Apple - Ultra Series

I’m using a awu 1 and a tactix 8 for work

The only consumer health tracker on the planet that is reasonably accurate enough to even think about maybe, maybe, maybe, deigning it as something which could monitor abnormal cardiovascular medical conditions, is the Apple Watch. Maybe. Even that's a stretch. Most trackers are very clear about how their features are only validated for otherwise healthy individuals. And the Whoop's EKG, as one example, barely even works for healthy individuals, let alone unhealthy ones.

Bevel (and Athlytic) are mostly pretty pseudoscience. The issue the Apple Watch has is that third party apps do not get access to low level AW sensor data; they only get high level summaries of the data, so they get "average heart rate over the last minute" instead of each intra-beat timing. This, combined with how the AW only takes sensor readings every five minutes, severely & negatively impacts the accuracy of Whoop-like statistics on that platform.

I use it for my workout. Its great, it has also greatly improved over new versions for tracking the meters better. I would never consider switching, most likely will get a new one in a year or 2. I also use it in open sea training.

I use both. I feel my Apple Watch is more accurate with HR, steps, workouts. My ring is for sleep and stress.

I found I couldn’t use my AW for sleep because the battery was forever needing to be charged

Compared to my Fenix I remember being very self-conscious at first with how dainty the ultra felt and looked. I honestly didn’t know if I liked it. Like OP I immediately noticed how light it was too. That didn’t last long and it felt completely normal in a matter of days to a week

The sapphire will absolutely do it. Mixed reviews on scratched bezels, but the staggering consensus is the screen will hold perfectly. I’ve had each gen of AWU since their respective release days (I keep selling my old one and getting the new model for 1/2 off that way), but in 3 years of daily use I’ve never scratched the sapphire.

I just switched from an Apple Watch (3.5 years) to a 255. I run and was mostly using my aw as a running watch. As a running watch it was fine, but the battery life sucked and my gps/distance was always a bit off from my friends. I’d much rather a slightly better gps than a slightly better hr sensor. Also, big, physical buttons are also great when doing things when you are sweaty. I didn’t even bother getting a touch screen. From my perspective, I couldn’t find a good reason to buy another apple.

I’m using an Apple Watch Ultra for 2,5 years now 3 times a week. Auto detection works great for me, no need to stop/pause after laps.

Ultra gets me two days easily. Isn't hard to find time to charger it. Ussually my rings are full by dinner time. I just toss it on the charger for a bit or worst case till I go to bed then slap it back on.

Correct, unless it’s an ultra as others have said. Personally, I use my Garmin for long activities and running and my Apple Watch for everything else. I prefer the versatility and convenience of my Apple Watch throughout the day, while working, doing HIIT, running into a store without my phone, etc. but prefer the Garmin for running metrics and battery life for several hours walking/hiking activities.

From the Ultra 2? Hard to say. I have an Ultra 1 and am thinking about it. But it's not an immediate thing, and if i get a decent trade in value, that will help the decision too.

> Satellite SOS are pretty big sellers for me. This is what I want it for. I drive in a lot of areas where cellphone service does not exist and I need the ability to contact someone if shit goes down. Got the U1 now but I am moving to the U3 because of this.

I had an Ultra 2 which I bought for the cell feature and Spotify. That worked intermittently the entire time I had it. It wouldn’t even play downloaded music correctly most times. I even paid for an Apple Music subscription thinking it would be better. It wasn’t. I did use it as my only watch for about 6 months and it was pretty good but charging every other day got old and the battery got pretty bad after 18 months or so. I sold it when the 970 came out. I would add that I do not pay attention to any of Garmins useless training stats and algorithm junk that people seem to love so much. I just want a watch that’s accurate and easy to use. You can do worse. But. It’s just not as good as a Garmin for triathlon. You know it’s not. You’re hoping someone will convince you otherwise.

For me the integration with my Macs (auto unlock), phone for notifications and celluar feature allowing me to ride without my phone at all are important so an Apple Watch Ultra has been amazing. If you don't care about those things and fitness and tracking are your priroity it be Garmin all day.

Yes, but said apps also cost money and aren’t necessarily cheap. I tried going that route and wound back up staying loyal to Whoop. I rock both now and have gotten used to it. The strength trainer on Whoop is light years better than any fitness or workout module on the Apple Watch as well.

I did a 10 hour day hike and the battery got to 3% and I didn’t use any battery saving methods. I switched to garmin and I don’t have to charge it for multiple hikes

Personally, i had Apple Watch only since the very beginning. That’s 10 years of being stuck on one platform. Same watch faces. Slow to roll out features. But the biggest for me was: sleep tracking sucked ass on my Apple Watch and the calorie burn was just laughable. The calorie burn on a totally lazy day on my AW put me in the “moderate exercise” category. It was just silly. My wife got a garmin last spring and i got jealous. It had a lot more features that i considered health centric that i liked. The calorie burn made sense. The metrics it gave were just plain cool to look at. It integrated well with the loseit app. The watch face store is just amazing. Makes my garmin feel new all the time. Everything i wanted out of the Apple Watch needed an app and usually a subscription to do. Sleep tracking? Have fun with the pillow app. Subscribe to premium to unlock basic features even the garmin has for free! Calorie tracking beyond some rings? Download bevel. Subscription though! Hydration tracking? Water minder app. Like there’s apps to do stuff, but i just find the functionality on the base garmin experience to be preferable. I just like it. It’s nice.

