Apple Unveils Apple Watch Ultra 2 Featuring Faster S9 Chip, New Ultra Wideband Chip, and Apple's Brightest Ever Display

Apple today announced an all-new second-generation Apple Watch Ultra, offering all of the features of the original Ultra, plus a faster new S9 SiP chip, a new double tap gesture, Apple's brightest display ever, expanded altitude range, quicker on-device Siri, Precision Finding for iPhone, and new capabilities for water adventures.

f 5f029b4b52ddaec2ea2ddee21051b69a6c9e8959
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 has a brighter display at 3,000 nits – 50 percent brighter than the first generation of Apple Watch Ultra and the brightest display Apple has ever designed. For dark rooms or early mornings, the display can now lower to just one nit so as not to disturb people close by. Flashlight also benefits from the new display architecture, according to Apple, as rotating the Digital Crown temporarily doubles the brightness to better light up the immediate environment.

The Apple Watch Ultra also features an S9 chip, which has 60% more transistors and is 30% faster than the S8 chip used in the original Apple Watch Ultra. In addition, the S9 chip has a four-core neural engine for 2x faster neural tasks, according to Apple.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 hero 230912
There's a new second-generation Ultra Wideband chip in the Ultra that makes it easier to use the Apple Watch Ultra to find an iPhone 15, and it also supports Precision Finding. Apple Watch Ultra 2 also has a new 4-core Neural Engine that can process machine learning tasks up to twice as fast as the original Apple Watch Ultra.

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 also has a new gesture that uses just the watch hand for when your hands are full. Double Tap allows you to tap your index finger and thumb together to do things like answer a call, end a call, snooze an alarm, play or pause music, and more.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 double tap gesture 230912
The new Double Tap gesture is enabled by the faster Neural Engine in Apple Watch Ultra 2, which processes data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and optical heart sensor with a new machine learning algorithm. The algorithm detects the unique signature of tiny wrist movements and changes in blood flow when the index finger and thumb perform a double tap. Double Tap will be available next month, according to Apple.

There's also a new Modular Ultra watch face, which takes advantage of the large display, using the outermost edge to present real-time data, including seconds, altitude, or depth. It offers the most complications of any Apple digital watch face to customize for sports, outdoor adventures, and ocean and water activities. It also feature a Night mode, which now turns on automatically in the dark thanks to the ambient light sensor.

Apple Watch Ultra 2 Modular Ultra watch face 230912 inline
Apple Watch Ultra 2 runs watchOS 10, which delivers redesigned apps, the new Smart Stack, new cycling experiences, features to help explore the outdoors, and the new Modular Ultra watch face. Apple Watch Ultra 2 has the same 36-hour battery life with regular use and up to 72 hours in Low Power Mode.

"This year we've made our most rugged and capable Apple Watch even better," said Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer. "Apple Watch Ultra 2 is our most advanced Apple Watch, with great performance and feature updates. It's perfect for anyone who wants our biggest, brightest display, longest battery life, and best GPS of any Apple Watch, all in a stunning design."

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 starts at $799. Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the U.K., the U.S., and more than 40 other countries and regions can order Apple Watch Ultra 2 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 22.

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

Popular Stories

apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple wallet drivers license feature iPhone 15 pro

iPhone Driver's Licenses: These 17 U.S. States Offer Them or Will Later

Thursday June 19, 2025 11:28 am PDT by
In select U.S. states, residents can add their driver's license or state ID to the Wallet app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, providing a convenient and contactless way to display proof of identity or age at select airports and businesses, and in select apps. Unfortunately, this feature continues to roll out very slowly since it was announced in 2021, with only nine U.S. states and Puerto...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.6 Public Beta

Wednesday June 18, 2025 10:24 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the first betas of upcoming iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 updates to public beta testers, with the betas coming just a few days after Apple provided the betas to developers. Testers who have signed up for beta updates through Apple's beta site can download iOS 18.6 and iPadOS 18.6 from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. When the...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Apple Says iOS 26 Won't Be Available on These iPhone Models

Tuesday June 10, 2025 6:58 am PDT by
Apple this week revealed that iOS 26 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and newer. That means that iOS 18 is the end of the road for the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, which were all released in 2018. However, those devices will continue to receive security updates for at least a few more years. iOS 26 is compatible with the following iPhone models: iPhone 16e iPhone...
new iphone lockscreen ios 26

iOS 26: Five Changes Coming to Your iPhone Lock Screen

Tuesday June 17, 2025 8:46 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has made some additions to the iPhone Lock Screen that aim to make it more customizable than ever. Of course, things can always change before the software makes its way to the general iPhone-owning public, but here are five new things iOS 26 can do on the Lock Screen as of the current developer beta. Widgets Top or Bottom In iOS 18, the row of widgets on your Lock...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
Craig Federighi No

John Gruber Reacts to Apple Declining His Interview After His Criticism

Wednesday June 18, 2025 8:10 pm PDT by
Every year between 2015 and 2024, at least one Apple executive agreed to be interviewed by Daring Fireball's John Gruber for a special WWDC episode of his podcast, The Talk Show. Last year, for example, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi, marketing chief Greg Joswiak, and top AI researcher John Giannandrea joined Gruber on stage at the California Theatre in San Jose to discuss...

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
23 months ago
Apple dropped the ball NOT introducing Space Black Apple Watch Ultra 2.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Texas26257 Avatar
23 months ago
No black no buy
Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ghettochild Avatar
23 months ago
Bummer, not in black.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Autumnwolf2015 Avatar
23 months ago
Dang. I was really hoping for a space black color. ?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
scrapesleon Avatar
23 months ago
Seems the only innovation is carbon footprint what were their R&D team doing all year
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t76turbo Avatar
23 months ago
I missed the comments on the new face. Is that available for existing Ultras or only on the Ultra 2????
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)