dpSeptember 9, 2026
PRESS RELEASE
Apple unveils Apple Watch Ultra 4
Featuring the new Health Sensing System, which provides the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable; powerful insights including readiness; and longer battery life
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today introduced Apple Watch Ultra 4 — the ultimate sports and adventure watch — now including new, advanced health and fitness features, and longer battery life.
Engineered with the new Health Sensing System and S11 chip, Apple Watch Ultra 4 delivers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable,1 higher-frequency heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) measurements, and a new readiness score to support athletes of all kinds. Apple Watch Ultra 4 also offers extended battery life to track outdoor workouts for up to 45 hours and the most accurate on-device GPS in a sports watch.2 A redesigned Health app on iPhone arrives later this year, including a new Longevity tab with a Health Age feature showing how metrics are tracking relative to a user’s age. In addition to powering the Health Sensing System, the S11 chip — Apple’s most powerful wearable chip — enables new Audio Intelligence features arriving later this year, to help users remember key moments from their conversations and stay alert to important sounds, built with privacy, security, and accessibility innovations at the core.3 With watchOS 27, Apple Intelligence powers Siri AI on Apple Watch, bringing personal context understanding and broad world knowledge to the wrist.
These features add to the many ways Apple Watch Ultra already supports users with advanced workout tracking across activities, sleep tracking, powerful health features like heart health notifications and the ECG app,4 and game-changing safety capabilities like satellite communications.5 Apple Watch Ultra 4 is the most comprehensive wearable across health, fitness, and safety.6
Apple Watch Ultra 4 comes in sleek and durable natural and black titanium options. It is available to pre-order today, with availability beginning Friday, September 18.
“The new Health Sensing System and S11 chip take Apple Watch Ultra 4 — our most rugged and capable Apple Watch — to the next level, delivering longer battery life, faster charging, and the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable,” said Kaiann Drance, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Apple Watch Product Marketing. “With powerful health and fitness insights including readiness, new intelligent features, and its large, bright display, Apple Watch Ultra 4 is designed to support you wherever you go, from your workouts, to adventures, to everything you tackle in a day.”
The Most Accurate Heart Rate Sensing in a Wearable
Apple Watch Ultra 4 is re-architected to provide continuous high-fidelity health monitoring using the Health Sensing System, featuring new optical and electrical heart sensors. Using this system and the S11 chip, Apple Watch Ultra 4 offers the most accurate heart rate sensing in a wearable. A scientifically rigorous study on a diverse population of over 1,000 participants compared the new heart rate sensing accuracy on Apple Watch against leading wearables, with Apple Watch showing the highest accuracy across devices.
With larger, power-efficient green LEDs on the optical heart sensor, Apple Watch Ultra 4 now measures heart rate every five seconds, all day long. This continuous passive measurement delivers deeper insight into a user’s fitness and physiological state while making Exercise and Move Activity rings even more accurate. Users can view their real-time heart rate at a glance throughout their day on a new heart rate watch face complication.
HRV, a key indicator of stress and recovery, is now measured up to 24 times more often and available to view in a new section of the Heart Rate app. Apple Watch provides two separate variants of HRV for better understanding of a user’s health status. Recovery HRV is best for identifying daily signals of stress and recovery, while overall HRV is best for insights into a user’s broader health, including cardiovascular health. Higher variability is generally associated with better overall recovery, while a lower variability value is an indicator of stress.
Overnight vitals now includes recovery HRV measurements analyzed against a user’s personal baseline, providing a more complete view of their health status.7 A new daytime vitals view lets users toggle between overnight and daytime metrics, and can potentially spot shifts in their metrics before they show up overnight.
Readiness: A Daily Read on the Body’s Capacity
Apple Watch Ultra 4 introduces readiness, a new feature that analyzes a user’s recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score to offer insight into their capacity for the day ahead. Readiness provides a single 0-10 score each day with a clear, actionable recommendation: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. This helps a user decide how to take on their day, whether they’re headed into a workday or tackling their training plan.
Readiness updates throughout the day as new data comes in, to reflect, for example, an intense workout or a shift in daytime vitals. Readiness clearly highlights which factors are driving the score and allows users to tap into more details. The scoring algorithm was developed using data from the Apple Heart and Movement Study, in collaboration with exercise scientists and physicians at Apple.
