The first generation Apple Watch was the first major product of a new category that was developed under the leadership of Tim Cook at the head of the Cupertino company. It was presented in September 2014 in the De Anza College auditorium, a stage carefully chosen, because it was the place where the company’s now deceased co-founder, Steve Jobs, announced to the world the Macintosh, the computer that would define how would be computers in the future.
For the first time, Cook reserved for that presentation the legendary phrase of Jobs, “one more thing,” with which he always revealed the best surprise of a presentation. In its nine annual updates, the Apple Watch has had some improvements, both internal, for a huge improvement in performance and capabilities, and external, with more surface area and better screens, which have consolidated that initially uncertain category as the main global trend. in this type of device. Today there are many who prefer the apple watch to traditional ones, even from luxury brands.
Last year, Apple raised expectations of its impact on the watch sector by entering a special subcategory, action and extreme sports watches, a segment that it had left in the hands of the competition. And he did it extremely well. The first generation Apple Watch Ultra had a very meticulous development. The device was subjected to extreme tests for one million hours. It works 40 meters deep in the sea and above the height of Everest, at 20 degrees below zero, at one of the poles, or at 55 degrees Celsius, either at the hottest point on Earth, Death Valley (Arizona). ) or perhaps some Spanish cities in the coming summers.
The experience of the first Apple Watch Ultra has been excellent, with a titanium case and a quartz screen that protect it from bumps and scratches. Apple has been adding, and will continue to do so, new features. It is enough to listen to user requests to take its benefits further. The watch is now ready for anything. Everything else is software and can be fixed.
So it must have been difficult for Apple engineers to decide what they could change to make the device even better. Your screen? It already had the highest brightness on the market and excellent resolution. In the second generation they have increased the brightness by 50%. It now reaches up to 3,000 nits in bright sunshine, so it looks extraordinarily good in any circumstance. Power? Apple has created a new encapsulated chip called S9 that allows even more flexibility, but except for a few functions, a user will never distinguish between the first and second generation of the device.
Location? The Apple Watch Ultra has the most precise geolocation capability, GPS L5, in addition to the more common GPS L1 from day one. This time, the apple company has added a new ultra-wide frequency chip that is more meticulous in finding devices or objects with Apple smart tags. It’s always better to be more accurate, but it’s not a big difference.
The only major differential function that the Apple Watch Ultra 2 has compared to its predecessor will be launched next October. This is Double Touch, a system to operate the watch with the same hand in which it is worn by touching two fingers, the thumb and the index finger, together. It is used to answer or end a phone call, play or pause music, stop a timer, snooze an alarm, take a photo of the iPhone remotely and some more complex functions, such as switching to the new altitude view of the Compass app for View the relative altitude of saved waypoints.
The Double Tap function can only be used with the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9 because they are the only ones that have the S9 chip. An artificial intelligence algorithm processes the data from the accelerometer, the gyroscope and the optical sensor that captures heart rate data in its neural engine, capable of detecting small changes in blood circulation when moving the fingers. It will reach the new Apple watches through an upcoming update to the S10 operating system.
In the case of certain devices, such as phones or smart watches, the consumer electronics industry has become accustomed to renewing them every year. If you compare generations five years apart, the differences are enormous. In the case of the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it is a good update to the previous model, but a user who has this first version will not find anything radically better that would make them buy the newer one. Also 100 euros cheaper than the initial launch price a year ago. It is the danger of having done things well with the first model. It is very difficult to improve it.
Something similar happens with the Apple Watch Series 9. The apple company has given it the power of the S9 chip, with which it can use the Double Touch function, and has given it a screen twice as bright as the Series generation. 8. Now it reaches 2,000 nits. It is a very complete watch, with added health and safety functions, such as detecting falls and accidents, with a call to emergency services. For someone who doesn’t have one or has a very old or damaged model, it is worth the purchase.
Anyone who has any of those from recent years will not find big changes. When something is so perfected, it is difficult to part with the most recent models. Apple also adds the value that it is now a carbon-neutral model, because the company is going to compensate with clean energy for the charging operations of each of the watches in the world, in addition to the supply chain and life cycle. of all its products. That is its goal for all its products in 2030.
