Apple Watch Ultra

Announced September 7 and released September 23, 2022 at $799, the Apple Watch Ultra was Apple's first attempt at a genuinely rugged smartwatch, aimed squarely at hikers, divers and endurance athletes rather than everyday wear. 

It came in a single finish, a 49mm titanium case (no other colour or size options), with a flat sapphire crystal front raised slightly above the case edge to help protect it from knocks. A new orange Action button sat on the side, fully customisable to trigger things like a workout, a compass waypoint, or a stopwatch with a single press.

A few features were entirely new to Apple Watch. Dual-frequency GPS gave noticeably more accurate location tracking in places like dense forest or between tall buildings, where a single-frequency signal can bounce and lose accuracy. An 86-decibel siren could be triggered manually to help rescuers locate someone lost or in danger. It was also rated to 100 metres of water resistance, with a companion Oceanic+ app enabling proper scuba diving down to 40 metres, something no previous Apple Watch supported. Three built-in microphones (up from one on standard models) were tuned specifically to cut down wind noise on calls outdoors.

Battery life was rated at up to 36 hours of normal use, the longest of any Apple Watch at the time, and Apple later added a low-power mode via a software update that stretched that to around 60 hours. Three new band designs, the Alpine Loop, Trail Loop and Ocean Band, launched alongside it, each built with the Ultra's outdoor use cases specifically in mind.