Apple Watch Ultra Hands On Scuba Mode | @ScubaDiverMagazine

Awesome review – very informative! I think it’s absolute crap Apple does not have a native app for diving and makes you subscribe to 3rd party software to use properly. For a watch marketed for diving, it is very disappointing. I wonder if the 2nd gen will rectify this. It would be like using a 3rd party app to make a phone call.

If Apple graces us with deeper dive functions, I wonder if it would just be in an update or would you need a different, newer Apple Watch? I love the look of it. But, the limitations of depth I do not like, even though Im a recreational diver🤷‍♂️. As others have said, what if you get caught in down current and you end up deeper than this watch can handle? Additional stops I suppose, but……

Just back from a week in Truk and diving on the Ultra with the Oceanic App. Before the trip I ordered the Garmin Mk2, I use a Garmin for mountaineering and golf, but side by side the Garmin was way more complicated to use and get set up compared to the Apple so I returned it. Diving the Apple with other largely recreational divers there was a very small learning curve, it’s best to open the app on the phone before splashing, then hitting the action button to start the dive. It’s largely automatic, with only the one button to push.

We dove Nitrox and largely above 130′, but did venture below on occasion, when I did it flashed the red MOD warning, but continued to function. Most of the deco obligations were satisfied with a slow ascent and certainly by the time we finished the 3 minute 15′ safety stop on all dives. We did not dive the San Francisco on this trip, I’ve been there before so I checked touching the tanks off the list before, so I can’t speak to its performance at 165′, but it likely would continue to function while flashing the MOD warning.

The device is programmed rather conservatively, which at the end of the day is uber safe, and uses a 48 hour no fly limit. We flew 26 hours after the last dive and it was in my carryon so not sure if it flashed an angry message or not. We were the first divers on the Odyssey to be using the Ultra, at least with this crew, and the guides were curious, and very skeptical. Not sure if we convinced them or not.

We dove with others on more traditional dive computers, and I had my Scubapro on the other wrist for comparison. The Apple was hands down simpler to use, read and live with. Until they expanded the APP or write one for the more technical divers, then those folk will want a more traditional computer, but this thing will satisfy the vast majority of us recreational/occasional divers, while also serving as a kick ass watch and smart device in the 99% of the rest of our lives. Super happy with it.

another industry about to get transformed !!! and theylle make in roads on the features that garmin is superior with, give them a year or 2… if apple sees its worth it for them to do so, which i think it will be , it WILL happen.

Excellent review!

I have a question, I have the app and subscription, however I went diving and left it in snorkel mode and now it says I can’t change it to dive mode for 24 hours. Is that correct?

Yes with the build in app is up to 40 meters but with the oceanic app is upto 100

Serious Scuba app, overpriced gimmick or bit of both?

Subscription based for an app most of us only use a few times a year? Disappointing to say the least when already purchased the hardware for USD800/Eur1000!😌

Besides, imho outright dangerous that this Oceanic app v1.0 won’t display (no-)decompression-info (after being submerged) below 130ft/40m! Because even in recreational diving to a wreck, at a wall a/o with currents an occasional short dip below certified depth is not uncommon but with experience and training nowhere near as dangerous as a computer NOT ALWAYS showing (no-)dec-time (like serious diving computers do).

This requirement is a ‘must have’ not a legally-bound ‘nice to have’ an app-developer can simply lower in priority and exclude. #legalmadness

If you guys really want to understand where the ‘Zürich’ ZH-72 model and ZH-L16C / ZH-L8ADT derivatives for dive-computers in more scientific details with background all the way back to Haldane tables for bell-diving, I can advise reading this: https://amzn.eu/d/ixa3mNG
With Bradley I share more detailed ‘educated’ insights under their comments of: https://youtu.be/d90j0abTGjQ

I want my 🤿 tech to be robust and fail-safe NOT failing ‘by design’ if the unexpected or occasional ‘legal’ exception happens. Just because of some legally bound firm restricting the perfectly capable ZH-L16C algorithm of prof. A.A. Bühlmann for use below 40m/130ft.
This to at least stay informed and potentially NOT making the ill-advised/ UNwanted deep-dive situation for a 🤿 diver even worse by this 🌊 Oceanic app currently deliberately depriving a 🤿 diver under such conditions of vital (no-)decompression information.

