When Apple launched its Apple Watch Ultra in September, the company said the new rugged wearable would be a full dive computer, but the Oceanic+ app that enables that functionality was scheduled to launch at a later date.
Now the day has come: the Oceanic+ app, designed by Huish Outdoors in conjunction with Apple, is available on the Apple App Store.
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Apple says the Watch Ultra, along with the Oceanic+, is aimed at recreational divers, which in practice means diving up to 40 meters (130 feet) deep. The Ultra has water temperature and depth sensors, but it’s the app that allows divers to set and control all the parameters they need for a safe dive. This includes a dive planner, where users can set surface time, depth and gas, with the app calculating no-decompression time, which tells the diver how long they can stay at a certain depth.
The Oceanic+ main screen shows current depth, no-decompression time, dive time and water temperature, among other data. Credit: Apple
Other features include dive conditions (such as tide and water temperature data, as well as visibility and current information), entry and exit locations with GPS, depth charts and other benefits that divers may find useful. The app also brings new factors into play, allowing users to integrate information such as no-fly time, surface time, as well as access to the dive planner or dive settings, into their dial favorite watch
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The Watch Ultra’s larger size of 49mm, compared to the regular Apple Watch (which only comes in at 45mm), as well as improved brightness (up to 2,000 nits), should help divers see the full information they need underwater. The Watch Ultra also provides haptic feedback, which Apple says will work even with a 7mm thick wetsuit.
The Oceanic+ app only works with Apple Watch Ultra running watchOS 9.1, paired with an iPhone 8 or later, or iPhone SE 2nd generation or later, running iOS 16.1. The free version of the app offers features such as depth and time, and a log of recent dives; for more advanced functionality, including decompression tracking, tissue upload, location planner, and an unlimited logbook, users will have to pay $9.99 per month or $79.99 per year .