Today, Apple has announced the biggest shift to their Apple Watch product lineup since launch, by announcing the new Apple Watch Ultra, which is targeted at the endurance athlete. This new watch has increased battery life, an added button, larger digital crown, dual-frequency GPS, redesigned compass, night mode, dive computer mode, and plenty more. It’s Apple’s first go at competing with companies like Garmin and others in the endurance sports watch market.

However, that’s not the only watch Apple announced today. They also announced a revamped Apple Watch Series 8, which adds in a temperature sensor for improved cycle/ovulation tracking. Plus, added crash detection for vehicular driving (it already has sports-focused crash detection). Further, this watch has a new Low Power Mode which doubles the battery life.

And finally, there’s a slightly updated Apple Watch SE (now 2nd gen), that updates the internal chipsets and adds in crash detection, all while reducing the price.

With that, let’s dive into the Ultra model first in this post, with the Apple Watch Series 8 and SE coming in two more posts momentarily.

This is Apple’s newest product line, which carries the Apple Watch Ultra name, and is specifically designed for the endurance athlete and adventure crowd. I’ll walk through the watch below, but first up, a quick hit list of key differences:

– Increased display size to 49mm – New titanium case with sapphire glass display – Added a new button, called the Action button, designed for glove usage – Increased size of the rotating digital crown for glove usage – Increased water resistance to WR100 (100m) for dive usage – Added an extra speaker for louder outside volume – Now has three microphones for wind-cancellation audio – Added an 80db alarm siren, for emergency usage/attention – Cellular is built into every Apple Watch Ultra – Increased standby battery life to 36 hours, or up to 60 hours in Low Power Mode – Added Low Power Workout Mode, which Apple says can handle an Ironman race (with GPS). – Increased Display Brightness to 2,000 Nits – Added temperature sensor for improved cycle tracking (also on Watch 8) – Added revamped compass app with track back option – Added new dive computer mode, along with a partnership for a dedicated dive computer app – Added vehicular crash detection (also on Watch 8/Watch SE 2nd Gen) – Price is $799USD, shipping on Sept 23rd

This is all in addition to all the existing Apple Watch related features.

So, let’s dive through all these things individually. First up is that titanium case, with a front sapphire glass crystal (similar to most high-end watches), with a new larger 49mm display – the largest Apple Watch to date. Here it is compared to an Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm).

New added button, the so-called Action Button, while the digital crown has been increased, with both designed for glove usage. You can use the action button to precisely start the run (versus the 3-second countdown), as well as change sports in a triathlon, or to mark laps.

Later in 2022, Apple will add Track Running mode, to ensure that laps are accurately recorded. This sounds similar to what we’ve seen from COROS/Garmin/Wahoo in recent years.

Next, they’ve added an extra speaker for louder volume, while having three concurrent mics for better audio quality (mic quality) by using those mics to do wind cancelation. This is similar to what most action cams on the market do.

Additionally, as part of this new speaker arrangement, there’s a new 80db emergency siren in case you need to alert people nearby (such as falling off the trail).

Cellular is built into every Apple Watch Ultra, with 36 hours of battery life on a single charge, or up to 60 hours of battery life with a new battery setting that’ll launch later this fall. There’s a new low-power workout mode too, which they claimed will (specifically) be able to do an Ironman event on a single Apple Watch charge. However, there’s no details yet on exactly what is reduced in that low-power workout mode (in other words, what sacrifices you have to make), more on that soon.

Apple Watch Ultra includes a new multi-band/dual-frequency GPS chipset, across both L1 and L5. Multi-band is potentially useful in deep city environments, as well as cliffs and other satellite blocking scenarios. In doing so, they’ve joined the COROS/Garmin/Huawei camp when it comes to higher GPS track accuracy. Of course, this is something I’m keen to put to the test in the coming weeks. As we’ve seen with other multi-band implementations, accuracy can range from astounding to meh.

There’s a new watch face called “Way Finder”, which has a built-in compass.

However, the bigger deal here is actually the revamped compass app. That app does more than just be a compass, it also includes the ability to save waypoints, navigate back with a Back Track, and otherwise keep track of where you’ve been using GPS when outside doing a hike/walk. I can tap to save any point I want, give it a name and label color, and then refer/navigate back to it later.

For scuba divers, they’ve added a WR100 rating, including a new depth gauge app showing water temp, underwater time, and current depth. It’s been certified to EN13319 for dive computers.  However, they’ve also partnered with Huish Outdoors to create a dive computer app, called Ocean+ dive app, for recreation diving, down to depths of 120ft:

This includes a full dive app that covers the most common dive features that you’d find on most recreation-focused dive apps. It includes decomp limits, ascent/descent rates, and a safety stop. The app is designed to use the new button and digital crown with gloves, so you won’t have to worry about the whole touchscreen mess underwater. That app will come later this fall.

Finally, each of the three Apple Watch Ultra editions comes with one of three different Loop watch bands. These are Ocean Loop (left), Trail Loop (middle), and Alpine Loop (right). I show them extensively in the video above, along with the different colors they have for each.

In trying on these watches pretty extensively for the better part of 2 hours, my hands-down favorite is the Trail Loop. The Ocean Band is good too. I’m not a fan of the Alpine Loop though. More specifically, I’m not a fan of taking it on and off. I think it looks brilliant by itself, or once on my wrist, but it’s a solid PITA to take on/off. Perhaps that gets better over a longer duration of usage.

Apple Watch Ultra is priced at $799 (just one model, but different bands), and available starting September 23rd (ordering today).

Apple Watch Ultra makes clear that Apple is getting into that outdoors/ultra/adventure realm. The hardware features they’ve added around ease of use in tough conditions, such as snow/rain/underwater, will set them on a course to clearly start making gains in this realm.

One has to keep in mind that the outdoors/ultra/adventure realm is massive, not just in market, but more specifically, in application. Meaning, there’s countless use cases here, and Apple appears to be lightly dipping into many of them. Take for example the triathlon or ultra running scenarios. Here, they provide the foundations for those sports and the ability for you to use Apple Watch Ultra to complete those activities successfully. However, Apple stops short of the depth of sport analytics and deeper fitness software features that you’d find in endurance-sports focused watches.

The assumption of course being that the Apple App ecosystem can build some of that out, which is definitely true. Yet in other areas, Apple seems keen to do that themselves, even for ostensibly niche things like running power and running efficiency metrics. Obviously, this is just the start of Apple’s interest in deeper outdoors-focused sport adventures, so they have to start somewhere on that massive list, and Apple Watch Ultra seems well poised to begin that journey.

Stay tuned for a full in-depth review down the road!

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked. If you would like a profile picture, simply register at Gravatar, which works here on DCR and across the web.

Subscribe me to the newsletter

I would like to support DCR and enjoy ad-free DC Rainmaker ($20 per year).

 Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.

You can click here to Subscribe without commenting

i waited 8 watch generations i guess for apple to finally release this lol. bought one immediately. we’ll see what the drawbacks will be, but unless you’re out there for days at a time, this will be a tough watch to beat. and scuba diving?! way awesome.

have you ever seen Garmin Epix II?

yes. i use other watches for mountain running and running in general but not a garnin fan.

They’re somewhat different propositions. The music, payment and user experience in general are aeons behind Apple (I’m wearing a Fenix 7X as I write this, btw) and the addition of cellular make the Ultra a verrrry nice “good enough” for a very large number of people. A few years from now we will be looking at quite a different market, I suspect. I’ve seen it referred to as Garmin’s “Nokia moment” and I broadly expect that to be the case.

