Technical details of the Apple Watch Series 11, Watch Ultra 3, and Watch SE 3, which Apple will unveil alongside the iPhone 17 series in September, have begun to emerge. Details of the S11 chip to be used in the new watch models have been leaked. According to reports, the S11 processor will use the same architecture as its predecessor, the S10 chip, and will not offer users a direct performance increase.

The new Apple Watch processor may not be different

According to leaked technical documents, the S11 chip, like the S10, is based on the T8319 architecture. This indicates that Apple has been using the same basic processor architecture for two consecutive generations. The core architecture remained unchanged for the S6, S7, and S8 chips. The S9 and S10 chips, on the other hand, used a structure similar to the two Sawtooth performance cores found in the A16 Bionic processor in the iPhone 14 Pro.

The S10 chip featured a 64-bit dual-core processing architecture, a quad-core Neural Engine, second-generation UWB (Ultra Wide Band) technology, and support for 64GB of internal storage. In the Apple Watch Series 10, this chip was redesigned for a thinner profile. Apple allowed for flexibility in the arrangement of components within the watch by minimizing the chip’s footprint.

The S11 processor is reportedly expected to largely retain this architecture. Therefore, no speed increase or difference in AI capabilities is expected from the chip in the Series 11 and Watch Ultra 3 models. However, it is anticipated that Apple may offer some micro-level improvements to this chip in terms of efficiency, thermal management, or energy consumption.

According to reports, Apple is not making any major changes to the chip architecture this year. However, the S12 chip, scheduled for release in 2026, is expected to feature a new performance-focused microarchitecture. This reinforces the expectation of a more significant processor update in next year’s Apple Watch models.