5 reasons it’s the perfect smartwatch for traveling

I spent the last week of October in Fiji, participating in the 2023 GoPro Creator Summit. GoPro hosts the annual summit in a different exotic location, inviting dozens of content creators and athletes to trek the globe, and then capture their activities on GoPro’s latest camera.

This year, that meant capturing everything from riding down the river in a speedboat, to scuba diving, free diving, or skydiving onto or near one of the countless islands that make up Fiji.

I’m neither a creator nor an athlete, but I was invited to cover different aspects of the event (some of which will be published here soon). I also took the chance to test out the new Apple Watch Ultra 2, putting it through its paces in an environment I don’t normally get to experience.

I’ve used the original Ultra since it launched, so I was excited to experience the Ultra 2, which doesn’t differ all that much from the original Ultra, on paper at least. However, it turns out there are a couple of key areas where the Ultra 2 truly shines brighter than the original Ultra, making its case to be the smartwatch you want when traveling. At least, I know I do.

Battery life for days… literally

The number one reason why I love traveling with the Ultra 2 is its long battery life. On short work trips, usually 36–48 hours, to cover a launch event, I don’t have to worry about even taking an Apple Watch charger with me. The Ultra, and now the Ultra 2, has more than enough battery life to get through the entire trip. Carrying one less charger, especially one designed for a single device, is always a good thing.

My trip to Fiji was longer than my short work trips, of course. I was there for a total of five days when you look at the calendar, but thanks to timezones and the international date line, I was actually gone closer to eight days. And when I got back home, I almost immediately got on another plane and flew to Texas for four days to attend a wedding. In total, I was on the road for 12 days.

During that time, I had to charge the Ultra 2 a total of five times, which was roughly every other day. I’d typically wake up and put the watch on its charger while getting ready, and once I was ready to go for the day, so too was the watch.

On Nov. 1, my last day in Fiji, I woke up at 6 am local time, flew out at 10 pm local time, and landed at LAX at 12:30 pm, on November 1. I didn’t get home for another 12 hours. I basically lived the same day twice because time zones are weird. And I didn’t have to worry about charging the Ultra 2 during my own personal Groundhog Day.

This is in stark contrast to Google’s Pixel Watch 2, which I’ve found needs to be charged every 28 hours or so. The same goes for any of Apple’s non-Ultra models; you’re going to get about a day’s worth of use out of it before placing it on the charger.

Be it a long trip, like my recent outing, or a short work trip, the extended battery life of the Ultra 2 is a key feature.

A display so bright

Fiji is a beautiful place, so naturally, I spent a lot of time outside for various activities and events. Nearly all that time was spent in direct sunlight, or if I was in shade, there was still plenty of bright light, which is an environment that’s not ideal for looking at your phone’s or smartwatch’s display.

Even with the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s 2,000 nits peak brightness, I struggled to see the screen in direct sunlight. However, the Apple Watch Ultra 2’s screen is so bright I never once had to cup my other hand around the display so I could read the time or check a message. Every time I glanced down at it, be it the always-on display or after raising my wrist, I could clearly read what I needed.

The Ultra 2’s display has a staggering peak brightness of 3,000 nits, that’s up from 2,000 nits on the first-generation Ultra, and a third higher than the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

According to the Health app on my iPhone, there was a day when I spent 437 minutes outside and in sunlight, and the Ultra 2 provided enough power to the display to keep it visible while not causing an excessive drain on the battery. Impressive.

I’m no diver, but I see the value of the Depth app

I had hoped I would have the chance to go scuba diving while in Fiji, but because I ditched my certification class years ago to watch a hockey game and there not being enough time to go through a certification course before the trip, I was left with one option: snorkeling.

One of the reasons I wanted to go scuba diving was to test out the Depth app on the Apple Watch Ultra. The app automatically turns on when it detects it’s underwater, putting information like your current depth (and your range of depth), the water temperature, and the amount of time you’ve been under on your wrist. It effectively acts as a dive computer, giving you the most critical information, with the option to use and trigger third-party apps that go even further.

When snorkeling, however, that information isn’t nearly as important, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun to see.

I wasn’t entirely content with floating on top of the water looking at the coral and fish below, so I tried to practice my freediving the best I could. That is, holding my breath, going down into the coral, and swimming alongside the fish and other wildlife.

I used the Ultra 2 and the Depth app to measure how deep I was going on each dive. The deepest? A whole six feet. But you know what? It was an awesome six feet.

While I didn’t get to fully test out the Ultra 2’s Depth app and dive computer prowess, I did use it as a tool to track and encourage myself to push my personal boundaries and limits. And it was a success.

It’s built to survive, and that brings peace of mind

Up until the original Ultra was released, I owned and wore every Apple Watch Series model. Still, whenever it came time to go swimming, especially in the ocean, or put myself in environments where I could bang my wrist on something and break the display, I took it off.

Even though I spent a lot of time in Fiji’s beautiful water – salt water, more specifically – or riding in a speed boat that frequently would do a 360-degree turn going who knows how fast, throwing the passengers from one side to the other, or riding a jetski at nearly 50 mph, or going through a Survivor challenge… I never once thought about taking the Ultra 2 off because I was afraid it’d break.

The fact that the housing is made of titanium is a nice selling point, but what instills the most confidence is the flat display design. That is, the titanium housing comes up alongside and over the edges of the display, leaving only the flat top that’s ever-so-slightly recessed to further protect it.

I did have one close call, however, during my trip, but that wasn’t due to the watch itself, but the fault of the watchband. The Ultra 2 I received from Apple came with the green/gray Alpine Loop band. Despite having numerous watch bands, some designed for water activities, I decided to use the Alpine Loop band for my trip.

All was well until I jumped off a pier into the ocean. Everything was fine until I hit the water, and I immediately felt the Apple Watch Ultra 2 slide down my wrist, over my hand. I quickly closed my hand and kept it from sliding off my arm, down to the bottom of the sea.

I was so distracted by rescuing the watch, that I didn’t realize that my sunglasses fell off and were slowly making a descent of their own. Thankfully, someone on the pier reminded me, and I could leave the water with both the watch and sunglasses.

Complications are invaluable

Last but certainly not least, the Ultra 2’s larger display and ability to show more information on a watch face in the form of complications were key to keeping me on schedule and in the right place while traveling.

I relied on complications from apps like TripIt and Flighty at the airport and rocked Fantastical 2’s daily schedule complication for further guidance.

But the complication I used the most came from the Clock app on the watch. More specifically, I put the local time back home on my watch face so I didn’t have to do all sorts of mental math to figure out the time and day of the week in Colorado. Subtracting 18 hours from your current time sounds easy, until you do it multiple times a day. Not to mention that as soon as I got back, I switched time zones yet again by going to Texas, and that was then again thrown off, thanks to the time change over the weekend.

Bottom line

Apple/ Pocket-lint 

I was already really fond of the Apple Watch Ultra before my extended time away from the office. Still, after spending almost two weeks with the Ultra 2, I’m even more sold on it being the best smartwatch you can own for traveling thanks to core features like extended battery life, rugged design, super bright – and big – display and its secondary features like the Depth app and complications that are full of information, it’s the complete package.