I’m returning my Epix II for the Apple Watch Ultra, Garmin should have included cellular into the Epix II.

I’m ordering one, and running it alongside my Fenix 7X for a bit. It’s a great package, and I suspect that bar topo maps, it’s going to do everything I need it to do. Having cellular, diving, better running metrics, Fitness+ connectivity for rowing, and all the usual AW/iOS integration is seriously compelling.

I wonder how much third party app developers will work on adding in depth support for their favorite sports. Since Apple is notorious for rejecting existing apps when it wants to enter a given field, why should developers spend any time making an app that potentially will get rejected from the app store at Apple’s whim?

Maybe the more niche sports have little to worry about, but in depth running or cycling analytics on the watch is probably going to languish until Apple writes it themselves.

I really wish they had an option for people with tiny wrists. Not only big buff guys do endurance/outdoor stuff. What about us petite girls?! I was an early adopter of the Apple Watch, and have upgraded regularly. The ultra looks awesome, and love the siren feature, which could also be useful for warding off weirdos and worse who are getting too close to me on my run, but I do not have nearly enough wrist real estate for 49 mm. Sigh 🙁

I can’t wear any of the ‘normal’ watches, I’m on a Fenix 7S and that’s a big as I can go, I have amazingly skinny wrists but my first gen apple watch still works for short term wearing. The Fenix is my day to day but I’ve been thinking of the 41mm Series 8 but it won’t last a full IM which is pretty sad.

Right there with you. Very disappointed that Apple seems to have completely ignored the female segment of the outdoors/athlete demographic.

There’s definitely guys with this “issue” too. I’m 180cm tall, so not short but I’m skinny. I’ve tried some of the larger Garmin devices and they overhang my wrists and move about which affects the HR readings. I have a Fenix 6S because it fits me properly. This new Apple Watch would look like a pizza box on my wrist. Fortunately, for me, I think it’s really ugly and lacks features that my Fenix has so it’s not a concern for me right now

Same here but shorter. I’ve found the Coros Apex Pro to fit my slim wrist quite well. Waaay better than my old Suunto Ambit 3.

Small-wristed male here – it’s not just females!

I wrote this post back in early 2020 where I hoped they’d release a ‘widescreen’ Apple Watch – I.e. essentially take a Series 3 or 4 and just double the width. It would allow two apps to run side by side, increase the number of visible metrics, or mapping, etc. I still wish they’d consider this…… I can even see myself being happy to wear this daily also: under a shirt/jumper? have a setting where only half the OLED screen is powered up……

I wear an Apple watch (44mm series 5) daily, and wear a Garmin for most activities, and would like to have this more capable Apple Watch. But, as a guy with smaller wrists, I worry that the Ultra is too big for me — it’s larger and heavier than the Forerunner 935. If there was a 45mm version of the Ultra with slightly less battery life, I would have purchased that already. I also don’t really like wearing watches do not want larger, heavier watch. I’m debating between the nicer size series 8 and more capable but potentially too large Ultra. And the more time I spend thinking about it, I suspect the more I’m going to want to spend less money now and hold off for an equally capable, but smaller, Ultra 3 or 4 in a couple of years.

Why you think so? Temperature measue is not for man. Big battery requires big chassis, so not for man but a need. The design regular apple watch has woman asthetics. I’m tired of costant woman complains and always being a victim

What about maps, i use mapping all the time on my Epix 2. This is the main focus for cycling and running for me. Does the ultra have any maps offline use??

I don’t believe they purposely ignored the demographic. I think it’s more of a component sizing issue (that’s a lot of tech to cram into even a 49MM case). I suspect in time as technology advances and components shrink, they’ll come out with a smaller version….there are dudes with small wrists too that they’re missing out on.

I had asked about the scratch resistance of the crystal, given how prone the 7 was to scratching. Perhaps you intended this reply for somebody else?

There’s an excellent app called WorkOutDoors which has maps with preloaded gpx routes. You transfer the routes to your watch and the app also has the option to download maps for off-the-grid use. My goto app for hiking on my apple watch 7, soon to be replaced with the Ultra.

What is really cool is, if you sign up to be a WorkOutDoors beta tester (not entirely sure how to do that) the developer said he wants to get an app update out to those testers to work with the new 49mm screen and size within days to weeks after the official launch day of the Ultra. Over on MacRumors in a forum specific to the WorkOutDoors app the developer regularly posts on there and seems like a really responsive and cool guy. He takes suggestions too.

Not sure, if you don’t know of that already: link to workoutdoors.net

Best app mapwise for me, has blown my Garmins & Polars out of the water. Incredible easy and smooth to use with the digital crown.

You can have non-routable topo maps on AW today. If maps are really that important to you on the bike, I’d suggest an Edge, Karoo or Elemnt is what you’re after.

Really hope it will support this!

Not natively, but via 3rd party apps.

Workoutdoors (link to workoutdoors.net) supports maps and power meters (Bluetooh LE, not ANT) quite well and even supports running pods like Stryd

Does anyone know how long this Ultra will last in GPS mode while doing a long outdoor cycling activity? Assuming no LTE usage during this activity also. They say it can do a full IronMan but elsewhere I read that GPS will last up to 10 hours. 10 hours will clearly not get anyone though a full IM. Thanks for your help.

Up to 36 hours. 18 hours with LTE.

Can one use the button(s) (“programmable” or not) for both start and stop in a workout app?

Does the watch provide GPS lock indication, so that one knows when one can begin an outdoor workout?

The hardware design doesn’t really scream “Apple” in the way I would have expected. Perhaps there is a limit to how much function you can force into a specific form after all.

In response to the less-pretty Apple I suspect we’ll see a more-pretty Garmin at some point.

The “more pretty” Garmin is the Epix. For more money and without the full cellular features of the Apple Watch and the whole app ecosystem, I’d guess a lot of people may give the Apple a shot. Ray’s full review will illuminate more, but Ape doesn’t produce many duds.

Yes, the (notch) for the crown/button, looks really cheap/ugly, did they have to do that?

It’s called a crown guard and it’s one of the oldest diving watch technologies ever invented: link to fratellowatches.com

I could live with the shorter battery life – but would need custom workouts, custom routes, topo maps of trails, cycling power/cadence support, program a workout in it to run my smart trainer, body battery and training and recovery metrics (first beat stuff), and a slew of sport modes, customization of screens on all of them, etc.

Basically, I need nearly everything my Fenix 6P does. Spoiled. can’t live without it all.

Same. I’m going to get one, but I was going to order a S8 anyway in stainless steel. I might as well spend the same and get the Ultra.

I expect Apple will be faster than Garmin to innovate on the software and analysis side once they put their mind to it. I think a lot of folks depend on Strava or other 3rd party services since Garmin’s is lacking.

It’ll be interesting to see how other device manufacturers can reapond

You mean a lot of people rely on Strava since Apple/WearOS is lacking.

Garmin/Coros/Polar offer everything Strava offers and a whole lot more.

I haven’t seen any mention of navigation, turn-by-turn, GPX course import, etc. Do you think they will add this, or allow 3rd parties (Ride With GPS, Strava) to implement it?

Apps will definitely support all of that. By next year or the year after, it’ll likely be baked in.

Run Outdoors has supported this for years and recently added Topo maps.

Also surprised the Ultra doesn’t have a first-party  hiking/navigation/etc app. Many of the third-party apps have creepy tracking/privacy behaviors.

