Apple has unveiled the latest version of the Apple Watch: the Apple Watch Series 6. Taking over the mantle from 2019’s Series 5, the new wearable device adds a performance boost and a blood oxygen sensor for the first time.

It uses red and infrared light to give wearers an insight into their oxygen saturation, or SpO2. This represents the percentage of oxygen being carried by red blood cells from the lungs to the rest of the body, and indicates how well this oxygenated blood is being delivered throughout the body. The aim is to give Apple Watch wearers better insight into their overall respiratory and cardiovascular health and builds on things like the EKG feature from the Series 5.

The blood oxygen sensor works through a new app that comes on the Series 6 and takes about 15 seconds to give a reading.

‘To compensate for natural variations in the skin and improve accuracy, the Blood Oxygen sensor employs four clusters of green, red, and infrared LEDs, along with the four photodiodes on the back crystal of Apple Watch, to measure light reflected back from blood,’ explained Apple in a statement. ‘Apple Watch then uses an advanced custom algorithm built into the Blood Oxygen app, which is designed to measure blood oxygen between 70 percent and 100 percent.’

The Apple Watch Series 6 starts at £379 with just GPS on board, and then jumps to £479 if you opt for the version with both GPS and cellular connectivity.

The Apple Watch SE will start at £269 for the GPS model and move up to £319 for the GPS and cellular model. Both versions are available to pre-order today and will start shipping to customers on Friday, September 18. Visit Apple.com