By most measures, the Apple Watch Series 3 is a pretty minor update over the Ultra 2 (and even the Ultra 1). Here's what's new compared to the last model:

  1. Emergency SOS via satellite
  2. 5G vs LTE
  3. S10 SoC vs S9
  4. 17% more battery
  5. Slightly faster charging
  6. 12px wider and taller screen
  7. LTPO3 wide-angle OLED vs LTPO2

With the exception of the batter life, I can pretty confidently say the first 6 of those are things I won't notice almost ever, but number 7 on the list is a sleeper hit.

See, the Apple Watch used to have a screen that when dark when you weren't looking at it. Then with the Series 5 it got an always-on display, which let you see the time and your complications at any time, but the fidelity of that mode only updated once per minute. Now with last year's Series 10 and this year's Ultra 3, the always-on mode has upgraded to allow for updates every second in the always-on mode.

I said years ago that my dream for the Apple Watch was for there to be no difference between the always-on and the normal-on modes. You know, like a traditional watch. I'm happy to say that with the Ultra 3, I feel like we're basically there, and it makes my watch feel great. Yes, the always-on mode is dimmer than the normal mode, but it's bright enough I sometimes think it's on, only to be surprised when it gets even brighter when I do something with it, and the ability to see second tick away at it all the time really makes it feel like we've gotten to a place where I treat it more like a traditional timepiece than something with a screen I need to manage.

Here's a dumb, but real example. Sometimes a meeting is about to start and it's 2:59 PM. Is it 59 seconds until the meeting or is it 3 seconds away? Up until last week, I had to turn my wrist or tap the screen to know. Now I can just glance at my watch, see the seconds ticking away, and know exactly what time it is without having to do anything at all. It may sound stupid, but it's a meaningful change that I appreciate.

I'm absolutely not saying that THIS ONE CHANGE MAKES THE APPLE WATCH ULTRA 3 A NO-BRAINER BUY FOR ANYONE, I'm just saying it's a nice change, and if you can swing it, I think you'll enjoy it more than you expect.