Really? I don’t see any mention of topo maps. Just the vector maps it’s always had. Can you point me to where I can read about the topo maps? Is this in beta or something?

Yeah, but are they routable?

link to mobile.twitter.com

It was added as an option in an update a few months ago. They’re using ‘ThunderForest’ as the provider

Download the iPhone app and you will see the option for Topo maps

So is track mode exclusive to the Ultra?

Did they mention bike power and heart rate broadcast?

Neither supported at this point natively, though, 3rd party apps for both.

Not sure 3rd party apps for HR broadcast is telling the whole story.

Apple are hopelessly restrictive on HR broadcast. Unless your fitness device supports “works with Apple watch” (like Peloton bike+ for example, where you just bring watch to screen et voila), you have to use an app like blueheart, which requires you to both run it, and leave it open, on your phone screen, which then transmits the data via your phone’s Bluetooth to whatever device.

This makes it totally hopeless for things like cycling computers, but ok for things like indoor/yoga type workouts (I was using it for linking to peloton’s app on my ipad for yoga type workouts, because ridiculously it couldn’t natively pick up the apple watch)

Oh, I’m definitely not saying it’s a good thing. Just that it’s a thing.

Another option is the Heartbeatz device from NPE. It requires running the app on your watch but the device broadcasts easily to my Garmin 530. Obviously not ideal, but I’d rather have another device stored on my bike than another strap to wear.

I am extremely excited for this space to heat up. Although it’s not on this article, I am still mind blown that iPhone 14 Pro will have emergency sos communication via satellite. I’m one presentation Apple came swinging for the inReach line up and the endurance sports world today. I really only have an inReach because I don’t want to not have help. With the iPhone having it built in I have no reason for the inReach anymore.

I still have a lot of questions about the Apple Watch Ultra though. How does the dual frequency GPS work if you have an iPhone nearby? Does it no longer use the iPhone GPS? I read online that heart rate sampling will be less in the “60 hour mode” so it remains to be seen how accurate the tracking will be. My final question is the scratch resistance of the titanium. Does it have something similar to DLC? When I owned a uncoated Fenix 6 in titanium you could breathe on that thing and it would leave a mark. I appreciate that titanium is being used with how big it is, but question the durability compared to the DLC coated stainless steel models of the Apple Watch I would buy. I guess will see.

If an iPhone is nearby it uses the GPS from the iPhone (still). The whole low-power things is really fuzzy still, especially the differences between non-workout and workout low power modes. I’ve got more meetings tomorrow to dig into that.

I’ll add your DLC questions to the list.

Hardly. InReach devices have profound advantages both in hardware and satellite technology/coverage. Garmin utilizes Iridium Satellite Communications which is available worldwide whereas Apple relies upon Globalstar– hence why it is being limited to the United States and Canada. The Apple’s “Emergency SOS via Satellite” is a fine solution for iPhone users doing one or two day outdoor activities where LTE coverage may be weak.

If you’re serious about extreme adventuring and surviving, you pick InReach.

I’ve used InReach all over NZ, on land, sea kayaking, and flying. You can wait a long time for InReach to make a connection, and longer still for weather updates. Tracking pings have been variable at best. You can guarantee that Apple are going to do this better in due course.

Doubtful. Just in the same way the Apple Watch will never support ANT+ or other software integrations/features, the iPhone will never be aimed at the upper end and compete with solutions for extreme situations or industries that depend on Iridium Satellite Communications.

The iPhone 14 Emergency SOS via Satellite is a solution ideal for Instagram users who slip and fall trying to get a photo of Antelope Canyon.

The iPhone 14 Pro has the same L2+L5 gps as the watch ultra, so when the watch offloads gps tracking tyou should get the benefit of the better GPS, provided you phone isn’t under your water bottle in your Solomon running pack (doh).

They aren’t going to be doing it better unless they start paying to launch their own satellites (whether designed by them or pay someone else to). They jave the money to do it, but operators there would not take them barging in kindly.

And launch capacity is extremely tight.

Any word on if the AW relying on the phones GPS when they’re connected functions any differently? With multi-band on the watch i really hope this is configurable now. Rely on the phone to maximize battery, watch to maximize accuracy.

This has been one of my major complaints with Apple. They are always trying to make it “just work”. And not giving you the option of making it work the way you want it to. When I was using my Apple Watch and had my phone, it not only would use the phone GPS but burn the batteries of both to send the data (so I don’t think it really helps battery that much). Now when I run and have my phone I just put it in Airplane mode unless I need to use it for something (mostly I just don’t take my phone).

It still relies on the phone for GPS if said phone is in range.

Interesting wording on the iPhone 14 Pro specs page. It appears as though it also has dual frequency GPS now. That itself is interesting and can assist with even LONGER battery life.

And if you switch off gps on the phone ? does the watch fallback to internal gps despites being connected to the phone ?

Coming from Fenix 6X Pro to Epic2 now, I am new to the apple watch. I don’t know much about it and haven’t had much interest either because I tought it is hook into something that I don’t need and it feels like a fad. I am happy about Apple about the trend into endurance sports. But something I noticed with apple phones, if I wanted something to fit my niche then I need to pay for a third party app. Will this be the same senario with the apple watch? Will I have to pay for 3rd party app to track data that I want? I have been happy with not paying for for 3rd party apps on my Garmin watches.

Your data is there for free within Apple Health, and the new Fitness app definitely has increased the amount of data it displays for workouts. Yet at the same time, it’s a far cry from the depth you’d find for the analytics side from Garmin.

You could use 3rd party apps like HealthFit to bridge that gap at a very low one time price.

Yeah. And just imagine the amount of data Apple have access to for the creation of their own FirstBeat.

I just discovered “training today”, which looks like a much more focused version of Athlytic and similar, to give a daily “readiness score” based on HRV.

They seem sensible and the data is pretty. Free with one time payment for more charts currently, though subscription model soon.

yeah, subscription model is the issue. I don’t mind paying subscription for somethings like strava, zwift, or SYSTM. I am paying to support the company that is providing the services I need. But with 3rd party apps why do I need to pay apple 1/3 of the subscription.

I am not an apple hater. I love my macbook pro and ipad. I don’t mind my iphone, but I do prefer android. I just think it is greed.

Remarkably 48 hours for the sports tech industry. First Zwift upends the trainer market with a crazy $499 price. Then Apple makes it clear that it’s entering this game, both with satellite support for phone and the new watch. I know the hard core endurance crowd will complain about random missing features, but this will be good enough for a lot of people. And that’s before the inevitable first party iterations and third party apps. It’s going to take a few years for all of this to shake out, but this could be a game changing week. Interestingly, Garmin is hit by all three developments — their upper-tier Tacx trainers suddenly seem hopelessly overpriced, casual inReach users may just stick with their phone, and their watches now face real competition from a player with vastly more resources and software/big data expertise. Firstbeat datasets presumably aren’t even a rounding error to Apple, so if Apple is committed to making this real they’re starting with a massive data advantage over Garmin (and everyone else in the industry). Ray teased on yesterday’s video that the next two weeks would be big, but, wow, I didn’t expected the next 48 hours alone to be this interesting.

I am one of those users who really only have an inReach for emergency purposes. I like the ability to send texts to family, but with the new satellite based find my feature on the 14 I can live without it. Not to mention for some odd reason the inReach devices have a high resale value. If I can dump my inReach mini 2 for nearly as much as a paid for it 5 months ago I am happy! That thing wasn’t cheap.

