The Oceanic+ app comes to Apple Watch Ultra
apple.com
apple.com
This seems like a winner for vacation diving. For those divers that manage a couple dives a year on the family trip to the Caribbean, you have a device you know extremely well from daily life and that you know you keep charged, rather than a standalone computer you kinda forgot to get serviced or, worse, have to rent. Big, clear ascent rate warnings in color. It looks more accessible than some inscrutable Suunto, especially with a companion phone app.
If I had an apple watch I'd wear this it on my other wrist to my Perdix just to get GPS integration and all the health monitoring too - interesting to correlate heart rate with events in the dive, gas consumption and so on.
Optical wrist heart rate sensors can't read through an exposure suit. Garmin has chest heart rate monitor straps which can record heart rate during a dive (within depth limits) and then upload those to the dive computer upon surfacing. I don't think Apple supports those.
I didn't think of that! Dense of me. But heart rate monitoring isn't a primary reason to buy this anyway.
Most professional divers will be using a Surface Marker Buoy which indicates where they are underwater and where the boat should be looking to pick them up.
One feature that would be very useful under water but was disabled was Compass way tracking. Hopefully Apple thinks about it allowing it.
These are generally deployed only during the safety stop, not for the entirety of the dive for obvious reasons-- handling up to 120ft of line underwater for the length of a dive would be near impossible. They would be pretty useless if you resurface and can't see the boat.
That said, you are right, something would have had to go pretty wrong to not see the boat. During a dive trip earlier this year my buddy and I resurfaced 1mi+ from where we were supposed to. But even then, we saw the boat, they saw us and our SMBs and it wasn't a huge deal other than getting the "pickup of shame".
Of course it's always a good idea to carry other signalling devices beyond an SMB in case you get separated from the boat.
It's pretty easy to get tangled up if you're doing anything but a single direction drift dive where you're both away from structures and moving in a continuous straight line that doesn't cross itself.
It’s great for when you’re in the middle of nowhere on a liveaboard and you forget the names of the dive sites. My Suunto watch uses the phone’s GPS for the same purpose.
Edit: actually my computer does that too, well, the app does sort of: the app I have for capturing data from it takes the GPS location when you trigger a sync. Since I don't sync on the boat (why play with a phone?!) it's not very useful. You can easily edit though, drag a pin around and plop the rough location. MacDive, it's a decent bit of software.
That being said, I can't personally imagine taking the Apple Watch Ultra to, say, 80-90 feet if it's only rated to 130. It's just too expensive.
[1]: https://support.apple.com/kb/SP879?viewlocale=en_IN&locale=e....
A) oxygen partial pressure with compressed air reaches 1.05atm, with 1.2-1.4atm posing a serious risk of oxygen-induced seizures (extremely dangerous)
B) nitrogen partial pressure becomes high enough that it becomes narcotic (every gas gets you high at enough pressure, even noble gasses).
Narcosis is an issue with nitrogen and oxygen (as well as most other gasses). Helium is the exception. It is a noble gas and has no real narcotic effect; rather the opposite. Other noble gasses such as argon are much more narcotic than nitrogen and aren't used as diving breathing gasses (outside of a few limited experiments).
The other problem with nitrogen and oxygen is that they are relatively dense and so at greater depths they cause increased work of breathing, which in turn causes CO2 accumulation. CO2 is itself highly narcotic, and has other negative physiological effects. So for deeper dives we add progressively more helium to the mix.
Well that's definitely better - I wonder what happens when you go under 130 feet, though. A dedicated dive computer would at least provide accurate information, rather than throwing you to the wolves because you exceeded some legal limit.
Also on the plus side, some of the existing air pressure transmitters use bluetooth, so if they could get that working, they'd actually be one of the cheapest air-integrated computers on the market.
(edit: they do not use bluetooth, they use low-frequency radio ~38khz)
I think I'll stick with my Shearwater Peregrine though, pros and cons considered.
I think your concerns are valid and merited for your very advanced level of diving, but at the same time the vast, vast, vast majority of divers aren't going anywhere near 130 feet. If I were going on a standard "simple" dive to <60 feet, I think I'd be pretty comfortable with just the apple watch ultra, a dumb watch + cheap depth guage and a written back-up plan.
1: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2022/11/diving-with-the-apple-wa...
Also, I never dive past recreational limits, I'm not a technical diver by any means. I would simply have philosophical concerns about a piece of equipment that could provide accurate information beyond recreational limits, but simply doesn't for "legal" reasons. It probably makes sense to people - "oh they don't want to be liable for giving advice past recreational limits", but other companies seem to have navigated this legal issue and choose to provide accurate information regardless of this arbitrary limit.
