Apple Watch Ultra

From the Apple Pressroom:

Apple today announced Apple Watch Ultra, which brings a new bold design and a wide range of features built for endurance, exploration, and adventure.

Long rumored, the Apple Watch for the outdoors is here. Cheaper than anticipated, many had thought it would break the $1,000, and with a slew of features focusing on what most outdoor watch makers focus on these days: diving, adventuring, endurance sports.

The presentation featured lots of cool trail running imagery. Scott Jurek was seen running and Western States got a name drop as well. This, I guess, means trail running has arrived in the mainstream, doesn’t it?

The Watch Ultra definitely looks cool and has more features than just some rugged bands slapped on the latest watch. This shows that Apple is willing to expand its watch offering beyond the basic design they’ve been rolling essentially since the first release of Apple Watch.

Two questions remain for me and this, I’m sure will be thoroughly tested and debated in the coming month:

• Is the battery life good enough for ultras. The battery life is advertised to be 36 hrs and the watch will be upgradable to a low power mode, offering up to 60hrs of battery life. This is fine on paper, but currently not on par with its competition.
• Does the build-in feature set offer true alternatives to the features we’ve come to expect from Coros, Suunto and Garmin. Does it live up to the promise?