So Apple doesn’t think women do any endurance sports/backpacking/etc? How the heck am I supposed to wear a 49mm watch on my petite wrists. I’ve had every Series of AW since the *very* first one…sad that this one isn’t available for people like me. I was looking forward to it.

You think that all women have small wrists, and that only women have small wrists? This is Apple’s first pass at a watch for this segment. If it is successful, they will probably do multiple sizes and colors, for the moment, they are only addressing those who can/want to wear this size watch.

I would at least go to an Apple Store and try it on and see if you like it. Maybe too big, but no way to know until you see that it covers your whole forearm.

100% agree that they intentionally did not consider the female market and people with smaller wrists in general. Oh well it’s a shadow at best compared to what Garmin offers.

I don’t think this has anything to do with gender. I’d also prefer smaller devices (especially phones) but here we are where nobody targets that market anymore with Apple discontinuing the iPhone Mini line. For a watch, the reason for the size is more understandable. You can only fit things into a small enough space, and for a watch the screen needs to be somewhat bigger to make it more functional for app developers and consumers.

But presumably Apple didn’t just make it this size for cosmetic reasons, it’s almost a certainty that the size was primarily dictated by components relating to the additional headline functionality, including having enough battery capacity for endurance events. You can’t just take a ‘Series’ AW and add all of this new stuff whilst keeping the same size case. Of course, in the future we might get a smaller version, but that would involve compromises with a reduced feature set. And I’m speaking as a male who wishes Garmin would stop their ‘size creep’, so I share your frustration.

At a time when Garmin are doing themselves no favors by continuing to provide GPS services to the Russian military Apple finally release a serious competitor to the Fénix.

I’ve held out upgrading my Garmin because of their values and with this release I’ll definitely give Apple a go now.

Looking forward to DC doing a more in depth review in a week or two to cover things like GPS accuracy (city running etc, ocean swimming which has been notoriously bad on previous Apple watches), heart rate tracking accuracy, HRV metrics, additional tech inter-operability (power meters, HRMs etc). As a minimum though at least I can now go for a training run and listen to podcasts without having to take both my old Fénix and my iPhone. (And vote with my $’s on companies that have no morals in regards to invasion of Ukraine).

“At a time when Garmin are doing themselves no favors by continuing to provide GPS services to the Russian military Apple finally release a serious competitor to the Fénix.”

Do you have a source for that? The only thing I’ve seen is that Russian fighter pilots are taping civilian grade Garmins to their dashboards because their own systems are so unreliable. Not really anything Garmin can do to stop them. link to flightglobal.com

Yes (below) their researchers dig into the details and comms i have had with Garmin support this.

link to som.yale.edu

Sadly, that article seems very confused about a lot of things.

Garmin doesn’t provide GPS services. GPS services are provided by national governments/bodies. Garmin makes GPS devices, which don’t require any connection to/from Garmin to operate (sorta the point of them). Garmin no longer sells those devices in Russia, but they also can’t stop existing devices from working.

Looking through the list, there’s plenty of other seemingly very confused examples. I think that’s what happens when you try to make a list of 1,000 anythings.

Hopefully this will be the kick Garmin need to put dive features into Fenix and Epix, or at least release the Descent at the same time. I’d love a Descent, but the delayed release means they’re always behind the Fenix in hardware and software. As it stands I still use an ancient Suunto Stinger but I’d drop that in a heartbeat for a Garmin if they sort this out.

Any mention about cellular roaming on the device? It was not possible in the previous versions and as someone that lives in the border between two countries and does half his activities in each this is a showstopper for me.

So there’s some solid changes from Watch 8 (inclusive of this), around cellular roaming now taking advantage of your phone’s plan via carrier agreements in 30 countries. But the details of that are somewhat fuzzy.

By any change you know if you can charge the watch during an activity?

No one has an Ultra to try yet, so I got my battery with built in Apple Watch charger and tried with my series 7. Apple Watches from the beginning have used inductive charging, so there is no port to plug into. When I put my watch on the charger, it immediately switched to its charging face, but I was able to gain control and use a few apps. Started an activity using the Strava app and it actually ran without complaining about being off my wrist. Realize that you’re going to go around with a charging puck on your wrist or wherever you’re going to carry the watch, and you’ll lose heart rate (because the watch isn’t touching your wrist) but it looks like it’s actually possible. I’m a little surprised.

Thx for testing this out!!

I am ready to pull the trigger and try this – if it can replace my 6x.

The question I can seem to figure out can it work with Zwift connecting to a concept 2 (powermeter) and HR eiter from watch or strap? Today I use strap and Garmin 6x to connect to zwift running on Apple TV and the Concept PM5. Works like a charm.

Can apple get both power/cadence and hr to zwift app?

That was a surprise to see last night! SO many features. I think they are really going to have an impact on Garmin and the other companies with this. For me though I am so used to only having to charge my Garmin every couple of weeks that I don’t think I’d like to make the switch. The pricing isn’t bad either!

I have the feeling that Apple is much more cautious than Garmin on the analytics side. I’ve been using a Garmin Edge 1030 for four years, and a Fenix 5 for some years and realized that they aren’t better than my own subjective feelings about training load, fitness, recovery times, etc. The information I get now from my Apple Watch and Apple Health is reliable.

I clearly like the design of the Ultra but a ‘bit’ too expensive to my liking. Most important omissions with the AW are: – the lack of more ‘holistic’ insights (Training load, training readiness,…) and advice for the day (think of what both Polar and Garmin are doing) – I like the new features in the workout app, but I absolutely hate to configure the workouts on the tiny screen. Why they did not include this in the Watch app on the iphone yet is something I don’t understand.

You can use a third party service for most of those metrics like Runalyze. I’m using it even if I use a Garmin because I feel it is more on point that Garmin calculations.

There is a huge difference in sports and outdoor functionalities between the latest Garmin devices (Fenix ​​7, Epix 2, Forerunner x55) and Apple Watches. Difference which even Apple Watch Ultra or the latest version of WearOS (with some new functions) will not make up for ..

Well, We can see that Apple has noticed this sport/outdoor direction and wants to go this way. This may hurt Garmin in the future in terms of selling its products, especially when next generations of Apple devices will have more features like this.

The question is whether Garmin will rest on its enormous advantage as an outdoor sports watch and notice that when it comes to being an everyday smart watch, it lies and squeals compared to the Apple Watch.

The latest Garmin watches (Fenix ​​7, Epix 2, Forerunners x55) still do not support: – receiving calls or being able to make calls (implemented by Garmin in cheap Venu 2 Plus, not copied to premium Watches!), – calling Siri or other voice assistant (they same as receiving calls), – replying to messages (OK, this is Apple’s limitation, but Garmin is big enough to press the Apple to change the decision – especially since there are antitrust cases against Apple in the US / EU about maintaining the monopoly and limiting external Application developers), – they have a very poor Bluetooth range – you have to carry the phone with you (my old FitBit connects to the iPhone from the next room, Garmin Fenix ​​7 does not), – they do not have WIFI or GSM (4G) integration with the phone – which is HUGE daily-use missing feature.

Sports maniacs can laugh at the Apple Watch, but the ability to have fully voice / text / assistant communication using Apple Watch in both directions and no limit to a few meters of range to the phone are the enormous advantages of the Apple Watch as a smart watch that Garmin has been ignoring for years.

And by this they lose enormous market. Market of fitness enthusiasts who for 23 hours per day use their watches as a smart watch and only need sports or outdoor functionalities for an 1 hour a day (usually not even every day :).

