Ultra Niche? Apple Releases A Watch Built For Adventure

Picture the scene. The planet is on its last legs (so far, not too difficult to visualise). You’re trekking across a vast wasteland where once stood societies and cultures. These have long been decimated, not by the climate crisis, but by a fleeting interplanetary invasion.

As you trek through the remnants of a city, lofty existential questions cross your mind. What is the meaning of life? Was my impact net good or bad? Did I live life to the fullest?

The only other signs of life are cockroaches, the occasional lizard and vultures circling your every move, but it’s unclear whether these are legit or mere hallucinations. A cockroach talks to you. They’re definitely hallucinations.

You’re looking for home. You’re close. You know you are because you look at your wrist and the precision dual-frequency (L1 and L5) GPS on your watch is pinpointing your exact location directly where your home should be. But it’s gone.

As you wade through the rubble to identify your belongings you become trapped by the ruin of a wall that has tumbled onto your legs. Unable to free yourself, your life flashes before your eyes followed by what you’re considering to be the sequel. It resembles the film 127 Hours. Your last resort is to sound an 86-decibel Siren on your watch.

As your eyelids slowly fall across the dry and dusty surface of your corneas, a hand clenches yours and pulls you free. It appears you and your rescuer are the last remaining survivors and take it upon yourself to repopulate the earth, made easier of course by your watches cycle tracking with retrospective ovulation estimates.

Slowly, the human race reform and flourish into a utopia, all thanks to the new Apple Watch Ultra, which dropped last week.

Yes, the tech giant in their annual iPhone event launched a new, specialist watch to accompany their existing range. The keynote was dominated by forgettable incremental improvements, but the Apple Watch Ultra sought to appeal to the more extreme sports person with some interesting features. Their “most rugged and capable Apple Watch ever” boasts dual frequency GPS and wayfinding options, extended battery life and updates to the Workout app among other features built to withstand the toughest conditions.

Questions are still being raised around its comparison to the likes of Garmin’s flagship watches especially when it comes to battery life, but it is certainly interesting to see Apple go all in on an adventure/extreme sports trend as more and more people look to spice up their everyday lives.

Time will tell whether the Apple Watch Ultra truly can compete in this space or it simply becomes a status symbol with much of the functionality going to waste. Apple have made a big bet on adventure sports or are subliminally warning us of the end of the world. I for one hope it’s the former.