As another commenter pointed out, I have no idea what it does past 130 feet, but the disclaimer that it _cannot_ be used past 130 feet, rather than one that says you _shouldn't_ use it past 130 feet, is somewhat concerning to me, even if I don't approach those limits.
Also, in the case of lack of evidence either way, assuming it would shit the bed is _definitely_ the right approach in diving.
It’s rated as water resistant to 100m, 300+ feet - it’s just the software and measurement sensor bits that get queasy at 130ft.
The software APIs for measuring depth have an enum for this: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmwater...
I get the feeling of it being too expensive - but technically? If anything is to be expected from Apple, it is to under-promise on advertised specifications, and at least here in Europe, under consumer protection laws I can hold Apple accountable for not delivering upon their spec [1]. The hardest thing with anything underwater is pressure differential anyway - old analog watches have a lot of air inside which is compressible, which means you need strong seals and construction to avoid the pressure differential to simply crack the case. A modern digital watch however? Space is scarce so every cubic millimetre is packed with solid incompressible materials, making it way easier to withstand higher pressure.
[1] Actually had to do that with a CAT phone many years back when I worked in construction, a simple fall on a floor slab broke the screen. I made a backup (back then, that was actually feasible because rooting was easy, another personal gripe I have with recent Android), went up to the retailer and had it shipped in - a week later I had a brand new device and a written apology that the product was not up to spec.
The 40 meters / 130 feet rating is for the dive computer functionality.
a) You never trust your life to any single device and there are always backup plans if something fails. And at recreational depths you're not going to do severe damage if your watch fails and you lose no decompression limit information.
b) The watch is such a joy to use underwater. It's 100x brighter and clearer than other devices so you see information at a glance. It actually made the whole diving experience better it was that good.
c) I've had Apple Watches since the original one and reliability has always been excellent. Easily on par with other dive computers. And of course the ease and quality of the user experience is significantly better.
I've had numerous activity tracking apps crash on me randomly, I think because they have been running out of memory on my Apple Watch 3. Strava was one of them. I stopped using it for this purpose after I lost a few tracks.
Either that or the watch is throttling to prevent browning out, and the app crashes as a result of loops / event handling not happening fast enough and stuff 'piling up.'
Except for more advanced (deeper) dives, a dive computer is fairly unnecessary. 700 lbs of air pressure left, go back up, slowly.
I did most of my diving right off the coast of san diego, where there are amazing kelp forests. I preferred less deep dives (35-50 feet) anyway... you start going deep, you have much less air/time down below.
I would assume this to be a very tiny market for users.
But both the backup regulator and dice computer is on your companion. You don’t dive with two yourself.
Backup dive computers are much less common and most people use their buddy as their backup computer. It is much safer to surface without a functioning dive computer than it is to surface without a functioning regulator.
While it is used primarily in cave diving because it is more streamlined and less likely to collide with cave ceilings and features, I find it also quite comfortable for recreational dives with a pair of AL40s.
It’s also a fun conversation starter with other divers who are curious about my gear!
You get air tanks that have 2 mounts for first stage and the octo goes into the separate first stage, giving you two independent setups.
I've only seen crazy swiss people do that though.
You're entirely welcome to have backups. I dive with 2 lights, and if the Apple Watch didn't require a subscription I'd gladly buy it to also dive with 2 computers. My divemaster had a second bottle with its own independent octopus for cave diving.
Anything you can afford to double (both financially and in terms of practicality/weight/encumbrance), by all means, go ahead and do it. Triple it if makes sense.
Every dive I've done has been on a boat with quite a few people all doing the same sites during the day. If your computer failed you can still estimate NDL from others on the boat and just err on the side of caution. Or even just rely on paper charts like people did for decades.
If you're doing cave diving then obviously a whole different story.
For that reason the Apple Watch Ultra seems just fine - it doesn't seem to have any less features than my dedicated Suunto D5 (outside missing integration with air tank) and it seems to be a good competitor to Garmin's Descent MK2 series of diving computers (which are pretty amazing but cost 1200$+ with tank pods).
Nonetheless, from the press release: “Always follow diving protocols and dive with a companion and have a secondary device.”
I think it’s very much not recommended to have going computerless as a backup. And the idea that you are safe to do so because your “within no-deco limits” is potentially dangerous, as your relying on the computer to tell you if you are still within that limit.
Many people go quite close to the limit. Personally I stay far away from them, but safety recommendations are the same for everyone.
The backup plan for recreational open water diving would typically be to end the dive if your computer fails, not to continue computerless. At the point that your computer failed, you should have been within no-deco limits, which you can confirm with your partner's computer to a reasonable margin of safety, so you can ascend safely.
I'm curious to see what they have for using it with diver communication and collaboration. If one diver sees something of interest, they can easily notify other divers. I'm not sure if or how well Bluetooth works underwater?