If only functionality above would be truly needed on a watch (sports or even everyday). The very first thing I did with my Fenix7 is turn off any smart notifications. Because I have enough with gazillion messages and calls I get on my phone. I dont need that on my watch. Battery life of 36 hours without gps is just ridiculous. I already have to charge my phone and tablet daily, I dont want to do the same for watch.

And dont let me start on aesthetic comparison. Apple watch looks abysmal compare to fenix.

On the other side features like dive mode and non-cellurar SOS looks really nice but I doubt it will take long for Garmin to add same features to next Fenix generation.

So in reality sure apple watch will appeal to Apple fanboys, but I seriously doubt that anyone outside of existing Apple fanboys base will switch.

This is really basic but I love how my fenix 7 will allow me to calibrate a treadmill run to the accurate distance. Any updates on whether you can do that with this watch?

I’ve been with Garmin forever, since the forerunner 410, and I like their watches. However, it has always pissed me off their their watches have had this weird overlap of stuff they do and don’t do, or that their release dates aren’t synchronized. I’m hoping that this new Apple Watch will force them to get their act in gear related syncronizing release dates and condensing product lines, so that the endurance watch isn’t released just before the endurance/SCUBA watch made by a different “branch” of the same company.

I’m not an IPhone user, so I can still use this watch with full functionality?

Apple has always been great at releasing overpriced status symbols, and now they arrive in the endurance sports field to do the same.

I can’t imagine why any serious athlete would want this over a Garmin or Coros. If its like previous Apple Watches, there’ll be no ANT+. Battery life of 36 hours is nothing when a Fenix can go for 17 days. Yet people are still going to drool all over this because…its Apple.

Why not? I already see plenty of competitive 10k, marathon and Tri racers using Apple watches – not every “serious” athlete wants or needs the in-depth data Garmin/Coros provides, and some prefer having the integration, functionality and polish an AW offers that a Garmin doesn’t. Why would the endurance market be any different?

And there’s another positive. Yes, some people will buy this because it’s Apple and more as a statement. But as has been shown with the original AW, building activity functionality into a device can encourage people to take up those activities which they otherwise might never have done. If this watch ends up motivating people to be active, regardless of the reason they bought it, then that seems to be a win, not a cause for anyone to look down their noses at them.

“If this watch ends up motivating people to be active, regardless of the reason they bought it, then that seems to be a win, not a cause for anyone to look down their noses at them.”

Come on, do you really see sport novices buying 1000€ Apple watches as a motivation do begin being active. We’re in an energy and economic crisis at full scale now. For every outdoor lover a smart device which such a low battery endurance is nonsense. This is just a product to keep Apple shareholders like Warren Buffet in.

And there will always be people whining about the “overprice status symbol.” It’s asinine to compare the two watches. Apple does things well thank frankly Garmin is terrible at and vice versa.

cheers for this Ray, doesn’t look huge on the wrist.

I have a series 6 and a Fenix 6, I suspect this could replace both. I found the Fenix tends to “bounce” on my wrist if running due to the size & weight, do you think this would stay more solid on the wrist as my series 6 does?

Ray, will you be doing a review of the iPhone 14 satellite capability and Apple’s help process? I know Garmin has a robust service center system, but Apple does mention having some coordinating service for places that don’t take electronic notices. I get impression Apple depends more on direct contact to local authorities for most of it.

However that could be sufficient for many potential inReach customers.

Yup, I will. However, keep in mind that feature isn’t there at launch.

Good point, just noticed the November disclaimer when I was reading about the feature. It’s enticing enough it’s got me seriously considering switching to iPhone though as I’m on verge of buying new phone. I’m not trekking mountains necessarily but would be peace if mind hiking/biking out of cell range. Free service for two years is nice too

I want to see more information published regarding iPhone satellite functionality and extraction cost. I think it’s a great idea for people getting stranding while traveling by car in extremely rural areas, but hopefully it doesn’t result in a bunch of inexperienced iPhone owners going out unprepared for day hikes and then getting hit with a $10,000 plus extraction bill for using up county and state emergency services.

I’m keeping my Garmin inReach and my Search and Rescue insurance policy in place for a little longer!

An ultra watch with 36 hrs battery life. Meh! Scuba diving to 120ft (36m) Meh, that’s 25m too short. The rest of the things they have added, are either long overdue, or already on other sports watches.

Sorry Apple but still an awful long way to go, wrapping a new watch with it’s reality distortion field marketing, isn’t going to overcome the shortcomings with their watches. As a female reader said above, this comes in a massive size, so will dampen the enthusiasm for it, by females or those that prefer smaller watches. Of course they can’t go smaller, as they cannot seem to create a device with reasonable battery life.

Interesting to see that Apple is at last addressing the UI (and battery life) aspects of its watch used as a sports watch. Better battery life for longer activities is welcome, but I wonder how much better the watch will be in instances where you need to interact with it to accurately time activities (think races or interval training). Previous Apple Watches were close to useless in these scenarios which is why I kept using my Garmin Forerunner and now Fenix with their big physical buttons.

Do you mean the touchscreen you had to use to start/stop/lap? The action button, I assume, will fix that issue. Not sure how it will work in practice – hopefully something like a long press to end the activity and a short press to mark a new lap. If you can only set it up to either start/stop an activity OR start a new lap I’ll be disappointed.

I think the thing which is *very* interesting here from the perspective of a long-time Garmin user is that the one part of the Garmin eco system which is incredibly weak – Garmin Connect (specifically the web service) – may be the one aspect which in the immediate term is the most obvious thing which Apple does not bring to the table and in all likelihood will specifically not attempt to replicate. For all of its out-datedness and intentional or benign neglect in the context of not even trying to keep up with the likes of Strava, it does glue everything Garmin-related together in a way that Apple just will not attempt to do.

There are ways you can actually keep using Garmin Connect with the Apple Watch. HealthFit (it is a fairly small one time cost) will upload all or any of your workouts to most online services (I use Strava). It won’t auto upload to Garmin Connect but you can import the .fit files that HealthFit creates. That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple do something on Fitness+ – they are pretty committed to the services model and there is an awful lot they could do with the data that the Watch can collect rather than just give it back to you, which is what Connect basically does.

Yeah, Garmin Connect (both the website and the app) is terrible in terms of UI/UX, but for all of its faults, it pulls together all the data I want.

I know very few runners who even bother to look at their data in Garmin Connect, tho. Everyone just shares their runs on Strava. I’m probably an outlier because I care about extremely nerdy data (like max cadence, max instant pace, recovery HR) which isn’t available on Strava.

Then again, if I want to dive deeply in to my data, I can also look at it on runalyze.com. (My only gripe with that website is it shows different values than Garmin for some of your data, like cadence / stride length. It’s also not user-friendly, but it is free.)

Garmin’s seemingly intentional outdatedness kind of sets it apart in some ways that aren’t 100% bad, I think. Seems like Garmin’s products are unlike most complex modern mobile/wearable devices in that you can productively use a Garmin for days or weeks without ever connecting it to the internet. Garmins with mapping support have fully offline maps, unlike Apple Watch (I realize an app like WorkOutDoors allows you to download apps for offline use, but that isn’t quite the same to me.) Then again, the actual UI/UX of maps on button-based Garmin watches is pretty bad in my experience (as far as panning and zooming goes). It’s not just that using the buttons is a pain, but the map is fairly unresponsive, and when it does pan or zoom, it’s too slow or the entire screen flashes white (so the map disappears).

