When it comes to Christmas gift ideas, it’s pretty hard to see the Apple Watch Ultra as a viable option due to its sky-high retail price and somewhat unconventional design (by mainstream smartwatch standards, at least). But if you plan on sparing no expense to hook up that adventurous special someone in your life with the rugged device they’ve been dreaming of since last year, we have some excellent news for you today.
Best Buy is again selling this absolute tank of a 2022-released intelligent timepiece at a heavily reduced price before Christmas, and unlike back in late October, you can now choose from a few different bands in a few different colors to go with that extra-large and extra-durable 49mm titanium case.
Granted, the new $160 discount available for a presumably limited time only is slightly smaller than what the retailer offered for a single first-gen Apple Watch Ultra model roughly six weeks ago while impressively eclipsing both Best Buy and Amazon’s deals from a couple of weeks later.
Normally priced at $799, the cellular-enabled smartwatch is still not what we’d call conventionally affordable after this latest markdown, but compared to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, it can be considered a wiser purchase right now. That’s because the OG Ultra is not very different from its sequel, lacking Double Tap gesture support, packing a slightly slower (but still decidedly impressive) processor, and sporting a slightly lower-quality (but still incredibly sharp) Retina LTPO OLED display.
Pretty much everything else has gone unchanged between the first and second generations of the rugged Apple Watch Ultra, which is why we’re definitely hesitant to recommend the newer edition at its $799 list price or even $20 or $30 below that mark.
