Apple has clearly thought a lot about how to handle the persistent capture and transmission of audio from a watch. The “Audio Intelligence Privacy Overview” linked below shows this.

But it may all be for naught: folks first reaction is “it’s always listening to me!” and that’s an instinctive reaction that’s hard to overcome.

This is a societal problem not a technical one.

https://www.apple.com/privacy/docs/Audio_Intelligence_Privacy_Overview_Sep_2026.pdf