But as I said at the top of this review, it’s what you can’t see that might make the biggest day-to-day difference. The Series 6 uses the new S6 chip, whose dual-core processor is similar to the A13 Bionic chip inside the iPhone 11 and Apple claims it’s 20 percent faster than last year’s S5. Valentina, who has a Series 5 and was able to do side-by-side testing, confirms that the Series 6 is indeed speedier, not just for app launches, but swiping through watch faces as well. 

The watch is also more energy efficient than last year, which explains why it can have a display that’s 2.5 times brighter, without any hit to battery life. In fact, Apple is claiming slightly longer battery life: an extra hour of audio (locally stored music) or an extra hour of workout tracking. All told, you’re looking at up to 11 hours of audio or indoor workouts (up to seven hours outdoors with GPS, and six if you use LTE). In one typical day, I had 61 percent left after about an 11-hour stretch of working from home with a roughly 35-minute run somewhere in between. 

In addition to the longer battery life, Apple is promising faster charging: from zero to 80 percent in 60 minutes, and a full charge in 90 minutes. That’s at least a 33 percent (30-minute) improvement over the Series 5. In one of my charging tests, I saw a 51 percent increase after a timed half-hour of charging.

Rounding out the list, the Series 6 has a U1 chip that supports 5GHz WiFI (as opposed to just 2.4GHz bands). The U1 also brings ultrawideband antennas (UWB), an automotive industry standard that allows you to lock and unlock your car with your watch. Lastly, while the Apple Watch has had an altimeter since the Series 3, it’s now always-on, and there’s a new complication to match.

Apple didn’t promise any improvements to the GPS, but run tracking seemed ever so slightly more accurate. It’s possible the company quietly tweaked its algorithm or that the new always-on altimeter gives the watch a more complete picture of your location.

watchOS 7

Mat Smith/Engadget

With the exception of those few hardware changes, most of what makes the Series 6 feel different is watchOS 7 which will actually run on watches as old as the Series 3. But, keep in mind, you also need a device running iOS 14, which itself requires an iPhone 6s or newer.

One of the more timely new features is a handwashing timer, which when it detects particular hand motions and the sound of running water automatically starts a 20-second countdown. 

 You’ll feel a haptic tick both when the timer starts and ends. Cleverly, the countdown pauses if you prematurely stop washing your hands, meaning you can’t just space out for 20 seconds while the faucet runs. I did notice at times that the effort didn’t always “count” if I was washing the back of my hands, though. 

The handwashing feature is disabled by fault; you’ll need to turn it on in the Apple Watch app. If it turns out you like it, you can also enable reminders if you’ve gone several hours without washing your hands.

Valentina Palladino/Engadget

Also new in watchOS 7 is a long-requested sleep tracking feature. Unfortunately it’s pretty useless. While the watch has some awareness of how long you were in bed and unconscious, there’s no data on the quality of your slumber — nothing on how much deep, dreamy sleep you got versus a light doze. As my colleague Cherlynn Low noted in her Watch SE review, Fitbit and Samsung have a leg up on Apple here, and use heart rate data to map out the user’s sleep cycle. It’s a shame, too, because the watch itself is surprisingly comfortable to wear to bed.

It seems Apple instead used its resources to build out so-called wind-down and wake-up routines. Using the Health app, you can set goals, like how much sleep you want, or when you’d like to get in bed each night. Dig deeper into the settings and you can decide to have your phone automatically enter sleep mode and turn on Do Not Disturb when Wind Down time begins. Additionally, you can opt to still show the time on your phone and watch during sleep mode and, separately, opt into sleep reminders. 

If you set a wake-up alarm, you’ll hear a more gentle sound by default and feel a haptic buzz — that’s mostly for your sake, but also potentially your bedmate. I found it was a little too easy to set an alarm for each day of the week all at once (hello, 7am Saturday wake-up call!) and a tad difficult to delete one for a day other than today.

Valentina Palladino/Engadget

Other watchOS 7 features include Family Setup and face sharing. No, not your actual face, but the ability to share watch faces you like through Mail and Messages. Speaking of, watchOS 7 keeps with tradition by ushering in some new watch faces, including Stripes, Typograph and the pretty Artist face, my new personal favorite. You might also enjoy the animated Memoji face, which lets you choose between tons of standard characters — a cat, dog, alien, pig, unicorn, ghost, pile of poo, and so many more. Or you can select whatever personalized avatars you already had on your phone. Meanwhile, Count Up, GMT Chronograph Pro each rock an old-school analog look. Lastly, you’ll also find new color filters in the Photos face, while new complications include Shortcuts and Sleep. 

Most of these faces can be installed on devices as old as the Apple Watch Series 4, though Stripes goes all the way back to Series 3.

On the fitness side, there are four new workout types: dance, functional strength training, core training and “Cooldown.” You can also look up cycling directions in the maps app. Then there are all the health and safety features already offered in previous Apple Watches, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) test, menstrual cycle tracking, emergency SOS, emergency international calling, fall detection and a hearing health feature to monitor exposure to dangerously loud decibel levels. 

What’s yet to come

If watchOS 7 feels like a modest update, it’s worth noting that some of the most ambitious features are yet to come. Apple plans to add alerts for when it detects low VO2 Max (aka a low cardiorespiratory fitness level). Additionally, later this year, Apple will launch Fitness+, a Peloton-like subscription service offering workouts and classes for $10 a month or $80 a year. You’re meant to follow along with the program on your iPhone, iPad or Apple TV, but the watch itself does the necessary tracking. (The service will work on watches as old as the Series 3.)

The competition

Stacking up the Apple Watch against competing smartwatches from Fitbit and Samsung always feels fruitless: The Apple Watch is clearly the best option for iOS users. You’ll need an iPhone to use it, that goes without saying. And assuming you do, the Apple Watch will feel more deeply integrated with the rest of your experience than, say, the $400 Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 or $330 Fitbit Sense, both of which offer more features to Android users. 

You could purchase either watch, and I would even go so far as to suggest that if sleep tracking matters, you’ll get more out of the Sense. Setting aside that specific use case, though, why would you spend $400 on a gadget if some features were restricted off the bat? That’s not to discount what Samsung and Fitbit have to offer, but they’re at their best when catering to Android users, a group Apple isn’t even bothering to court. 

Wrap-up

Mat Smith/Engadget

If you’re an iOS user choosing between three Apple Watches — the $199 Series 3, the $279 Apple Watch and the $399 Series 6 — let me make this easy. No one should buy the Series 3; it’s too slow and won’t be eligible for watchOS upgrades for much longer. The Watch SE isn’t a bad choice (our score of 88 should make that clear), but it’s best as a first-time watch for, uh, the watch-curious. I also expect a lot of people to buy it as a gift this holiday season. 

If you’re shopping for yourself, however, and you can afford it, I’d recommend the Series 6. Not because I think you need a blood oxygen sensor, but because if you’re going to be using this watch for years to come, choose the one that’s noticeably faster and quicker to charge. The Series 6 is also the only one of the three with an ECG test — a more essential health tracking tool than even the blood oxygen sensor.

I’d argue, too, that its GPS tracking seems more accurate, even if Apple isn’t claiming any changes there. The things I like best about the Series 6 are generally not visible, and not necessarily the things I think Apple wanted to showcase at its recent launch event. That doesn’t make for the most exciting unboxing experience, but it definitely makes for a smart purchase.