Longer Battery Life and Faster Charging
For everyday use, Apple Watch Ultra 4 now offers more than two days of battery life, up to 50 hours. In Low Power Mode, it offers up to 84 hours of battery life.8 Charging is now faster than ever: Just 15 minutes adds up to 18 hours of additional battery life.9
For outdoor workout tracking, the new Extended Workout mode delivers up to 25 hours of battery life for tracking workouts with full GPS and heart rate readings — a 25 percent increase from the previous model. For even longer workouts, the Max Extended Workout mode allows Apple Watch Ultra 4 to track outdoor runs, walks, and hikes for up to 45 hours, typically enough to finish a 100-mile race, while still taking GPS readings every second.10
The Most Accurate Step Tracking of Any Smartwatch
The pedometer model has been completely redesigned with new machine learning algorithms and the S11 chip to provide more accurate distance measurements during indoor walk or run workouts, and more accurate step counts all day. As a result, Apple Watch Ultra 4 now offers the most accurate step tracking of any smartwatch.11 The S11 chip also enables the brand-new Steps complication, so users can track their steps in real time, right from their watch face.
A Redesigned Health App Offering a Holistic View of Long‑Term Health
The Health app on iPhone serves as a central and secure location for a user’s health and fitness information, uniquely positioning it to provide a better understanding of a user’s health. The Health app has been redesigned to dynamically respond to a user’s data using Apple Intelligence, with a new Insights tab that surfaces timely health information and a new Longevity tab that analyzes a user’s longitudinal health data for deeper insights. The Longevity tab includes Health Age, an Apple Watch feature that shows users how certain metrics are tracking relative to their actual age.12
The Health app also includes movement evaluations that measure flexibility, strength, balance, and more using vision-based AI models on iPhone and heart rate data from Apple Watch. Users will be able to schedule and purchase new labs that feature over 50 key biomarkers for $119 directly through the Health app at approximately 2,000 Quest Diagnostics locations in the U.S. The redesigned Health app will arrive later this year, starting in U.S. English.
Audio Intelligence: A New Way to Stay More Present and Engaged Throughout the Day
Since Apple Watch is always on a user’s wrist, it is the perfect device to help users stay alert to important sounds and stay present and engaged in conversations throughout the day. With the built-in microphone, the power of the S11 chip, the latest Apple Intelligence models on iPhone, and Private Cloud Compute, Apple Watch Ultra 4 offers a brand-new class of Apple Intelligence features. Audio Intelligence helps users stay aware of the world around them, catch what they missed, and remember key moments — with user control, privacy, security, and accessibility at the center of its design.
Audio Intelligence features include:
- Sound Recognition, which comes to Apple Watch to alert users who are deaf or hard of hearing of important sounds, even when their iPhone isn’t with them. This feature listens for sounds like sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying, and uses on-device intelligence to notify users when they’re detected.
- Live Rewind, which can help users recall what was just said in conversation. A double press of the Digital Crown shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet, so users can catch something they may have missed or are less familiar with. Users can ask Siri about the content of the text or save it to the Siri app to revisit later.
- Siri Recap, which can create high-level summaries of conversations that users can review later to jog their memory. When Siri Recap is turned on, after a conversation, Apple Intelligence automatically generates a title and key points in the new Siri app, allowing users to be more present and engaged in the moment.
- Shazam, which instantly detects the music playing around the user and automatically displays the song title and artist’s name on the Music Recognition widget in the Smart Stack, easily glanceable on the wrist.
Privacy by Design
Audio Intelligence features are private by design, combining hardware, software, and services to protect user privacy in a way that only Apple can. These features do not create or store audio recordings, and raw audio used for processing is completely inaccessible to the operating systems, apps, the user, or Apple. This is because the S11 chip on Apple Watch Ultra 4 includes Secure Exclave, a dedicated hardware-isolated compartment that processes audio in complete isolation from the rest of the system, then immediately deletes it.
Users are in control and can choose whether to opt in to each Audio Intelligence feature. They can decide exactly where and when Siri Recap takes notes, and can turn Siri Recap on or off at any time, right from Control Center.
By design, Audio Intelligence features do not identify and attribute speakers, to protect the privacy of both the user and those around them. Siri Recap produces a brief, high-level summary of conversations — not a transcript — and is designed to exclude sensitive information like financial information or government-assigned identifiers. Live Rewind plays an audible chime when it is being used, even if Apple Watch is on silent, and shows a full-display animation and microphone indicator so people nearby can hear and see that the feature has been activated.
