watchOS 10.5, watchOS 10.6 & watchOS 11: What’s Next for Watch

With a new watchOS 10 update in beta testing and rumors about watchOS 10’s successor swirling, we felt it would be helpful to put together a watchOS release timeline for Apple Watch users.

Since watchOS 10’s release back in September, Apple’s pushed numerous upgrades to the operating system and owners of compatible Apple Watch models.

The most recent upgrade, watchOS 10.4, is a milestone upgrade for the operating system. It brought new features, fixes, and patches to Apple Watch 4 and others.

Apple isn’t stopping there. We’ll see a lot more watchOS software roll out in 2024. Apple Watch users can expect a mix of point updates (watchOS x.x.x) and milestone (watchOS x.x) firmware.

Thanks to leaks, Apple’s beta program, and many years of experience covering software, we have a pretty good read on what you can expect on the watchOS 10 front. We’ve also a bit about watchOS 10’s successor, presumably called watchOS 11.

So, if you’ve been curious about what’s in Apple’s pipeline for your Watch model, here’s a quick look at what’s coming next for the device.

This guide will take you through known features, release dates, and betas. It will also lead you through the unknown so you can set proper expectations.

watchOS 10.5

Apple’s put a new watchOS 10.5 update into beta testing. Developers and those enrolled in the Beta Software Program can test it out right now.

The company hasn’t confirmed the software’s release date, but we expect it to get deployed to compatible Apple Watch models in May.

watchOS 10.6

If history repeats itself, and with Apple it typically does, we should see watchOS 10.6 land in beta testing shortly after watchOS 10.5’s release.

We expect watchOS 10.6 to stay in beta testing for several weeks before Apple pushes it to Watch users alongside iOS 17.6 for iPhone in July.

We may also see Apple release watchOS 10.7 though that release is murkier. The company didn’t release a watchOS 9.7 update last year though it did push watchOS 8.7 in 2022.

We may also see point upgrades arrive in between these milestone upgrades for watchOS 10.

watchOS 11

Apple’s working on the next version of watchOS, dubbed watchOS 11.

We’ve released a guide that covers everything there is to know right now about the Apple’s Watch’s next operating system, but here are the highlights:

• watchOS 11 will launch at WWDC 2024 in June.
• The first beta should arrive on June 10th.
• One Apple Watch model might miss watchOS 11
• watchOS 11 will likely be a minor upgrade for Apple Watch

That third piece is important in the context of this guide. The Apple Watch 4 is the device that will reportedly miss watchOS 10 and remain stuck on watchOS 10.

If this is true, we expect Apple to continue to support the device with new versions of watchOS 10. These updates will probably be sporadic, but they will deliver important security updates.