The new Apple Watch Ultra 3 and AirPods Pro 3 shift the focus from “pure data” to awareness: the technology becomes so precise, autonomous, and integrated that it disappears, leaving us free to live and move.
- An Added Sense: Technology stops being a screen to look at and becomes a perception of ourselves. Performance is recorded and experienced.
- Heart Rate from the Ear (and Wrist): The big surprise is the AirPods Pro 3 with a heart rate sensor. But the real magic is the ecosystem: the system automatically chooses the most reliable data between the ear and the wrist on its own.
- A Union of Two Worlds: The Ultra 3 combines the best of smartwatches and sportwatches, eliminating anxiety. Battery anxiety (up to 20 hours with active GPS and heart rate) and safety anxiety (thanks to Messages and Find My via satellite) are gone.
- A Guardian for Health: The Ultra 3 doesn’t just think about performance; it monitors short-term health with crash detection and long-term health, even alerting to signs of suspected hypertension.
- From Data to Dialogue: The software transforms numbers into advice. Metrics become a tool that doesn’t just tell you what you did, it tells you how you feel.
What If We Stopped Looking at Our Watch?
Run. Feel the breath entering your lungs, the rhythm of your feet on the pavement, the wind on your skin. For years, technology allowed us to measure these sensations, transforming them into data. And it did it so well that, without realizing it, we became slaves to that data.
The runner’s habit was no longer “feeling,” but “looking.” Looking at the pace, looking at the heart rate, looking at the battery. We became controllers of a digital dashboard, moving away from the essence of the act itself.
I’ve been testing the new Apple Watch Ultra 3 and AirPods Pro 3 for weeks, and if I had to summarize the experience in a few words (which is the most important thing), I’d tell you that the technology here has taken such a huge leap forward that it can afford to take a step back. It has become so precise, so reliable, and so integrated that it has finally become invisible. It hasn’t disappeared; it has integrated. It’s giving us back the freedom to not have to obsessively look at it, allowing us to appreciate the benefits without being distracted.
Hearing Your Heart Rate from Your Ear
Let’s start with the smallest item, because the most unexpected surprise came from my ears.
For years, I put up with the annoying chest strap: uncomfortable, restrictive, another thing to remember, adjust, and wash.
The new AirPods Pro 3 are making it obsolete.
For the first time, Apple has integrated a heart rate sensor into the earbud. And it’s not a gimmick. It’s a photoplethysmography sensor that emits light pulses 256 times per second. It’s so precise that in my tests, running simultaneously with a traditional chest strap, the data was frighteningly aligned. Practically identical.
But a sensor like this only works if it stays perfectly still. And here, Apple has also solved another historic problem with sports earbuds: stability. The design has been revised, and the box now includes five sizes of infused foam tips that create a perfect seal. I put them to the test with sprints, jumps, and very heavy sweat: they didn’t move a millimeter.
The real “magic,” however—the part that makes you realize you no longer have just two devices but a single system—is that when you wear both the Ultra 3 and the AirPods Pro 3, the system itself decides, in real time, which of the two sensors (wrist or ear) is providing the most reliable data at that precise moment. You don’t have to choose; you don’t have to set anything up. It simply works. It’s technology that stops being a tool and becomes intelligence.
And then, with 8 hours of battery life with active noise cancellation—which, by the way, is so powerful it creates an almost surreal bubble of silence when you’re running on the treadmill or traveling on crowded or noisy transport—these are no longer just earbuds. They’ve become a true heart rate monitor that, while it’s at it, plays your favorite music. Performance data merges with the soundtrack. Or, if you want to look at it another way, designer earbuds merge with noise-canceling headphones, a heart rate monitor, and sports earbuds. All in one single object.
The Adventure Companion That Takes Away Your Anxiety
And then there’s the Apple Watch Ultra 3. Here, the mission was different: to unite two worlds. To be an elegant smartwatch in the office and an indestructible tank on the trails. It does this by solving the two great anxieties of those who run, explore, and move through the world (and it almost seems to invite you to do so).
The first: battery anxiety. It’s the terror of every ultra-runner. The Ultra 3 now guarantees up to 20 hours of outdoor training (in low-power mode, while maintaining regular GPS and heart rate readings). This isn’t a technical feature; it’s a liberation. It means you can run a 100k, a 12-hour race, or tackle an entire weekend of trekking without the watch becoming your biggest problem.
The second: the anxiety of being alone. For those who, like me, often run at dawn or on isolated trails, safety is a constant thought. The Ultra 3 doesn’t just have SOS. It now has Messages via satellite and Find My via satellite. Being able to send an “all good, heading down” text even from a trail with no service, or letting people at home know where you are, isn’t a technical feature. It’s peace of mind. It’s technology becoming a silent, reliable exploration companion.
And it does all this while functioning as a smartwatch, accompanying you throughout your entire day. It’s no longer a device you wear only for running. It’s the same watch that manages your calls at the office, payments at the supermarket, and then follows you onto a trail with no service. Performance stops being a separate activity and becomes a fluid part of your life.
No Longer Data. Awareness.
The real evolution, however, isn’t in any single piece of hardware, but in how this ecosystem transforms data into life. We no longer just have numbers and graphs; we have context.
The “Sleep Quality” feature doesn’t just track REM or Deep phases; it now provides a clear score and a classification (from Excellent to Very Low). It tells you, in simple terms, whether your recovery was effective or if you’re overdoing it with the sweat and endorphins.
The Workout app now includes Training Load and an Effort assessment, helping you understand if the load from the last few days is optimal or if you’re risking injury.
This is where the Ultra 3 transcends sports. This awareness goes beyond running: the watch now watches over you even when you’re not training, with the ability to detect signs of suspected hypertension, transforming itself from a training partner into a true guardian of your long-term health. It’s no longer a coach for performance; it’s a guardian for life.
It’s no longer you who has to interpret fatigue; it’s the watch that helps you understand it. And with Workout Buddy, Apple Intelligence that gives you vocal encouragement during the effort, the circle is complete. Your watch has become a coach.
The entire ecosystem—with the Watch Ultra 3 leading the way—isn’t just a large and extremely precise analysis lab for everything we do; it is, in fact, a tool that accompanies us in every activity (both athletic and daily) and allows us to understand ourselves better, to increase our awareness.
We started by running to measure time. Then we started measuring ourselves: steps, heart rate, vertical oscillation. Now, technology has become so precise, so reliable, and so intelligent that it can almost disappear, placing itself—silently—at our side.
You get your heart rate from your ear or your wrist (the system handles it), the GPS lasts for 20 hours, your sleep is analyzed while you sleep, and your blood pressure is kept in check. We can stop obsessively staring at the screen. We can trust that the system is recording, analyzing, and learning.
And we can finally get back to doing what we left the house for: enjoying the run, the sensations, the scenery. Or even just our daily lives.