Live Rewind text snippets and Siri Recap summaries are end-to-end encrypted in the Siri app with iCloud syncing, and are not accessible even by Apple. Read more about how Audio Intelligence protects privacy. Siri Recap and Live Rewind arrive in beta later this year.
Siri AI Brings Personal Context Understanding and Broad World Knowledge
With watchOS 27, Apple Watch Ultra 4 supports Siri AI, an entirely new version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence. The new Siri app lets users continue conversations on the go and tap into Apple Intelligence capabilities — like personal context understanding and broad world knowledge — making Apple Watch an even more intelligent companion on the wrist. A new Siri Modular watch face makes it even easier to access Siri throughout the day.13
Featuring watchOS 27
watchOS 27 brings a range of additional updates to Apple Watch Ultra 4, including:
- A dynamic app grid featuring the icons for five Siri-suggested apps, which are a user’s most-used and recently used Apple Watch apps.
- A new single-handed tap gesture, which lets users conveniently open a widget in the Smart Stack by tapping their index finger and thumb. Now users can use the double tap gesture to scroll through the Smart Stack and single tap to select an individual widget — all using only one hand.14
- Smart Stack widget suggestions, which surface when they are most relevant, like a Parked Car suggestion from Maps or a Birthday Message suggestion on a close contact’s birthday.
- Support for perimenopause and menopause in Cycle Tracking on Apple Watch and in the Health app on iPhone.15
- Support for Workout Buddy on Apple Watch when users don’t have their iPhone nearby. Workout Buddy also now incorporates even more fitness data when delivering motivational insights, and is now available in Spanish in addition to English.16
Lineup and Bands
Apple Watch Ultra 4 is available in natural and black titanium.
This fall’s band lineup features new colors across the range. Trail Loop now comes in dark umber, sand, and burgundy, while Alpine Loop comes in desert, dark olive, and burgundy.
Ocean Bands are now made from a unique translucent silicone, which comes in three new colors: translucent gray, translucent kelp, and translucent black.
Apple Watch Hermès Ultra 4
In addition to Apple Watch Hermès Ultra 4 available in natural titanium, the Apple Watch Hermès collection introduces a bold new Grand H titanium band featuring a built-in extension mechanism to conveniently adjust the band to fit over a wet suit. Apple Watch Hermès Ultra 4 also features the new Fathom and Wonder watch face, which allows users to explore an illustration of the ocean’s depths. Rotate the Digital Crown to select one of four watch face options, from the surface to the seabed. Each option features a unique shade of blue and distinct animations.
Apple Watch Ultra 4 and the Environment
The new Apple Watch Ultra 4 was built with the environment in mind and drives progress toward Apple’s ambitious plan to be carbon neutral across its entire footprint by 2030. It is made with 45 percent recycled material overall,17 including 100 percent recycled titanium in the 3D-printed titanium case and 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery. All of the electricity used to manufacture Apple Watch Ultra 4 is sourced from renewable energy, like wind and solar, across the supply chain, and Apple has also invested in enough renewable energy around the world to match the electricity customers use to charge their Apple Watch. Like all Apple products, its paper packaging is 100 percent fiber-based18 and can be easily recycled at home.
Pricing and Availability
- Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the UK, the U.S., and more than 50 other countries and regions can pre-order Apple Watch Ultra 4 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 18.
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 starts at $799 (U.S.).
- New Apple Watch bands will be available to order today from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 18.
- watchOS 27 will be available for Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later on Monday, September 14, and requires iPhone 11 or later or iPhone SE (2nd generation or later) with iOS 27. Not all features are available on all devices or in all regions. For more information about availability, visit apple.com.
- Apple Intelligence will be available with watchOS 27 on Monday, September 14, for users with an Apple Intelligence-enabled device set to a supported language. Apple Intelligence is available with support for these languages: English, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Japanese, and Korean. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see apple.com/apple-intelligence.
- Siri AI is rolling out with watchOS 27 as a beta on Monday, September 14, for users with a supported device set to English, with support for French, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish coming in October. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages.
- New subscribers may get three months of Apple Fitness+ and Apple Music with the purchase of Apple Watch Series 12, Apple Watch SE 3, or Apple Watch Ultra 4. Offer and service availability varies by region. See apple.com/promo for details.19
- AppleCare delivers exceptional service and support, with flexible options for Apple users. Customers can choose AppleCare+ to cover their new Apple Watch or, in the U.S., AppleCare One to protect multiple products in one simple plan. Both plans include coverage for accidents like drops and spills, theft and loss protection on eligible products, battery replacement service, and 24/7 support from Apple Experts. For more information, visit apple.com/applecare.