Same with wrist flick which is available on Ultra 2

It is way more accurate than most runners need. If you do want or need more accuracy you need dedicated accessories or devices. Like a chest strap. Anecdotally, Apple has edged ahead of Garmin in most metrics. But that’s the way of Apple. Slow and steady with incremental improvements. Apple is the tortoise in this race.

I have an apple watch and I used it in the start, but I’ve purchased a bike computer after a while, and It’s 100 times better. If you just use it for commuting, I would say it’s fine to just stick to an apple watch. If you use the bike for training, it’s pretty annoying to have to check you wrist to see your heart rate in an all out intervall. If you don’t really care about the stats mid ride an apple watch is the way to go. Since it’s probably not that nice to slap a bike computer to your wrist.

The Apple Watch is the choice of compromise between daily life and running. I find it very inferior to the Garmins for running and hiking, but it is still acceptable considering the advantages for everything else.

I think sweet spot in Garmin lineup is the 970 right now. Pretty much all features of the Fenix 8 Pro but at a much better price - and way more comfortable to wear sleeping. I alternate between the 970 and Ultra 2 pretty regularly depending on what I’m doing.

It’s more of a fitness tracker than anything. Apple themselves (in the apps they have) makes sure to reiterate that whatever data they show to you is not a replacement to a health check up nor an accurate indicator of your overall health. It’s not a gimmick, as the data they record hold real weight and I’ve read stories here that some of the things they saw in their watches prompted them to go to a doctor, indirectly saving their lives. Personally I use an Apple Watch to gamify my workouts. I am an avid gamer and a bit of a gym rat. Some people use it to gamify their walk, run, swimming and hiking activities. Even sleep can be gamified, or menstrual cycles. You’d know how many hours you actually slept with a watch on. It is a fun device for those trying to stay fit and live a healthy lifestyle. For some people, maybe they just want a digital watch they can customize. A watch they can put their dog’s face on. But for health and making sure you don’t die? Nothing still beats a visit to the doctor.

It essentially boils down to numbers go brr. Not a literal video game thing like some niche high end workout machines have Apple Watch’s activity rings are closest to gamification you can ever get to a watch though. It has achievements in it too. My problem is I can’t disable stand rings because I do not wear my watch 24/7

I had an Apple Watch and immediately switched to the 965 after about 2 weeks of trying to manage my anger over how often the AW had to be charged. I’m firmly on the buy-it team

The expensive ones aren't any more accurate than the cheap ones, but they do last longer. I'm on my third Apple Watch and likely will never switch to anything else, so take my advice with all the weight of a single grain of salt.

For me, my Apple Watch never knew when I woke up or did anything and the timing was always off. Where is my Garmin is dead on with pretty much everything. Idk 🤷‍♂️

I have switched from apple watch to garmin tho may few yrs in between since I got really into automatic watches. Get apple watch for the ECG and AFIB stuff, more apps, cuter watch faces, calls. Get the garmin for weekly charging and better training data.

I use both. I feel my Apple Watch is more accurate with HR, steps, workouts. My ring is for sleep and stress.

Right? It’s actually amazing to have all this tech in a tiny device strapped to your wrist. Lots of people only dwell on things that aren’t there. But the things that are there? Pretty cool: You can call your mom with it or have it tell you which way to turn so you don’t get lost. It will call 911 for you if are moving and get stopped fast enough that your brain noped out. It will warn you if have afib or sleep apnea. It’s a jukebox. You can play a game on it while waiting in line. It will tell you when to turn off the quinoa pot. It nags you if you’ve sat on your ass too long. Mine nags me if I start to get dehydrated. Because it has its own friggin App Store. Oh yeah . . . you don’t have to drag a big slab of iPhone everywhere you go. And it will do all this 24/7 for some years. It’s really hard to break. Plus all the athletic/health data you actually need as a layman. For $800. This is by far the best device Apple has built yet for my personal use case. My phone might sit on the counter in the same place for a day or two. But my Ultra is all over the place.

I switched from Apple Watch & Apple Music to Garmin 255 & Spotify. You can get a yearly Spotify premium gift card from Amazon for $120 to save money, otherwise it's $144 a year from Spotify. I much prefer Garmins watch for running over the Apple Watch. The 2 music subscriptions were about equal to me. They both have their annoyances & pluses.

yea i wear both aw on the left whoop on the right. they are both good for different things and having the whoop gives me some peace of mind about my apple watch charge like i don’t stress about if it dies cause ik the whoop is running

Went from apple watch to Garmin (for longer battery life) then Casio G-shock. Its so calm now. I do miss the tracking sometimes in the summer when i bike. Other than that, i enjoy the freedom not having to charge everyday or not getting bombarded with stats and notifications. You can disable these features from smartwatches of course (which i did), but whats the point of having one then?

