Apple Watch SE 3 sells for $249 and Apple Watch Series 11 arrived in September 2025 at $399, and Apple lists the same S10 chip in both. What the extra $150 bought was a larger and much brighter display, six more hours of rated battery life and two heart sensors the SE does not have.
The question is live because Apple’s watch lineup shrank on September 9. Apple now sells three watches, SE 3 from $249, Apple Watch Series 12 from $399 and Apple Watch Ultra 4 from $799, and the Series 11 store page no longer loads.
Key facts
| Item | Apple Watch SE 3 | Apple Watch Series 11 |
|---|---|---|
| Price | From $249 at Apple | $399 at launch, no longer sold by Apple |
| Chip | S10 | S10 |
| Case sizes | 40mm, 44mm | 42mm, 46mm |
| Peak brightness | Up to 1000 nits | Up to 2000 nits |
| Battery, normal use | Up to 18 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Electrical heart sensor | Not listed | Yes |
| Blood Oxygen sensor | Not listed | Yes |
| watchOS 27 | Yes | Yes |
The two sensors SE 3 does not have
Apple’s SE 3 tech specs list an optical heart sensor, a temperature sensor, a compass, an always-on altimeter, an ambient light sensor and 64GB of storage. They do not list an electrical heart sensor or a Blood Oxygen sensor, and the Series 11 sheet lists both.
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In plain terms, the ECG app and Blood Oxygen readings are the Series feature set, not the SE feature set. The temperature sensor is the one the SE did gain in 2025, because the second-generation SE it replaced had none.
Everything driven by the optical sensor and the accelerometer carries over: workouts, heart rate notifications, fall and crash detection, sleep tracking and Apple Pay all sit on both watches.
Display, size and weight
Series 11 is the physically bigger watch in both of its sizes: 42mm and 46mm cases against 40mm and 44mm on SE 3. Apple lists SE 3 at 40 x 34 x 10.7 mm and 44 x 38 x 10.7 mm.
Brightness is the wider gap. Apple rates the SE 3 display at up to 1000 nits and Series 11 at up to 2000 nits, which is also the figure Apple gives the new Series 12. Both SE 3 and Series 11 keep an Always-On display.
SE 3 is the lighter watch. Apple lists 26.3 g for the 40mm GPS model and 32.9 g for the 44mm. For scale, the aluminum Series 12 is 32.2 g at 42mm and 39.5 g at 46mm, so the SE sits a size class below either Series case.
Battery, charging and the chip they share
| Measure | SE 3 | Series 11 | Series 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal use | Up to 18 hours | Up to 24 hours | Up to 24 hours |
| Low Power Mode | Up to 32 hours | Up to 38 hours | Up to 38 hours |
| Charge to 80 percent | About 45 minutes | About 30 minutes | About 30 minutes |
| 15-minute charge | Up to 8 hours | Up to 8 hours | Up to 12 hours |
| Chip | S10 | S10 | S11 |
The shared S10 is the reason SE 3 does not feel like a watch two generations behind. It is a 64-bit dual-core processor in both, with the same 64GB of storage, and both watches are on Apple’s watchOS 27 compatibility list.
That list, published with Apple’s September 14 software release, covers SE 3, Series 9, Series 10, Series 11, Series 12, Ultra 2, Ultra 3 and Ultra 4. A $249 watch and last year’s $399 watch are on the same line of it.
Can you still buy a Series 11?
Not from Apple. The Apple Store page for Series 11 returns an error, and the Apple Watch buy page now leads with Series 12 from $399. SE 3, which briefly went unavailable before the event, is back and still listed at $249.
Apple has published no reduced price for Series 11 and no trade-in value for it. Apple’s trade-in page asks condition questions rather than showing a dollar figure per model, so any number you see elsewhere is a value recorded by a third party, not an Apple quote.
What Apple has not said
Apple publishes only starting prices for the three watches it sells. There is no published list showing what a 44mm SE 3 costs, what cellular adds, or what the Series 12 titanium and ceramic cases cost, and band prices are not published either.
Apple has also not said how long Series 11 will keep receiving watchOS updates, or whether any 2025 model returns to the store at a lower price. The September 9 announcements covered the new watches only.
watchOS 27 arrives as a free update on Monday, September 14, on both of these watches. Series 12 and Ultra 4 reach stores on Friday, September 18, and SE 3 stays in the lineup at $249.
