Motorola's moto watch ultra adds LTE, Wear OS 6 and a $349.99 price

Motorola has put an LTE eSIM in a watch for the first time. The moto watch ultra can handle calls, texts and notifications on its own, which is the feature that separates it from everything else the company has put on a wrist so far. It goes on sale on Motorola.com on September 10 at an MSRP of $349.99.

The gap to the standard Moto Watch shown at CES earlier this year is wide. That one was a budget device without Wear OS or standalone cellular, and with a 1ATM water resistance rating. The Ultra runs Wear OS 6 in a 46mm stainless steel body, is rated IP68 and 5ATM, and puts Corning Gorilla Glass 3 over the screen.

That screen is a 1.5-inch OLED with 2,700 nits of peak brightness and an always-on mode. Notebookcheck reports a resolution of 466 x 466 pixels and a variable refresh rate that moves between 1Hz and 60Hz.

Battery life is where the trade-off shows: the 550mAh cell is rated for up to two days of active use with the always-on display switched off, while the regular Moto Watch is good for up to 13 days, so the smarter hardware costs you most of a week of runtime. Fast charging takes the edge off. Fifteen minutes on the magnetic dock is claimed to deliver up to 24 hours of active use.

Inside is the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 platform, a chip that launched back in 2022. Android Authority and Gadgets & Wearables list 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage alongside it.

Fitness comes from Polar, which supplies the fitness and wellness insights, and dual-band GPS handles navigation and location tracking. The Ultra is also the first Motorola wearable with Motorola Qira built in, on compatible Motorola and Lenovo devices.

Carrier availability follows the direct sale. Verizon gets it on September 24, with T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile, AT&T, Xfinity Mobile and Consumer Cellular listed for the coming months. Motorola plans to expand the launch to other markets in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.