Apple Watch Ultra 3

I’m not as hardcore as you. Doing fairly intense, compared to the average 71 year old, but I do exercise very rigorously for over an hour everyday. I’m tracking what is happening especially for endurance in improving general health and stamina. I do pool exercise and needed to have a watch that could last 6 to 8 hours per week every week. I went through my Series 6 with 5 replaced watches (I kept AppleCare) every year. So the Ultra Series has better water redistance and battery life. In can appreciate your comment about heart rate. I have seen problems with outlier measurements. There are one or two times, very intermittent. I’ll get a recorded heart rate reading about double the rest of the recorded HR. My anecdotal observation is it tends to happen in the pool. If I see the reading I will tighten the bad a bit and it doesn’t seem to continue. This happened on my old Series 6 and it has happened on my Ultra 3. It probably comes down to the intent of the design combined with the use case. If I go to my doctor every office visit begins with vitals being taken. It’s a snapshot in time. If a reading is about of whack they may repeat it in a few minutes once or twice, another slice of time. All Apple Watch products are really good at monitoring trends over time. You can setup alerts snd there are apps that can do additional analysis using the collected data. I look at trends events there too low and too high. The outliers do not really impact trend data. The other thing about trend data is knowing when your trend data occurs. I had a heart rate that would go below 40 bps in the 15 to 30 minutes before I wake-up in the morning. I got an alert that I was able to tell that to my Primary doc and Cardiologist. They suggested a change that needed to monitor for another couple of weeks. In my use case, the heart rate monitoring capability is 100% effective. It’s so effective I have the entire days HR data displaying in a compilation a full view of yesterday’s data and to date of the current day. Tap the graph and I can drill into the data, even the outline events. I’m not sure if the watch face comes from the heart health app I have or it’s in the Apple Watch stock watch faces. I have been enrolled the multi-year Apple Heart & Movement Study. The study has found that the Apple Watch sensor is accurate to within 5 bpm (beats per minute) for 98% of the time when users are in sedentary (or resting) mode, and reaches 99.7% accuracy with an error margin of 10bpm. The sensor’s heart rate accuracy varies: * 96% for outdoor cycling, * 87% while walking, * 88% while running, and * 91% during high-intensity workouts, with a 5 bpm error margin when recording in the foreground. Starting with the Apple Watch Series 6, accuracy has improved significantly. * Data from 480 participants logging 21,000 hours shows 89% accuracy (within a 5 bpm error margin) in the background, compared to 72% in older models.

I’ve been using the Ultra 3 for about a week now, mainly for running (1–2 hours a day, roughly 10h/week, 120km/week) plus strength training or yoga for about an hour daily. I’m very routine-driven: I work from home, never travel much, always home by 6PM, runs in the morning, workouts in the afternoon. So my habits are pretty consistent. # 🔧 Settings * Always-On Display: **ON** * Cellular: **ON** (outdoors only) * Low Power Mode: **OFF** * Background Refresh: **ON** (disabled a few irrelevant apps) * Wake on Wrist Raise: **OFF** * Wake on Crown Rotation: **OFF** * Always On: **ON** # ⚡ Charging & Battery I keep it between 20–80% charge, and it tops up super fast — basically full again after my post-run shower. On average, I’m getting about **1.5 days per charge**. I typically charge it every other day: once in the evening and then again after my morning run two days later. It’s nowhere near Garmin-level battery life, but I honestly don’t mind the shorter cycle. A single 1–2h run eats up about **7%**, regardless of whether cellular is on or off. I don’t play music from the watch since I usually have my work phone on me and stream to my Shokz from there anyway. # ❤️ Heart Rate Accuracy This is where the Ultra still lags behind Garmin. * For walking, strength, or yoga — it’s great, very close to chest HRM accuracy. * For running — not so much. I get frequent dropouts and it often locks to cadence (hello, 180 bpm “steady state”). I’ve tried all the usual fixes — moving it higher up my wrist, tightening/loosening, different bands — no real improvement. I have a pretty bony wrist, so that might be part of the issue. My Garmin’s optical sensor wasn’t perfect either, but at least it didn’t constantly confuse cadence for HR. I’ve switched to a chest strap again for running sessions. # 📊 Metrics & Health Data Coming from Garmin, this is the weakest point. Apple’s HRV, stress, and recovery data are nowhere near as consistent or detailed. HR and HRV aren’t continuously measured, so you lose that nice rolling insight Garmin gives you. That said, after three years with Garmin I’ve learned my own recovery cues pretty well — so I’m less reliant on the watch’s “readiness” metrics now. There are third-party apps that try to replicate Garmin’s body battery / training load data, but without continuous measurement, it’s just not the same. # 🍏 Ecosystem & Everyday Use This is where the Ultra wins easily. * The UI is smooth and snappy. * Being able to respond to messages and notifications without my phone is huge. * Integration with the rest of Apple’s ecosystem (Mac, iPhone, AirPods) is seamless. If you’re already deep into Apple’s world, the watch feels like an extension of your digital life. # 🆚 Apple Watch Ultra 3 vs Garmin Garmin is still **the better athlete’s watch**, no question — especially for long-distance runners or anyone training for ultras. Battery life, GPS tracking, and data depth are all superior. This is why I will still keep my garmin - for any 50k+ mountain runs. I am just not this kind of guy who would turn all the settings off, making the watch essentially pointless (I like looking up metrics during run a lot). But if you’re like me — training \~20 hours a week (which is still only about 18% of my waking time) — the other 82% of your life is where the Apple Watch shines. For everything outside pure training, the Ultra 3 is just **a better all-around smartwatch**.

Thanks for the input on this - makes me wonder whether I have a faulty model :) But again - works quite well when I don't move a lot.

That's not my experience at all. The AWU tells me I'm asleep if I read in bed, and that I always have an amazing sleep score. My Fenix ​​8 is much more in line with how I feel. It might be wrong about the exact distribution of sleep phases, but it uses sensors that take readings every second, such as temperature and heart rate, to calculate its sleep score.

I tried it… Back to Garmin after two months. The AWU3 is appealing but doesn't suit my lifestyle and is too distracting on the wrist. Besides, I can have 12-hour workdays, so I prefer weekly training minutes to rings. WorkoutDoors is decent, but data transfer is a pain (the app has to be open on the watch and you have to try several times), there's no speed gauge, and it's generally cumbersome to use. Bevel is appealing for two weeks, but the nutrition tracking is inadequate in France, and the data can't be reliable with such low sampling rates for HRV and heart rate. No PacePro that I know of. For running coaching, you need a subscription like Runna. No practical flashlight… that’s the feature I use most often on Garmin :) I really wish I could have liked the Apple Watch, but it just doesn’t work for me. Now, to balance things out a bit, the Apple Watch Ultra is superior in terms of its communication capabilities, thanks to the security offered by the high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and irregular heartbeat alarms. The haptic alarm is nice, but it doesn’t wake me up every time. In daily life, we’re more connected; it’s easier to reply to a message on the fly. But we’re also interrupted more often.

I am 100% on the side of ultra. Bought my first Ultra the 3 and will never go back. The battery life is amazing!!! Lasts 2 to 3 days easy and that's without low power mode.

I have an AWU3 and just grabbed a Fenix8. How do you mix their use? Do you use the garmin for sleep? If not, how does that change your training load? I had a fenix6pro that I used for a couple 50k’s, and I want to get back into doing them. That’s why I picked up the 8.