When Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 11, I was curious. What more could Apple refine in a product that already feels mature? Yet, as I strapped it on and cycled around the Marina Bay area under the humid evening sun, I realised the Series 11 is Apple’s most balanced watch yet. It has equal parts beauty, endurance, and intelligence.
Design and Comfort
From afar, the Series 11 looks every bit like its predecessor. But the moment I put it on, I noticed a subtle difference as it feels thinner and sits more comfortably against the wrist. The aluminium model I tested (in the new Space Grey) is light enough for my daily use.
The Ion-X glass is twice as scratch-resistant, which is very helpful for a clumsy person like me. Even after multiple careless handlings, the display still looked pristine when I checked my workout stats later. That is reassuring, especially for anyone who uses their watch in active, outdoor conditions.
Performance and Battery
The biggest upgrade that matters to me, and probably most users, is the battery life. Apple promises up to 24 hours, and I actually got close to that. After my cycle, a few calls, a round of notifications, and sleep tracking overnight, I still had around 15% left the next morning.
Charging is impressively quick. Fifteen minutes of charge gave me about eight hours of use, perfect for a quick top-up before heading out.
Workout Buddy and watchOS 26
I tried out the Workout Buddy, a voice-driven coach powered by Apple Intelligence. It’s surprisingly intuitive. The voice chimed in with encouragement right when I was slowing down, reminding me how close I was to closing my rings.
It felt personal, almost like a human trainer who knows your habits. That kept me going when I was tired!
The new Workout app layout is cleaner too, and setting up a custom route or music playlist took seconds.
If you have Apple Music, it can auto-select upbeat tracks that match your cycling tempo. Small touches like these make fitness feel fun again.
Sleep Score
When Apple added the Sleep Score feature, I initially thought it was just another metric to glance at. But after a week of use, it became a quiet motivator.
The watch breaks down why your score looks the way it does, factoring in bedtime consistency, wake-ups, and time in deep sleep.
I found my own sleep patterns improving after seeing how erratic they looked in the Health app. It’s the kind of feedback loop Apple does best: small nudges that gently make you healthier without feeling intrusive.
A Bigger Picture of Your Health
The more insights you have, the more empowered you are to take action. With the Apple Watch Series 11, that idea comes to life.
Beyond activity tracking, it now provides a more complete view of your well-being through the ECG app, Blood Oxygen app, Sleep Score, and the newly enhanced Vitals app.
The ECG app continues to be one of the most reliable on-wrist heart monitoring tools, helping detect irregular rhythms quickly and discreetly. The Vitals app builds on that by combining multiple health metrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, and sleep data to show a clearer picture of your daily health trends.
Hypertension Notifications Arrive in Singapore
I was particularly excited to learn that hypertension notifications are now available on the Apple Watch in Singapore. This new feature feels significant because hypertension often develops quietly over time, and many people don’t realise they have it until complications arise.
Your Apple Watch can now analyse data collected by the optical heart sensor and notify you if it detects a pattern of hypertension over a 30-day evaluation period, starting from the day you set up the feature. Apple trained its machine learning model using data from over 100,000 participants across multiple studies, and later validated it in a clinical study of over 2,000 participants.
The result is a tool that could potentially notify over one million people with undiagnosed hypertension within its first year. It’s not meant to replace medical diagnosis, but it can be an early alert to seek advice. If you do receive a notification, the watch will prompt you to set up a Blood Pressure Log and use a third-party blood pressure cuff to track readings over seven days before discussing the data with your doctor.
As someone who values preventive health, I think this is an incredibly empowering feature.
Between its longer battery life, smarter health features, and subtle design refinements, it feels like the most complete Apple Watch yet.
It retails from S$599 on the Apple store. Find out more here.
