Is the New Apple Watch Ultra Following the Way of Swiss Watchmaking?

The Apple Watch Ultra is a grade 5 titanium adventure watch; at night, the screen looks phosphorescent. It has 8 complications, a screen that measures dive details. Do these features sound familiar to you too?

The Apple Watch Ultra, introduced by Apple today, is a sensational watch that surprised us at first sight, because it suddenly took us into a time capsule: from 2015, when the Apple Watch was first released, to September 2022.

With the advent of the Apple Watch, the first real example of a touchscreen smartwatch, Swiss watchmaking had to change drastically, just like in the Quartz Crisis. To get a piece of the desired object atmosphere created by the Apple Watch and even to keep Swiss watchmaking alive, the brands gradually changed their attitude: first, they denied and defended the superiority of automatic watches, then some brands (Montblanc, TAG Heuer, Frederique Constant, Movado, Tissot, and so on) began to produce field watches, and some brands announced that they would never produce smart watches (this was also the case during the Quartz Revolution).

Blancpain would say, “We have not produced any quartz watches since 1738, and we will never produce them”). After the phases of acceptance and action that followed a period of denial, Apple Watch’s market dominance was acknowledged, but that still wasn’t the end of Swiss watchmaking. An article by Roberta Naas in Forbes headlined: “The Apple Watch sells more watches than the whole of Switzerland, yet the death knell is not yet ringing for 600 years of Swiss watchmaking.” Before the author’s writing in 2020, all Swiss watches sold 21.2 million in a year, while the Apple Watch alone had sold 30.7 million units.

“We actually don’t need a watch anymore,” said Jean-Claude Biver, the industry veteran, “we buy it because it’s a work of art.” In the smartwatch market, where the Apple Watch and the smartwatches it brought were followed by Huawei, Samsung, and many other large and small brands, the main issue was not aesthetics but function. These watches have also gradually increased their claims: At first, smartwatches showed your phone messages, the time you do sports, and calories, but over time, they have become able to measure your sleep, blood sugar (Quantum Operation), blood pressure, and understand what sports you are doing like a personal assistant. “Meat,” he said.

At that time, other trends in high watchmaking followed one after another: titanium watches, famous for their lightness and durability, swept the industry; the number of functional watches called “tool watches,” produced for and combined with adventurers and explorers, increased, artist and designer collaborations were made for a modern look.

From this perspective,

it will be understood why we call the Apple Watch Ultra, which was announced today, sensational: While some watch brands are trying to approach the Apple Watch, Apple, which is unrivaled in the smartwatch industry, took the opposite corner and announced a watch just like the “functional watches” we mentioned and approached them. It announced one of the luxury watches in this category with a price of $ 799. All the features that we will write about from now on bring to mind Swiss watches.

First of all,

The Apple Watch Ultra is a watch with an aerospace (we’re used to calling it the 5th degree in watchmaking) titanium case that measures 49 mm. It has a sapphire crystal windscreen and the best battery ever (we can habitually call it a power reserve) with up to 36 hours (60 hours on low usage) of battery life. The dial has a compass showing eight complications. It is produced with three different straps named Ocean Band, Trail Loop, and Alpine Loop for outdoor activities such as diving, running, and mountaineering, respectively. It’s not over. Here’s how Apple CEO Jeff Williams introduces it: “Explorers and athletes from all over the world have inspired us to make an Apple Watch category for new and difficult places. This is the most rugged and capable Apple Watch ever. “Ultra is a versatile tool that allows its users to push the boundaries with adventure, endurance, and exploration.”

In collaboration with Huish Outdoors, the Apple Watch switches to a dive computer mode while diving with the Oceanic+ app. The watch, which is twice as water-resistant compared to the 8, shows the dive time, depth, degree of water, time spent in the water, and the maximum depth reached.

The evening clock is switched to night mode with the digital crown (corresponding to the SuperLumiNova on the clock) so that the display is legible, and the legibility is thus enhanced by the bright red written display.

It is stated that it is used to extreme conditions just like Victorinox watches: It is durable from -20 degrees to +50 degrees. It maintains its durability in conditions of sand, humidity, rain, shock, snow, and vibration.

It has been said that the battery of the Apple Watch is large enough to allow it to complete a triathlon. In mountaineering, they stated that the watch can save you by emitting an 86-decibel siren when you get lost, along with the compass, your location, and exact location information (an advanced version of Breitling Emergency)

.

Combining diving,

GMT, robust functional watch and adventure watch, the Apple Watch Ultra, which equips it with smartwatch features such as heart rate and blood sugar values, has taken the appearance of retro orange functional watches as an image.

By flipping the coin, we can interpret this move as an approach to watchmaking and benefiting from all of its know-how, as well as a blow to the adventure watches segment, which is an important part of Swiss watchmaking. Because, according to the explanation, Apple Watch will add many features not yet seen in analog watches to the adventure watches that it will continue, forcing engineered mechanical Swiss watchmaking to reach them. We are sure that at least tomorrow, many watch brands will hold a private meeting within the company.

On the other hand, the choice between luxury and functional watches is truly amazing and proof that Apple is watching the watchmaking industry closely. So what do you think will be the next step?

You can also review our website for the Best Watch Brands.