WatchOS 27 Drops Apple Watch Series 6 Through Ultra 1

Apple’s explanation for the watchOS 27 support cutoff is straightforward enough: the new Siri AI features require processing power that older chips simply cannot deliver. What the company is less eager to frame plainly is the scale of the drop. The Apple Watch Series 6, 7, 8, SE 2, and original Apple Watch Ultra are all out, meaning Apple has cut three years of hardware support in a single software cycle, something that has no precedent in the product’s history.

Cait Dooley, Apple Watch and Health product marketing manager, told TechRadar that performance requirements drove the decision. “We always want to ensure that you have the best experience, so we make power and performance a priority,” she said, adding that the new Siri AI capabilities and the tap gesture work best with the silicon inside the Series 9, Ultra 2, and SE 3 or later. Owners of older watches paired with a current iPhone will keep working and receive security updates, but that is the extent of the commitment.

The Siri angle Apple is actually selling

David Clark, senior director of watchOS software engineering, framed the real ambition behind the cutoff: making the watch a “true co-partner to Apple Intelligence.” The goal is a consistent Siri experience across devices, where a question asked on the wrist and a follow-up on the iPhone feel like one continuous interaction rather than two separate assistants.

Clark’s example was grocery shopping: ask Siri on the watch for a recipe’s ingredients while both hands are full, then pull up the same list in a more readable format on the iPhone later. He called that handoff a “superpower,” which is the kind of language Apple uses when it wants the feature to do heavy lifting in the press cycle.

Whether the Siri AI tier structure holds up to scrutiny over time remains an open question. watchOS 27 is in developer beta now, with a public beta expected next month and an official release in the fall.