The Best Apple Watch

If you’ve ever gone camping, walked 20 yards away from your campsite to go pee behind a tree, and looked up to find that you were completely lost in the dark, then the new Watch Ultra 3 is for you. It now features satellite messaging, which I tested on a weekend camping trip, and it’s a significant improvement over satcomms on your phone. You’re more likely to have your watch on your body in an emergency, and the battery life on the Watch Ultra 3 is quite a bit better—now up to 42 hours from a mere 36 on the Watch Ultra 2.

It has the biggest display of any Apple Watch, which is better for seeing offline maps. It also has the same distinctive design as the original, which includes a three-mic array for taking calls while on the ski lift and diving capabilities. Like the Series 11, it has 5G connectivity in addition to satcomms, hypertension notifications, and all the features in watchOS 26. Again, while I don’t normally counsel that you should buy the latest Apple Watch, this year I think battery life and satcomms are two very significant reasons to upgrade. On a weekend trip, I did not carefully dole out battery usage, freely using the Watch Ultra 3 off-grid to navigate a several-hour-long car ride, track multiple trail runs and hikes, and send satellite texts, and it lasted me from Friday morning to Sunday morning. Like the Series 11, the Watch Ultra 3’s titanium case is also 3D printed for greater material efficiency.

It is now a true weekend watch, fulfilling the promise that the Watch Ultra made several years ago.