The haptic vibration would be useful to notify about reaching maximum bottom time, and for decompression rest stops while ascending.
But I think I would still keep my traditional dive computer next to pressure gauge in my diving setup.
I wonder if they will have a wireless pressure sensor on the tank so you can also track air pressure and consumption? That would be neat.
The fact that water absorbs 2.4ghz light is what enables microwave ovens to heat water in the first place. So while it's an inconvenient property during dives, it's very convenient in the kitchen.
Water tends to block most radio signals pretty quickly. If you are trying to wirelessly transmit data underwater you get much, much better range with sound than you do with light.
It doesn’t, which is why heart rate monitors intended for swimming activities have on-board storage.
If you're a casual diver (i.e. two dives a day on vacation, maybe a night dive here and there) you don't need a computer at all
You call the dive and surface slowly. Maybe you don’t do a second dive if you can’t be sure of your limits. It’s an inconvenience.
The term “Dive computer” is not something to be taken lightly. It’s hardware you literally depend on to keep you alive during a dive. The fact that Apple is supporting this externally developed app says they have a very higher level of trust in their hardware.
Typically a dive computer would cost more than an Apple Watch and be a single purpose device. The fact that Apple is entering the arena is quite a disruption as other brands will be forced to either compete on price or really raise the bar on innovation to justify their current levels.
This is all rec diving (<= 40m). I would never, ever use an Apple device for tech diving, even if some future version is rated for it.
“Introducing Oceanic+ for Apple Watch Ultra” is a better title as it removes the conventional idea of product ownership.
Whether or not Apple is directly involved in development is different, as they often have many different partners to showcase new product functionality, and none of those would be suited to “Apple Introduces X” titles either.
This is the part I don't really understand, unless this app was completely developed out-of-house. How large an arena is this really? Are there really that many potential customers who are both divers and haven't bought an Apple watch? Is there some angle from the business side I'm missing here?
It helps the brand (if they can do that, my mundane daily life will be easy), it sells to wealthy enthusiasts and aspirational consumers, it brings people in to showrooms, and it challenges internal teams.
And in the Apple case, their ecosystem is strong. Recreational divers are Apple’s target market, and this should convert a bunch of them to Apple.
Imagining the pitch, it was probably something like limited incremental costs, supports long term ecosystem strategy, reduces revenue from cash cows for competing fitness watch companies.
Is there some angle from the business side I'm missing here?
We see this in all kinds of products, right? Among watch collectors, 200M diver style watches (from the Casio MDV106 all the way up to Rolex Submariners and beyond) are probably the most popular single style.
We see it in autos, with people buying vehicles with rugged capabilities they don't need. Or in shoes, with people buying athletic shoes for activities they don't partake in. A laptop with more CPU and RAM than they probably need. Etc.
From a purely logical standpoint this is silly, of course. And for some kinds of products like autos this level of excess is deeply wasteful.
However, I think what people are really buying is peace of mind and we all engage in this to some extent! It's simply nice to have a bit of gear so robust you don't have to worry about it!
Also, since you are trusting your life to the waterproofing of the watch, a EDC watch that takes abuse all day that could compromise that waterproofing seems like a bit of a risk unless it is only being used as a secondary / backup dive computer.
All this “trusting your life” stuff is pretty overblown for rec diving. You have a buddy who has a computer and probably a dive guide, you’re not going that deep, worst case scenario if it fails on a dive just swim a bit shallower than the guide (after signaling them) and sit out the next one. Or dive tables. You can ascend without a computer, and you can make an overkill safety stop (or just buddy up) without a computer.
Although, Apple Watch Ultra will be very competitive against devices like Garmin Descent or Suunto D5.
In general, divers there weren't a very wealthy bunch and didn't really run around with 800$+ tech gadgets (although some of us/them did have more expensive computers).
So it's far more capable than just a dive computer.
And again it doesn't require an ongoing subscription you just turn on/off as you need it.
Because this post is pure sarcasm with nothing of value to add except for mocking people you disagree with.
> Do you guys love Instagram or something?
Nope. Hate it - but I don't feel the need to go spewing that hate over a tangentially related thread which has actual interesting discussion.
There are also thousands of cooler things that would bring you more views than an AWU in any typical tropical dive.
It does seem like Apple was involved though, so I guess it's not really 100% 3rd-party either. Maybe we can call it 2nd-party?
> Designed by Huish Outdoors in collaboration with Apple,
Unfortunately I don't have enough domain knowledge to do a comparison.
I guess it's possible that Subsurface might add support for visualizing logs from Oceanic+.
First, there's no mention of Nitrox anywhere (except in a screenshot). Most of the serious folks use this mix (basically, air enriched with some more oxygen) for their dives, it's unclear if — or to what extent — this supports Nitrox.
