This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, the top-selling rectangular wearable that can be seen on the wrists of millions of iPhone owners. As befits a landmark anniversary, this year's flagship Apple Watch 10 has gotten an updated design that is much thinner and lighter than the previous Watch Series 9, along with a new, jet black finish. Every year, Apple adds new health features to the watch. This year, that feature is sleep apnea detection. The most highly anticipated health feature was tracking for hypertension, or high blood pressure, and that has not shown up on the Apple Watch yet--probably because earlier this year, Apple was ordered to stop selling watches with blood oxygen sensing because of a patent dispute with Masimo Corp.

Apple is bringing sleep apnea detection to the most recent generations of its Watch, the company announced today. At the iPhones 16 launch event, Apple revealed the feature would come to the new Series 10, as well as the Series 9 and Ultra 2. If you wear your watch while you sleep, you'll get an alert in the morning if symptoms are detected through the night, urging you to visit your clinician. The data for this will be collated in the Health app on the iPhone. Rather than using oxygen saturation, which would be the logical approach, Apple says it's using motion tracking. This is likely related to the messy patent battle surrounding the blood oxygen sensor in the Watch that has stymied the company's work in this area.