The Apple Watch Ultra 2 is now available in black

Apple has refreshed the Apple Watch Ultra 2 with a new satin black color option and sleep apnea detection feature, the company announced today at its September event. It's the first time Apple has offered the Watch Ultra in more than one color since it launched two years ago.

The Watch Ultra 2 uses the watch's accelerometer and timing measurements to detect when a sleeper's movement is consistent with sleep apnea. The feature will be available in the new Apple Watch Series 10 as well as the Series 9. Apple also announced a new titanium Milanese Loop. It costs $799 and is available for pre-order today ahead of its September 20 launch.

The Watch Ultra will get watchOS 11, which brings updates to Smart Stack — the widgets that pop up when you turn the Digital Crown and now show live activity like the iPhone — as well as a number of features for monitoring health over time. This includes training load, which can tell you how hard you've been pushing yourself compared to your typical effort, and the debut of a Vitals app that lets you know whether key metrics like breathing rate or sleep duration are typical for you, or whether some measurements are considered outliers.

The Apple Watch Ultra was introduced in 2022 as arguably the wearable's first significant design update. It differed from the regular “Series” watches with a larger screen and chunkier body, as well as a customizable action button – a concept Apple later carried over to the iPhone 15 Pro. The company released the Ultra 2 last year with a brighter screen and a new S9 chip that enabled Siri processing on the device.

While the Watch Ultra hasn't changed much this year, it's still the battery champion among Apple's smartwatch products. It's also the most expensive of the Apple Watches, and is aimed squarely at the sportiest smartwatch wearers who spend more time outdoors and on the move, and for whom a brighter screen and long-lasting battery might be important.

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