Short answer: not by itself. In watchOS 27, Apple’s Workout app records a strength workout as elapsed time, heart rate and calories burned, plus any segments you mark and an effort rating when you end. It does not count reps, and it has no place to enter sets or the weight you lifted (Apple Watch User Guide).

Apple Health has no data type for reps, sets or weight lifted either: none of its 122 quantity types covers them (HealthKit documentation). To track sets and reps on the watch, you log each set in a third-party app, which keeps that detail itself and can save the workout’s time, heart rate and calories to Apple Health.

We checked each statement below on Apple’s own pages: the Apple Watch User Guide for watchOS 27, the Workout app’s App Store listing and Apple’s HealthKit documentation for developers. The facts about SetGrip come from the code of the current version, 1.1.6.

What does the Workout app record for strength training?

The Workout app on Apple Watch treats a strength session like any other timed workout. Apple’s guide lists what it shows while you train: your goal ring, “elapsed time, average pace, distance covered, calories burned, and heart rate” (Start a workout on Apple Watch). Apple adds that some metrics are unavailable depending on the workout type.

Two more things are recorded. During a workout you can mark a segment: “Tap Segment. You can also double-tap the display.” When you end it, you “Turn the Digital Crown to rate your effort” (same guide). A segment splits the workout by time, and the effort rating is one number for the whole session. Neither holds reps or weight.

Nothing in that list is about the lifting itself. The Workout app does not know which exercises you did, how many sets, how many reps or how much weight. Apple’s What’s new in watchOS 27 page adds Workout Buddy insights, Extended Workout modes and better treadmill distance, and mentions no strength-training changes.

Custom workouts do not change this. Each step of a custom workout can be set to “Time, Distance, or Open”, not to a number of reps (Create a custom workout). You can build timed work and rest intervals for a strength session, but the watch still does not record what you lifted.

Does Apple Watch count reps automatically?

No. Apple documents no rep counting for strength training in watchOS 27, in the Workout app or anywhere else. The watch does notice some workouts on its own: the Workout app’s App Store listing says you can get a reminder to start or end a workout for “walking, running, cycling, elliptical, rowing, and swimming” (Workout on the App Store). Strength training is not on that list, so you start a strength workout yourself.

Some third-party apps say they count reps from the watch’s motion sensors for a set list of exercises. That is the app’s own feature, not Apple’s, and we have not tested how accurate it is.

Can Apple Health store sets and reps?

Not as standard data. HealthKit, the system behind Apple Health, has 122 quantity types, from heart rate to swimming strokes. None of them is reps, sets or weight lifted; the nearest are counts of steps, wheelchair pushes and swimming strokes (HKQuantityTypeIdentifier).

What an app can save is the workout itself. While a workout session runs on the watch, “all workout sessions generate high-frequency heart rate samples”, and Apple Watch also saves active energy (Running workout sessions). Apps may attach their own extra fields, which Apple calls “metadata with custom keys” (HKWorkout), but those are private to the app, not a shared format for sets and reps.

So a strength workout saved by a third-party app appears in your Activity summary in the Fitness app (Sync a third-party workout app), and Apple Health keeps it as a workout with its type, time, heart rate and calories. The list of exercises, sets, reps and weights stays in the app you logged them in.

Traditional or Functional Strength Training?

Apple Watch lists two Strength Training types among its workout types, Traditional and Functional (Workout types on Apple Watch). Apple’s developer documentation describes them in one line each:

Traditional Strength Training: “strength training exercises primarily using machines or free weights” (Apple).
Functional Strength Training: “strength training, primarily with free weights and body weight” (Apple).

Pick the one closer to what you do: Traditional for barbell, dumbbell and machine lifting, Functional for bodyweight and free-weight circuits. Apple also counts Core Training and Kickboxing among its strength-based workouts (Start a workout). None of these types records sets or reps.

A worked example: one workout, two records

Here is one fictional 50-minute upper-body session, recorded twice: once with the Workout app as a Traditional Strength Training workout, and once in an app that logs sets.

The same 50-minute session in the Workout app and in a set-logging app (fictional example)
	Workout app	Set-logging app
Time	50 minutes	50 minutes
Heart rate and calories	Yes	Yes, if the app runs a workout session on the watch
Bench press	Not recorded	3 sets at 135 lb: 8, 8, 8 reps
Barbell row	Not recorded	3 sets at 115 lb: 10, 10, 10 reps
Dumbbell shoulder press	Not recorded	3 sets at 35 lb: 10, 10, 8 reps
Total	Not recorded	9 sets, 82 reps

Both records agree on how long you trained and how hard your heart worked. Only the set log can answer the questions that matter for lifting next week: did the last set of shoulder presses drop to 8 reps, and is 135 lb on the bench press still the right weight?

How to log sets and reps on Apple Watch

With the Workout app alone, the closest you get is to start a Traditional Strength Training workout and mark a segment after each set by double-tapping the display. You then have the time of each segment and your heart rate, but no reps or weights.

Logging sets on the watch means entering each set yourself, a few seconds after you rack the weight. Things that make that quicker, and worth checking in any app before you rely on it:

Entry on the wrist: the Digital Crown or a number pad, with the planned weight and reps filled in so a normal set is one tap.
Last time’s numbers on the same screen, so you know what to beat.
A rest timer that taps your wrist when rest is over.
Apple Health: whether the app runs a watch workout session, which gives live heart rate and saves time, heart rate and calories to Health.
The iPhone: whether the watch app works on its own or needs the iPhone nearby.

How SetGrip logs sets on Apple Watch

SetGrip, a workout tracker for iPhone and Apple Watch, logs sets from the wrist. In the current version, 1.1.6:

You enter weight and reps, or time and distance, with the Digital Crown or a number pad. The set starts from your routine’s target, and the set you did last time is shown next to it.
SetGrip does not count reps from motion. You confirm each set with one tap.
A full-screen rest timer starts after each set, with 15-second adjustments, a skip button and haptics when rest ends.
The watch runs a Traditional Strength Training session, so you see live heart rate and active calories. When you finish, the workout is saved to Apple Health once. Your sets, reps and weights stay in SetGrip.
The watch app is a companion to the iPhone app: the iPhone has to be in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi range to start a workout. If it drops out of range mid-workout, sets you log are queued and sent when it is back.
The Apple Watch app is free. The free plan allows up to 3 routines; detailed statistics are part of SetGrip Premium.
It needs watchOS 26 or later on the watch and iOS 26 or later on the iPhone.

More on the watch app is on the SetGrip for Apple Watch page and in Does the SetGrip Apple Watch app work without the iPhone? SetGrip is free to download on the App Store.

When to talk to someone

Chest discomfort, feeling faint or lightheaded, or trouble breathing during or after exercise can be signs of a heart attack, according to the CDC. In the US, call 911 right away; elsewhere, call your local emergency number. Do not wait for your watch: Apple states that “Apple Watch cannot detect heart attacks” (Apple Support).
Heart, metabolic or kidney disease, or symptoms of them: talk to your doctor before you start or step up training.

This article explains what Apple Watch and Apple Health record. It is not a training plan or medical advice.

Sources

Sources checked on November 1, 2026.