Kicked off by Best Buy (with a catch) last week, the first-ever US deal on the “new” Apple Watch Ultra 2 has quickly and unsurprisingly expanded to Amazon… with no hoops to jump through. That’s right, you can now get probably the best rugged smartwatch in the world with a fancy new black titanium case at a nice $50 discount sans having to pay for a special subscription service first.
This non-Prime-exclusive promotion does come with a couple of restrictions of its own, as you need to pair said “satin black” 49mm case with either a matching black trail loop in an S/M size or a nicely contrasting large dark green alpine loop to qualify for that $50 price cut.
The Apple Watch Ultra 2 normally costs a whopping $799, mind you, which means that your discount equates to a rather modest-sounding 6 percent right now. But although this is the exact same device unveiled a year ago on the inside, its outside appearance makes it incredibly charming at first glance and thus pretty hard to refuse at any discount with no strings attached.
The unchanged components of Apple’s second-gen rugged timepiece mean that this bad boy actually packs an older S9 processor than this year’s non-rugged and considerably cheaper Series 10 device, which is certainly an unusual situation.
Still, the Ultra 2 holds plenty of other major advantages over… many of the best smartwatches out there, with a stunning LTPO2 OLED Always-On Retina display that can go all the way up to 3000 nits of brightness and yet somehow excellent battery life (by Apple Watch standards) as well.
You also get sleep apnea monitoring now in addition to all the other health and wellness tracking tools you’ve come to know and heavily rely on, and fret not, that Apple S9 chip is unlikely to show its age in real-world performance for several more years. Your software support is guaranteed for several more years too, so you should definitely consider a purchase today if you’ve fallen in love with that undeniably charming new black aesthetic.
