Ever since Apple launched the first Apple Watch about 7 years ago, things haven’t stayed the same in the smartwatch arena. Like all things Apple, they revolutionized the watches industry. From a simple looking, needles bearing and only time telling to donning the smart avatar, watches have really seen it all.
The Apple Watch was launched more as a fashion accessory than the current narrative around health and safety. With its call-taking and answering abilities, people all of a sudden started feeling like being in a Sci-fi movie!
Truth be told, even though my first smart experience dates back to the late 90’s when I somehow stumbled upon Timex Datalink, I was amazed at how you could transfer the data by just opening the software on your PC, adding contact details, pressing the transfer button while pointing the watch at the monitor screen, seeing the screen go all berserk, and in a few seconds you were greeted by the message, “Data transfer has been completed!” And I couldn’t feel much less than a guy from Street Hawk!
Those were the days and since then nothing really trickled in that space as much as an Apple Watch! Even though I had my eyes set on a Suunto for a while, staying invested in the Apple ecosystem does have some advantages. For one, tighter pairing with the iPhone kind of nailed it for me.
And as we continue to grow a year older, Apple machine kept churning out yearly revisions that were nothing more than cosmetic changes. It was the ECG in Series 4 that put Apple ahead of the competition and offered yet another incentive for non-Apple users and users on the fence to go buy one.
The other fundamental shift is what we are seeing now with their newest Series 8 model, more so with the Ultra!
I mentioned my initial thoughts here already but the more I dive deeper into the subject, the more it starts to uncover its true value; is it all hunky-dory? Is it the ultimate end game?
Well, like most things in life; it DEPENDS.
While the basic features are common across the Series 8 variants of SE, the normal, and the Ultra. But it is the Ultra you are here about, I know I know!
The entire S8 lineup is powered by the new Si8 or S8 chip and this is as far as the hardware similarities between them go, save for a few more sensors and components. The look is definitely different but not as much that you can’t distinguish it from the Apple-design style.
Let’s see what the Ultra offers and what it translates into the real world.
Size: The first of Ultra that you observe is how big it is in comparison to its sisters! At 49mm, it is big!
For comparison, let’s look at the image below, the watches are in their size proportions. You can immediately assess the kind of footprint ( read: watch print), it’s going to have.
With its increased size, you can now accommodate more complications ( more tiny widgets, for non-Apple watch users) at once. These complications provide an immediate view into multiple pieces of information each time you raise the wrist.
For non-Apple Watch users, these complications look like this:
Apps can take advantage of these small little pieces spread neatly across your watch face, with Ultra, you get a lot more to see at once.
Speaking of, Ultra can actually display the ‘compass’ dial alongside the clock and all the others you want. This is highly critical info for adventurers out in the wild to stay on course.
While maps are used all the time, for places in the unknown territories you can’t use them to set the directions, not always at least. This is where another nifty feature called Compass Waypoints comes in handy. You drop a waypoint of the point of interest or where you started your hike from, keep dropping it along the way until you decide to come back, at which point you refer to these waypoints to backtrack! I think I kinda like it already.
It is not just the watch face that gives you all that, it would be a shame to advertise it as a sports watch for extreme athletes and then not even be able to see what’s shown, right? Well, worry not. Ultra gets the brightest ever display in any watch at 2000 nits – it is super bright! And that’s another strike on all other S8 versions.
Ultra now gets dual-frequency GPSs to help navigate without relying on cellular connectivity, which by the way Ultra offers by default.
While Temperature sensing and Crash Detection is also available on the regular S8 version, Ultra gets another super important feature – a Siren. This gets too loud to a level that you see the sound meter on your Apple Watch turn red. This could be useful in places where if you got lost or injured and there’s no one around, 86db of this Siren sound could reach all the earthlings up to 600 feet! And you could be rest assured, help is on the way! And if you drifted too far away from the gang, you could use that Satellite messaging feature of the new iPhone 14s.
Apple also created a dedicated action button to help launch an app or an action immediately, it could be mapped with the Depth app, a workout session, dropping a waypoint, and more or long-press enough to trigger the Siren – neat!
Driving all these extremely power-hungry resources is not an easy feat and one of the reasons this Ultra looks bulky is because of the monstrous battery with the capacity to keep it running for 36 hours, which with a future software update will be extended to a whopping 60 hours*.
Apple knew the target audience, heck I’m even sure they had been working with them at Mt. Everest summit to figure out all that hikers are challenged with, and diving in Great Blue Hole, Belize to get the real feel of what’s at stake under those dark waters and hence the end result: an engineering marvel with military-grade protection, and with all the ultra features driving its name, I guess.
One of the clear indicators of how deeply Apple got involved to understand athletes is how the Digital Crown is designed, it is now bigger with more tactile feedback to allow its usage even while wearing gloves.
All of it comes at a price and at $799, this ain’t cheap!
If anything, the Ultra makes you responsible. You can buy it, wear it and flaunt it all you want but are you worthy? Unless you start picking up traits of an athlete or an adventurer, you are not! And hence all that money you’d have spent would just tell others – you are a show-off!
Saying again, with Ultra comes the responsibility – the responsibility to prove you are worthy.
And I sincerely hope, Ultra pushes you to the edge, to get you doing things you always wanted but never had the drive to pick. Now is your time!
