{"id":1184467,"date":"2026-09-03T16:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184467\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T16:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T16:44:11","slug":"the-moto-watch-ultra-is-a-return-to-wear-os","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1184467\/","title":{"rendered":"The Moto Watch Ultra is a return to Wear OS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Just a few months after getting back into the smartwatch game, Motorola is targeting the premium end of the market with the first Moto Watch Ultra. It comes with some upgrades from the recent Moto Watch \u2014 most obviously the jump to Wear OS \u2014 but lacks the outdoorsy features that would make it a true rival to Samsung and Apple\u2019s Ultra watches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/gadgets\/851643\/moto-watch-android-smarwatch-ces-2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Moto Watch<\/a> ran a custom operating system, Motorola has adopted Google\u2019s Wear OS platform for the Ultra model, with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/7\/19\/23268272\/qualcomm-snapdragon-w5-wearables-processor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Snapdragon W5 Plus Gen 1 chip<\/a> to run it. That gives the Ultra an immediate leg up in terms of access to a wide range of apps, interoperability with the company\u2019s Android phones, and support for NFC payments through Google Wallet. Gemini is supported too, along with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/column\/857053\/lenovo-ai-assistant-qira\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Motorola\u2019s own Qira AI assistant<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The downside is battery life. While the Moto Watch boasted an impressive 13 days of runtime, Motorola is only predicting 50 hours of life for the Ultra, and that\u2019s with the always-on display switched off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">At 51g and 12mm thick, the Ultra is a fairly stocky smartwatch, though its 46mm face is actually a little smaller than the normal Moto Watch. Despite that, it actually fits in a larger 1.5-inch OLED display, thanks to a much smaller bezel. The stainless steel body comes in either black or silver, and both ship with a pair of 22mm straps in the box, one silicone and one leather. The silver watch gets green silicone and brown leather, while the black body comes with black, and more black.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The Ultra has an IP68 rating, 5ATM of water-resistance, and Gorilla Glass 3 on the face. Health and fitness tracking is handled through a returning partnership with Polar. It covers heart rate, sleep, stress, SpO2, and recovery, with an AI running coach thrown in too, helped by LTE and dual-band GPS. Still, these aren\u2019t the sort of comprehensive outdoor and extreme sports features you\u2019ll find in the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/793264\/apple-watch-ultra-3-review-satellite-5g-display-battery-wearable\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Apple Watch Ultra<\/a> or Samsung <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/968728\/samsung-galaxy-watch-9-ultra-2-hands-on-wearables-smartwatches\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Galaxy Watch Ultra<\/a> models, and really this is more in line with those companies\u2019 standard smartwatches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">That\u2019s borne out by the price: The Moto Watch Ultra will cost just $349.99, about half the price of those other Ultras, but a little over double the $149.99 Moto Watch. It\u2019ll be available starting September 10th.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Photography by Dominic Preston \/ The Verge<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just a few months after getting back into the smartwatch game, Motorola is targeting the premium end of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1184468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3160],"tags":[1685,320520,3302,12,3317,326,53,16,15,8260],"class_list":["post-1184467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-ifa-2026","tag-motorola","tag-news","tag-smartwatch","tag-tech","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wearable"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1184467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1184467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1184468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1184467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1184467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}