Apple started selling the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 on Friday 18th September, nine days after announcing both. The Series 12 starts at $399 and the Ultra 4 at $799.

Three days after launch, Nairobi listings put the Series 12 in aluminium between KES 54,999 and KES 60,000, and the Ultra 4 at KES 120,000. Convert that and $399 is about KES 51,700 and $799 about KES 103,600. The gap is taxes and the shop’s margin.

So the Ultra 4 costs roughly twice the Series 12. Here is what the extra cash spent does:

  1. Both watches run the S11, Apple’s new dual-core watch chip, and
  2. Both have 64GB of storage.
  3. Both also have the same Health Sensing System, the new sensor stack in this generation.

The new sensor reads heart rate every five seconds all day and measures heart rate variability up to 24 times more often than before.

Heart rate variability is the variation in the gap between heartbeats, and it tracks stress and recovery. All of it feeds a new daily readiness score: one number from 0 to 10 with one of four instructions, Recover, Pace Yourself, Ready or Go For It, updated through the day as new data arrives.

Sleep apnea notifications, hypertension notifications, the ECG app, daytime and overnight vitals, the redesigned step tracking and the new Audio Intelligence features are on both watches too. Audio Intelligence is the set of listening features we covered when Apple announced them, Live Rewind among them, which puts the last 15 seconds of a conversation on screen as text when you double press the Digital Crown.

If you are buying either watch mainly to track your health and your training, the cheaper one gives you the same data. Readiness and the Vitals app carry no country restrictions, so both work in Kenya from the day you set the watch up.

Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 share every sensor. In Kenya the Ultra's satellite and cellular hardware does nothing.

Battery life is the biggest gap. The Series 12 does up to 24 hours of normal use, 38 hours in Low Power Mode and 10 hours of outdoor workout tracking. The Ultra 4 does 50 hours, 84 hours and 18 hours.

The Ultra has two modes the Series 12 does not:

  1. Extended Workout, good for 25 hours, and
  2. Max Extended Workout, good for 45.

Charging on the Ultra is faster too, and it is the tougher watch of the two.

Series 12Ultra 4
15 minutes on the charger12 hours of use18 hours of use
Water resistance50 metres100 metres
DivingDepth gauge to 6 metresRecreational scuba to 40 metres
Front crystalCeramic Shield 2 on aluminium, sapphire on titanium and ceramicSapphire
Operating temperature0°C to 35°C0°C to 35°C, and -20°C to 55°C on the wrist
Operating altitude0 to 3,000 metres-500 to 9,000 metres
Peak brightness2,000 nits3,000 nits
GPSsingle-frequency GPSDual-frequency GPS
MoreOne Microphone
One Speaker
No Siren
No Action Button		Three Microphones
Two Speakers
Siren
Action Button

Fifteen minutes charging on the Ultra 4 gets you 18 hours of use against the Series 12’s 12 hours. The Ultra 4 is also the tougher watch. It is rated to 100 metres of water resistance against the Series 12’s 50 metres. It is certified for recreational scuba to 40 metres where the Series 12’s depth gauge stops at 6 metres.

In Kenya, and many other similar countries, there are features we don’t get.

The Ultra 4’s headline safety feature is satellite communication: Emergency SOS, Messages and Find My with no phone network at all. On Apple’s watchOS 27 availability list, Emergency SOS via satellite covers 18 countries and Messages via satellite covers four. No African country is listed.

Cellular is the same story. Only South Africa, with MTN and Vodacom are supported. Every Ultra 4 is a cellular model. Which means so many buyers will be getting a modem that cannot be activated. The Series 12 in aluminium still comes in a GPS-only version, which is the cheaper and more sensible buy for most.

Then there are health gaps. Many countries still don’t support ECG App, AFib History, irregular rhythm notifications, hypertension notifications, or sleep apnea notifications. Many countries also don’t get the International emergency calling feature.

For most people here the Series 12 in aluminium, GPS only, is the watch. It gives you every health feature many users in countries like Kenya can actually use, the same readiness score, the same chip, and it is thinner and around half the weight at 31.5 to 39.5 grams against 63 grams.

Spend the extra KES 60,000 on the Apple Watch Ultra 4 if you do the following:

  1. you dive,
  2. you train long enough that 10 hours of workout tracking runs out,
  3. you want to charge twice a week instead of daily, or
  4. you want the brighter screen.