There are many reasons not to buy the Apple Watch Ultra.
It’s an adventure watch that can’t compete with proper adventure watches. It costs twice as much as the Apple Watch 9 and almost as much as a Macbook Air. And it’s about the same size and weight as an actual apple, with zero vitamin C.
And yet, by the only available metrics, it is going gangbusters.
Apple – not the fruit, but the $181-a-share Apple, a price up more than 30 per cent in recession-teetering 2023 alone – keeps tight-lipped shout sales. But based on surveys, plus waitlists of up to two months almost immediately after the Ultra launched last year, JP Morgan forecast it could rake in between $10bn and $38bn.
That confidence was all-but confirmed when the Apple Watch Ultra 2 landed in September, upgraded with – *squints* – a new double-tap function. And, er, slightly brighter screen.
Which begs the question: who is buying them?
According to a quick survey on our commute: skinny-suited estate agents brandishing Rapha water bottles; middle-aged newsagents chugging Monster Energy; guys checking their crypto wallets; guys talking loudly about their start-up’s next funding round; guys on the school run brandishing Rapha water bottles. Is it as unscientific as it is unfair to assess this demographic purely by body shape? Of course it is. But by this unfair and unscientific assessment, Apple’s Garmin-killer isn’t just for amateur triathletes.
That’s probably because for genuine adventurers, the Ultra’s maps and dive metrics and workout tracking can’t compete with proper sports watches, like the Garmin Fenix or <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=127X678080&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polar.com%2Fuk-en%2Fvantage%2Fv2" target="_blank" data-vars-ga-outbound-link="https://www.polar.com/uk-en/vantage/v2" data-vars-ga-ux-element="Hyperlink" data-vars-ga-call-to-action="Polar Vantage" data-vars-ga-product-id="1bd4f1e6-9b50-4de3-95e3-88e905f527f9" data-vars-ga-link-treatment="sale