Garmins can even be “hacked” in certain limited ways, because the user has access to the file system via USB. (For example, in the past it was impossible to set a certain wheel size for bike trainers in the watch’s UI, but there was a way to get around this limitation by copying the Bike activity settings file from the watch to a computer, editing the file, then copying it back. This is obviously something that the vast majority of users would not be interested in, though.)

“I realize an app like WorkOutDoors allows you to download apps for offline use”

Whoops I meant “downloads maps”, not “apps”.

I am not sure that this new watch will pose immediate danger to Garmin. For reasons unknown, this Ultra cost 999€ in the EU (AW8 is 499) vs 799$ in the US. This is Epix/Enduro2/Fenix 7XS territory and you still have a lot of the drawbacks of the AW (big square shape, meh battery), just with a much bigger pricetag…and only if you have an iPhone you can use it. The iPhone 14 now starts at 999 (1400 for the 14 pro) and with some memory uprade 1300€ (in Europe). Garmin just needs to come up with a few little things that some watches have already implemented, like taking phone calls (Venu 2+) or activating the ECG measuring or cleaning up GC a bit. And they should roll out their feature or at least some of them to their cheaper watches IOT be competitive. Just the other day I gave my old AW5 to my daughter (15yo) and she truly enjoys it, but I will stay with Garmin for the forseeable future.

US prices are without any tax. 799$ is about 799€ given the current near-parity and you’re not far off 999€ once you add the typical VAT applicable in the euro zone.

Not all manufacturers will deal with the exchange rates the same way, but Apple usually realign their prices at each new release (which is sadly for us Europeans what just happened).

Yeah, but a number of US states don’t have tax, or, have very low tax rates. So it’s far closer to $799 than $1000USD (which is roughly what the EU units are with the EUR being essentially parity).

I think fiatlux was just commenting on the fact that Hoot said “For reasons unknown” when the reason is obvious. Apple are selling the watch for basically the same price pre-tax in the EU and the US. It would be unusual for them to not take into account the currency changes and instead just take a much lower margin when selling in Europe and would only happen if they thought it would end up costing them more in lower sales.

Ultra is probably not an immediate concern to Garmin, but this article points out how familiar this all looks. As someone who has always like Garmin hardware but have not been too fond of their UI, this has the ring of truth. Time will tell…

Is there a list of activities the Ultra tracks?

All I need now is a nicely integrated Strava application running on that watch 🙂

What 3rd party apps permit display of cycling power?

Two observations…even if the price tag seems high, for current AW users who also have a Garmin/Polar/Suunto/Coros, if the AWU eliminates the need for the 2nd GPS watch, this could be a bargain. The ‘if you can use the AWU as your *only* GPS watch’ is the key here. 2nd point…to my eyes, this design is unattractive – unusually so for an Apple device. The RHS ‘wheel guard’ looks as if it was epoxied on the rectangular watch case. And this is a device that I’ll be super interested in size comparisons. Maybe it’s just a trick of the light, but it also appears thick/clunky. All will be revealed in the full review!

Agreed, I think this is a key for many athletes who are currently using a Garmin etc for workouts and AW for everything else – if this new watch can serve both roles its a clear win. Looking at this quite closely myself.

Interesting to find out with the increased battery life now on the Ultra, will apple allow Always on display for all apps now by default.

Well, 36hr of battery for a (ultra) sport watch is not much compare with Garmin devices, however it has cellular connectivity. Let’s see how goes the low power mode when tracking activities by using GPS and also what metrics (running/cycling/swimming/etc) offers natively or how it uses them to make reports (running metrics, stamina, recovering time, stress, etc). Can the scuba diving mode do a body/water temperature, depth and heart rate tracking simultaneously?

Question: Does this watch have a bezel to protect the edge of the display glass? In the photos it looks like the glass is flat to the edge of the metal instead of protruding like all of the older watches. I ask because both my wife and I have destroyed Apple watches by scraping the edge of the glass against something and breaking the glass.

One gripe I had with the Apple Watch was heart rate. The stock workout app and most others I could find wouldn’t activate the HR sensor until you hit ‘start’. With the stock app that means you hit go, HR sensor turns on and you have a 3 second count down until starting. That was not enough time to get an HR lock, so the first 10 seconds of almost every run I had an HR around 180 because it was locked to my cadence. Made it bad trying to check workout intensity, and my real max HR is below 180.

Another gripe was I wanted to carry my phone and use the watch GPS. Have to do a song and dance of turning off settings to break the connection between the watch and the phone. If they don’t have an option to always use watch GPS, they really should do that with multiband on the watch.

I also recall being frustrated trying to transfer files to the watch, it defaulting to bluetooth even though I’m at home, on wifi and have the watch on a charger.

I like the design though. Flat face/bezel looks good. Surprised the screen isn’t larger given the increase in size – seems pretty close to the 45mm screen size, but the flat display may play into that. Concerned about the large size and weight but that will be a positive for many. Curious how it wears compared to a Fenix 6X or 7X.

Heart rate locking If you open the workout app the heart rate sensor activates and a GPS lock is acquired. You can wait ~15 seconds after you open the app before you select the workout and the HR will start correctly. This doesn’t fix the issue of poor HR in a wrist based HR sensor, but at least it gives the watch a fighting chance.

Multiband GPS The iPhone 14 Pro has the same multi band GPS, so offloading to the that phone model shouldn’t decrease accuracy in most conditions.

Heart rate never turned on when opening the workout app on my series 5 until I hit start and the 3 second countdown began. Maybe I was doing something wrong or it has changed since then? That would solve the issue!

I’d still rather have my GOS on my wrist with li e of sight to the sky though.

I forgot to mention that I am running the RC of the new watch software an an AW6, so this is probably a change they made for all devices in the next release.

Any possibilities for Ultra being able to detect Heart Rate during swim?

Currently, how does anyone using apple watch transfer heart rate data if Apple Watch does not broadcast to say a Garmin Edge.

Still unimpressive battery life. I have 3 versions of the Apple Watch over a 5 year time period and seriously loved them. Seamless Integration with the iPhone to the point it felt like an extension of the phone. However the battery life always bugged me and when my version 6 started to run out of battery after 12 hours and I was constantly travelling, I started looking at other options. I bought the Garmin Epix Gen2 at the start of 2022 and I have not looked back. Actually made me realise I didn’t need or want constant messages buzzing on my arm and sleep and training readiness are far more important. Yes it’s a big watch but the screen is fantastic and battery lasts 16 days between charges and that’s with over 4hrs of GPS enabled running a week. Sorry Apple this is not good enough to make me swap from my Garmin

Hi, do you have any info about whether it will be possible for 3rd party developers (other than Oceanic) to use scuba APIs? I’m really not willing to pay 1k Euro and still needing a subscription to use certain features.

I have favoured Garmins (currently a FR945) over Apple Watches (AW) for running activities for three reasons till now.

First, the screen dimming. During an activity, the screen doesn’t change on a Garmin. If I want to see HR Zone, Duration and Pace on a Garmin, these stay fully active on the screen for the duration of the activity. While more recent Apple Watches dim with most original information still visible (if less of it), any app outside of AW just displays the time, and it takes a wrist raise, or a poke or a button press to get it visible.

Second, multiple screens. Garmin allows me to create lots of screens and just switch between them depending on what type of run I’m doing (long slow distance, short race, long race, tempo / intervals, ultra race etc), and I can just swipe between them even during the activity, by pressing a button, going from lap time & lap pace to lots of metrics, to time of day, to HR and distance. But AW makes me create the (single) page on the iPhone for one activity such as “outdoor run”, rather than on the watch, edits need to be on the phone Watch app also.

