Apple Watch Ultra Stands Up to Major Abuse in Latest Durability Test

Inspired by "the most extreme activities," the Apple Watch Ultra features a rugged design with a titanium case and a flat display with a sapphire crystal cover. Apple says the watch is built to help users "push their boundaries with adventure, endurance, and exploration."


In his latest YouTube video, Sam Kohl assessed the Apple Watch Ultra's durability by subjecting the watch to some major abuse, as part of an unscientific but entertaining test. Kohl dragged the Apple Watch through some rocks on the ground, smashed it against hard objects like a concrete wall and metal pole over 50 times, and more. In the end, the titanium case was quite scuffed, but the sapphire crystal cover was still intact.

Durability tests on YouTube are often quite silly, but it is still impressive that the Apple Watch Ultra held up to this much intentional mishandling.

Apple Watch Ultra launched last Friday. In addition to having a rugged design, the high-end watch features improved water resistance up to a depth of 100 meters, a customizable bright orange "Action" button, up to 60 hours of battery life with an upcoming low power setting, a Night mode, an 86-decibel siren for emergencies, and more.

If these durability tests are your sort of thing, the Apple Watch Ultra was smashed with a sledgehammer in another recent video.

Related Roundup: Apple Watch Ultra 2
Related Forum: Apple Watch

Popular Stories

best buy holiday

Best Buy Reveals Black Friday Plans With Sitewide Sales Available Now

Friday November 8, 2024 10:05 am PST by
Black Friday sales are continuing today with Best Buy kicking off early Black Friday deals that will last for the next few days. Similar to other retailers, Best Buy's early Black Friday event includes sitewide savings on Apple products, headphones, TVs, monitors, video games, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best Buy. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may...
mac mini thermal architecture feature

New Mac Mini Has Modular Storage, 256GB Model Will Have Faster SSD

Friday November 8, 2024 7:06 am PST by
Apple has returned to using two 128GB storage chips in the new Mac mini with 256GB of storage, according to a partial teardown video shared on social media today. This means the base-model Mac mini with the M4 chip will not have significantly slower SSD speeds compared to higher-end configurations of the computer with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage, as multiple NAND chips allows for faster SSD...
iphone passcode green

Cops Suspect iOS 18 iPhones Are Communicating to Force Reboots, Making Unlocking Harder

Thursday November 7, 2024 2:20 pm PST by
Law enforcement officials in Detroit, Michigan are warning other police officers about an alleged iPhone change that causes Apple devices stored for forensic examination to spontaneously restart, reports 404 Media. iPhones that are undergoing examination have apparently been rebooting, which makes them harder to unlock with brute force methods, and Michigan police think that it's due to a...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.2 Beta 2

Monday November 4, 2024 12:34 pm PST by
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2 updates to developers, and Apple is continuing to refine the Apple Intelligence capabilities. There are also a handful of smaller features that are worth knowing about. Find My Find My has a new option to Share Item Location with an "airline or trusted person" that can help you locate something that you've misplaced....
maxresdefault

Hands On With Apple's New M4 Mac Mini

Friday November 8, 2024 12:21 pm PST by
Apple launched the new Mac mini, iMac, and MacBook Pro models with M4 chips today, and because the Mac mini is the only one of the machines that got a design update, we thought we'd check it out to see how it compares to the prior version. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The 2024 version of the Mac mini is much smaller than the previous M2 model, so it takes up...
High Power Mode Feature 2

Apple Expands High Power Mode to MacBook Pro and Mac Mini Models With M4 Pro Chip

Thursday November 7, 2024 12:15 pm PST by
High Power Mode is available on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini models with the M4 Pro chip, according to Ars Technica's Andrew Cunningham. The feature was previously limited to Macs with Apple's highest-end "Max" chip, so this is the first time it is available on Macs with a "Pro" chip. This is the second time that Apple has expanded availability of High Power...
next generation carplay multi display

Here's the Latest on Next-Generation CarPlay After 2.5 Years of Waiting

Wednesday November 6, 2024 8:33 am PST by
It has been nearly two and a half years since Apple first previewed next-generation CarPlay at WWDC 2022, and it has still yet to become available in any vehicles. Below, we recap the latest information about next-generation CarPlay. Launch Timing Apple's website continues to say that the first vehicles with next-generation CarPlay support will "arrive in 2024," but it has yet to provide ...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Skipping the New MacBook Pro? Here Are the Rumors About M5 Models

Friday November 8, 2024 9:35 am PST by
The new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models with M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips launched in stores today. If you are not planning to upgrade this year, be aware that there are already rumors about next year's MacBook Pro models with M5 series chips. It appears the MacBook Pro will remain on an annual upgrade cycle next year. Apple supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said camera module...

Top Rated Comments

Joe Rossignol Avatar
28 months ago

How many more do we need?
About 8 more should to the trick.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
28 months ago
It seems like these YouTubers want to prove Apple wrong.

This Apple Watch Ultra has been through hell. I don't understand what these YouTubers are trying to prove. It's clear that Apple Watch Ultra is "rugged", & "durable".
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ct2k7 Avatar
28 months ago
How many more do we need?
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
G.McGilli Avatar
28 months ago
Now I regret getting Applecare+ lol
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ponzicoinbro Avatar
28 months ago
I also gave it major abuse and Siri told me to watch my mouth.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Arran Avatar
28 months ago
Impressive how much more abuse it survived compared to the regular watch.

Very impressive.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)