Go to the official Apple Store and click through to the page where you can buy an Ultra. If it’s the same as what you see under the “315°NW” in the product photo, then that’s exactly what it is: cellular signal strength. It only appears when the watch has an active cellular connection, and the cellular connection is its last resort.
If your phone is even remotely close, the watch will use the phone for anything network-related, mostly via Bluetooth, but WiFi if necessary. If it can’t talk to your phone, it’ll use any WiFi connection it can find that you’ve connected to previously. Only if nothing like that is available will it resort to cellular. And, in case you’re wondering, yes, that’s all in increasing order of expense — mostly battery / energy expense, but also dollars-per-byte expense.
So, if you’re out-and-about and you left your phone behind, seeing the four dots is generally a good thing — unless you’re within range of somewhere that you know has WiFi, in which case those four dots is your cue to get on that WiFi network. But if you have your phone with you or nearby, then it’s a bad thing, and you should check to make sure that you haven’t turned off WiFi or Bluetooth on either the watch or the phone.
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