Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I'm looking at upgrading my Series 7 watch this year. The Ultra seems interesting but I think it's too big for me.

Aside from that though, I'm not sure I'd get much use out of the extra features it can do. I just need a day-to-day watch and like it for all of the health tracking. Plus the Ultra is about twice the price as a regular Apple Watch.
 
Incremental update to the prior version Apple Watch Ultra as far as I am concerned I will be just keeping my ultra 2 with blood oxygen sensor that works. I figure that I can easily get a couple more years before I do a trade in
 
I’ve said it before in other Apple Watch threads, and I’ll say it again: I really wish Apple Watches had blood sugar/A1C measuring. That would really help diabetics
I'm sure Apple is working on it (as are numerous other companies) because it will be a windfall if they can get it right. But detecting the amount of sugar in your blood through the back of a watch is a very tough nut to crack. In your whole bloodstream there is only about a tsp of sugar (100 mg/dl x 10dl/l x 5l = 5000mg = 5 g = 1 tsp), the amount in a few cubic mm of skin is almost none.
 
FFS we need more innovation than just making the display bigger by 1mm every year. Apple Watch team staffing went from the ’92 dream team to wnba bench players.
As someone rocking an AW 6 sapphire glass, I've been feeling this way recently. Ive debated going to a regular watch just because there are so many different styles out there. These days everyone has the same black square on their wrist and its becoming a bit stale IMO. The Ultra was able to change that a little bit and why it had my interest.
 
I’ve said it before in other Apple Watch threads, and I’ll say it again: I really wish Apple Watches had blood sugar/A1C measuring. That would really help diabetics
5 years from now you will have your wish and in 2 years the blood oxygen will return.
 
I have the original Ultra that I was considering updating when the Ultra 3 came out. But because Apple just gave a second chance to put my Ultra in AppleCare with AppleCare One, and I don’t want to lose the blood oxygen capability, update will probably wait.
 
I really wish they’d give it a camera. The Dick Tracy FaceTime would be awful from an ergonomics perspective, but a small camera on the side would be great in a bind (car accidents, important signs, QR codes, etc). Would make going phoneless a lot easier.

Which is why it will not happen.
 
Aaagghhhh,

No doubt it’ll have a battery life that still doesn’t really exceed 24 hours without disabling features that make the Apple Watch what it is.

The Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 already have this. They're unlikely to go backwards on battery life.


5 day would be an insta-buy for me though.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Adam-Jobs
Aaagghhhh,

No doubt it’ll have a battery life that still doesn’t really exceed 24 hours without disabling features that make the Apple Watch what it is.

Do you think that Apple is artificially restricting battery life? If they could get a 7-day runtime, don't you think they'd do that? This is a physics limit, not a business decision. The needed battery tech doesn't exist yet.
 
What use is the great hardware?
The biggest construction site is still watchOS.

It lacks sports metrics a la Garmin Training Readiness! The Apple Watch has so much data thanks to the good sensors and does absolutely nothing with it!

And what really annoys me:
1. You do a running session on the treadmill,
treadmill and Apple Watch show different distances.
Now I want to correct the distance displayed on the AW or on the iPhone.
And that doesn't work in the year 2025 with Apple!

Just crazy.

2. assigning running units to running shoes/equipment.... doesn't work either.
Hello 2025!

3. night mode and precision start only for the Ultra?
Why this artificial OS castration of the normal AW?


Garmin can do it all on my FR 265.

Please Apple, focus watchOS 27 COMPLETELY on sports only.
 
Who else is amazed that a wrist-worn device can communicate with satellites 500 to 2000 km above our heads?
The new iPhones also have satellite connectivity so I think the need for it in a watch is more niche/unique
 
Seems like nothing is ready in time with Apple…Apple intelligence wasn’t ready in time. Apple Watch 3 wasn’t ready in time last year. Wi-Fi 7 wasn’t ready in time on the MacBook Pros. What is happening with this company??

Apple always overpromises but under delivers! Apple Watch innovation is right up there with Siri.
 
I’ve said it before in other Apple Watch threads, and I’ll say it again: I really wish Apple Watches had blood sugar/A1C measuring. That would really help diabetics
I fondly hope that Apple starts integrating Red and Near-Infrared instrumentation into their devices; the Ultra 3 is as good a place as any to start with that. In 2024, scientist Glen Jeffery noted that [Red] Light stimulation of mitochondria reduces blood sugar levels. This summer he published a paper in Nature noting that Longer wavelengths in sunlight pass through the human body and have a systemic impact which improves vision. Light in this part of the spectrum is crucial to our metabolism. Apple is uniquely positioned to encourage users to get abundant light in this part of the spectrum: a fourth fitness ring.

The importance of this kind of monitoring has increased over the years. The paper "Melatonin and the optics of the human body" (2019) notes that "efficient" LED bulbs and IR-filtering windows have removed more than 80% of indoor Red/NIR light. That's why monitoring/measuring this spectrum of light is so #!$$ important!

I hope that Apple has years' worth of clinical data on the health benefits of Red/NIR. I fondly hope they're able to completely market and immerse us into this technology. We all win, because monitoring this is crucial to our health.
 
I’ve said it before in other Apple Watch threads, and I’ll say it again: I really wish Apple Watches had blood sugar/A1C measuring. That would really help diabetics
This will never happen. It’s insane people think that what countless diabetes companies can’t do Apple is magically going to figure out. This was rumored years ago, and they say it is “years” away. It isn’t happening.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tim_apple
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.