Apple Watch Ultra 3 gains best display feature from Series 10 and Series 11

The biggest Apple Watch Ultra 3 display news is that it has the biggest Ultra display yet. However, there’s a smaller Ultra 3 display change that is a welcome arrival too.

Last year, Apple Watch Series 10 introduced a new display feature that required updated hardware. For the first time, Apple Watch faces could display ticking seconds in always-on mode. Apple confirms this change:

LTPO3 is also more power efficient, enabling a faster refresh rate when Apple Watch Ultra 3 is in always-on mode, going from once a minute to once a second, so it’s possible to see a ticking seconds hand without raising the wrist. Stopwatch, Timer, and over 20 watch faces are updated with support for this refresh rate. 

The feature was originally limited to very few faces before watchOS 26 vastly expanded support for the feature.

Apple Watch Ultra missed out on the feature, however, because the Ultra 2 stuck around without a hardware update.

Starting with the newly announced Apple Watch Ultra 3, the ability to show ticking seconds in always-on mode has now arrived on the Ultra line. The feature is available on the new Apple Watch Series 11 as well.

We’ll still need to test which Ultra watch faces support the feature since those aren’t available on Series 10 hardware.

Still, it’s a small change that makes a big difference for making Apple Watch as capable as basic digital and analog watches.

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