I can’t stand my Apple Watch. It always turns off during my workouts and counting “exercise minutes” is literally pointless. I bought an Ultra 2 because I wanted to have the best shot at success with it and that thing is a POS for health tracking. The whoop is so much more comfortable and consistent at tracking with better data analytics. I have the 5.0 and the band is fine. Idk what everyone is complaining about. Is it something you would wear to dress up an expensive outfit? No, but that’s not really what it is intended for. Personally, I would wear it with a suit without thinking twice because I don’t really care what other people think.

I ran Paris marathon last year and my AW8 ran out of battery at 38k so I took the first opportunity to upgrade to AWU2. Runna saved the run up to that point but I’ve never ran a marathon according to Strava which is annoying 😂

Apple Watch Ultra user and haven’t used Garmin or others. I like the AWU because the GPS is extremely accurate, I like the out of box workout/fitness App with Apple, and most importantly I have SOS emergency call if I’m swimming solo. I also have a family with young kids so having the ability to call/text when I’m away if I really need to is peace of mind.

Switched from Apple Watch to a Garmin Enduro some time ago. For exercise / fitness related stuff I would never go back to Apple Watch. Also with the enduro , the battery life is absurd , can run an ultra marathon and still have a really significant amount of battery left. If your goal is a watch for exercise garmin is the way to go.

I wear both an Apple Watch and a Garmin. But honestly, if I had to choose one, it would just be the Garmin. For health data and hell even just telling time the Garmin is miles ahead of Apple. Great thing about Garmin is that they hit pretty much every price point. You can get one of their fitness bands for as low as $150 or more expensive watches.

I wear my Apple Watch on my bicep or around my ankle on the days I wear my regular watch. At times I just wear Apple Watch like a tool watch on my wrist too. I don’t think it has to be either or

I compare my apple watch logs with my pedometer. Ultimately, the device that exists for that single function will be more accurate.

To be honest I just use my AW for structured running workouts and for cycling as well. If I need some data if you started a cycling workout your phone can display them so I use this method, I mount my phone on the bike. Garmin and other sport watches offer a wide variety of sports related features so you have to decide whether you need those. For me it was also important that I can use my watch as an everyday watch so I kept the AW.

I returned the mk3i 43mm. It’s heavy for daily use and the screen is small for diving. So trying to do everything but it’s not good at anything. I got the descent x50i instead and just use the super light Apple Watch 10 for everything else. The Apple Watch Ultra was also too heavy for me. To me heavy is ok for just a fashion watch. But for a fitness watch I don’t like it.

Yeah, I always had better luck with the sleep tracking on the Garmin after switching from Apple Watch. My Apple Watch sleep tracking was so basic and I felt the duration times were so off. And I’m hearing from the new videos on Apple and their sleep scores say that it factors in less things like it doesn’t counter HRV while you’re asleep it goes off consistency, duration, and that’s it. I set my Garmin to sync to Apple health and I got a sleep score and it was so wildly far off. It was insane lol one day I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep and I got a 95 sleep score on Apple lol the Garmin was correct in telling me I got shit sleep. Definitely happy with my decision to stick to Garmin.

🤷‍♂️ came from Apple Watch last spring. It might be cheaper but it doesn’t seem better. Sleep tracking (for me) was far worse on the Apple Watch, fitness tracking is better on garmin, calorie burn, calculating tdee, etc. just everything is better for me. So meh

I have an Apple Watch and have no problem with it, it charges in around 30 minutes so I put it on before my shower and it’s 100% by the time I’ve finished breakfast. So it’s fine to wear overnight while sleeping. But everyone I know over 50-60 years old seems to hate cables with a passion, especially if there are multiple different ones they need to use for different devices. My grandma never unplugs her iPad for reasons unknown to me, my parents seem to get frustrated whenever anything is low battery. I remember someone stopping me in a shop once asking about “sci-fi gadgets” because he didn’t know how to ask which charger would fit his phone. Someone from my old chess club didn’t even have a phone, he said he did for a while but got migraines working out how to keep it running and wished he could just put AA batteries in the back like a TV remote. Little things like that we don’t even think about, but some people just struggle to deal with new things. I guess it’s like a new daily chore that you didn’t have to do for 60 years, and now you need to remember the difference between 6 different cables after the sun has set with poor eyesight. Watch chargers might be different since you don’t plug them in, but my aunt doesn’t even wear her Fitbit because she couldn’t remember to charge it and would then get frustrated that it was dead, and my dad commented that he could never get and Apple Watch because he wouldn’t be able to deal with the daily charging. So it made me think it’s a question worth considering.

Yeah I have taken fitness pretty seriously over the last 1.5 years. Have done 6 triathlons and feel that the Apple Watch is severely lacking. But I feel there would be too many trade offs to go to garmin

Stayed away from an Apple watch until I started going to the gym, now it’s on my wrist 24/7 unless it’s being charged. Sold 5 of my mechanical watches in the last few months. Only kept my Submariner and a pair of CWC watches (G10 & G40) for special occasions.