During their September 12th Keynote event, Apple opened with an emotional reminder of why so many choose their products and how they’ve been impacted or even saved by them. From rescue missions to disease detection, Apple wants you to know that their devices—specifically their watches—are more than just a way fun way to communicate or get notifications from your phone. Rather, they’re an integral way to stay healthier, safer, and in some extreme cases, live longer. What better marketing strategy can you think of?
Apple Watch Series 9
Just as with the new iPhone 15 Pro series, the Apple Watch 9 receives a very minor facelift, but under the hood, it introduces a noticeably faster processor and a few unique features.
Faster Siri-on-device responses and even Double Tap (as cool as it is) probably aren’t enough to justify upgrading from your current Apple Watch if it’s only a few years old, like my Series 5, which I’m still happily rocking. But, if your current Apple Watch is a little older and is feeling sluggish, or maybe you’ve been pining for its newer health-tracking features, then the new Watch 9 may offer enough of an upgrade this year to be worth the switch.
Who Is the Series 9 For?
Going back and forth between these between the Series 9 and Series 5, I certainly noticed the extra snappiness, the increased brightness outdoors, and enjoyed dabbling with some of my new health metrics. But unsurprisingly, I wasn’t blown away. Then again, I primarily use my current Apple Watch Series 5 as an extension of my phone: a more convenient way to receive my notifications and track my workouts.
But I didn’t buy this watch for myself, instead, it was for my partner, who, after six years as an Android user, has finally made the switch back to Apple.
In addition to those struggling with their existing Apple watches or those who love having the latest and best health tracking, the new Series 9 is perfect for those jumping into the Apple ecosystem for the first time.
New Colors, Faster Processing, and Future Updates
The stainless steel can be purchased in graphite, gold, and silver, while the aluminum case offers five colors, with the same midnight, starlight, silver, and Product Red options available on previous versions, along with a new color: light pink.
The Series 9 uses a brighter 2,000-nit always-on-display that can dim to just 1-nit, making it more readable in direct sunlight, but also less jarring to use in the middle of the night. If you’ve ever had a late-night notification on your watch or an accidental press that results in waking you up, you’ll appreciate this.
Inside, the Series 9 uses the new Apple S9 processor with a quad-core Neural Engine that enables on-device processing twice as fast as its predecessors. The Series 9 also includes the second-generation Ultra Wideband chip (UW2), granting better integration for playing music on HomePod or finding your iPhone or Apple devices using Precision Finding. Just as before, it will give haptic and audible feedback, but new for this year, you will also get a visual indication as you get closer, making it easier than ever to find your phone under your sofa, in your bedsheets, or as I embarrassingly have done before, in your fridge.
The catch? You need to have it paired with an iPhone 15 that also features the newer U2 chip. Of course, Apple wants us to upgrade all of our devices each year, but as I shared inmy review of the iPhone 15 Pro, many of the iPhone 15 Series' new features are targeted toward content creators and probably aren’t worth the upgrade if your phone is only a few years old. It’ll be interesting to see how this trend plays out and if the latest features will also require pairing with the latest iPhone. Let’s hope not.
Beyond being a better tool to find your other devices, the Series 9 is also more useful on its own.
One of the biggest advantages of the new processor is that it finally supports on-device Siri responses. Previous generations relied on a Wi-Fi connection or being paired with your smartphone to process most requests. Even with the most basic prompts, this often made using Siri slow, unreliable, and oftentimes it would just fail completely. I’d frequently have to reach for my phone instead to process the same request.
Of course, any question or request that would require Siri to access the internet or information not already available on your watch still needs to be processed by connecting to your phone, querying the Internet, and then sent back to the watch. However, the uses for on-device processing can be plentiful. Now Siri can start a timer, a workout, or calculate conversions without lag or wait time. There is a noticeable upgrade to its processing, especially when compared to an older version like my Watch 5.
That isn’t the only difference either, as Apple also claims that Siri’s dictation has improved by up to 25%, resulting in more reliable communication with your virtual assistant.