For the record, also this 40m/130ft limit was adopted from the 1960’s by emerging certification bodies such as CMAS, PADI etc. as the universally 🌎 accepted certified limit, to lower nitrogen (N2) related risks for recreational divers.
On the other side, NO theoretical 🤿 limit can 100% protect you against these risks. Especially if your bodily characteristics a/o condition differs from the tested standard where most decompression models and computers are based on (i.e. healthy ‘army-style’ males).
Really, I’ve witnessed fellow divers getting mild decompression sickness (i.e. bends) by only multi-diving for a few days in relatively shallow waters or N2 narcosis far from this ‘maximum’ depth-limit.

To be very clear, I consider myself a risk-averse 🤿 diver.

Yet we all know that 🤿 diving means taking calculated risks only for the suitably trained befitting our biological constraints (we’re not fish 🐠 after-all).😇

So Apple🍏 and Oceanic🌊 please stop ‘covering your legal bums’ by deliberately omitting vital and required (no-)decompression info also under ‘non-compliant’ but realistic real-life 🤿 circumstances. After-all nobody can predict the unknown, the unwanted and every 🤿 diver is responsible to dive within their personal abilities, knowledge a/o (as much as possible) their certification-level. Thank you!

Anyway, as a gimmicky backup ‘show-off’ to my 15 year old wireless air-integrated Uwatec Air Z Nitrox, the Ultra with this app should do fine. This way only replacing my 1st 🤿 computer, a 1995 Suunto Solution at a premium price!😝

No wireless air integration for the Ultra is indeed a bummer anno 2022 especially with all the other radios this 🍏 watch already carries. As e.g. Uwatec-Scubapro implemented this in the past: for submersed wireless transmittance of air-mixture consumption, the radio technology needs to be different from in the Ultra already included GSM, LTE, GNSS, WiFi and Bluetooth radios. If I remember correctly a much lower frequency is required for this. This means yet another radio-tech needs to be added to an Ultra successor to make this work. But since this Ultra version seems to be aimed at only entry-level Scuba 🤿, I don’t believe Apple will ever add this 1990 radio-tech to their ‘Ultra’ successors primarily aimed at ‘Ultra’ activities for land-mammals?🌳

The limited battery capacity of the Ultra for general use and multi-day Scuba diving, I also don’t find this an “issue”. I simply accept this as a result of the abundance of innovative smart watch features this Ultra delivers, restricted by the current battery🪫 state-of-tech.
If anticipated, I just bring my compact 10k mAmp 🔋🔋🔋 pack along with ⌚️charging puck on any multi-day trip when far away from 110V/230V ⚡️outlets, in case the Ultra (or mostly my iPhone 12mini for that matter🙃) has less juice than it requires in between multi-dive days.

Finally on a positive note, NO other smart watch today includes soo many valuable features as this Ultra does. Yes delivering soo much diverse functionality the Ultra is quite ‘basic’ compared to some ‘specialty’ watches being only great at their niche (the 80-20 rule?). Yet, it’s great Apple 🍏 finally nudges these specialty brands to do better after decades of hardly any innovation a/o terrible UX, including the same ol’ same ol’ 💤 Scuba business since the great 🇫🇷🤿 inventor Cousteau. Factually, for real Scuba innovation, at least since the past century.🤓

My present dive computer also tells me how much air I have. Too bad this watch can’t do that and is the main reason I am not buy this ultra. My Apple watch 8 works just fine from day to day and my dive computer is fine while diving

Will the dive log(s) remain in the app once the subscription expires? I only dive a few time a year so Im thinking of subscribing on a (eg) monthly basis.

Sorry, but this channel is the most boring diving channel at all.

Great balanced review! One aspect of the Ultra watch, as attractive a package as it is, is the renewal of the gaskets. It doesn’t seem to be available in all markets, and the pricing is opaque.

The Main reason I will never buy one, As a diver myself I want one that has the ability to go further (like 50M or deeper) incase you/I want to go tech

Who said money don’t buy happiness 😂😂 in Egypt this costs annual salary,,,any one needs a kidney ?😂 😂

Do you have to pay extra for every safety stop ? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

As garmin said we count battery in days not hours 😅😁 so I will stay with my mk2i 😊

As far as the depth goes, I agree that most recreational divers won’t stray below 40 meters. The question is, though, “what if?”. What does the app do if you go deeper? Just pause functioning until you go back above? Display a warning screen? Will it display your current depth or just say “too deep”?