Third, battery life. Until now AW wouldn’t make it through a marathon reliably never mind a 100-miler. Ultra could change this.

So the questions I’d have would be (1) What info on AW Ultra is available during an activity when the watch dims (assuming it does), (2) Can I create multiple screens in advance for one activity and can I change switch between them on the fly without opening the phone? (3) How much battery life available for an outdoor run using GPS, with and without a phone present?

I am using an AW6 with the RC of watchOS9, so I can only answer the second question. On your watch can create a lot of different screens with a lot of different metrics and have them specific to a type of running workout. For example:

I have base easy workout that is a warmup, 135 bpm HR pace, then warm down. This has a set of screens that focus on form and HR.

I have another workout that is hills at zone 5, which has a different set of HR alert thresholds, and I don’t include the display for ground contact time, but I do include the elevation profile.

I have another running workout that I customize for track intervals that has its own set of screens that I can cycle through using the Digital Crown.

What do you think of the Verge’s article on this could lead to the death of Garmin wearables? I haven’t bought an Apple watch because of battery life (this is still short, but moving closer), however, I really dislike Garmin’s software both on the watch and the phone app. As Apple plays more in this space it’s just a matter of time until the reason to buy a Garmin disappears or gets outweighed by the better user experience. Article on Verge: link to theverge.com

To be fair polar and suunto have more to worry about than Garmin.

Garmin and coros will be around for a good many years to come. I assume the reason for Garmin battery life is it’s OS, yet the OS is the exact reason why the Apple Watch is so poor

I think it’s possible and akin to google maps navigation destroying their car nav business. However, the financial markets don’t think that’s the case yet. I have a fenix 6s and I like the watch compared to what was out there. However, I don’t love it and their software on the watch, iOS, web and Mac are all pretty bad.

Just today I tried to connect the watch to Garmin Express and it won’t show up in the app. Then it freezes repeatedly and restart everything to hopefully make it work. The iOS Connect app needing connectivity to do anything is also pretty frustrating. My watch constantly unregistering from iOS Explore is also annoying and then I can’t sync activities to Explore if they already synced to Connect. BaseCamp takes ages to load the watch maps and crashes frequently. I also get random battery drain issues sometimes that cuts my battery life in half, and sometimes workouts get corrupt for no obvious reason. Just last week loading courses also stopped working which apparently was due to a weird .fit file being saved. On the hardware side the blue-tinted blurry screen on the fenix 6 watches was also a negative and I’m not sure they ever corrected it. I know I eventually gave up and just dealt with it.

For me, if the Ultra can record a 16hr activity with gps and HR then it’s good enough for me. My other must have is good maps and navigation. That’s one thing that garmin has that I really like, although the UI is still really bad with moving/zooming the map on the watch.

I might consider article serious, if the writer of the article wrote more about Garmin watches. Doing a google search with his name and garmin is pretty sparse as compared to his name and with apple as keywords.

I keep waiting to hear that Apple is going to use all of that cash it’s sitting on to simply buy Garmin and integrate Apple software. That would be a win for the consumer.

Just out of curiosity, were you a Blackberry, Nokia or Palm user before you switched to Android or iOS?While there is no guarantee that Apple will take the whole high end market, I would not want to be in Garmin’s position. I have been watching almost the same set of complaints since the Series 0 Apple Watch, and yet, Apple has eaten most of the low to medium end of the market and is slowly moving upscale. I used to have a Polar Heartrate strap and watch and a Garmin bike computer (it has been years, so I do not even remember which one it was). I have a Polar heart rate strap, but no longer own any Garmin gear. I dive, but not enough to own an air integrated computer. The Ultra with the Oceanic+ integration means I will never wear my old dive watch again.

It may very well be true that Apple never tries to capture the very top of the market, but as the segments that Garmin can address shrink it gets harder and harder for them to keep up.

In the mean time, my Apple Watch just keeps taking over more jobs, and more interestingly, is likely to be doing so for more and more people.

The Apple Watch Ultra still has a far way to go. With double battery life, I assume it doubles the 4-5 hours to 8-10 hours of battery life while using GPS. As an ultra runner that just isn’t enough battery life, especially when compared to 57 hours on the Garmin Fenix 7. The Garmin is also $99 cheaper as well. I’d love to move to an Apple Watch, but I need something that can last the duration of 50 mile, 100k and 100 mile ultras.

For most of my long runs over a marathon I bring my phone along with me and the watch offloads gps duty to the phone. This has allowed me to get 12 hours of battery life on the watch while tracking.

I don’t know if you bring your phone with you on ultras, but this bridges that gap for me.

some runners may want to maximize performance by reducing weight. iPhones are kind of heavy plus if you are running I would think a case would be necessary adding more weight.

What about maps, i use mapping all the time on my Epix 2. This is the main focus for cycling and running for me. Does the ultra have any maps offline use??

One minor correction the app from Hush Outdoors is Oceanic+… not sure if auto-correct got you on that one! Keep up the great reviews!!! Looking forward to your review on this 🙂

Also for reference here are the details on the Oceanic+ Subscription and FAQ’s they have put together thus far.

Will it pair with ANT+ sensors like my bike’s power meter? I’m wondering how good it is for replacng a traditional head unt…

you must have amazing eyesight. I am afraid with something that small and trying to use the watch while biking I would crash.

No ANT+. And I agree with @JM, replacing a real head unit with a watch (any watch) is a horrible idea.

I ordered one and immediately got rid of my Garmin Epix 2 on Ebay. I’ve grown so frustrated with the Garmin bugs and unacceptable bluetooth performance. Let alone having to have my phone with me for any sort of connectivity. Heck with that. I used my Epix for 3 months and it hit the dresser drawer a few weeks ago and went back to my AW7 SS LTE. So much happier.

Apple’s data is so much more accurate and reliable (at least for me) and I don’t deal with all of the damn Garmin bugs! No need for a phone and the thing JUST WORKS.

So, i’m looking very forward to getting the Ultra. My multiple tries with Garmin has soured me completely on buying Garmin ever again.

Huh. I tried an AW6 with LTE and got rid of it after about a month. I couldn’t list a single way in which it was superior to a Forerunner 245. And I’m including the reliability/bugginess of the software.

I had been excited about having LTE, but almost no apps work over LTE connections. There’s a lot of potential, but the developers have learned that people who use their AW without a phone are an extreme edge case, and it’s just not worth developing software for them.

The biggest problems, though, were the lack of buttons and slow gesture response on the screen.

I just don’t get this complain about Garmin software. I see not a single issue! I had no crashes, no data loses etc. Also the website has all the necessary details, the same is the app (and the watch as well). Also on the accuracy point .. what are you talking about? HR? Or GPS? The rest of the metrics as sleep, rest, body battery etc .. these things are all quite “soft” metrics .. how do you know what is correct or more precise?

What I really want to know is have they improved the face material. I scratched my Apple Watch 7 the first week I wore it and it looks awful. Lots of people have a similar experience. Is this watch crystal any better?

I always purchase the Stainless Steel which has Sapphire, when you order the less expensive ones, they have some other material that scratches like crazy.

My SS Sapphire screens don’t scratch. So this one shouldn’t as well.

I’m afraid my 7 IS stainless steel and the crystal still got scratched that first week. I don’t understand why Apple doesn’t use the same material used for their phones which has been absolutely scratch proof for many years now.