Accessing your Health data has also experienced a huge improvement, as Siri can answer various health and wellness questions with responses based on the information in your Health app. Users can ask how many hours of sleep they got, what their blood oxygen level is, or ask to measure their heart rate. Each request will bring up the associated Health app and last reported measurement for quick access and detailed monitoring which can help those focusing on health improvement.
Tied in with this, the Series 9 will be able to directly log new inputs like changes in weight, data for period tracking, and medications they’ve taken for the day. However, these features are not currently available, and are planned to be released via a software update later this year. This was a major draw for my partner, a registered nurse, who is always interested in the latest healthcare technology and how it can be used to improve holistic wellness for users.
In truth, Siri still needs lots of work and feels several years behind Google and Alexa, but at least now, the Apple Watch feels like it can operate more independently of your phone.
New Gestures (Sort Of)
If you’ve heard anything about the Series 9, it’s probably Double Tap. But unlike the usual double tap on-screen that we’re already used to, this uses just your fingers, allowing users to interact with their watch screen without touching it. Sound familiar?
Leading up to the 2024 release of the Apple Vision Pro for an eye-watering $3499, the Apple Watch Series 9 gives us a taste of the future for UI interactions, and if Apple plays its cards right, an itch for more.
By tapping your index finger and thumb together, you can control the Apple Watch Series 9 watch one-handed. This includes answering calls, opening or dismissing notifications, playing music, and scrolling through and selecting quick responses to a text message. While this innovation impressed many of those watching, it made some others wonder: “Doesn’t my watch already do that?”
It’s true—hand gesture controls have been around for some time now since WatchOS 8 via an accessibility setting called AssistiveTouch. When enabled, this gives you the ability to use a “double pinch”, “fist clenched”, and “double fist clenched” gesture to control tasks in the Apple Watch. It’s something that we’ve tried before when it was first announced, though unless we truly didn’t have access to our second hand, we found using traditional-screen controls and button presses to be much more convenient for the most part.
With that said, The Series 9’s new Double Tap takes AssistiveTouch to the next level. Double Tap will interact more intuitively within the Apple Watch, acting as the primary button in an app, opening and scrolling through widgets, and selecting specific actions with precise control. While AssistiveTouch can play a similar role to this feature, it doesn’t allow for as much variety to the control as the user has with a single gesture. Each movement can be paired with one action, such as one pinch to go forward, a clench to go backward, and a double pinch that acts as a tap. It’s often slow, would frequently misregister touches, and can only perform those actions no matter which app you currently have opened.
If you are looking for a way to answer calls, dismiss notifications, and hit the snooze button, you can still do all that just by turning on AssitiveTouch. But if you are looking for a better one-handed experience that changes how you interact within your apps, closer to what we saw unveiled for the Vision Pro, then the Double Tap feature will be a worthy upgrade for you…when it comes out.
Just as with the Health app integration, Double Tap will be available with the release of the watchOS 10.1 update, planned later this year. Although it isn’t unusual for Apple to reveal new features that aren’t released on day one with a new product launch, with Double Tap being one of the Series 9’s big new upgrades, it does have us wondering how much we will be using this new feature when it finally gets added in. For now, we can’t answer that.
Maybe the Last Minor Update Before X
The Apple Watch Series 9 may not be exciting enough to warrant upgrading if your current Apple Watch runs just fine, but if you want faster on-device responses, better health data, and a taste of Apple’s future, then the Series 9 doesn’t disappoint. Rumors are already swirling around the Apple Watch X and the changes that will be introduced for the wearable’s 10th birthday.
So this may be your final chance to get an updated device, while still being able to use the same bands and accessories from older generations. According to outside publications and analysts, Apple is experimenting with magnetic bands, smaller bezels, and a microLED display for a major overhaul of the current iteration. Despite the 9’s new features, for many users, it’s probably worth waiting to see exactly what the X brings.
