Apple Watch Series 12 adds a Steps complication to the watch face, and Apple is claiming the watch now has the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch. Both the complication and the accuracy claim also apply to the Apple Watch Ultra 4, announced the same day.
Step counts have long been available in the Health app and the Activity app, but Apple has not offered a dedicated first-party Steps complication until now, so glancing at a daily total meant opening an app or using a third-party face widget. Our Series 12 preview covers what was expected before the keynote, and our event recap has everything else Apple announced.
What the new Steps complication does
Apple describes the Steps complication as a new addition alongside the Readiness score and the daytime vitals view. It puts the running step count on the watch face, in the same way the Activity rings or heart rate complications do today.
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Apple has not published which watch faces support it, whether it shows a goal or a plain count, or whether it comes to older watches through watchOS 27. The update lands on Monday, September 14, and supports Series 9 and later, SE 3 and Ultra 2 and later, but Apple’s release ties the Steps complication to the new hardware.
Apple’s step accuracy claim, and what backs it up
Apple’s wording is that Series 12 and Ultra 4 offer the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch. Unlike the heart rate claim, which Apple attributes to a study of more than 1,000 participants run in July and August 2026, the step claim comes with no study details in the release.
| Claim | Evidence Apple has published |
|---|---|
| Most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable | Study of more than 1,000 participants, July to August 2026, versus leading competitors |
| Most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch | No study, method or competitor list published |
Apple also has not said whether the step improvement comes from new motion hardware, the S11 chip or software. The release lists new optical and electrical heart sensors and larger green LEDs as the sensor changes, and none of those measure steps.
What is new in the wider Health Sensing System
- Heart rate measured every 5 seconds all day
- HRV measured every 5 minutes, 24 times more often than before, split into Recovery HRV and overall HRV
- A daytime vitals view, with overnight vitals compared against a personal Recovery HRV baseline
- Readiness score from 0 to 10 with four recommendations, updated during the day
- Steps complication on the watch face
Steps also feed the new Health app’s Longevity tab, where movement health is one of seven categories, though Apple has not said how step data is weighted there.
Series 12 starts at $399 and Ultra 4 at $799, with pre-orders open today, September 9, and store availability on Friday, September 18. Apple has not said whether it will publish the methodology behind the step accuracy claim, and it has not named the competitors it compared against.
