Is the Apple Watch Series 11 Worth It: A 2,400-Word Answer to a Yes-or-No Question
2026-02-10 · BuyGetRewards Staid Staff
The Experiment
A member of the BuyGetRewards Editorial Staff wore the Apple Watch Series 11 (42mm) on the left wrist and the Apple Watch Series 10 on the right wrist for 21 consecutive days. The purpose was to determine whether the Series 11 justifies its existence. The secondary purpose was to see if anyone would notice. Three people noticed. Two asked if it was a medical situation.
What Changed Between Series 10 and 11
We will list the differences. This will not take long.
1. The S11 chip replaces the S10 chip. Apple states it is "faster." We opened the Settings app on both watches simultaneously. Both opened in under one second. We could not determine which opened first with the naked eye. We tried seventeen times.
2. Sleep apnea detection. The Series 11 can now detect sleep apnea. We asked the staff member if the watch detected any sleep apnea during the 21-day trial. The answer was no. We asked if they were relieved. They said they "hadn't really thought about it." We found this response appropriate.
3. Battery life is marginally improved. Apple claims "all-day battery life" for both models, which in practice means 18-22 hours depending on usage. The Series 11 consistently lasted 45 minutes to 1 hour longer than the Series 10. Over 21 days, this accumulated to approximately 15 additional hours of watch operation. We note this without enthusiasm.
What Did Not Change
The design. The display. The bands. The charging cable. The way it sits on your wrist. The notification sound. The feel of raising your wrist to check the time and seeing instead that someone has liked your photo on Instagram. The faint existential weight of wearing a computer on your body that knows your heart rate.
The Actual Question
"Is it worth it?" is not a question about the watch. It is a question about the buyer.
If you own a Series 9 or 10: No. The Editorial Staff cannot identify a single feature that would justify the upgrade. Your watch does everything this watch does, minus sleep apnea detection and 45 minutes of battery. If you are concerned about sleep apnea, consult a physician. They have more reliable equipment than your wrist.
If you own a Series 7 or 8: Maybe. The accumulated improvements across 3-4 generations — larger display, brighter always-on screen, crash detection, faster chip — begin to amount to something. Not something dramatic. Something incremental. Like the way a river erodes a stone: imperceptibly, but over sufficient time, the stone is different.
If you own a Series 4, 5, or 6: Yes, but not because the Series 11 is extraordinary. Because your watch is old and Apple has stopped issuing software updates for it, which means it will slowly become an increasingly expensive device for telling time, which is what watches did before 2015 and which was, by all accounts, sufficient.
If you own no Apple Watch: This is the interesting case.
The Case for a First Apple Watch
The Apple Watch does three things well:
1. Notifications on your wrist. You will check your phone less. We measured this. The staff member checked their phone an average of 47 times per day before the experiment and 31 times per day during it. A reduction of 34%. Whether this improved their quality of life is a philosophical question we are not equipped to answer.
2. Health tracking. Heart rate, steps, exercise minutes, sleep. The watch collects this data with quiet persistence. Whether you act on the data is your concern. The watch will not judge you. It will simply close your rings or not close your rings, and the little animations will play or not play, and you will feel a small dopamine response or you will not.
3. Apple Pay on your wrist. Convenient in the way that all minor conveniences are convenient: barely noticeable until absent, at which point mildly irritating.
The Price Analysis
The Apple Watch Series 11 42mm GPS starts at $399. The 46mm starts at $429.
We observed the following prices over the past 30 days:
- Apple.com: $399/$429 (unwavering, as is tradition)
- Amazon: $299-$349 for the 42mm, $329-$399 for the 46mm
- Best Buy: $329/$369 with intermittent $25 gift card offers
The lowest verified price for the 42mm: $299 on Amazon. This represents a 25% discount, which the Editorial Staff considers meaningful in a way that most Apple discounts are not.
The 46mm at $329 represents a 23.3% discount. We rounded neither figure because precision is a value we hold without irony.
Conclusion
The Apple Watch Series 11 is a good product. This is not a controversial statement. It tells time, tracks health, delivers notifications, and occasionally reminds you to stand up, which you should do regardless of whether a device instructs you to.
Buy it if: you don't own one and want one, or your current watch no longer receives updates.
Don't buy it if: you own a Series 9 or newer and are hoping to feel something when you open the box. You will feel the same thing you felt last time: a brief moment of appreciation for the packaging, followed by 45 minutes of setup, followed by the watch becoming invisible on your wrist within 72 hours.
The Apple Watch Series 11 is on our deals page at its current lowest verified price.
— The BuyGetRewards Editorial Staff
