Still priced at $799, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is as big as ever, but now has a 50% brighter, 3,000-nit display for better visibility in harsh sunlight, with the same 55-hour battery life as the original model. It achieves this spec bump without a reduction in battery life thanks to an upgraded S9 processor, the same one in the Apple Watch Series 9 (starting at $399), that also enables a handy double-tap gesture, on-device Siri processing, and a new Precision Finding experience with the iPhone 15. WatchOS 10, the latest version of Apple's smartwatch software, delivers several new outdoorsy features to all Ultra models, including Depth app session logs, cellular connectivity waypoints within the Compass app, and a selection of topographic maps with contour lines and elevation. The Series 9 costs half as much and is our top recommendation for most buyers, but the Ultra 2 is an excellent choice for outdoor adventurers.
Still Just as Rugged, With Minor Refinements
Starting at $799, the rugged Ultra 2 costs the same as the original model and carries a significant premium over the Apple Watch Series 9 (starting at $399) and the Apple Watch SE ($249). Generally speaking, the Series 9 is the best option for most people, the Ultra 2 is a better pick for water sports enthusiasts, hikers, and other outdoor adventurers, and the Watch SE is a sensible choice for children, older adults, and budget-conscious buyers.
(Credit: Ali Jaber)Like its predecessor, the Ultra 2 continues to differentiate itself from other Apple Watches with a larger and more durable design, a customizable orange Action Button on the left side, a more tactile digital crown and right side button that work better for gloved hands, a brighter display, an upgraded three-microphone array and dual-speaker system, an 86-decibel emergency siren, and a depth gauge.
The Ultra 2 ships with watchOS 10, the latest version of Apple's smartwatch operating system, which includes a Smart Stack of widgets, fresh watch faces (including a Snoopy-themed clock), new mental health and vision health tools, additional cycling and compass features, and more. All three Apple Watches require an iPhone XS or later with iOS 17 or above and do not work with Android phones.
Left to right: Apple Watch Series 9, Ultra 2, Watch SE (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)On Android, the best alternative to the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is still the year-old Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. Samsung released two new Galaxy Watch 6 models this year, neither of which are particularly suited for the great outdoors, so it's keeping the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro in the rotation as a more rugged option with longer battery life. Samsung's Galaxy Watch lineup works only with Android phones.
The heart of the Ultra 2 is Apple's S9 System in Package (SiP) chip, an upgrade from last year's S8 that allows for a new double-tap gesture for one-handed operation, on-device Siri processing with the ability to access and log health data by voice, and Precision Finding for the iPhone 15 family. I discussed these features in my review of the Series 9, which also has the S9 chip, so check it out for details. For both models, the new processor also enables an increase in screen brightness without a decrease in battery life, the main upgrade for this generation.
The art inside the Ultra 2's packaging screams take me outside (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)The second-generation Ultra is easier on the environment, with a 95% recycled titanium case, whereas the original featured all-virgin titanium. Like certain configurations of the Series 9, the Ultra 2 is carbon-neutral when paired with any new Alpine Loop or Trail Loop band, as denoted by a green leaf logo on the packaging. There's no carbon-neutral version of the Ocean Band, but it's still available as a stock strap option with the Ultra 2.
You get your choice of one stock band with the Ultra 2, and each can be purchased separately for $99. The second-gen Ultra is still compatible with first-gen straps, as well as 44mm and 45mm Apple Watch bands.
For this review, Apple loaned me the Ultra 2 with a Trail Loop in Orange/Beige.
Design-wise, the Ultra 2 looks nearly identical to its predecessor, with the same case dimensions, 1,185 sq mm display area, and three-button configuration. Like the last generation, it comes in just one size (49mm) and one finish (naked titanium). You can see how it looks on my 6-inch wrist in the photos throughout this review. For aesthetics and comfort, I prefer a smaller watch like the 41mm Series 9 or the 40mm Watch SE. As with the last generation, I find the Ultra 2's nubby digital crown sometimes irritates my skin when I rotate it.
The right side button and digitial crown surrounded by holes for two microphones (top and middle) and the depth gauge (bottom) (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)I've now tried all three stock bands, and the Trail Loop, which is made of lightweight nylon weave with a Velcro-like closure, is the most comfortable and my favorite for everyday wear and casual fitness. My only gripe is that my dog's fur gets stuck in the Trail Loop band and it can be very tough to remove from the tightly woven nylon (I have this same problem with the Apple Watch Sport Loop band, which is also made of a nylon weave). If you have a pet that sheds, consider which color will best hide it when choosing the Trail Loop.
