The Apple Watch Series 9 is here

iPHONE 15: What you need to know

Apple has just announced its Apple Watch Series 9 at its iPhone 15 event on Tuesday, the next iteration of its flagship wearable.

The new Apple Watch Series 9 brings with it new features thanks to an updated Apple silicon chip — the S9. This is the most powerful chip ever put into an Apple Watch thanks to 60% more transistors and a four-core Neural Engine.

Apple promises that the new Apple Watch is capable of running for up to 18 hours on a single charge, while that new chip also allows secure on-device processing of information including via Siri for the first time. The Apple Watch no longer needs to reach out to the cloud to get more information, speeding up Siri’s response times.

This new model also features an upgraded Find My capability, allowing for haptic and audio feedback when locating your iPhone for the first time. There’s more, too. The new Apple Watch has a fancy display that goes all the way to 2,000 nits for easier reading in the sunlight while a 1-nit low means it’s better for use in bed at night, too.

The new Apple Watch Series 9 will of course be powered by watchOS 10, software that will come to other devices later this month.

Perhaps the biggest new feature is a special gesture feature that is designed to help people do things when they don’t have a spare hand. Dubbed Double Tap, the feature lets you move your index finger and thumb to answer calls and more. It can also be used to scroll through widgets, interact with apps, and more.

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We’re covering all the Apple iPhone 15 event announcements live as they happen. Don’t miss all our iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Ultra 2, iOS 17and watchOS 10 coverage so far.