watchOS End of Life (EOL) Dates & Support Timeline
Complete end-of-life dates, support windows, and security status for all watchOS versions. Data sourced from endoflife.date and official vendor documentation. Updated at every deploy.
watchOS 27 is supported, with no end-of-life or end-of-support date announced yet. 10 of 11 tracked watchOS versions are past end of life; the most recent to reach it, 26, did so on September 14, 2026. The full watchOS lifecycle, with every version's release and end-of-support date, is in the table below.
| Version | Latest Release | Release Date | EOL Date | Days | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 3.2.3 | Sep 13, 2016 | Sep 19, 2017 | 3292 days past EOL | EOL |
| 4 | 4.3.2 | Sep 19, 2017 | Sep 17, 2018 | 2929 days past EOL | EOL |
| 5 | 5.3.10 | Sep 17, 2018 | Sep 19, 2019 | 2562 days past EOL | EOL |
| 6 | 6.3.1 | Sep 19, 2019 | Sep 16, 2020 | 2199 days past EOL | EOL |
| 7 | 7.6.2 | Sep 16, 2020 | Sep 20, 2021 | 1830 days past EOL | EOL |
| 8 | 8.8.2 | Sep 20, 2021 | Sep 12, 2022 | 1473 days past EOL | EOL |
| 9 | 9.6.4 | Sep 12, 2022 | Sep 18, 2023 | 1102 days past EOL | EOL |
| 10 | 10.6.2 | Sep 18, 2023 | Sep 16, 2024 | 738 days past EOL | EOL |
| 11 | 11.6.2 | Sep 16, 2024 | Sep 15, 2025 | 374 days past EOL | EOL |
| 26 | 26.6 | Sep 15, 2025 | Sep 14, 2026 | 10 days past EOL | EOL |
| 27 | 27.0.1 | Sep 14, 2026 | TBD | Supported | Active |
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[](https://endoflife.ai/watchos)
watchOS release and support pattern
Across the 11 release lines with a published release date, watchOS has shipped a new line roughly every 1 year (median interval). A line typically stays supported for about 1 year from its release to its end-of-life date (measured on the 10 lines with both dates published).
Of the 11 release lines tracked, 10 are past end of life and 1 is still within support. The newest line, 27, was released September 14, 2026. No end-of-life date is currently published for the 1 supported line.
Computed from the tracked release data at every build — the figures above are the dates in the table, restated, not an editorial estimate.
watchOS security intelligence
CISA KEV history: watchOS is named in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog 5 times, most recently on 2023-09-11. Derived from CISA's live catalog at every build.
What does watchOS end of life mean for your organization?
When a version of watchOS reaches end of life, the maintainers stop issuing security patches. Vulnerabilities discovered after this date are publicly disclosed on the National Vulnerability Database, exploit code appears on GitHub, and your systems remain permanently exposed.
The CVE blind spot: A CVE-based scan does not show the accumulation of unpatched vulnerabilities in EOL software. Some scanners flag unsupported versions of common products, but coverage varies, and none of them give you the date in advance. With a zero-day, nobody knows about the vulnerability. With EOL software, the vulnerability is public — listed, rated, and often weaponized — but no vendor patch is coming. This is one of the most dangerous gaps in enterprise security posture.
Organizations running EOL watchOS should treat it as a vulnerability class in their risk register, apply compensating controls (network segmentation, enhanced monitoring, access restriction), and prioritize migration to a supported version.
Your options when watchOS reaches end of life
There are four realistic paths. Which one is right depends far more on how long the system needs to keep running than on the version you are on today.
| Option | Best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Move to a supported version | The system will outlive the current version's support window and you can schedule the work | Budget for compatibility testing, not just the upgrade itself — that is where the real cost sits |
| Replace the component | The project is unmaintained, or a better-supported alternative exists | The replacement has its own lifecycle and its own end-of-life date — you are changing vendors, not escaping the problem |
| Commercial extended support | Not available for watchOS from the original maintainer | Third-party vendors patch some end-of-life software on a custom basis; availability depends on the specific version and source access |
| Document accepted risk | The system is isolated, short-lived, or scheduled for retirement | Only defensible with real compensating controls and a written decision — auditors treat undocumented end-of-life software as a finding |
How to choose, in one question: how many more years does this system need to run? Under a year, extended support (where it exists) is usually cheaper than an emergency migration. One to three years, migrate — support purchased repeatedly costs more than doing the project once, and the project only gets harder as the version ages. Indefinitely, migrate now and plan the next migration before it surprises you.
Worth saying plainly, because vendors selling extended support rarely will: extended support is often the more expensive choice over a multi-year horizon. It is the right answer when a deadline is genuinely unreachable, not as a default. Compare the annual fee against the one-time cost of migrating before committing to either.
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