Apple Watch Ultra 3

The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the third generation of Apple's most rugged and most capable watch. Introduced on 9 September 2025, it keeps the titanium case and outdoor focus of its predecessors and adds the one thing that many adventurers have wanted from a watch: built-in two-way satellite communication. Alongside that come the largest display Apple has put on a watch, a battery rated for up to 42 hours, 5G cellular and new health features. This page summarises Apple's announcement, explains what the satellite features can and cannot do and describes the sports features in the launch material.

Launch and price

Apple opened pre-orders on 9 September 2025 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States and more than 50 other countries and regions, with stores receiving the watch on Friday 19 September. The Ultra 3 comes in natural and black titanium, and in the United States it starts at 799 dollars. New bands include the Trail Loop with reflective yarn along the edges and new colours for the Ocean Band and Alpine Loop, and the Hermès collection added a Scub'H Diving band in rubber with a titanium buckle. Its predecessor is described on our Watch Ultra 2 page, and the Watch Ultra 2 vs Watch Ultra 3 table compares them directly.

Satellite communications

The Ultra 3 has built-in two-way satellite communication. When you have no cellular or Wi-Fi coverage, you can text emergency services, message friends and family and share your location. Emergency SOS via satellite lets you contact emergency services and notify emergency contacts in a few taps, and if the watch detects a severe car crash or a hard fall and you do not respond, it can send situation and location information automatically when a satellite is in line of sight. Find My via satellite sends your location to chosen contacts once every 15 minutes. Messages via satellite lets you send and receive texts, emoji and Tapbacks, including with anyone you have been in touch with in the past 30 days, and the messages stay end-to-end encrypted; SMS is also possible via satellite. To fit satellite connectivity into a watch, Apple says it redesigned the radio to cover more frequencies and re-engineered the antenna to double the signal strength, allowing contact with satellites as far as 800 miles above Earth and moving at 15,000 miles per hour. A Connection Assistant shows on-screen guidance to help you point the watch. All satellite communication features are free for two years with the Ultra 3, Emergency SOS via satellite works without a cellular plan, and messaging and location sharing need an active cellular plan. As with every satellite feature, you need a clear view of the sky, so treat it as a last-resort safety net rather than a replacement for planning.

Display and battery

The display uses LTPO3 technology and wide-angle OLED pixels. LTPO3 allows the borders to be 24 percent thinner, which enlarges the active screen area without changing the case size, and Apple says this is the largest screen of any Apple Watch. The wide-angle OLED emits more light at oblique angles, so the screen is easier to read at a glance. The Always-On mode refreshes once per second instead of once per minute, so a ticking seconds hand can stay visible without raising your wrist, and the Stopwatch, Timer and over 20 watch faces have been updated for it. A new Waypoint watch face includes a live compass, a satellite complication and a Night Mode to help preserve night vision.

Battery life is rated at up to 42 hours for daily use and up to 72 hours in Low Power Mode. For continuous outdoor workout tracking, Apple says the Ultra 3 lasts 20 hours in Low Power Mode with full GPS and heart rate readings. Fast charging adds up to 12 hours in 15 minutes. Apple credits the efficient display, the 5G modem and a larger battery. For 5G cellular, an advanced algorithm also engages both system antennas at once when coverage is weak.

Health: hypertension notifications and sleep score

Like the Series 11, the Ultra 3 introduces hypertension notifications and sleep score. The hypertension feature uses the optical heart sensor to analyse how blood vessels react to each heartbeat and reviews data over 30 days in the background. It was developed with data from more than 100,000 participants and validated in a study of over 2,000 participants, and Apple says it will not detect every case. It is meant to prompt you to log your blood pressure for seven days and discuss it with a doctor, and regulatory clearance and availability depend on the country. Sleep score combines duration, bedtime consistency, awakenings and sleep stages into one overall score. These join ECG, Blood Oxygen, irregular rhythm notifications, high and low heart rate notifications, sleep apnea notifications and retrospective ovulation estimates. See the Watch Series 11 page for a fuller explanation.

Sports features

Apple lists sport-specific features across disciplines. Runners get what Apple calls the most accurate GPS in a sports watch, a customisable Action button for Precision Start and segment marking, metrics including vertical oscillation, ground contact time and stride length, Heart Rate Zones, Race Route, Pacer and an industry-first automatic track-running detection. Third-party support includes Nike Run Club, Strava with Live Segments and Runna and TrainingPeaks custom workouts. Cyclists can see a workout as a Live Activity on iPhone, connect Bluetooth power meters and get cadence, functional threshold power estimates and Power Zones. Swimmers get automatic stroke detection, lap counts, SWOLF scores and water temperature, and the watch is certified to WR100. Hikers can use offline maps with turn-by-turn directions, Waypoints and Backtrack GPS data. Divers can use the Oceanic+ app, developed with Huish Outdoors, as a dive computer for recreational scuba diving, and golfers have Golfshot, Arccos and 18Birdies. With watchOS 26, Workout Buddy adds spoken motivation powered by Apple Intelligence.

watchOS 26 and environment

The watch runs watchOS 26 with the Liquid Glass design, Smart Stack hints, Live Translation in Messages and a wrist flick gesture. Apple says the watch is made with 40 percent recycled content, including 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery and 100 percent recycled titanium in a case that is 3D printed with half the raw material of previous generations, and is manufactured with 100 percent renewable electricity.

Which watch to choose

The Ultra 3 costs 799 dollars, twice the Series 11 price, so it makes sense if you use the satellite features, do multi-day trips or need dive or trail tools. If you mostly want everyday health tracking, the Watch Series 11 or the cheaper Watch SE 3 may be enough. See more choices in smartwatches.