A pair of the best early Black Friday deals are now live with last year’s Apple Watch Ultra 3 at$250 offand the new Ultra 4 at nearly $100 off. If last year’s Black Friday event is any indication both models are already at, or extremely close to, the lowest price they will drop to for the big shopping season, but which should you get?
- Black Apple Watch Ultra 3 Black Milanese $649 (Orig. $899)
- Black Apple Watch Ultra 4 Milanese Loop $799 (Reg. $899)
- Natural Apple Watch Ultra 3 Natural Milanese $649 (Orig. $899)
- Natural Apple Watch Ultra 4Milanese Loop $799 (Reg. $899)
Stocking stuffer alert: 2026 Apple Polishing Cloth back in-stock at $9 Prime shipped
Apple Watch Ultra 3 at $250 off vs. Ultra 4 at $100 off
The quick short answer here is if you don’t care about Apple’s latest and greatest and still want to land a relatively new Ultra, save yourself a ton and opt for the Ultra 3 while it’s $150 less over at Amazon right now.
If you are, however, on the fence about these two models, let’s take a closer look at the pricing history here and the differences on the spec sheet to help paint a clearer picture.
Apple Watch Ultra 3/4 price history comparison
Apple Watch Ultra 3:
- Apple Watch Ultra 3 debuted in September 2025 and dropped to the same roughly $100 off we have right now on the Ultra 4 during Black Friday last year.
- Outside of a very short-lived dips on select models, it took until fall 2026 to start seeing $200 price drops on most models.
- The $250 price drop we are tracking right now is largely the best price we have ever tracked in new condition, outside of some extremely limited offers on select models.
Apple Watch Ultra 4:
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 just launched not two months ago now starting at the same $799 and is now at $99 off.
- If last year’s deals on the Ultra 3 are any indication, it will max out at $100 off for select configurations for Black Friday 2026.
- It will likely won’t be until mid to late 2027 before we see regular opportunities to score the model you want at $150 off.
The conclusion here is clearly that both models are currently sitting at solid pricing, and might not get much lower until well into the Ultra 4’s product cycle.
Apple Watch Ultra 3 vs. 4 on the spec sheet
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is still a perfectly capable smartwatch – almost no one could honestly deny that – and, frankly, better than just about every other smartwatch you can buy, save for the Ultra 4, in my opinion.
That said let’s take a look at the key specs and features where Ultra 4 is upgraded to determine whether or not any of that matters to you and, subsequently warranty the higher price tag, as per 9to5Mac’s extensive feature breakdown:
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 carries the brand-new S11 chip
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 has 2x the memory of Ultra 3
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 includes exclusive watch face complications for step traction and hear rate
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 delivers 50 hours of battery life compared to 42 on Ultra 3
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 gains 50% more battery life on a 15-minute quick charge – 18 hours of runtime compared to 12 hours on Ultra 3
- Apple Watch Ultra 4 has an all-new Health Sensing System that enables the following, according to Apple:
- Heart rate tracking: Second-generation electrical heart sensor and always-on optical heart sensor enable high-frequency background heart rate tracking that you can view on new heart rate watch face complication
- HRV improvements: “now measured up to 24 times more often and available to view in a new section of the Heart Rate app”
- New Recovery HRV: “best for identifying daily signals of stress and recovery”
- Step tracking: More accurate, with new Steps complication to track steps in real time from watch face
- Apple Watch 4 features the all-new Readiness app:
- “Apple Watch Ultra 4 introduces readiness, a new feature that analyzes a user’s recent activity, training load, vitals, and sleep score to offer insight into their capacity for the day ahead. Readiness provides a single 0-10 score each day with a clear, actionable recommendation: Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready, or Go For It. This helps a user decide how to take on their day, whether they’re headed into a workday or tackling their training plan.”
- Apple Watch 4 will also feature a series of Audio Intelligence features:
- Sound Recognition: “[alerts] users who are deaf or hard of hearing of important sounds, even when their iPhone isn’t with them. This feature listens for sounds like sirens, alarms, doorbells, or a baby crying, and uses on-device intelligence to notify users when they’re detected.”
- Live Rewind: “[helps] users recall what was just said in conversation. A double press of the Digital Crown shows the previous 15 seconds of a conversation as a text snippet, so users can catch something they may have missed or are less familiar with.”
- Siri Recap: [creates] high-level summaries of conversations that users can review later to jog their memory. When Siri Recap is turned on, after a conversation, Apple Intelligence automatically generates a title and key points in the new Siri app, allowing users to be more present and engaged in the moment.”
- Shazam: “instantly detects the music playing around the user and automatically displays the song title and artist’s name on the Music Recognition widget in the Smart Stack”
In the end, there is a ton of new features on Ultra 4, some I am personally intrigued by, but none of that is enough for me to jump on the Ultra 4 over the Ultra 3 at $250 off. Perhaps if the Ultra 4 was down closer to $600, I might pull the trigger on the new model, and I am still tempted nonetheless, but for now I’m going with the previous-gen models.
More of this week’s best Apple deals:
Apple Watch Ultra 4 with the new Translucent Ocean Band is nearly $100 off right now
Heads up: 1TB M5 MacBook Air just dropped even lower, now $250 off in early Black Friday sale
Amazon’s pre-order discount on the new Apple HomeView is back
Week 1 early Black Friday deals are live, but Amazon still has lower price on AirPods Pro 3
It’s back: Major Apple Watch Ultra 3 clearance deals now live at $250 off
Apple’s new iPhone/AirPods Wrist Strap hits Amazon all-time low from $22 (25% off), more
Apple’s 2026 Mac mini lineup is up to $150 off to start Black Friday month
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