The Apple Watch Ultra 4 has officially launched, perfecting the familiar rugged design and bringing some cool new features on board. Apple showed the fourth iteration of the Watch Ultra during the "Surprise and Shine" event on September 9, alongside the Apple Watch 12 series (and the new iPhone 18 devices).
Same rugged design we all know and love
No big changes to the Watch Ultra 4 design. | Image by Apple
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 features the same overall design as its predecessor. The new model retains the overall shape and signature 49 mm footprint of the previous model, along with the Digital Crown and Action Button.
We've grown accustomed to the Grade 5 Titanium build of the Watch Ultra, and the fourth generation doesn't disappoint. The Watch Ultra 4 comes equipped with the same IP68(9) certified titanium case, offering water resistance up to 100 m. The watch is also swimproof up to 40 m and is also MIL-STD-810H compliant, just like its predecessor.
This military standard covers temperature, altitude, and mechanical resilience. The Watch Ultra 4 can actively operate on your wrist in temperatures ranging from -20°C (-4°F) up to 55°C (131°F), work at altitudes up to 29,500 feet (9,000 meters), and survive the occasional drop (or a bump into a rock during that Everest climb).
The redesigned Health app on iPhone features a new Insights tab. | Images by Apple
Powering the Ultra 4 is a next-generation Apple S11 processor built to deliver faster performance alongside significant power efficiency gains. Apple kept the tick-tock cycle of upgrading the silicon inside Watch Ultra every generation.
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This additional power is more than welcome because Apple is launching the Watch Ultra 4 running watchOS 27 out of the box. We all know what this means, right? Welcome, smarter Siri!
The new Health Sensing System and S11 chip take Apple Watch Ultra 4 — our most rugged and capable Apple Watch — to the next level, delivering longer battery life, faster charging, and the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable. With powerful health and fitness insights including readiness, new intelligent features, and its large, bright display, Apple Watch Ultra 4 is designed to support you wherever you go, from your workouts, to adventures, to everything you tackle in a day.
- Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Apple Watch Product Marketing
Apple Intelligence now uses your health baselines, recent workout data, and sleep quality to answer complex, natural-language health queries directly on the wrist. Instead of simple voice commands, users can also ask Siri conversational questions like "How ready am I for an intense trail run today based on my sleep and recovery score?" or "Analyze my last three weightlifting sessions and suggest target weights for today."
Siri can also pull contextual information from Messages, Mail, Apple Notes, and Calendar (such as flight details, confirmation codes, or notes summaries) to answer complex queries or message contacts. Furthermore, Siri AI seamlessly syncs cross-device conversations, allowing users to start a query on their iPhone and pick it up instantly on the Ultra 4.
Audio Intelligence is making debut on the Apple Watch Ultra 4. | Images by Apple
Audio Intelligence is another cool new feature. It recognizes sounds around you and flags sirens, alarms, baby crying, etc. Things you might want to check out. You can also use the watch to review up to 15 seconds of audio and transcribe it on your Apple Watch Ultra 4 screen. Apple calls it Live Rewind, and you can use Siri to get additional information about the transcription, save it in the Siri app, and more.
Siri Recap works in a similar way. It listens to your conversations and offers you notes and key takeaways from meetings in the form of Apple Intelligence-generated title, summary and key points.
Do you think the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is a decent upgrade?
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Improved Health and Fitness tracking
Apple Watch Ultra 4 brings updated heart rate sensing and a higher-frequency (HRV) measurements. | Image by Apple
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 refines health and fitness tracking (the company calls it Health Sensing now) with new sensor hardware, upgraded software algorithms, and new Health app, all baked in watchOS 27.
Apple has redesigned the three key elements in the sensing arrays. The electrodes cover more surface area and allow for better contact with your skin, the photo sensing diodes are placed in a ring shape for better accuracy, and the green LEDs are more powerful and efficient.
The new Readiness metric on the Apple Watch Ultra 4. | Image by Apple
The watch debuts a dedicated Readiness app, built directly into the watchOS 27 home screen, which analyzes sleep duration, heart rate variability (HRV), and vital baseline health and fitness shifts to generate a daily readiness score similar to what Whoop and Oura have been doing lately.
A good night sleep primes you for action. | Image by Apple
The app gives you a score between 0-10 with additional recommendation depending on your readiness: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. Readiness also updates as new data comes in, so you can take a break and improve your score before going on that late night run.
The upgraded sensor array allows for more frequent heart rate and HRV measurements. | Image by Apple
On the cardiovascular front, the new optical sensor array enables more frequent heart-rate data polling, once every five seconds. HRV, a key indicator of stress and recovery, is now measured up to 24 times more often and available to view in a new section of the Heart Rate app. All medical data, daily activity metrics, and fitness trends can be found in the redesigned Health app.
How much does all this cost?
The good news is that Apple managed to keep the price of the new watch identical to its predecessor. The Apple Watch Ultra 4 now starts at $799 for the standard titanium model with GPS + cellular connectivity. It's available in two color options - natural titanium and black titanium. The Watch Ultra 4 can be pre-ordered today and it'll hit the stores on September 18.
Should you get the new Apple Watch Ultra 4?
Overall, I expected more from the "Surprise and Shine" event when it comes to the Apple Watch Ultra 4. There were rumors about a Touch ID sensor, a ceramic version, and a slimmer, sleeker design. In the end, Apple peddled a lot of watchOS software features, and people are wondering whether they will come to older Apple Watch Ultra models.
Watch Ultra 3 owners are wondering whether the new updates will trickle down to their model. | Image by Reddit
There are several threads on Reddit featuring the new Apple Watch Ultra 4, and most comments point out the lack of upgrades and new hardware features. The new chipset might be faster, but its main purpose seems to be feature-locking the new software bells and whistles to the latest models.
Are these new tricks enough to make you upgrade to the Watch Ultra 4, or are you more inclined to hold on to your current Apple Watch and wait for these features to potentially trickle down?
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Mariyan, a tech enthusiast with a background in Nuclear Physics and Journalism, brings a unique perspective to PhoneArena. His childhood curiosity for gadgets evolved into a professional passion for technology, leading him to the role of Editor-in-Chief at PCWorld Bulgaria before joining PhoneArena. Mariyan's interests range from mainstream Android and iPhone debates to fringe technologies like graphene batteries and nanotechnology. Off-duty, he enjoys playing his electric guitar, practicing Japanese, and revisiting his love for video games and Haruki Murakami's works.
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