Apple Watch Series 12 Unexpected Restart, Kernel Panic

You should contact the official Apple Support about that, they can diagnose your watch online.

Contact Apple Support - Apple Support

Before you do that, try to erase the watch and set it up as a new device without using any backup data. Then test it again. You will only lose your created watch faces and may have to add the cards in the Wallet app again.

Unpair and erase your Apple Watch - Apple Support

The same happens on series 12. I contacted Apple; they ran 2x diagnostics and said the hardware is perfectly fine. It randomly shut down 2x while I was just looking at notifications. They made me reset the watch, looks like it's a watchOS 27 issue wide spreaded.

If you did not use an Apple Watch before, there are no backups you can restore from, that is correct.

Your Apple Watch is covered by the One-Year Apple Warranty, which also includes the hardware.

In case Apple diagnosed your watch, they have also downloaded the diagnostic reports, so that Apple Techs can take a look at those and find the reason for this issue.

Until they come up with a fix, monitoring the behaviour of the Apple Watch 12 is the only thing you can do as a user.

Any 3rd party apps installed? If yes, try to use the watch without those and see if the crashes stop.

Chatted with a tech and they had me delete VPN profiles and then force restart both phone and watch.

They have asked me to unpair and then pair again. I haven’t done that step yet as the restart seems to be working. Will advise if it doesn’t.

Everybody having this issue with the new Apple Watch models should let Apple Techs know directly about it by using the Feedback link, as this is the only way to reach them. The more users do that, the more likely is a fix in an upcoming update, in case this is software related.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

I had 4 reboots on my Ultra 4 on Friday when I first got the watch. Did a hard reset/reboot and everything seemed fine until Sunday, when the watch started rebooting again randomly. Called Apple, they had me go to the nearest Apple store which I did this morning and exchanged the watch to another new unopened Ultra 4. Wish I knew about this post before making the trip!

Clicking the "Me too" button does not make Apple Techs aware of these issues, the newer Apple Watch models seem to have.

Only using the Feedback link and filling out the form does.

The more users do that, the more likely is a fix in an upcoming update.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

I would strongly request an elevation of this issue as Apple Engineers should start paying attention, more people have bought the new watches, more days have passed since release, and I am seeing a ton of people complaining on various forums.

Regardless, Please upload feedback including your log files as maybe we can get Apple to fix this faster.

You should let Apple know directly about this issue by using the Feedback link, as this is the only way to reach them.

Feedback - Apple Watch - Apple

Feedback - iPhone - Apple

You can go to your Watch app (on iOS) > General > Diagnostics logs > there you will be able to download a file and then air drop it or upload it from your iPhone via Feedback Assistant

Same problem here. It’s a widespread problem. There also posts about this on the MacRumors Forum and Reddit.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/ultra-4-rebooting-randomly.2489837/?post=34807923#post-34807923

https://www.reddit.com/r/AppleWatch/s/O2V7pAiN0o

Same with my new Ultra 4. WatchOS is up to date, watch is set up as brand new. Got a first reboot after first 2-3 hours of usage.

I've added a feedback via Apple Feedback website and via Feedback Assistant

Hey, I deeply appreciate your reply, after a discussion with Apple Support, they’ve told me to try doing a forced restart, and see if the issue persists, we’ll see, also, the watch was set up as brand new, so i don’t think there may be a backup corruption issue or something.

Also, should i be concerned about a possible faulty hardware? Judging by the faulty piece being the ANE?

Same issue here on Ultra 4 Happened 3 times. I force rebooted it too. Investigating and checking logs for further crashes.

it happened before and After day 1 update.

{"bug_type":"210","timestamp":"2026-09-19 13:19:13.00 +0200","os_version":"Watch OS 27.0 (24R364)","roots_installed":0,"incident_id":"9EE2A0C9-46E2-46CE-A1A0-CC3AEEF2251E"}

Me and hubby have just bought and Ultra each and both of them have rebooted today.

i have the same issue with My Apple Watch 4 Natural Titanium, it only happen when using iMessage when texting

I also have this issue on series 12

https://www.macrumors.com/2026/09/21/apple-watch-series-12-ultra-4-reported-reboots/

We have our first news coverage, hoping it gets to Apple as soon as possible and tells us what is wrong

Does it resolve the issue cauz I am having the same issue

Interesting. Same thing for me on my series 12. Was running yesterday and it reboot in the middle of that (but kept the workout going). Assuming it’s an iOS 27 issue.

Where can we pull the log files from to send them in?

Same problem here. Got my Ultra 4 today, installed 2 hours ago and got 2 random reboots already. It never happened on Ultra 1.

Two days, two restart…

Personally I have submitted bug feedback, twice, once for each workout crash. I was a little surprised you can’t attach logs but I guess that makes sense for initial feedback.

Feedback sent for random restart, one per day, for now, totally random.

My AWS12 still crashes after the 27.0.1 update.

What's wrong with you apple, just received the AW12, then keep rebooting when I double tap with my fingers. please fixed