Garmin’s clap back tweet in response to the Apple Watch Ultra confirms how inept their social marketing team is across all of their accounts. This tweet has already sparked an embarrassing backlash in replies and news coverage. link to twitter.com

What’s inept about it? Apple fans always flip out when people criticize their products. It was an entirely fair point to make: The Enduro 2 can go for 2+ months under some conditions. And it can go over a month in normal smartwatch mode.

It was misguided and backfired– look at the responses and press surrounding it. Not to mention Garmin’s history of firmware updates that cause excessive battery drain and reduced the life to hours… It was a clap back tweet they would have been better off without.

The only article I can find that criticizes Garmin for the tweet was a surely unbiased article posted at MacRumors.

Yeah, I don’t see any actual backfiring here. In fact, but every metric you could use, that tweet was overwhelmingly successful.

First, let’s look at likes, right now it has 1,400 likes – compare that to most of Garmin’s tweets measured in the low dozens (seriously).

Then there’s retweets, right now at 261 – compared to single digits for most of Garmin’s tweets. Retweets is a far more important metric here, because it’s showing reach (we can’t see the actual reach of the tweet, only Garmin can).

If we look at quoted retweets, they’re pretty much overwhelmingly positive in Garmin’s direction.

Finally, looking at replies to the post, it’s a mixed bag – as is the case for virtually any corporate tweet from any company on any topic, even just random mundane Monday tweets. You always get all sorts of “One time at band camp” type responses. Most of the snarky ones are almost copy/paste from tidbits in the Macrumors article, indicating they’re probably not the target customer here.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Garmin has a substantial problem ahead of them – but it’s not, today, Ultra. It’s their own confusing AF lineup of watches that people are just giving up on and buying an Apple Watch. That’s their issue they really do need to address. They need to significantly thin the heard, and probably kill off some product line brands.

Lastly, keep in mind that when the Apple Watch came out initially, everyone said Garmin watches would quickly die. Yet each successive year Garmin has sold more and more watches, and made more and more money. Business has never been better for them with the Apple competition. Likely, because it’s exposing other options.

In fact, I’d argue even further that for the next year (maybe two), Ultra will only do that even more. Every single Apple Watch Ultra article published by any media source has cited not just the Garmin brand, but specific models. Again, increasing exposure. Sure, a few people will jump ship – people that the Fenix likely wasn’t a good fit for anyways.

Anyways, all this is probably a topic for a different day. But from a business, social, etc… standpoint, they nailed that tweet. The only people upset about it are people who never would have purchased a Garmin product anyway. Anyone else is fair game, and the reaction shows they hit their mark.

To name a few is on: news.yahoo.com. wareable.com, macrumors.com, gearrice.com, notebookcheck.net, iphoneincanada.ca, newsncr.com, localtoday.news etc. name a few. And add the thousands of comments ranging from Reddit to Twitter.

I am a Garmin diehard currently using 955 Solar and 945 LTE but their marketing team and new social media manager needs to find a better way.

There might be too much here. Not everyone wants cellular service and relatively few want a dive computer. I’m not sure that I would trust this item as a dive computer as it comes from a company with no experience in the field. It’s probably super conservative meaning short bottom times below 60′.

Guess you have never heard of Oceanic, nor any of the other Huish Outdoors brands like Suunto and Zeagle. Pretty sure they have a fair amount of dive experience.

You are right. Not everyone wants LTE, but having LTE even without service means that your watch can call emergency services almost anywhere in the world in the event of an accident if you are trapped or incapacitated. I have T-Mobile service on my Apple Watch Series 6, but my BF just has it for emergency use, so no service on it.

You did get one other thing right, Apple will not be able to target 100% of the extreme sports market with this watch. It just added an additional few percentage points of addressable market.

I have heard of Oceanic and the like. That should have been obvious. My preference is for Aladin/Uwatec, now sold as Scubapro. Your point on phone service capability is valid, but it only works if there is phone service. In mountainous areas there isn’t any just a few miles from town. I suppose the iPhone with Satellite service is the fail-safe answer.

Thinking back to Ray’s “specs are wrong” post, I couldn’t help but look at the Ultra’s official specs. Apple lists the Ultra as 11.4mm deep, whereas Garmin lists my 955 — which I find acceptably thin — as 14.4mm, and the epix II as 14.5mm. If accurate, that’s quite a difference. That 20%+ delta could hold a chunk of extra battery, though that would have added significantly to what already is quite the weight penalty (61g Ultra (case) vs. 47g epix Sapphire (case) vs. 53g 955 (unclear if case only)). Fascinating dimensional differences between all of them, can’t wait to try the Ultra in a store. I’m hungry, time to go find an Oreo.

How can you use the sleep tracking features, if you need to charge the watch every day? Do people charge it during the day? How long does it take to charge? What would be the time of the day when is the best to charge?

People that use the sleep tracking feature generally charge the watch at various times during the day. If you’re sitting still for a while, pop it on the charger. In the shower, pop it on the charger. I’m told that about a half hour on the charger is sufficient. (There’s a graph in Settings->Battery that shows charge state as a function of time, but yesterday for me was not normal because I was trying out a new battery AW charger and it got charged during the day, so no conclusions can be drawn.). The series 7 and presumably the 8+ultra have fast charging capabilities. Me, I don’t care about sleep tracking, so mine goes on the charger when I go to bed.

I have a AW7 SS with Cellular. With a 1 hour run (no phone) so everything off of the watch including cellular, music, etc. Another hour of misc. activities like stair climbing and indoor bike. Also, no phone, cellular connected, music, etc. I get over 24 hours a charge. Sleep tracking has never been a problem. I charge my watch each morning at my desk.

The Ultra is icing on the cake for me.

A good side by side image displaying the size and dimensions of the Apple Watch Ultra vs Garmin Fenix 7. Looks like Apple is stating the dimensions with the heart rate sensor bump, unlike Garmin.

I’m very happy about the ugly crown protector. I wear my AW on my left arm, crown on bottom left. Often when swimming i bend my wrist enough to move the crown and when I go to view my stat, the water unlock screen displays momentarily, meaning i moved the crown a little. I’m hoping this stops that.

If you haven’t tried wearing your watch with the crown on the left side, you are missing out. Try it. Make sure to change the orientation to “left wrist”, “Crown on left”.

The next version of watchOS changes the swimming unlock process from twisting the crown to pressing the crown, which will somewhat resolve your issue with twisting the crown causing the unlock screen to show.

Ultimately, it’s running the same WatchOS. That doesn’t really change with this new watch. I still don’t care to use 90+% of the features that come along with it being based on WatchOS. There is an Irish saying, Cuir síoda ar ghabhar agus is gabhar fós é. Put silk on a goat and it’s still a goat. So, nope.

Is that like lipstick on a pig?

I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.

You'll support the site, and get ad-free DCR! Plus, you'll be more awesome. Click above for all the details. Oh, and you can sign-up for the newsletter here!

Wanna save some cash and support the site? Use Backcountry.com or Competitive Cyclist with either the coupon code DCRAINMAKER for first time users saving 15% on applicable products.

In the UK/EU/Australia/New Zealand? Then hit up Wiggle at the link below!

Alternatively, for everything else on the planet, simply buy your goods from Amazon via the link below and I get a tiny bit back as an Amazon Associate. No cost to you, easy as pie!

Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!

Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!

Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!

Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Check out my weekly podcast - with GPLAMA, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!

Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!

I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.

View Them All Here →

You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget.  If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section.  Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos!  I aim to leave no stone unturned.

Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there.  Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day?  I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things).  And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!

I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.

The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds! It’s a nice break from the day to day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!

Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2021 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.