CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA: Apple today announced Apple Watch Ultra, which brings a new bold design and a wide range of features built for endurance, exploration, and adventure. Apple Watch Ultra introduces a 49mm titanium case and flat sapphire front crystal that reveals the biggest and brightest Apple Watch display yet. A customizable Action button offers instant access to a wide range of useful features. Apple Watch Ultra has the best battery life of any Apple Watch, reaching up to 36 hours during normal use.
Additionally, a new low-power setting, ideal for multi-day experiences, can extend battery life to reach up to 60 hours. The Wayfinder watch face is designed specifically for the larger Apple Watch Ultra display and includes a compass built into the dial, with space for up to eight complications. Apple Watch Ultra also brings three new bands — Trail Loop, Alpine Loop, and Ocean Band — offering unique design features that provide a secure and comfortable fit for every adventure.
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Apple Watch Ultra is available to order today, with availability beginning Friday, September 23.
“Inspired by explorers and athletes from around the world, we created an entirely new category of Apple Watch designed for new and extreme environments — it’s the most rugged and capable Apple Watch yet,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “Apple Watch Ultra is a versatile tool that empowers users to push their boundaries with adventure, endurance, and exploration.”
Made from aerospace-grade titanium, Apple Watch Ultra provides the perfect balance of weight, durability, and corrosion resistance. The case rises up to surround all edges of the flat sapphire front crystal, protecting the Retina display, which is up to 2000 nits — 2x brighter than any Apple Watch display yet. The new Action button in high-contrast international orange is easily customized for instant access to a variety of features, including Workouts, Compass Waypoints, Backtrack, and more.
Apple Watch Ultra has three built-in microphones to significantly improve sound quality in voice calls during any conditions. An adaptive beamforming algorithm uses the microphones to capture voice while reducing ambient background sounds, resulting in remarkable clarity. In challenging windy environments, Apple Watch Ultra uses advanced wind noise-reduction algorithms, including machine learning, to deliver clear and intelligible audio for calls.
Designed specifically for endurance athletes and runners, the Trail Loopband is the thinnest Apple Watch band to date. The lightweight woven textile is both soft and flexible, allowing it to cinch to the optimal fit, and the convenient tab is designed for quick and easy adjustment.
With explorers in mind, the Alpine Loop band features two integrated layers made from one continuous weaving process that eliminates the need for stitching. The top loops, interspersed with high-strength yarn, provide adjustability and a secure attachment for the titanium G-hook fastener.
The Ocean Bandis designed specifically for extreme water sports and recreational diving with a titanium buckle and corresponding spring-loaded loop. Molded from a flexible fluoroelastomer, it stretches and utilizes the tubular geometry for a secure fit. The Ocean Band also has an optional extra-long tail that allows users to comfortably wear over a wetsuit.
Apple Watch Ultra is an incredible tool for endurance athletes or those who aspire to push beyond their limits. For the first time ever in an Apple Watch, the precision dual-frequency GPS integrates both L1 and the latest frequency, L5, plus new positioning algorithms. Apple Watch Ultra delivers the most accurate GPS of any Apple Watch to date, providing users the most precise distance, pace, and route data for training and competing.
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Apple Watch Ultra is powered by watchOS 9, which includes new advanced running metrics to measure performance, like Stride Length, Ground Contact Time, Vertical Oscillation, and Running Power. New Workout Views, such as Segments, Splits, and Elevation, provide important metrics at just a glance, and thanks to the larger display, Apple Watch Ultra is the only Apple Watch that can show six metrics at once. Users can take their training to the next level with features such as Heart Rate Zones, Custom Workouts, Pacer, and, coming later this year, Race Route. For triathlons, duathlons, or activities with any sequence of swimming, biking, or running, the new Multisport workout includes autodetection to easily switch between workouts. Apple Watch Ultra has enough battery life for most users to complete a long-course triathlon, consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and full marathon at 26.2 miles.
The Action button can instantly begin workouts and move users to the next interval of a Custom Workout or the next leg of a Multisport workout. It can also be used to mark segments, complementing the new Track running experience, which automatically provides the ultimate pacing and distance estimates for runners at a track.
Apple Watch Ultra is designed for water sports, including extreme activities like kitesurfing and wakeboarding, along with recreational scuba diving to 40 meters with the new Oceanic+ app. To support these underwater adventures, Apple Watch Ultra is certified to WR100. Apple Watch Ultra is also certified to EN 13319, which is an internationally recognized standard for dive accessories, including depth gauges that are relied upon by recreational divers around the world.5
Utilizing a new depth gauge, Apple Watch Ultra features a Depth app designed with an intuitive user interface. With just a glance, the Depth app displays time, current depth, water temperature, duration under water, and max depth reached. Users can program the Action button to instantly launch the Depth app.
In partnership with Huish Outdoors, known for delivering innovative and reliable equipment for recreational diving, the new Oceanic+ app turns Apple Watch Ultra into a capable dive computer. Available from the App Store later this fall, the app runs the Bühlmann decompression algorithm, and includes dive planning, easy-to-read dive metrics, visual and haptic alerts, no-decompression limit, ascent rate, and safety stop guidance. Oceanic+ also offers a personalized user profile, reports on current and local dive conditions, and a dive logbook that can be shared with family and friends and automatically syncs to iPhone.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Apple to combine our world-renowned expertise in scuba with the unique capability of Apple Watch Ultra to turn the same everyday watch into an innovative dive computer,” said Mike Huish, CEO of Huish Outdoors. “With Oceanic+, Apple Watch Ultra users can enjoy a new and enriched experience during scuba activities.”
Apple Watch Ultra includes all of the connectivity, activity, and health features that have made Apple Watch the best-selling smartwatch in the world — from heart rate monitoring and the ECG and Blood Oxygen apps, to Activity rings and Mindfulness, along with additional health, safety, and navigation features.
Apple Watch Ultra features innovative new temperature-sensing capabilities that enable further insights into women’s health. The unique two-sensor design reduces bias from the outside environment and the body itself. Utilizing the new capabilities, users can receive retrospective ovulation estimates, which can be helpful for family planning. Temperature sensing also enables improved period predictions for users who menstruate. With iOS 16 and watchOS 9, Cycle Tracking users can now receive a notification if their logged cycle history shows a possible deviation, which can be a symptom of underlying health conditions.
Using two new motion sensors and an advanced sensor-fusion algorithm, Apple Watch can detect a severe car crash with Crash Detection. When Apple Watch detects a severe car crash, the device will check in with the user and dial emergency services if they are unresponsive after a 10-second countdown. Emergency responders will receive the user’s device location, which is also shared with emergency contacts.
