Apple Watch Series 8

What’s new with the Apple Watch Series 8

The Apple Watch remains one of the most popular smartwatches you can strap on your wrist. It still only works within Apple’s ecosystem, and pairs especially well with the iPhone to deliver the integration and features that make it so effective. The Series 8 is the latest model to bring that combination together for your health and fitness goals.

It takes many of the design elements from the Series 7, coming in the same 41mm and 45mm sizes. New watch faces also became available with the watchOS 9 update, along with an app to track medications so you or loved ones can stay compliant with the right dosage and schedule. The app will allow sharing medication history with family members or friends and ensure privacy all at once.

The new Series 8 comes with two skin temperature sensors. One is underneath the watch making contact with the skin on your wrist, while the other sits right below the screen. These two sensors work together to track your body temperature, taking readings consistently while sleeping to look for any abnormal levels, possibly warning you if you’re coming down with a fever.*

The new Apple Watch Series 8 will get a boost in battery life through a new Low Power Mode like the one first introduced with the iPhone. When you turn it on, it can extend battery life to 36 hours from the usual 18 hours, taking various measures to conserve power while using the watch.**

Women’s health tracking

The Apple Watch has offered tracking features for menstrual cycles, and the new skin temperature sensor expands that further. It will use the data the sensor collects to look for anything that might be off about each cycle. The sensor takes a reading on the wrist every five seconds overnight during sleep to find any irregularities. These features also help create retrospective ovulation estimates.***

With the latest features in watchOS 9 and iOS 16, Apple’s Health app can notify you if the data indicates that something isn’t right with every period. If a normal cycle is off, it could be a sign of a health condition or a benign reason.

Apple also wants to keep these details private, and uses end-to-end encryption to keep it away from everyone else, including Apple itself. Only you can see it, and only you can choose what data you want to back up on iCloud.

Detecting a car crash

Apple also equipped the Apple Watch Series 8 with another sensor to detect when you’ve been in a collision while driving. Crash Detection can activate when it senses a hard impact or change in air pressure, like when an airbag goes off. The microphone can also hear the crash and set safety features in motion.

In the event of a collision, the watch will ask if you want to call first responders, and if there is no response, it will make the call itself after a short period of silence. This works with both the Bluetooth and LTE versions of the Series 8, where the former makes the call through your iPhone, while the latter can call entirely on its own.

Product Disclaimer

*The temperature sensing feature is not a medical device and not intended for use in medical diagnosis, treatment or for any other medical purpose.

**Power and Battery: Battery life varies by use and configuration. See apple.com/ca/batteries for more information.

***Cycle Tracking: The Cycle Tracking app is not intended for use in medical diagnosis, treatment, or any other medical purpose, including as a form of birth control or to support conception.