Color of ultra 1 va ultra 2

[rhemy123]

Does anyone think the color of the ultra 1 and ultra 2 differ? I bought a metal band for the ultra 1. I thought it matched perfectly, but with the ultra 2 it doesn’t seem to match as well. It’s like the ultra 1 was a bit warmer in tone, slightly yellowish. Whereas the ultra 2 seems a bit cooler in tone, slightly bluish.

I also thought the ultra 1 had a shiny metal rim around the top whereas the ultra 2 is more matte.

 

[PegasusTenma]

Supposedly the 2 is recycled Titanium, so that might have something to do with the coloration.

 

[BenGoren]

I didn’t have luck finding details in a quick search, but the original case is made of pure titanium and the new case is made of a high-grade alloy — so I would assume the color is slightly different.

From a practical, functional perspective, while the original pure titanium is superlative, the newer alloy should be even better — all the lightweight strength of titanium but even harder and more durable. Apple’s marketing is all about the titanium being recycled; it’s worth noting that the recycled titanium would have been purified to the same amount before being alloyed. That is, recycling and alloying are entirely separate considerations.

(Anything that’s harder will, of necessity, be more brittle. But anything that shatters the watch will do far worse to your wrist in the process, so that’s irrelevant.)

The original Ultra when shipped has a matte rim. With time, wear and tear polishes the edge. I would expect the same to happen to the Ultra 2, but perhaps more slowly.

b&

 

[PegasusTenma]

I didn’t have luck finding details in a quick search, but the original case is made of pure titanium and the new case is made of a high-grade alloy — so I would assume the color is slightly different.

From a practical, functional perspective, while the original pure titanium is superlative, the newer alloy should be even better — all the lightweight strength of titanium but even harder and more durable. Apple’s marketing is all about the titanium being recycled; it’s worth noting that the recycled titanium would have been purified to the same amount before being alloyed. That is, recycling and alloying are entirely separate considerations.

(Anything that’s harder will, of necessity, be more brittle. But anything that shatters the watch will do far worse to your wrist in the process, so that’s irrelevant.)

The original Ultra when shipped has a matte rim. With time, wear and tear polishes the edge. I would expect the same to happen to the Ultra 2, but perhaps more slowly.

b&

you speak very well, but I was left with some questions.

when you say recycling and alloying are separate considerations, what do you mean in the context of the awu2? As in it has been recycled and is an alloy?

Apple says this watch is 95% recycled Titanium, what could the other 5% be?

 

[rhemy123]

I’m actually disappointed. It will probably be very hard to match the new ultra with a metal band since the color is off. My band looks more warm grey where as the watch case looks almost blue grey.

 

[BenGoren]

“Recycled” just means that they sourced the titanium from waste — items made from titanium that were otherwise destined for a landfill.

Titanium that’s not recycled is made by mining ore and refining it. The process is rather expensive.

Recycling, on the other hand, starts with something that’s already superficially pure (or mostly pure) titanium, perhaps just with some paint or plastic or who-knows-what. I have no clue what the process actually is, but I’d suspect it’s some variation on the theme of melting the metal (which will burn off anything that isn’t metal) and then letting the liquid metal separate into layers (so, for example, any aluminum mixed in would be in its own layer) — rather like how oil and water will separate into their own layers. (Even if that was a not-bad description, it’s guaranteed to be grossly oversimplified.)

An alloy is an intentional mixture of multiple pure elemental metals for the purpose of creating a metal with properties that don’t exist in pure metals. The most important, perhaps, is bronze: an alloy of copper and tin. Humans first figured out how to make tools from stone (and wood and animal hides and …), but it was the invention of bronze that one could reasonably credit as the dawn of technology. It remains incredibly useful to this day.

The iPhone 15 is made from “Grade 5” titanium:

iPhone 15 Pro and Grade 5 Titanium: A Detailed Overview

The iPhone 15 Pro is widely rumored to feature an all-new titanium frame. Over the past several months, a variety of credible sources such as...

www.macrumors.com

I suspect that’s the same alloy as for the Ultra 2. It has some vanadium and aluminum mixed in with the titanium. It’s 90% titanium, so I would guess that Apple is telling us that 85.5% of the case is made from titanium that had previously been mined for something else.

b&