No watchOS 5 For Original Apple Watch - Even The $17k One

The original Apple Watch is officially in its final days. During its WWDC 2018 keynote today, Apple took the wraps off watchOS 5 and all the great features customers can expect. There's a lot to be excited about — robust fitness and health tracking, podcasts, and more. However, none of these things will be available on the original Apple Watch, which isn't in the pipeline to get watchOS 5.

Apple has released updated iterations of the Apple Watch since the original model's arrival in 2015, but the first model is still on many wrists. That makes Apple's recent disclosure disappointing: "watchOS 5 will not be available on the original Apple Watch," the company says.

Apple will be releasing watchOS 5 this fall as a free update, but you'll need at least the Apple Watch Series 1 model to get it. Yes, that means the ultra-expensive luxury original Apple Watch models are soon going to be legacy devices. Remember the $10,000 gold and $17,000 18-karat Rose Gold models? Those, too, are nearing their end.

What kind of features will original Apple Watch owners miss out on? There's the new workout modes, Yoga and Hiking, plus the ability to automatically detect when a workout starts and ends. As well, Apple is adding a Walkie-Talkie mode to the Apple Watch, which is exactly what it sounds like, plus its Podcasts app for mobile listening with AirPods. You can find all the details here.

SOURCE: Apple Newsroom