The Alpine Loop, made of high-strength yarns with a more secure titanium G-hook clasp, is a better option for outdoor adventuring, while the elastomer Ocean Band is suitable for high-speed water sports.
Apple Watch Ultra bands, left to right: Trail Loop, Ocean Band, Alpine Loop (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)For connectivity, cellular support comes standard on the Ultra 2, along with Bluetooth, dual-frequency GPS, and Wi-Fi. A cellular connection, which requires a separate plan through your phone carrier (typically $10 per month), lets you call, stream, and message on the watch when your iPhone isn't nearby.
Left to right: Apple Watch Ultra 2, Series 9 (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Still the most water-friendly Apple Watch, the Ultra 2 retains its predecessor's WR100 water resistance rating to 330 feet (doubling that of the Series 9) and EN13319 certification (the international standard for diving accessories), ensuring it's safe for recreational scuba diving descents down to 130 feet. The Ultra 2 is also suitable for high-speed water sports like kitesurfing, wakeboarding, and jet skiing, a spec I tested last generation.
For comparison, the Series 9 and the Watch SE have a lower WR50 rating and are safe for shallow-water activities like swimming in a pool or ocean, but "should not be used for scuba diving, waterskiing, or other activities involving high-velocity water or submersion below shallow depth," Apple states.
(Credit: Ali Jaber )The Ultra 2 also one-ups the Series 9's IP6X dust resistance rating with the addition of an MIL-STD 810H certification, the standard used for military equipment, meaning it has been tested to survive high altitude, extreme temperatures, freezing/thawing, blowing sand, and other environmental stressors such as vibration and shock.
In terms of its environmental limits, the Ultra 2 is safe to wear at altitudes from -500 to 9,000 meters (-1,640 feet to 29,500 feet), exceeding the range of its predecessor and other Apple Watch models, which have an operating altitude range of 0 to 3,000 meters. While wearing it on a plane, the highest elevation reading I saw on the Ultra 2's new Modular Ultra watch face was only 7,464 feet due to cabin pressurization. Commercial planes typically fly between 33,000 and 42,000 feet, but cabins are pressurized to a maximum altitude of 8,000 feet to allow for normal breathing.
Wearing the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with the Modular Ultra watch face on a plane (elevation at the bottom) (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)A Brighter Display With No Hit on Battery Life
The biggest change for the second-generation Ultra is a 50% increase in screen brightness to 3,000 nits, Apple's brightest display ever. The Series 9, meanwhile, got a 100% increase this year to 2,000 nits, matching the Galaxy Watch 6 series and the original Apple Watch Ultra.
In both cases, the increase in brightness makes the display easier to read outdoors in bright sunlight. Between its size and brightness, the Ultra 2's display is phenomenal. On a 3,000-nit display, whites are brighter and it's easier to read small text, the compass, and tiny complications when the sun is shining on you. The built-in flashlight also gets a boost thanks to the brighter display. When the flashlight is on, rotate the digital crown to double the brightness.
You'll have no problem reading the display in bright sunlight (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Before testing the Ultra 2, I worried that its brighter screen would come at the expense of battery life, my main complaint about the Galaxy Watch 6 series, but that's not the case.
The Ultra 2 delivered similar battery life as the original model in testing—about 55 hours on a charge with the always-on display enabled at maximum brightness. I wore it for a weekend trip to New Jersey and Pennsylvania and it stayed powered the whole time, offering enough battery for two nights of sleep tracking.
Credit the power efficiency of the S9 chip for allowing the Ultra 2 to maintain its predecessor's battery life with a brighter screen in the same-sized case. Battery life varies with use, but Apple officially claims that the Ultra 2 lasts up to 36 hours with normal use, or up to 72 hours in Low Power Mode (LPM), just like the last generation.
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)With GPS on and no battery-saving settings, it lasts 12 hours. You can extend that to 17 hours with LPM, which disables the always-on display and limits certain background features such as irregular heart rate notifications (open the Control Center, tap the battery percentage > Low Power Mode > Turn On). For long-distance races and runs, it will last 35 hours with GPS, LPM, and a setting called Fewer GPS and Heart Rate Readings which slows checks on these data points to once per minute (navigate to Settings > Workout to enable it).
The Ultra 2 gets about one extra day of battery life per charge than the Series 9, which lasted about 32.5 hours with the always-on display enabled in my testing. Under similar conditions, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 series lasted just 22 hours on a charge, while last year's Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, which features a larger-capacity battery than its successor, lasted 57 hours.
