Apple Watch Ultra 3

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 was announced on September 9 and released September 19, 2025. It kept the same $799 price and familiar 49mm titanium case, still available in natural or black titanium, but for the first time added satellite connectivity, letting you send messages, share your location, or trigger Emergency SOS from places with no cellular or Wi-Fi signal at all, provided you can see a clear patch of sky. Emergency SOS via satellite is free for two years, while messaging and Find My over satellite need an active cellular plan. It's also the first Ultra to support 5G, which Apple says speeds up downloading music, podcasts and apps, with a new dual-antenna trick to hold onto a signal better in weak coverage areas.

The display grew to the largest ever fitted to an Apple Watch, achieved by shrinking the bezels by 24% around the same-sized case rather than making the watch itself any bigger. It also now refreshes once per second in always-on mode, rather than once a minute on earlier Ultra models, so a running seconds hand no longer requires lifting your wrist to see. A new Waypoint watch face takes advantage of the extra screen space with a live compass and satellite quick-access built around the edge.

Battery life improved noticeably too: up to 42 hours of normal use, up from 36 on the previous two Ultra models, and still up to 72 hours in low power mode, with a 15-minute charge now enough for around 12 hours of use. A new health feature also watches for early signs of chronic high blood pressure by tracking how blood vessels respond to each heartbeat over a 30-day period, though it flags a possible issue rather than measuring blood pressure directly, an actual reading still needs a separate cuff.