wednesday apple introduced the Apple Watch Ultra, a $799 wearable device intended for people who engage in extreme activities like mountain climbing, ultramarathon running, or scuba diving. But how MacRumors points outBreaking your screen, button, sensors, or other parts while doing any of these activities could be very expensive: Repairs to the watch will cost $499 if you don’t have AppleCare Plus (we’ll talk about that in a minute), according to a reviewer. estimate tool on Apple website. That’s significantly more than the $299 repair for an entry-level Series 8.
Replacing the battery in an Ultra will also cost more than it would for Apple’s less extreme watches, priced at $99 instead of $79. That makes some sense; The Ultra is likely to have a much larger battery than the Series 8, given that Apple estimates it will last twice as long.
While I understand that it’s always fun to make fun of Apple’s sometimes outrageous prices, I still sometimes laugh at the $19 microfiber polishing cloth — I understand a little why the repairs of the Ultra will cost so much. Apple watches are generally tiny and sticky, and none of those factors make repairs any easier. That more or less leaves Apple with two options when you send them your broken watch; you can just recycle it and send you a refurbished one, or you can hire people with serious skills to repair it. Neither of those options is exactly cheap.
Fair or not, the Ultra’s high repair price isn’t unique. Apple estimates that you’d have to pay the same $499 to repair a Titanium Series 7 Edition, which follows given that the Ultra is made of the same material. (A footnote says shipping is free for Apple Watch Editions, where you have to pay for it otherwise. Apple didn’t immediately respond to the edgerequest for comment on whether it would also cover shipping the Ultra). However, those aren’t even the most expensive repairs; if you break your ceramic Series 5, you could be out $800 if you want to fix it without AppleCare Plus.
Speaking of AppleCare though, that’s really the solution here. Apple’s Protection Plan for the Ultra costs $100 up front (or $4.99 a month), and that will bring repairs down to a much more manageable $79. If you fix your Ultra even once, and let’s face it, if you’re one of Apple’s “outdoor adventurers” market the watch for, you’ll probably have to do it at some point: you’ll win with AppleCare. Also, Apple just made the policy covers unlimited repairs instead of just two a year, which is a boon for those who will push themselves and their team to the limit.
