The Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 are getting a big chip upgrade

If you plan on picking up a new Apple Watch Ultra 2 or Apple Watch Series 9 when they arrive later this year you're going to be in for a good time, it seems. Because for the first time in years, these new watches are going to have an upgraded chip that should make them much faster to use.

That speed improvement will hopefully ensure that apps load more quickly and data refreshes with fewer hiccups than can be the case on other Apple Watches. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, writing in the weekly Power On newsletter, reports that both new Apple Watches announced this year will use a new S9 chip, and it'll actually be new this time.

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While Apple has increased the number of its S-series Apple Watch chips every year, the last time there was a notable speed increase was right back in 2020 with the S6 inside the Apple Watch Series 6. Since then Apple has made minor changes to the chip without improving performance noticeably. Gurman says that will change this year and that we should look forward to a sizable performance bump thanks to the upgraded S9.

Unfortunately, Gurman didn't go into details about what those performance increases are likely to mean for users nor did he say what makes the new chip different from older silicon. But given the fact that Apple Watch chips haven't changed that much in the last couple of years, we've high hopes that Apple has something up its sleeve.

Apple is expected to announce the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and Apple Watch Series 9 during an event in September. That's also when we expect it to announce the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. After that, new iPads and even new Macs could round out the year before we move into 2024.

As for other tidbits about Apple's new watches, little is already known about what we can expect in terms of improvements. We do know that they'll all run watchOS 10 of course, and that software is now available in beta form for those who wear Apple Watches today. We expect the software to be made available publicly in September, likely around the same time that iOS 17, iPadOS 17, macOS Sonoma, and tvOS 17 will also be released after their own beta programs. Those programs are running right now with developer and public access available for those who want to help Apple iron out the kinks.