Apple Watch Ultra 2

A tough smartwatch made from recycled materials

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the first watch Apple has made that comes from 95% recycled materials for the casing. Reusing these materials doesn’t detract at all from the overall durability of the watch itself, where the aerospace-grade titanium body can handle the rigours of an active lifestyle. You can still take this watch further, deeper and higher than any other Apple Watch.

It’s available in the one 49mm size, also making it larger and thicker than any other Apple smartwatch. A sapphire display keeps everything rigid to ward off any nicks or scratches as you strap the Ultra 2 on your wrist for every adventure you have in mind. It will also be easier to see what’s happening on the watch because of the brighter display. With 3000 nits of peak brightness, the Ultra 2 is much brighter than the original Apple Watch Ultra. Bright sunny days or pitch black nights won’t be a problem while wearing it.

There is also a new watch face called Modular Ultra that displays useful information along the edges of the screen, like altitude, depth and seconds. Night mode can activate on its own when the Ultra 2 detects ambient light is low enough.

These smarter features help battery life last longer too. Apple rates it at 36 hours per charge, hitting 72 hours in Low Power mode. The screen can lower brightness all the way down to 1 nit to preserve battery in those crucial times where you need to keep going.

Tap your finger without the rigour

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 also comes with a new feature called Double Tap to let you use certain features on the device without touching it. All you need to do it tap your index finger and thumb together twice to make it work, which emulates the watch’s own action button for a hands-free way to access the right controls.

You can answer an incoming phone call by just doing a Double Tap, and then do it again when it’s time to hang up. Pause music doing the same thing, and then pick it back up again with the same gesture. Snooze an alarm when you’re not ready yet to wake up. More features will come to expand on this further with additional ways to make this cool feature even more accessible. It’s a great way to interact with the Ultra 2 during an exercise to keep your hands free and phone out of sight.

Talk to Siri anytime—no Internet or phone required

Apple equipped the Watch Ultra 2 with its latest S9 chipset, powering features like Double Tap and new ways to talk to Siri. The neural engine within the chip enables Siri to listen for commands and queries, and then act on them without having to send the text data to Apple’s servers first. Machine learning on the chip uses natural language learning models to better interpret what you say without the connection.

Because of that, you can simply tell Siri to start and stop a workout anytime you want. For the first time, Siri will be able to directly access data on the Health app, letting you pull up details and logs by asking for them so you know where you stand with your activity goals. With a 25% improvement in overall accuracy, Siri will be more reliable under every circumstance, including when you have network connectivity.

Safety in numbers wearing this Apple Watch

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has safety in mind at all times. That’s why you will get the same Crash Detection and SOS Emergency features introduced in previous models. The Ultra 2 is smart enough to know when there’s been a crash or collision and contact first responders for help when you’re unable to do so. SOS Emergency is a lifeline in any tough situation where you need to call for help, which you can do without your phone because of the built-in LTE connectivity.

You can also worry less about losing your iPhone or AirPods when paired with the Ultra 2. The new Ultra Wideband 2 chip takes location-tracking to new lengths in finding devices like that after you’ve misplaced or lost them with a new feature called Precision Finder. This is very applicable to iPhone 15 devices that have the same U2 chip. With two U2 devices paired together, Precision Finder is more direct and precise in tracking down exactly where that missing or lost iPhone is, pointing you in the right direction while haptic feedback vibrates to let you know you’re getting closer.