Apple Watch Ultra 2 could be back in black

The Apple Watch Ultra 2 could come in an extra colour this year: titanium black. That makes it the Batman to the Apple Watch Series 9's Barbie, which is reportedly going to come with a new pink option. But it seems that this year's Ultra will be – oh yes – back in black.

The information comes from notable leaker ShrimpApplePro, who says that the previously rumoured and rumoured to be cancelled titanium black casing is back on the menu. According to the leaker you’ll have a choice of two options; the current titanium finish, and the much darker one.

How much more black could it be? None. None more black

The new Apple Watch leak ties in with previous reports by Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who said that Apple had been testing a darker titanium finish for the first generation Apple Watch Ultra but had decided not to release it. That prototype wasn’t the first black titanium Apple Watch, either: that honour goes to the Apple Watch Series 7, which was available in the terribly named but rather lovely Space Black.

In addition to the new case option, we’re expecting the Apple Watch Ultra, which is not only the best Apple Watch to date but also one of the best smartwatches overall, to get a new processor, the same S9 that will also appear in the Apple Watch Series 9. Where the last couple of processors have focused more on energy efficiency than performance, the S9 is reportedly a lot faster than the current Apple Watch chip.

According to Gurman, it’s based on the A15 Bionic chip that first appeared in the iPhone 13. That, coupled with the fairly dramatic changes to watchOS 10, means that the 2023 Apple Watches are going to feel like quite the leap forward compared to the Apple Watch Series 8.

We’re expecting to see the new Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9 in a September event: the launch calendar for the Apple Watch is fairly stable now, and September means the new watches will be out in time for the all-important Christmas shopping season. We don’t know yet whether the prices will stay the same this year or if they’ll go up again, but we're crossing our fingers.