At $799, the Apple Watch Ultra may seem expensive, but for athletes and other sports watch makers, it's cheap.

You don’t have to be an extreme desert-running Iron Man competitor to appreciate the Apple Watch Ultra, but it helps. Like any high-end bit of kit, many purchases will be aspirational, and the new fitness features in Apple’s sports watch could be useful to anyone, even the average hiker out for an afternoon stroll. Oddly, despite having one of Apple’s clearest product messages to date, the Ultra is still a little confusing.

"No, you don't have to be an extreme sports enthusiast to appreciate the Apple Watch Ultra. However, people who are into extreme sports or lead very active lifestyles may find the features of the Ultra more useful than those of the standard Apple Watch," Mario Musa, the founder of Tennis Racket Ball and an Apple Watch wearer, told Lifewire via email.

Computationally, the Apple Watch Ultra is identical to the Series 8 watch. It’s different because it’s housed in a more ruggedized case, has an extra hardware button, much better battery life, and – in some cases – more accurate sensors than previous watches. The Apple Watch was already a great exercise watch, but the Ultra is bigger, sturdier, and designed to last longer. That extra battery life will come in handy for anyone who does a lot of exercise with their watch, even at-home workouts like yoga.