Apple unveils new Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2

Apple has introduced the highly anticipated Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra Watch 2, enhancing the world’s best-selling lifestyle watches with an array of innovative features.

The Series 9 and Ultra 2 are equipped with impressive performance enhancements, a magical double-tap gesture, a brighter display, and faster on-device Siri with health data access. Notably, this release also offers carbon-neutral options, aligning with Apple’s ambitious plan to be entirely carbon-neutral by 2030.

Double-tap gesture

The Series 9 introduces a new double-tap gesture, helping to make one-handed operation a breeze. Users can perform various actions, such as stopping a timer, playing or pausing music or answering phone calls, by simply raising their wrist (to wake up the display) and tapping their index finger and thumb together twice. This watch recognizes subtle wrist movements and blood flow changes during a double tap, leveraging the Series 9’s faster engine and allowing faster decision-making without touching the screen. The new engine accelerates the watch’s learning tasks by up to twice the speed of the Series 8.

Brighter display

Both watches now have brighter displays of up to 2,000 nits (Series 9) or 3,000 nits (Ultra 2), which is twice as bright than the previous versions. The display can be reduced to 1 nit when you want to keep things darker (such as when you wake up in the middle of the night), while the flashlight can be set to double the brightness when needed.

Even with a brighter display and a faster engine, the Series 9 maintains an 18-hour battery life on a full charge–nearly enough to get you through a day (but not quite)–and considerably longer on low power. The Ultra 2 also has the same battery life as its predecessor, holding a charge of 36 hours, with up to 72 hours in low power mode.

On-device Siri with health data access

All Siri requests can now be processed on the watch, resulting in faster responses for tasks that don’t require Internet access. Additionally, Siri can retrieve health and fitness data from the Apple Health app, enabling users to inquire about sleep patterns, activity ring progress and any other fitness needs. Users can also log health data directly using Siri.

Series 9 and Ultra 2 run on watchOS 10, which features redesigned apps, a new Smart Stack for relevant widgets, fresh watch faces inspired by Nike and enhanced tools for cycling, hiking and mental health support.

Canadians can pre-order the Apple Watch Series 9 or Apple Watch Ultra 2 now, but it will reach stores starting Sept. 22. The Series 9 starts at CAD $549, and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 starts at CAD $1,099.