Apple have recently released their first rugged version of the Apple Watch, dubbed the Ultra. It promises a lot of improvements over the standard versions which caught my eye, so I ordered one. This is my first foray into the world of smartwatches, and a reluctant one because I’m not a big fan of them, but the Ultra has been better than I expected. So, how is it?
First: Sanity Check
There is a very small subset of people that need a smartwatch. There’s an even smaller number of people that need an Apple Watch Ultra, Garmin, or other equivalents. For general fitness the ideal is to know your body well enough that you can stay in your ideal shape without any tracking whatsoever. But, if you do need more precise calorie or activity tracking, you’re better off with a distraction free fitness band instead of a watch.
Also, aesthetically, there isn’t a smartwatch that can compete with traditional timepieces. For about the same price as the ultra you could get a Seiko Presage like the one below. It will look much better and last decades. Plus, it won’t blast your wrists with radiation. With these out of the way, let’s get on with the review
Aesthetics
It looks decent for a “rugged” watch, but it’s still a rectangular slab of screen with some titanium on the edges. The “international orange” accents are also not great looking in my opinion, something more discreet would have worked better. Using the always on display to keep the watch face active does improve it’s looks somewhat but it also drains the battery quicker. The sapphire crystal does nothing for the appearance like in mechanical watches, it’s just flat blackness most of the time.
I’ve looked through all of the watch faces and even though they’re useful (you can configure complications to display whatever you want on most of them), I feel like the aesthetics are not there yet. They look decent, but not great. A lot of them try to replicate mechanical watch designs, but they don’t really work on this square format. Maybe take some inspiration from good looking square watches? (Tag Heuer Monaco comes to mind)
The alpine band looks very good, even if it’s made of synthetic fibers (let’s call it what it is, plastic). Which brings me to…
Build Quality
Why does Apple put plastic bands on “health and fitness” watches? Especially with their entire “sustainability” propaganda. I think natural materials would have done better here. I have a cotton nato strap and it seems just as sturdy and comfortable as this, even if the finish is not the same.
I can’t really fault the build quality of the rest of the watch, it feels like it can take more of a beating than any other mechanical, quartz, or smartwatch I’ve interacted with. The button feel isn’t as good as on a quality mechanical chronograph for instance, but it’s ok. The digital crown haptic feedback is nice. The screen doesn’t get scratched, and the band inserts into the case have very low tolerance and no play. The satin finish on the titanium is nicely done, with a polished bezel. The ceramic back is well built and integrated too, impressive overall.
Wear
Much better than expected. Even though it’s large for my wrists theoretically (49 mm), because of the square shape it feels and looks a bit smaller to me. The titanium and ceramic make it unexpectedly light, and ergonomically it sits very well on the wrist, you forget about it quickly.
When they first launched the Apple Watch I didn’t understand why they went with the square shape, except as an attempt to be different. But after working out with this, it makes sense, even if it looks worse. With a round watch at this size I would have banged my wrist into the crown while doing pushups or something similar, but with this I retain full wrist mobility.
Functionality
General operation is smooth and snappy. Any slowness I ran into was because of badly written apps.
I like that the screen is bright enough to be used as a flashlight, it’s also clearly visible outside on sunny days. Opening your Mac automagically when wearing the watch is also nice.
There are lots of watch faces and colors which makes it easy to switch contexts (city/hiking for me for instance).
There’s also a night time watch face that you can access by turning the crown upwards, it’s a monochrome red design, which is my favourite of the bunch.
I got this device with the hope that I can leave my phone at home and use this as a replacement, and it can do that to an extent. You either have to have bluetooth headphones or have your calls on speaker, which lessens the experience a bit. The other notable exception for me is the lack of a Whatsapp Apple Watch app. Otherwise you can use messages on it, payments work well, you can navigate, etc. It’s very capable on its own.
Battery life is also good, I can use it for 2-3 days but without wearing it while sleeping, I thought I would find charging annoying, but it isn’t really. But this is with pretty conservative settings (no always on display, low brightness, not a lot of apps loaded on it).
Fitness Tracking
Tracking works well, not sure about the accuracy but you can mitigate it by selecting the correct workouts and using reputable workout apps. It is good enough for most people. You have to get third party apps to do deep dives into your fitness but the stock workouts app and health data is enough for most.
Anecdotally it seems more accurate than the previous Fitbits I’ve owned, those couldn’t register high heart rates (140+) whereas this does it.
Conclusion
This is the first Apple Watch that interested me, because it looked a little bit less geek-chic, and the battery life + cellular capability can make it a replacement for a phone sometimes. It doesn’t look amazing even if to me it’s better than the other variants, but it is very comfortable and capable.
Overall I can’t really recommend it for most people. It’s an indulgence. For fitness tracking you’re better off with something like a Fitbit or the regular Apple Watches for much less money, and as a smartwatch it’s not necessary, your phone is enough.
If interested you can find out more about the watch here