- Apple Upgrade, a leasing program provided by Klarna and available in the U.S., gives eligible customers monthly payment options for Apple Watch Ultra 4, with 12- and 24-month leasing terms starting as low as $24.99 (U.S.) per month for 24 months. For more information, visit apple.com/shop/apple-upgrade.^
About Apple
Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro. Apple’s six software platforms — iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, and tvOS — provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple TV. Apple’s more than 150,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth and to leaving the world better than we found it.
- Based on data from an Apple-conducted study of heart rate accuracy, during July and August 2026, utilizing commercially available best-selling wearables available as of June 2026. For more information, visit apple.com/hraccuracy.
- GPS performance was evaluated based on route map accuracy in challenging urban environments for outdoor running and walking workouts, processed securely on device. Comparison made against industry-leading dual-frequency GPS sports watches commercially available at the time of testing in August 2026.
- Audio Intelligence includes Live Rewind, Siri Recap, Sound Recognition, and faster Shazam and requires Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4. Live Rewind and Siri Recap will be available in beta in late 2026 and require an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone 16 or later (excluding iPhone 16e). Will be available in English to start and will not initially be available in the EU. Certain Audio Intelligence features that rely on server-side models are subject to daily usage limits, including but not limited to Live Rewind and Siri Recap. For more information, visit support.apple.com/148354.
- The ECG app is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and later (excluding Apple Watch SE models) and all Apple Watch Ultra models, and can generate an ECG similar to a single-lead electrocardiogram. Intended for use by people 22 years old or older.
- Emergency SOS, Find My, and Messages via satellite are included for free for two years with the activation of Apple Watch Ultra 3 or later. Connection and response times vary based on location, site conditions, and other factors. Find My and Messages via satellite require a carrier plan. To send and receive SMS from cellular models of Apple Watch over satellite, a paired iPhone must be powered on and connected to Wi-Fi or an active cellular network, but iPhone doesn’t need to be nearby. SMS message rates may apply. Satellite connectivity provided by Globalstar and its affiliates. See support.apple.com/123924 for more information.
- Based on an analysis of health, fitness, and safety features in commercially available bestselling wearables as of August 2026.
- The Vitals app is for wellness purposes only and not for medical use.
- Multiday battery life testing includes 630 time checks, 190 notifications, 30 minutes of app use, two 60-minute workouts with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, and 12 hours of sleep tracking over the course of 50 hours; Apple Watch Ultra 4 usage includes a total of 10 hours of cellular connection and 40 hours of connection to iPhone via Bluetooth over the course of 50 hours. Battery life testing in Low Power Mode includes 1,100 time checks, 330 notifications, 55 minutes of app use, two 60-minute workouts with music playback from Apple Watch via Bluetooth, and 18 hours of sleep tracking over the course of 84 hours; Apple Watch Ultra 4 usage includes on-demand cellular connection and 68 hours of connection to iPhone via Bluetooth over the course of 84 hours. Testing conducted by Apple in July and August 2026 using preproduction Apple Watch Ultra 4 paired with iPhone; all devices tested with prerelease software. Battery life varies by use, configuration, cellular network, signal strength, and many other factors; actual results will vary.
- Testing conducted by Apple in July and August 2026 using preproduction Apple Watch Ultra 4 paired with iPhone; all devices tested with prerelease software, preproduction Apple Watch Magnetic Fast Charger to USB-C Cable (Model A3277), and Apple 20W USB-C Power Adapter (Model A2305). Charge time varies with adapter, region, settings, initial battery levels, usage, and environmental factors; actual results will vary.
- Workout tested without iPhone and with heart rate sensor on during Outdoor Run workout sessions. Extended Workout turns on Low Power Mode during the workout; running form metrics will be unavailable. Max Extended Workout turns on Low Power Mode during the workout, and turns off alerts and splits; certain metrics will be unavailable. Testing conducted by Apple in July and August 2026 using preproduction Apple Watch Ultra 4; all devices tested with prerelease software. Battery life varies by use, configuration, cellular network, signal strength, and many other factors; actual results will vary.
- Step-tracking accuracy testing was conducted by Apple using a 1,000-step accuracy test validated with video step counting. Comparison made against industry-leading smartwatches commercially available as of July 2026.
