Apple Watch Series 12 adds sensing ring, Readiness scores, and on-device Audio Intelligence

Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 12 with a re-architected sensing system, new health features, and an "Audio Intelligence" suite, surprising observers with more updates than expected. The new watch features a ring of 12 lights for more accurate heart rate tracking, with sampling rates increased to measure HRV every five minutes. A new Readiness app provides daily scores from 0 to 10, while the redesigned Health app adds AI-generated summaries and a "health age" metric. Audio Intelligence processes sound locally in a "secure exclave," enabling features like Shazam improvements, sound alerts, Live Rewind transcripts, and Siri Recap summaries without storing audio. A Ceramic variant is also new.