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Dan Bracaglia
23 September 2025
This is unexpected
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(Image credit: Dan Bracaglia/Tom’s Guide)
The biggest selling point of the new Apple Watch Series 11 is easily the upgraded battery life. All prior flagship Series models topped out at 18 hours per charge. The new model, however, is rated at 24 hours per charge.
Does the latest Apple Watch actually last that long? I decided to find out. My Apple Watch 11 review unit, in shiny, new Space Grey, just arrived over the weekend. As soon as I got it unboxed and charged up, I tossed the watch on my wrist and went about my day.
Exactly 24 hours later, I checked to see if the watch was still functioning, and if so, how much battery life remained. Here’s how the Apple Watch Series 11 battery life fared.
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Apple Watch Series 11 — 24-hour battery life test results
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Apple Watch 11 battery life
Header Cell – Column 0
Battery % used
24 hours of wearing w/ always-on display
71 minutes of GPS workout tracking
In my initial 24 hours wearing the new Apple Watch 11, I essentially went about my daily routine as scheduled, with chores, errands, lounging, and all. The test period started on a Sunday afternoon and finished toward the end of Monday’s workday.
In that time, I also tracked my sleep — which was only a pitiful five hours of actual rest — as well as a lovely 71-minute walk (9,210 steps). The GPS-tracked workout proved particularly battery-intensive, draining 11% of the charge.
Overall, though, the Series 11 only burned through 32% of its battery in my first 24 hours of testing. This is with the always-on display and “Wake on wrist raise” features both turned on, and screen brightness maxed out.
(Image credit: Future)
That’s darn impressive. The question is, will these results persist? I plan to continue wearing the Apple Watch Series 11 for the next several weeks to find out, and will update this story if I notice any sudden drops in longevity. I’ll also let you know how long it ends up lasting after my first charge.
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Either way, from my initial testing, the Series 11 not only lives up to its 24-hour battery life claim, but blows right on past it. At this rate, it could even prove as long-lasting as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, the full-featured smartwatch battery life king of 2025, which easily cruised for 50+ hours on a single charge.
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Dan Bracaglia
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Senior Writer, Fitness & Wearables
Dan Bracaglia is the Tom’s Guide editorial lead for all things smartwatches, fitness trackers and outdoor gear. With 15 years of experience as a consumer technology journalist testing everything from Oura Rings to instant cameras, Dan is deeply passionate about helping readers save money and make informed purchasing decisions. In the past year alone, Dan has assessed major product releases from the likes of Apple, Garmin, Google, Samsung, Polar and many others.
An avid outdoor adventurer, Dan is based in the U.S. Pacific Northwest where he takes advantage of the beautiful surroundings every chance he gets. A lover of kayaking, hiking, swimming, biking, snowboarding and exploring, he also makes every effort to combine his day job with his passions. When not assessing the sleep tracking and heart rate accuracy of the latest tach gadgets, you can find him photographing Seattle’s vibrant underground music community.
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