Apple Watch Series 11 vs Apple Watch Ultra 4

A year separates them: Series 11 was announced on 9 September 2025 and went on sale on 19 September, and Ultra 4 was announced on 9 September 2026. Series 11 isn’t as dated as that sounds, with 5G on cellular models, a 6-meter depth gauge, hypertension notifications and watchOS 27 support. What it can’t match is the 2026 heart hardware, or anything that makes an Ultra an Ultra.

Series 11 and Ultra 4 side by side

Spec	Apple Watch Series 11	Apple Watch Ultra 4
Announced	9 September 2025	9 September 2026
Sizes	42mm or 46mm	49mm only
Thickness	9.7mm	12mm
Case	Aluminum or titanium	Grade 5 titanium
Display	LTPO3, 2,000 nits	LTPO3, 3,000 nits
Chip and storage	S10; 64GB	S11; 64GB
Heart sensors	Third-generation optical	Health Sensing System
Normal use	Up to 24 hours	Up to 50 hours
Low Power Mode	Up to 38 hours	Up to 84 hours
GPS workouts	No separate rating	18 hours; 25 Extended; 45 Max Extended
Charge to 80%	About 30 minutes	About 45 minutes
GPS	L1	Dual-frequency
Cellular	5G RedCap and LTE	5G RedCap and LTE
Water	50m; depth gauge to 6m	100m; dives to 40m
Satellite	No	Yes
US launch price	$399	$799

Battery: 24 hours against 50

Series 11 is the Series that got the big battery jump: Series 10 was rated for 18 hours, Series 11 for 24, or 38 in Low Power Mode. Apple’s 24-hour test includes a 60-minute workout, but there’s no separate workout rating. Ultra 4 more than doubles it, with up to 50 hours of normal use and 84 in Low Power Mode, plus GPS workout ratings of 18 hours outdoors, 25 in Extended Workout and 45 in Max Extended Workout for runs, walks and hikes that log GPS every second.

Charging favors Series 11 when you’re in a hurry: it reaches about 80 percent in about 30 minutes, against about 45 for Ultra 4. Short charges go further on the Ultra, though. A 15-minute charge buys about 8 hours of normal use on Series 11 and about 18 on Ultra 4, and five minutes covers about 8 hours of sleep tracking on Series 11 against about 10 on Ultra 4. If you charge every night, Series 11 is fine; if the second day matters, that’s the Ultra.

Six meters is snorkeling, 40 is diving

Series 11’s depth gauge reads to 6 meters, with a water-temperature sensor, and the watch is water resistant to 50 meters under ISO 22810: swimming, yes; scuba, waterskiing or high-speed water sports, no. Ultra 4 is rated to 100 meters and certified to EN 13319 for recreational dives to 40 meters, and it opens a dive app automatically at 1 meter. It also adds a siren and the Action Button.

Toughness follows the same line. Series 11 is IP6X dust-resistant, but Apple lists no MIL-STD testing for it, and it’s rated to work from 0 to 35 degrees Celsius and up to 3,000 meters of altitude. Ultra 4 puts a 3,000-nit screen in a 12-millimeter, 63-gram titanium case; Series 11 is 9.7mm thick with 2,000 nits.

Health: S10 sensors, not the 2026 system

Series 11 has the third-generation optical heart sensor, with high, low and irregular-rhythm alerts, plus ECG, Blood Oxygen and hypertension notifications. For sleep, it records stages, scores each night and can warn of possible sleep apnea. What it doesn’t have is the Health Sensing System, readiness or Audio Intelligence, and watchOS 27 won’t add them.

Ultra 4 shares the Health Sensing System with Series 12: background heart rate every five seconds, heart rate variability as often as every five minutes, and the 0–10 readiness score with its Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready and Go For It labels. Apple’s 60× and 24× figures compare Ultra 4 with Ultra 3, not with Series 11.

Always On is a wash. Series 11’s LTPO3 screen updates once a second, the rate Series 10 introduced, and Ultra 4 does the same at 1Hz.

Radios, maps and everyday features

GPS is the one difference here you can’t see. Series 11 has L1 GPS with GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS and BeiDou; dual-frequency is an Ultra feature. The other radios match: both have 5G RedCap and LTE on cellular models (A3335 and A3337 for Series 11, A3579 for Ultra 4), which Series 10 lacked, plus Wi-Fi 4 on 2.4GHz and 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.3 and a second-generation ultra-wideband chip.

Series 11 also has double tap and wrist flick, on-device Siri, and Apple Watch For Your Kids on cellular models, with some features held back on a managed watch. Its hiking tools match Ultra 4’s: compass, waypoints, Backtrack, offline maps, U.S. topographic maps and curated hikes in all 63 national parks, with the maps and hikes limited to the U.S. on both. Running metrics include stride length and ground contact time. What differs is the GPS radio under the map, not the map.

Size, finishes and what’s in the box

Series 11 measures 42 × 36mm or 46 × 39mm, both 9.7mm thick. The 42mm aluminum GPS model weighs 30.3 grams, and Apple lists the cellular one as lighter at 29.7; the 46mm pair weighs 37.8 and 36.9 grams, and titanium 34.6 or 43.1 grams.

Series 11 aluminum comes in rose gold, silver, space gray and jet black, and titanium in gold, natural and slate. Apple says it’s made with 40 percent recycled content, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in aluminum cases and 100 percent recycled titanium in titanium ones. Ultra 4 comes only in natural or black titanium, plus a separate Hermès collection, and Apple puts its recycled content at 45 percent. There’s no ceramic Series 11; that finish arrived with Series 12, along with a flashlight in Apple’s safety features.

The Series 11 box has the watch, a band and the USB-C magnetic charger. It takes standard Apple Watch bands, and Ultra bands don’t fit.

Price and iPhone

Series 11 started at $399; Ultra 4 started at $799. Series 12 launched at that same $399 with the newer heart sensors, so it’s the better buy if you’re choosing a Series new. Both need an iPhone. Series 11 launched needing an iPhone 11 or later with iOS 26, and watchOS 27 on it needs iOS 27, which Ultra 4 requires from day one. Launch prices aren’t what you’ll pay today, so check apple.com before you buy.