is a great pick.a

See Apple Watch Series 12 on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.

Earlier this year, I picked up a WHOOP for the very first time. As a longtime Apple Watch user I was looking forward to having a new way of tracking my health stats in a cleaner interface that the Apple Watch wasn’t offering. Now, with Apple Watch Series 12, I’m very convinced to switch back to the Apple Watch. Here’s why.

First things first, it’s worth noting that the Apple Watch Series 12 isn’t the only factor. There’s also the new Apple Health app in iOS 27.

The new Apple Health app has a much better interface. It offers your stats in a much cleaner manner. It’s very easy to understand all the data, which for me was the main thing breaking the Apple Watch.

Apple Health isn’t the only reason why I didn’t use the Apple Watch, though. It was also the fact that the Apple Watch didn’t collect data as frequently as the WHOOP did. The Apple Watch Series 12 now collects your heart rate once every 5 seconds, compared to every 5 minutes on previous models. This is still less than the WHOOP’s every 1 second, but so long as you’re not an athlete, I think every 5 seconds is fine.

Series 12 also introduced the new Readiness app on the Apple Watch, which gives you a 1-to-10 health score based on your HRV and other factors. This is akin to the recovery score the WHOOP calculated, which is one of the things that I like tracking, because even though Apple Watch always offered a sleep score, it wasn’t always the most useful piece of data. If you slept for a long time, you’d generally get a high score, regardless of whether other sleep factors weren’t quite great.

Wrap up

Only time will tell whether or not Apple Watch Series 12 is actually a game changer for health. As someone who’s used the WHOOP for the past half a year or so, I’m definitely looking forward to potentially going all in on the Apple Watch again.

Even though I’ve been a WHOOP user, I never ditched my Apple Watch, purely because having a screen offers a lot of utility. I don’t want to always pull my phone out.

What do you think of the Apple Watch Series 12? Will you be upgrading for the new features or will you be sticking with your current Apple Watch? Let us know in the comments below.

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