How to plan a diving trip with the Apple Watch Ultra

When the Apple Watch Ultra launched astatine the backmost extremity of 2022, outdoors enthusiasts, fittingness fans and water-sports devotees were positively salivating implicit the robust physique prime and plethora of enactment profiles the Cupertino institution offered successful its latest, must-have portion of tech. Finally, a due smartwatch that could bash the mundane stuff, specified arsenic instrumentality hands-free calls nonstop from the wrist, but inactive had the enactment tracking mightiness to instrumentality the combat to Garmin, Suunto and Polar.

But possibly 1 of the biggest Trump cards the Apple Watch Ultra, and much recently, the Apple Watch Ultra 2, has played implicit rivals is its precise own, bespoke dive app. Dubbed Oceanic+, the app was designed successful collaboration with diving adept Huish Outdoors - an umbrella institution that owns 7 diving and outdoor brands, including Suunto.

In this article, we explicate however you tin usage the Apple Watch Ultra arsenic a fully-fledged dive machine and, adjacent if you don’t privation to download and wage a subscription for the Oceanic+ app, however you tin inactive marque the astir of the built-in underwater features.

Apple

What makes the Apple Watch Ultra a bully diving watch?

There are a fig of reasons to instrumentality the Apple Watch Ultra into the water, chiefly due to the fact that it is water-certified to WR100 and EN 13319, an internationally recognised modular for dive accessories, including extent gauges.

Secondly, the oversized Digital Crown and Action Button are casual to find and operate, adjacent with gloved hands, portion the ultra-bright Retina show pumps retired up to 2000nits, making it 1 of the brightest and easiest screens to work connected immoderate smartwatch we've tested successful the murky depths.

What's more, the idiosyncratic interface is an implicit doddle to use, with Apple's heavy cognition of UX proving a boon erstwhile flicking betwixt menus and information fields underwater. Oh, and there's adjacent an Ocean Band that's designed to comfortably acceptable implicit wetsuits.

Can I usage diving and underwater features without the Ocean+ app?

In short, yes you can. Apple has introduced a Depth Gauge to Watch Ultra, which tin automatically unfastened erstwhile the instrumentality detects that it is submerged successful water. Or you tin commencement a league manually by opening the app oregon pressing the Action fastener if you customised it to statesman a dive session.

Handily, erstwhile the extent gauge opens, Apple's Water Lock diagnostic besides automatically kicks into enactment to forestall immoderate accidental input connected the touchscreen oregon with the caller Digital Crown.

With the Depth Gauge activated, it is imaginable to spot the time, depth, h2o somesthesia and the session's maximum extent portion snorkelling, underwater swimming oregon shallow free-diving.

Apple

What is the Oceanic+ app and however overmuch does it cost?

Designed successful conjunction with dive specializer Huish Outdoors, Oceanic+ is simply a bespoke app for much superior scuba divers that has been created specially for the Apple Watch Ultra, portion a companion app sits connected iPhone.

It requires the latest watchOS to tally and is compatible with iPhone 8 oregon later, and iPhone SE (2nd generation) oregon aboriginal moving the latest iOS. The basal program is free, which opens up entree to galore communal dive functions, including extent and time, arsenic good arsenic logging astir caller dives.

Alternatively, determination is simply a subscription bundle that costs $9.99/£9.99 per month, oregon Annual Single for $79.99/£81.99 and Annual Family (five devices) for $129/£113.99, which unlocks decompression tracking, insubstantial loading, the determination planner, and an unlimited logbook capacity.

Why is simply a dive machine important?

Safety is cardinal during immoderate diving enactment that plunges to perchance unsafe depths. Divers person to support way of wide diving time, extent of the dive and the descend/ascend rate. This is each to debar overloading a diver's tissues with nitrogen, known arsenic insubstantial loading. A dive machine uses sensors and algorithms to enactment retired these factors and pass the diver to dilatory down, oregon if they necessitate a decompression halt connected the mode backmost up, for example.

Above each else, blase dive computers person banished aged schoolhouse extent gauges, stopwatches and the request to survey dive tables (although aged hands volition proceed to usage these) to enactment retired each of these factors.

Apple

How bash I program a dive with the Oceanic+ app and Apple Watch Ultra?

The Apple Watch Ultra is fundamentally a tiny ace machine connected your wrist, truthful it has nary occupation moving retired a fig of factors erstwhile readying a dive. In the dive planner, users tin acceptable their aboveground time, their depth, and their gas, and Oceanic+ volition cipher their No Deco (no-decompression) clip - a metric utilized to find a clip bounds for a diver astatine a definite depth.

Because the smartphone app is connected (via Wi-Fi oregon cellular), it besides brings successful real-time information, specified arsenic tides, h2o temperature, and adjacent up-to-date accusation from the community, specified arsenic visibility and currents successful your nonstop location.

How does the Apple Watch Ultra support maine harmless portion diving?

The Apple Watch Ultra has a fig of tricks up its sleeve erstwhile submerged. Firstly, users tin power betwixt screens utilizing the rotating Digital Crown to spot elaborate information connected everything from compass heading and navigation to depth, clip and ascend speed.

Secondly, the instrumentality harnesses the powerfulness of dependable and haptic feedback to nonstop warnings from a diver's wrist. These almighty vibrations can, according to Apple, beryllium felt done wetsuits up to 7mm thick, which volition grip immoderate of the coldest h2o temperatures going.

A haptic notification volition beryllium sent erstwhile a diver has to execute a information halt erstwhile ascending - oregon the ticker volition pass a diver to dilatory down - arsenic good arsenic notify erstwhile the h2o becomes excessively acold (depending connected the wetsuit and cogwheel worn) and erstwhile a diver has reached a people extent oregon time.

What's caller connected Apple Watch Ultra 2?

Apple announced a fistful of caller features for its Watch Ultra 2, including the information that the built-in Depth app present saves a log of each session, truthful users tin reappraisal the astir caller sessions connected Apple Watch Ultra oregon presumption the implicit past of each dives with a GPS introduction constituent successful the Fitness app connected iPhone. In summation to this, the expanding popularity of freediving has led to the marque including a circumstantial freediving mounting connected the Oceanic+ app.

As with scuba, this present means captious data, similar extent and elapsed time, and receiving people extent alerts successful casual to work prompts. Controlling the bosom complaint is important successful freediving, successful bid to conserve oxygen, truthful Apple has besides included bosom complaint zones to assistance users show and little their bosom complaint betwixt dives.

Apple

What happens erstwhile I'm backmost connected adust land?

The Watch volition harness GPS information to springiness a precise introduction and exit location, which pops up connected screen. The show volition besides connection a summary of the dive, calculating full dive time, maximum extent and tons more.

Fire up an iPhone, sync the devices and the Oceanic+ app offers a full big of further information, including a representation of introduction and exit locations, arsenic good arsenic graphs of depth, somesthesia ascent rate, and no-decompression limit. This tin beryllium shared with the chap diving assemblage and is saved arsenic a imperishable grounds for poring implicit later.