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Apple Watches have three brightness levels (accessible via Settings > Display & Brightness), and regardless of your setting, use the ambient light sensor to read the amount of light in the environment and automatically adjust the display brightness for optimal visibility and battery life. Consequently, the Ultra 2 only shines at 3,000 nits when you're outside in the bright sunlight (or if you're standing inside under harsh fluorescent lights), and limits its brightness indoors most of the time to save battery life.
Conversely, when using Sleep Focus mode in a dark room, the Ultra 2 will now dim to a single nit (from 2 nits last generation) to reduce disturbance for light sleepers. Regardless of the ambient lighting, I never have a problem reading the Ultra 2's display.
The Smart Stack showing on the Ultra 2's display in a dark room (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Galaxy Watch models allow for more granular control over screen brightness with a slider and optional adaptive brightness. You have to be careful with the Galaxy Watch because certain display settings needlessly drain the battery, a problem you don't have with the more dummy-proof Apple Watch. That said, I do wish the premium Ultra 2 allowed for more user control over screen brightness.
While the Ultra 2 gets good battery life compared with other Apple Watches, it falls well short of adventure-focused competitors from brands like Garmin, Coros, and Polar, some of which even support solar charging. The Coros Vertix 2 ($699) promises 60 days of battery life with regular use or 140 hours of full GPS use. The Garmin Fenix 7 (starting at $649.99) offers up to 18 days of battery life in smartwatch mode or 57 hours in GPS mode. The Polar Grit X Pro (starting at $529.95) promises a full week of battery life or 40 hours with GPS.
Ready for Adventures Despite Some Map Limitations
The preinstalled Depth app exclusive to the Ultra series gets an update as part of watchOS 10 to automatically save a log of each session. To test it, I took the Ultra 2 for a dip in the nearby Gulf of Mexico.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 display is easy to read underwater (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)I raved over the Depth app last generation, and it works just as well on the Ultra 2, automatically displaying your depth, underwater time, and more when submerged about three feet. To view your session logs on the watch, tap View Recent Dives.
For each session, it tracks your maximum depth, total underwater time, number of dives, and the water temperature. Session logs disappear from the watch after a week but are permanently available in the Fitness app on iOS. The Fitness app logs offer additional details such as your GPS entry point and the ambient temperature and humidity.
I'm always a bit scared in open water when I can't touch the bottom, but the Depth app quickly helped me forget my fears in the Gulf. Over eight dives, I managed a maximum depth of five feet in the 83-degree salt water—not exactly champion freediver stats, but it's a start, and the watch is at least helping me overcome my unease.
Testing the Depth app (Credit: Ali Jaber)Speaking of freediving, the watchOS Oceanic+ app from scuba diving technology company Huish Outdoors now has a freedive mode (which requires a premium subscription for $4.99 per month) with custom algorithms for target depth, max dive time, sequential depth, surface time, and max session time. Freedive mode can also automatically disable haptics and alarms, as well as reduce the display brightness while you're diving so you don't startle fish.
Even in murky conditions, the Ultra 2's display is very easy to see underwater with goggles. I will note, though, that the display does not register touch inputs when you're in the water. You can use the buttons and scroll with the digital crown, but forget about trying to select anything on the display when you're swimming.
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Back on dry land, I was eager to check out the new topographic maps Apple added as part of watchOS 10, but the current version is disappointingly limited in terms of coverage. Apple has long struggled in the mapping department, as every iPhone user knows, and its watchOS app is no exception. The Apple Watch topographic maps are great but hard to find. Currently, they are inside the watchOS Maps app (not the Workout app or the Compass) and available only for certain national and regional parks in the US. To see them, navigate to a supported park in the Maps app, then use the digital crown to zoom in until you see contour lines and elevation.
I found topographic maps for Yosemite and Redwood National Parks in Apple's home state of California, as well as Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. Coverage is very spotty for parks in the eastern US at the time of this writing—as far as I can tell, the app is currently missing topographic maps for all of Florida, along with many other areas I checked, including the Big South Fork National River in Tennessee (where I recently spent a weekend off-grid backpacking), Great Smoky Mountain National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee, and Acadia National Park in Maine.
(Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)With iOS 17, you can download maps on your iPhone and view them offline on your Apple Watch, but this feature relies on your phone being nearby and powered on. Adventure-focused competitors including the Garmin Fenix 7 not only natively support topographic maps from around the world, but also let you download maps directly for offline viewing without your phone.
