Did Apple Just Release Its First Desk Diver?

Spoiler: yes

Earlier this month, our good friends in Cupertino released one of the most significant new upgrades to the Apple Watch in some time. The big news was big in every sense of the word: The Apple Watch Ultra, a big (49mm) bold, and extremely full-featured addition to the Watch lineup. The Ultra is unlike any previous Apple Watch in many ways – probably the most attention-grabbing new functionality is that the Ultra is actually a full-on dive computer. It has all the features you’d expect to find in an Apple Watch if you already own one, but the upgrades over what you’ll get in a standard Apple Watch are significant and include:

• Dive computer functions, including calculations of bottom time, monitoring of ascent time (the Ultra will warn you to slow down if you are coming up too fast)

• EN13319 compliant (EN13319 is an international standard for diving instruments that measure depth and time)

• Dual band GPS for better location services in remote areas

• 60 hour battery life

• Redesigned and upgraded Compass app which incorporates waypoints

• Introduction of the Action Button which integrates with various apps for easy one-push activation of key functions (dropping waypoints in Compass, starting dive recording)

• An 86 dB emergency alarm

I think you get the picture. The Apple Watch up until this point has been something of a generalist – as they have evolved, Apple has incrementally introduced variations into the basic design and UI but by and large you were getting most of the same functionality across models.

Action button is orange because ACTION

The Ultra, on the other hand, is I think the first real specialist tool watch in the Apple Watch lineup. It’s still something of a generalist, but in design and feature sets, it’s clearly a major break with Watch business as usual and since a lot of the new functionality is not just UI and software, but also involves new hardware integration (that Action button, the depth gauge, and probably different hardware for the GPS system as well, and of course the upgrade to battery life) you’re not going to be able to, say, get those new features with a software upgrade to your Series 7, for instance.

One thing I’d love to point out is the water resistance. I’ve been wearing a Series 7 since 2021 and while nobody would mistake me for a water sports or diving enthusiast, I have taken that watch swimming in pools, the ocean, surfing (I have tried to surf exactly once and it was physical comedy on par with Buster Keaton but that is another story) and I even occasionally wear it in the shower when I am feeling existentially challenged, and taking off a watch before attempting to wash away the human stain is more than I can bear, and it’s come through with flying colors every time. Watch 7 is 50M water resistant by the spec and Ultra is 100M so I think it ought to be absolutely fine for recreational/no decompression stops recreational diving which I understand tops out at 40M anyway. If there is one thing I hope to be remembered for when I shuffle off to that Great Authorized Retailer in the sky, and my keyboard at last falls silent, it would be putting to rest the idea that 100M is “not enough for real diving.”

So is this watch a desk diver – that is to say, a purpose-driven design which will often – maybe mostly – be worn by people who don’t have any actual need for the specs and functionality but want them anyway? I think so. If I were looking at the various Apple Watch options, hell yes I would want the Ultra, for the same reason I dig wearing a 300M water resistant EcoZilla (for instance) designed, whether rationally or not, for saturation diving. I used to be a little more puritanical about these things – One must not offend the gods of horological practicality by wearing a watch with specs and functions one does not need, may the one who does be hurled into an outer darkness, where there is a wailing and a gnashing of teeth! – but these days I am much more inclined to think you ought to find your fun where you can.

O Ultra, take me in my mind far, far from the madding crowd.

And I can think of few things I would enjoy more than setting off the alarm at random moments during the quiet of a domestic afternoon and being a source of irritation to my family; diverse are the expressions of love. Anyway, I hope nobody will stop themselves from buying an Ultra just because they don’t have a “real need” for what sets it apart – the joy of having an over-spec’d watch and being able to dream of a life of adventure is a joy upon which you can’t put a price.

All images made by Apple in Cupertino.