At first, I couldn’t believe what I was reading. So I checked on Apple’s site and it’s true, unfortunately. And I got the fancier series 9 three years ago because I thought it would be more future-proof…
This is bonkers to me. I just sold my series 5 and was contemplating if I should get a used Ultra. This makes it easy to avoid Apple Watch altogether 
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That is really annoying. the 9 is only nearly 2.5 years old.
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I paid Apple to replace the battery of my Series 7 Cellular last summer…
Does iOS (27) allow pairing with watches with an older watchOS (26)?
(I don’t need new features)
I don’t believe you can future-proof tech. So I make purchases based on what I think I will need for the next three years.
I bought two Apple Watch SE’s (one to give as a gift) and Apple dropped support less than two years later. I still wear mine for notifications and when it finally dies, I’ll probably purchase the least expensive AW available to replace it. Right now I’m thinking about purchasing a $99 Fitbit for health/sleep tracking.
I have an iPhone 16P, an M2 iPad Air, and an M4 MacBook Air. Apple AI looks promising and I plan to use it as much as possible. But I am a Google Workspace user so I will continue to use Gmail, Google Calendar, & Contacts, etc. as my primary source of data. Which will allow me to use whichever AI feature does the best job and/or is supported on my existing hardware.
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I bought the first generation iPad late 2010. It came with iOS4. It only got one upgrade, iOS5 in 2011, before being dropped. That completely soured me on iPads. Of course that first gen one was really sad.
This is surprising, especially since iOS 27 support goes back to the iPhone 11. I expect Apple will get a lot of pushback on this…and maybe they’ll reverse course and figure out a way to provide at least limited iOS 27 support for older Apple Watches.
p.s. I have a Series 10, so fortunately I’m covered either way.
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Yet to be seen, but my son is using a watch whose OS support ended maybe 2 years ago and his iPhone is running iOS 26. He got the watch (hand-me-down) after support ended, so he paired it to an up level phone.
Apparently the Series 9 was left off by mistake:
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FWIW. I do not have any apps installed on my Apple Watch SE, running watchOS 10.6.2, but it still works with my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 26.5.
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I really hope there are features waiting to be announced alongside new watch hardware in September that help justify this…
I’m still happy with a 2018 Series 4. It gets daily use from morning to evening including a 1-2 hour workout then get’s charged while I sleep. Do I miss the new features? NOPE. I don’t even know what they are. I just know that this watch still shows me the time and tracks my calories, exercise, etc with no problem.
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I still have my Ultra 1 and still love it. This is my 4th Apple watch starting with the Series 0 that I ordered in the middle of the night on announcement day. I like the on watch blood oxygen level which is not available on the Series 2 or 3. I have no good reason to replace this watch! I guess I’ll have to live with an older OS-As long as it syncs with my phone running iOS 27 I’ll be just fine until the Ultra 4 or 5 arrives with some new killer must have feature.
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I saw someone on Mastodon lambasting Apple for not caring about the environment by cutting off the Series 9 watch.
Meanwhile… the phone I kept for 5 years, that was replaced by the phone I have so far kept for 2 years… is still supported.
Meanwhile, Series 8 users, you’re up!
My Series 7, which I’ve had for just over 4 years, has had a pretty good run. Won’t get updates going forward and battery health is at 78%. Was toying with getting a Series 11 as John Lewis in the UK regularly knocks £70 (17.5%) off it, but I just don’t see any compelling reason to update. Net of trade in, that would be £285 to start on the next cycle. Assuming another 4 years (big assumption after yesterday), £70 a year for a watch does seem a bit mad when I stand back and look at it. Oh and it’s £95 for a battery replacement for a soon to be no-longer-supported watch! 
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I like that (as I have an AW 9 I’m hoping to relegate to my night watch in September), but the Series 8 was still for sale in August 2023, 3 years of support is still really poor.
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Bummer for me, as I have an original Ultra. I don’t care about missing out on the features but want to make sure it is still compatible with the few apps I use on it.
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If I’d dropped £700 on a watch 3 years ago and it was deprecated, I’d be VERY annoyed.
I was considering buying the new AWUltra4 in September, but this gives me pause to err towards the AW12