- The redesigned Health app is available on Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and iPad models with the latest software, with select features available only on iPhone. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. Health Age requires Apple Watch. The test to estimate VO2 Max requires Apple Watch, AirPods Pro 3, or a third-party heart rate sensing device. Some features require users to be 18 or older. For information on Apple Intelligence availability, visit support.apple.com/en-us/121115.
- Apple Intelligence is available with Siri settings and device language set to Chinese (simplified), Chinese (traditional), Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, or Vietnamese. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. Some devices may not be available in all regions. Siri AI is rolling out in beta in watchOS 27 and requires an Apple Intelligence-enabled device set to a supported language. Available in English to start. Siri AI will not be initially available in the EU on watchOS. Certain Apple Intelligence features that rely on server-side models are subject to daily usage limits, including but not limited to Siri AI. Daily limits may vary by feature, request complexity, system demand, system policies, and other factors. Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future. Use of these features is subject to Apple Intelligence terms and conditions. Learn more at apple.com/apple-intelligence. Siri AI is not available for users under 13.
- Requires Apple Watch Series 9 or later, Apple Watch SE 3, or Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later.
- The Cycle Tracking app should not be used for birth control or to diagnose a health condition. Cycle deviation notifications inclusive of perimenopause are for people 40 years old or older.
- Requires a paired Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone and Bluetooth headphones with device and Siri language set to English or Spanish. Using Workout Buddy without iPhone nearby requires a Wi-Fi or cellular connection. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For feature and language availability and system requirements, see support.apple.com/121115.
- Product recycled or renewable content is the mass of certified recycled material relative to the overall mass of the device, not including packaging or in-box accessories.
- Breakdown of U.S. retail packaging by weight. Adhesives, inks, and coatings are excluded from calculations of plastic content and packaging weight.
- Apple Music requires a subscription. Apple Fitness+ requires a subscription and compatible hardware and software. See support.apple.com/en-us/118210 for compatibility details.
^ Apple Upgrade lease: This offer is for a consumer lease, not a purchase or loan. Lease provided by Klarna Inc. for a 12- or 24-month term. Your first monthly payment is due approximately 30 days after device is shipped or available for pickup. Lease approval is subject to eligibility and is based on creditworthiness. Monthly payments are based on the selected device and lease term.
For example: For Apple Watch Ultra 4 with a purchase price of $799 (U.S.) (excluding taxes and any trade-in credit), the typical monthly payment is $24.99 (U.S.) (excluding taxes and any trade-in credit) for a 24-month lease term and $44.99 (U.S.) (excluding taxes and any trade-in credit) for a 12-month lease term.
No security deposit required. A trade-in device may reduce monthly payments. Advertised monthly payment amount may not include a trade-in device’s estimated value. Upgrades are not guaranteed and are subject to eligibility and approval.
Terminating your Apple Upgrade lease: Closing your lease and returning your device terminates your lease. You may incur a substantial charge up to the amount of your remaining lease payments if you terminate your lease before the end of your initial lease term. You may have the option to upgrade to a new device by entering into a new lease agreement and returning your prior device. If you upgrade, your new monthly payments may be greater than your prior monthly payments. If you do not upgrade, terminate your lease, or purchase your device by the end of the initial lease term, the lease will convert to a month-to-month lease for up to six months. Your monthly payments may increase during the month-to-month period. If you take no action at the end of your extension period, you will be charged for the amount due to exercise the purchase option under your lease. You will not own your device at the end of your lease, unless you pay the amount due to exercise the purchase option. Insurance is not included in your lease, and you may incur damage fees if the device is lost, stolen, or not returned in the condition required by the lease.
Apple Upgrade lease eligibility: Leases are only available to U.S. residents (excluding residents of U.S. territories). Leased devices are only available for shipping to U.S. addresses (excluding U.S. territories) or pickup at Apple Retail stores in the U.S. (excluding U.S. territories). To be eligible for a lease, you must be at least 18 years old (or the legal age in your state of residence), have a valid Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), have an accepted credit or debit card, have an Apple Account in good standing, have a Klarna account, and be able to receive security verification codes via text message. Leases are not available on refurbished accessories or online at the following special stores: Apple Employee Purchase Plan; participating corporate Employee Purchase Programs; Apple at Work for small businesses or enterprises; Government, Education, or Veterans and Military Purchase Programs.
Press Contacts
Clare Varellas
Apple
Nikki Rothberg
Apple
Apple Media Helpline
