Every September, like clockwork (fitting, really), Apple rolls out new Apple Watches, and every September I’m asked whether the Ultra is worth buying over the regular model. It’s a fair question. The Ultra used to be the obvious choice for people who climb things for fun, but the gap has narrowed with each generation, and plenty of people I know who’ve never ventured further off-grid than a National Trust car park wear one simply because they like how it looks.
This year’s Apple Watch Ultra 4 and Apple Watch Series 12 share more similarities than ever – the same new Health Sensing System, the same Readiness app, the same Siri AI, and the same processor – which makes the remaining differences all the more important. So here’s how the two stack up on price, design, features and battery life, and which one I’d go for depending on the kind of person you are (be honest with yourself here – a watch rated for 40-metre dives will not, on its own, make you a scuba diver).
Price and release date
Both the Apple Watch Ultra 4 and the Apple Watch Series 12 went on sale on 18 September, and Apple has kept the starting prices the same as last year. That, in itself, is a win, given that pretty much everything else has increased, including the iPhone 18 Pro models, energy bills and the humble meal deal.
The Apple Watch Series 12 starts at $399/£369 for the 42mm aluminium model with GPS only. Step up to the 46mm case, and the price increases to $449/£419, while cellular is another $100/£100. If you want titanium or the returning ceramic finish,you’re looking at even higher prices, with titanium starting at $699/£649 and ceramic topping out at $899/£849, putting the poshest Series 12 comfortably above the Ultra.
The Aluminium models come in Dark Bronze (gorgeous in the flesh), Light Gold, Black and Space Grey. Titanium is available in Radiant Gold and Natural, and ceramic in Pearl White or Night Blue. There’s a Hermès edition too, if you’d like an orange box to go with a noticeably lighter bank balance.
The Apple Watch Ultra 4 costs $799/£749, and the options are considerably simpler: one 49mm titanium case in Black or Natural. If you’re not big on decision-making, that might have sealed the deal. The starting price is a big jump from the entry-level Series 12, but every Ultra 4 has built-in cellular and satellite connectivity, so you aren’t paying extra to leave your phone at home.
Both Apple Watch models are eligible for Apple Trade In, so if there’s an old Apple Watch gathering dust in a drawer, now is your chance to turn it into a discount rather than a daily reminder of the fitness phase you had in 2021.
Design and build
When it comes to design, there’s zero chance you’ll confuse these two smartwatches. The Series 12 is the sleek, sensible Apple Watch most people picture when they think of Apple’s smartwatch; the Ultra 4 is the chunky, rugged one that looks as though it could survive a tumble down a scree slope – and, to be fair that’s exactly the sort of thing it was built for. One goes with a suit, the other with a carabiner.
The Series 12 is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes and is slim and comfortable, at 9.7mm for the aluminium and titanium versions. The 42mm aluminium model weighs just 32.2g, rising to 36.5g in titanium and just under 43g in ceramic, while the 46mm model adds between 7g and 10g to those figures.
Aluminium models now feature Ceramic Shield 2 on the front, which Apple claims is 60 per cent tougher than the Ion-X glass on the Series 11 (so far, I’ve not picked up any scratches in a month, which is good news), while titanium and ceramic models get sapphire crystal. It’s water-resistant to 50 metres, so you’re good for swimming and snorkelling, and there’s a depth gauge down to 6 metres.
The Ultra 4 is another animal altogether. Its 49mm titanium case is 12mm thick and weighs 63 grams, so you will notice it – especially in bed, and even more so if you’re coming from a Series model. For that bulk, you get sapphire crystal as standard, 100 metres of water resistance, EN13319 certification for recreational scuba diving to 40 metres, and testing to the MIL-STD 810H military standard for extreme temperatures, shock, and vibration. There’s also a built-in Siren, which is loud enough to help people find you if things go sideways.
Both watches have IP6X dust resistance and use LTPO3 wide-angle OLED display panels with an always-on mode that can dim to 1 nit. The Ultra 4 can get brighter than the Series 12 – up to 3,000 nits compared with 2,000 nits – and it’s slightly larger, at 1,245sqmm compared with 1,196sqmm on the 46mm Series 12, as well as flatter, too. Those differeces aren’t huge on paper, but on a bright ski slope, halfway up a mountain or in a sunny beer garden, the extra brightness and size come in handy.
