The Apple Watch Series 11 Is Now Available. Should You Buy It?

Even though it’s only been since September 9 that Apple unveiled the Apple Watch Series 11, it’s felt like a particularly long stretch of waiting. You could pre-order the watch in the interim, but it wouldn’t land in any customer’s hands until launch day.

Launch day is today, September 19. You can now walk into an Apple store and leave with one on your wrist. Pre-orders will begin to ship out, and new orders online will dispatch ASAP. Every year, Apple releases a new Apple Watch. And every year, people want to know one thing: Is it worth it?

(opens in a new window)

Apple Watch Series 11 (opens in a new window)

Available at Apple

Buy Now (opens in a new window)

options, options everywhere

Available in both aluminum ($399) and titanium ($699), the Apple Watch Series 11 doesn’t upgrade its process over last year’s Series 10. Neither the form nor the dimensions change much. Battery life increases from 18 hours to 24 hours, though, a healthy upgrade.

Choosing the 46mm case over the 42mm case ups the price by $30 for the aluminum watch and $50 for the titanium watch. Adding 5G cellular connectivity, which is standard on the titanium version, adds another $100 to the aluminum watch. The Series 10 only supported a maximum of 4G LTE, so the new 5G compatibility is one of the few areas in which the new watch outmatches the older one.

While the titanium Series 11 comes with very tough, highly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, the aluminum Series 11’s glass is twice as resistant to scratches as the Series 10’s, according to Apple.

There are more straps available than I’m willing to list in a short article. Nobody would want to read something that looked like the ingredients section on a box of Pop-Tarts. There are rubber and textile straps available for no extra charge, and a stainless steel bracelet for an extra $100.

Apple is just as ready to indulge customization on the Series 11 as ever.

(opens in a new window)