Hands-On With the New Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 Models

Apple today gave members of the media that were at Apple Park for the "Wonderlust" event a chance to take a look at the new Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 models ahead of their release. MacRumors videographer Dan attended, getting a first look at the new color options, Double Tap, and more.


The major new feature for both the Series 9 and the Ultra 2 is the updated S9 chip, a welcome update because prior to this, the chip in the Apple Watch hadn't been updated since the Series 6 even though Apple was changing the S-name with each generation. The S9 chip has 60 percent more transistors than the S8 chip in the Series 8, and it processes machine learning tasks up to 2x faster.

With the S9 chip, there's a new Double Tap gesture (coming in October). Double Tap lets you double tap your index finger and thumb together to answer a call, play and pause music, open a notification, and more. It uses the various sensors in the Apple Watch and it works surprisingly well.

Both the Series 9 and Ultra 2 have brighter displays (2,000 nits and 3,000 nits maximum, respectively) for better performance in the sun, and they can drop down to 1 nit at night or when you're in a movie theater. Siri requests are also now processed on device, and ‌Siri‌ can answer health questions like how well you slept or what your heart rate is at.

There's also a new U2 chip that can be used for finding your iPhone with Precision Finding, and dictation is 25 percent more accurate. All of the new models come with an increased 64GB of storage space, up from 32GB.

Apple added a new pink aluminum color for the Apple Watch Series 9, which is an attractive shade, plus the watch comes in starlight, midnight, and PRODUCT(RED). The stainless steel models are available in graphite, gold, and silver.

The Series 9 and Ultra 2 Apple Watch models can be preordered starting today, and will launch on September 22 alongside the new iPhone 15 models.

Related Forum: Apple Watch

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Top Rated Comments

sniffies Avatar
20 months ago
The most underwhelming Watch update in human history.

Presenting the Double Tap feature as new is a shameless ?

Accessibility has had it since watchOS 8.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zach-coleman Avatar
20 months ago

The most underwhelming Watch update in human history.

Presenting the Double Tap feature as new is a shameless ?

Accessibility has had it since watchOS 8.
The Series 8 had 2 features. This one at least has like, 5.

Series 8

* Crash Detection [A feature you never want to use]
* Thermometer w/ Cycle Tracking

Series 9

* DoubleTap
* First brightness increase since the series 2 (2000 nits), and lower brightness floor (1 nit)
* S9 (On Device Siri, 25% faster dictation)
* 64GB of storage
* New Ultra Wideband chip (HomePod, iPhone finding)

I’m whelmed.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zach-coleman Avatar
20 months ago

they’ve been milking this watch design for 5 years
Design 1: 0,1,2,3
Design 2: 4,5,6
Design 3: 7,8,9



Attachment Image
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
darngooddesign Avatar
20 months ago
I cant wait for Siri to be more quickly incorrect. :D
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Line_Noise Avatar
20 months ago
How does double tap differ from the gestures under the accessibility options?
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fel10 Avatar
20 months ago
The keynote was a bore overall. I'll be upgrading my Series 7 to a 9, but thats about it. My 14 should last me another year until the 16 is out.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)