Find out how to download and install watchOS 26 on your Apple Watch to use the new watch faces and experience all the latest features.
Apple announced watchOS 26 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 9th, 2025.
watchOS 26 adopts the same Liquid Glass design language as iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, and Apple TV, ensuring a consistent experience across all your Apple devices. Among other things, it also features a new Workout Buddy text-to-speech model to provide motivational pep talks during workouts. And you get the new Flow and Exactograph watch faces.
Supported models
watchOS 26 is compatible with Apple Watch Series 6 and later, including the Watch SE (2nd generation). Last year’s watchOS 11 also supported these devices.
What you need to do first
- Update your iPhone to iOS 26.
- You must have a Wi-Fi connection, as watchOS updates don’t download over the iPhone’s 5G or 4G connection, even after you instruct your iPhone to use more cellular data. Secondly, you can’t use Apple Watch’s own cellular data to download updates.
- Make sure you have at least 4 GB of free space on your Apple Watch.
- Get your Apple Watch charger, as you’ll need it to install the update.
Download and install watchOS 26 on your Apple Watch
Open the Watch app on your companion iPhone running iOS 26 and tap General > Software Update. Wait for the screen to load.
- To get non-beta watchOS 26: Tap the Download and Install button and follow along.
- To get watchOS 26 beta: Tap Beta Updates, select watchOS 26 Developer Beta or watchOS 26 Public Beta, and tap the back button to return to the previous screen.
Wait a few seconds for the new watchOS 26 Beta to show up, then tap Download and Install to get it on your Apple Watch
Pro-tip to install watchOS 26 quickly
After you follow the above steps, watchOS 26 will start downloading to your Apple Watch, but it piggybacks off your iPhone. Based on my own past experiences and what others have shared on social media, the update can sometimes take hours to download and install. So, to get a watchOS update quickly:
1) Follow the steps above to initiate the watchOS 26 developer beta update.
2) Then, go to Apple Watch Settings > General > Software Update, and make sure it says “watchOS 26.”
3) Then, navigate to Apple Watch Settings > Bluetooth, and turn off Bluetooth to disconnect your watch from your iPhone.
4) Restart your Apple Watch. After that, open Control Center by pressing the side button and ensure you see a tiny Wi-Fi icon at the top, indicating your watch is connected to Wi-Fi and not your iPhone.
5) Finally, go to Apple Watch Settings > General > Software Update and tap Download and Install. Your Apple Watch will download the new watchOS update directly over Wi-Fi, prepare it, and then install it (after you place it on the charger).
Check your watchOS 26 download progress
You can see the estimated time remaining right on the Software Update screen, but that doesn’t tell you how much of the update is downloaded. To get this information, go to Apple Watch Settings > General > Storage, and note the size of the watchOS 26 update file that’s currently downloaded. Visit this storage page regularly to monitor your progress.
The watchOS 26 file size for my Apple Watch Series 10 is around 2.8 GB. This may vary depending on your model.
If watchOS 26 doesn’t start installing
- Wait for the watchOS 26 update to download and prepare.
- Your Apple Watch can download and prepare the new watchOS update even when it isn’t charging. However, you must put it on the charger to install the software update.
- Go to Apple Watch Settings > General > Software Update or iPhone’s Watch app > General > Software Update and tap Install Now if you see it.
- Restart your Apple Watch and try updating it again.
If you don’t see the “Beta Updates” options
- Make sure your iPhone is running the latest version of iOS 26 beta.
- Restart both your iPhone and your Apple Watch and retry.
- Wait a few hours and try again.
Also, check out: How to install macOS Tahoe 26 on a different partition of your Mac