Features
Both the Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 run on the latest S11 processor, have 64GB of storage, and Apple’s new Health Sensing System, which adds high-frequency background heart rate tracking and Recovery HRV. These feed into a new Readiness app, Apple’s take on the recovery scores that Oura, Whoop and Garmin have offered for years (finally, I got what I wanted here – it only took a decade). There’s also a redesigned pedometer, which enables a step complication on both devices – another thing I’ve wanted for years.
The rest of the health toolkit is also identical between the two smartwatches: ECG, hypertension notifications, irregular rhythm notifications, the Blood Oxygen app, sleep apnoea notifications, a sleep score, wrist temperature sensing, and the Vitals app, which brings together heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, blood oxygen and HRV in one place. Women’s health features, from cycle tracking and retrospective ovulation estimates to perimenopause support, are shared across both. In a nutshell, if health tracking is your main reason for buying an Apple Watch, the Series 12 gives you everything the Ultra does for half the price.
Both also get the full Apple Intelligence package, including Siri AI – a rebuilt, more personalised Siri – and Audio Intelligence, which is exclusive to these two watches. The latter covers Live Rewind (where the watch can transcribe the last 15 seconds of conversation with a double press of the Digital Crown) and Siri Recap (which listens in the background and will give you a summary of a meeting or event). However, both of these are coming later in the year, require an iPhone 16 or newer, will launch in English only, and won’t be available in the EU at first. Single and double tap gestures, wrist flick, Precision Finding for your iPhone, and Fall and Crash Detection are also available on both.
The Ultra 4’s extras are largely for the great outdoors. It has precision dual-frequency GPS (L1 and L5), which performs better among tall buildings and in dense forests, whereas the Series 12 relies on L1 GPS. It adds satellite connectivity for Emergency SOS and Find My when you’ve lost signal, an altimeter that works from 500 metres below sea level to 9,000 metres above it in case you have Everest on your to-do list, dual speakers, a three-microphone array with wind-noise reduction, and the Depth app to 40 metres. If none of that got you excited, that should probably help you make your decision.
Battery life
Stamina has always been the Ultra’s trump card, and the only change is that it’s even better this year. Apple quotes up to 50 hours of normal use for the Ultra 4, extending to 84 hours in Low Power Mode – enough for a long weekend away without packing the charger. During outdoor workouts with GPS and heart rate monitoring, the Ultra 4 is rated for up to 18 hours, which covers a long trail race or an ambitious day in the Lake District.
The Series 12 is rated for up to 24 hours, or 38 hours in Low Power Mode, with up to 10 hours of outdoor workout tracking. That’s the same everyday figure as the Series 11, so if you were hoping this would be the year you stop charging your watch every day, sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I end my days around 35 per cent for the Watch Series 12, so it sees me through a day and night of sleep tracking, but if you want two-day use, it’s the Ultra 4 you’ll want.
Both smartwatches charge quickly. On the Series 12, you can get up to 80 per cent in around 30 minutes, with 15 minutes giving you 12 hours of use. It takes around 45 minutes to reach 80 per cent on the Ultra 4 because of its larger battery, but 15 minutes will give you 18 hours of use. A five-minute charge on either will offer 10 hours of sleep tracking, so if you have forgotten to charge but still want the Readiness score and sleep score, whack either on the charger while you brush your teeth and that will be plenty (floss too and you’re practically at full marks).
Apple Watch Ultra 4 vs Apple Watch Series 12: which should you choose?
There’s no bad choice here – both the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 are brilliant. The Series 12 shares the same health tracking, Readiness scores, S11 chip and Siri AI as its pricier sibling, all in a slimmer, lighter case that suits more wrists and outfits. It’s half the price at entry level, the display is bright enough for most people, and faster charging helps make up for battery life that still only just stretches to a day.
The Ultra 4 is worth the extra cash if you’ll actually use what it adds: longer battery life, dual-frequency GPS, satellite connectivity, a brighter screen and a case that shrugs off scuba dives and hard knocks. Cellular is standard too, which closes the price gap more than the initial figures suggest. It’s big and heavy, though, and if you mostly want to close your rings and glance at notifications, you’ll be paying a lot for capabilities that will never see the light of day, let alone the top of a mountain.
If you want Apple’s best health tracking in a watch you’ll forget you’re wearing, buy the Series 12. For anyone who wants a more noticeable watch that lasts for a couple of days and follows them anywhere, including off-grid, buy the Watch Ultra 4. And if you’re buying the Ultra purely for the looks, your secret’s safe with me.
Read more: Don’t have Apple Watch Ultra 4 or Series 12? Here’s how to get a readiness score on your older Apple Watch