Serious backpackers will be annoyed by these limitations and may be better off with a dedicated adventure watch from a competitor like Coros, Garmin, or Suunto, especially if you already use one with offline and topographic maps. Casual adventurers, on the other hand, probably won't mind the Ultra 2's map shortcomings, and third-party apps may be able to help fill the gaps.
The Compass app also gets an update as part of watchOS 10, and can now automatically generate new safety-focused waypoints for the last place you had cell reception with your carrier and the nearest spot you can make an emergency call via any available carrier's network. Moreover, the Compass app now shows elevation data for your saved waypoints and can provide elevation alerts when you have passed a certain threshold. Any points of interest you have saved in Guides in the iPhone Maps app that are within 50 miles of your current location now show up as waypoints in the Apple Watch Compass app.
A True Lifestyle and Health Companion
The Ultra 2 has one big advantage over outdoor adventure watches from Garmin and other brands: It's an Apple Watch. Besides all the adventuring features, the Ultra 2 offers reliable connectivity plus a robust selection of preinstalled lifestyle, safety, health, and fitness tools. Of course, it also has a better selection of third-party watch apps than you can get from any other brand.
The primary speaker and orange Action button flanked by the siren (top hole) and a microphone (bottom hole) (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)While pulling up locations in the Maps app or searching the App Store, I sometimes experience lag, but the Ultra 2 is otherwise zippy. A test call sounded crystal clear and sufficiently loud in a quiet room. My mom on the other end of the line said she could hear me just fine, and wouldn't have known I was calling from the watch and not my phone.
Apple says that the faster four-core Neural Engine in the Ultra 2 that enables on-device Siri processing and the new double-tap gesture also makes dictation up to 25% more accurate. I often use dictation to send texts and to search within Maps and the App Store, and it's usually pretty accurate, but sometimes gets unusual names and words incorrect.
The App Store lets you browse and download third-party watchOS apps directly on the watch, including popular favorites like AllTrails, Calm, Pandora, Peloton, Shazam, Spotify, Starbucks, and Strava, just to name a few. Google's rival WearOS platform also offers a wide selection via the Play Store, but it still trails Apple's watchOS in terms of high-quality, third-party watch apps.
The Modular Ultra watch face in Night Mode (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)Apple offers a good selection of watch faces, and there are many more available via third-party apps. As part of watchOS 10, Apple has introduced a new digital watch face exclusively for the Apple Watch Ultra called Modular Ultra that can use the integrated ambient light sensor to detect low-light conditions and automatically enable Night Mode for better visibility. Auto Night Mode is also now available for the Ultra-exclusive Wayfinder watch face introduced last year. To enable it, scroll to Night Mode when editing these watch faces, and select Auto.
Auto Night Mode is one of those little features that just makes me happy. The black and red Night Mode helps to reduce eye strain, and it just looks very slick.
A new personal favorite, Modular Ultra is highly customizable, with room for up to seven complications of your choice, and six options for the size and layout of the time. It features tick marks on the edges of the display that you can customize to show depth, elevation, or the seconds counting up to a minute. I was worried it would be too busy, but it's well-organized and looks nice on the Ultra 2's large display.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 tracking an outdoor run (Credit: Angela Moscaritolo)The Ultra 2 is an excellent fitness tracker, offering accurate workout pulse readings compared with a chest strap and a dedicated optical armband heart rate monitor. For a 30-minute beach run, the Ultra 2 said I had an average heart rate of 166bpm and a maximum heart rate of 180bpm, while a Polar OH1 tracking my pulse from the opposite arm offered nearly identical measurements, at 168bpm average and 180bpm max.
Moreover, while many wrist-based optical heart rate trackers exhibit a slight lag when detecting rapid pulse change during workouts, Apple Watches tend to be spot on. Following a 20-second maximum-intensity sprint on the Carol 2.0 indoor bike, during which my heart rate shot up to 160-plus bpm, the Ultra 2 detected the elevated pulse as quickly as a chest strap.
The Best Apple Watch for the Outdoors
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 offers all the perks of the original, with a brighter display, a faster processor, and a more environmentally friendly build featuring carbon-neutral configuration options. If you own the original Apple Watch Ultra, I don't see a compelling reason to upgrade to the second-generation model—you're missing out on some spec bumps, but are otherwise still gaining the same selection of outdoor adventuring features via watchOS 10. If you're deciding between the Ultra and a regular Apple Watch, it mostly comes down to how much outdoor activity you plan to do and whether those features are worth double the price. For most people, the Apple Watch Series 9 offers more than enough, which is why it earns our Editors' Choice award. But for its target market of hard-core adventurers, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is a compelling alternative.