Second, there's no mention of the decompression algorithm they use. Buhlmann, Suunto RGBM, VPM are examples of algorithms where the assumptions about human physiology are backed by hundreds of thousands of dives, but what is driving this specific piece is kind of a mystery. As this device comes under "life support equipment" category, I would love to see more information about that.
Third, battery life is a concern here, while it almost never is with dedicated dive computers. My main device requires a trip to Switzerland every 10-15 years, and my backup device is serviced locally every 3 years or so; having a "two full days battery life" somewhat pales in comparison.
Finally, $10 a month is pretty expensive, especially when it comes on top of $700 down payment. Unclear what happens when you stop paying. I don't doubt that there are people who don't worry about that kind of money: the watch blogs are full with people discussing diving with their Rolexes and Omegas, but I have never seen anyone doing that in real world. 90% of the people use dive computers (owned or rented), and 90% of the rest use basic G-Shocks; you are lucky to see anyone with a mechanical timepiece (which almost always happens to be made by Seiko).
For those people it makes more sense - no need to carry another dive computer, no need to buy another device and the battery will be just fine for two/three dives in a day.
More serious people will still get their Shearwaters/Garmins and other devices. Although, Apple might cause those companies to go out of business eventually and you'll have to buy their subscription for your sport in a few years anyway :)
$80 a year can get you a rental computer for 8 days, and you don't have to worry about its battery — or you get another piece.
> you'll have to buy their subscription for your sport in a few years anyway
My Spyder (from 2001) will be working just fine long after my Apple Watch will become a deadweight. As there is no subscription, no online service, and no monthly payment, it could also survive the bankruptcy of its manufacturer.
The only places that don't have any benefit of offering nitrox is if the maximum depth of the place is 9 meters, or if people will remain at the surface.
[0] https://www.oceanicworldwide.com/oceanic-plus-in-depth/#:~:t...
Huish, the makers of this app, own the majority of big names in the industry. The reason it’s called Oceanic+ is because they own Oceanic. Along with Apollo, Bare, Ollis, Zeagle and a few others. Interestingly, they don’t believe enough in this app to brand it Suunto, their more current dive watch brand.
My fear is the next Suunto watch will have subscriptions, if this app proves successful.
Honestly it seems more like a partnership than a distribution agreement. Huish's website (https://www.huishoutdoors.com/suunto/) and the press release itself make it sound like Suunto Outdoors is another brand like the others Huish actually owns, so I'm not confident where they stand. I always assumed Huish owned Suunto given their own site's materials.
Also, a quick glance, dive computers seem to be $400+, many are $1000+. The watch in question is $800 and I feel like people who are into diving aren't the type of people who find an $800 prohibitively expensive.
Paying other people to take you diving can get pretty expensive quickly, but the dive professionals themselves generally do not make a lot of money. It is one of those things that people do professionally because they love it, not because it pays well. (Speaking only about recreational diving here, industrial diving is a whole different beast.)
I just looked at the screen shots in the article, nothing that different than my old dive computer. If I go back to being a regular recreational diver, I probably would get that watch and app.
As a diver it's clear to me that the target audience are future divers. We might delude ourselves on the pros and cons of our current dive computer, models and so on. But I am sure someone entering the sport will consider this along the other options.
My personal opinion, a big majority of recreational (shallow) diving does not even require a dive computer and it all comes into LARPing territory. It's good to know your depth and the time you spent underwater, that's all. I have seen people wearing a +1k USD dive computer diving at most <20m. Of course it's none of my business how they decide to part with their money.
This much money will give you a very nice dive computer, albeit terribly complex and completely overkill for most of the rec. diving. If someone is willing to spend that much on a dive computer for rec diving, I guess an apple watch is money better spent? Let's just acknowledge that a Shearwater Perdix is a tough sell to someone that wants to spend this much but dives very very occasionally and shallow.
I am just sad about the subscription model and the implications this might have if/when it proves successful.
The first problem is battery life. I didn't have to replace the battery on my computer for the 20 dives over a week I did recently. If I had gotten a low battery warning, I could have replaced the coin cell battery in five minutes. With the Apple Watch, I would be uncomfortable starting a dive with less than 80% battery, which means remembering to charge it before every dive. If I forget to charge it, then I cannot quickly replace the battery, and I cannot switch to a backup computer if I hadn't taken it with me on my previous dives as it wouldn't know my tissue loading. Forgetting to charge the watch before any dive would mean missing the dive.
The 40m limit is not a good idea. I imagine Apple's legal department are forcing this one, but it's a really bad idea. I went slightly below 40m a few times last week, I know that breaks "the rules", but I know the risks and they honestly aren't that bad if you don't push things too far. Having my computer lock out, refuse to give me NDL times, depth info or deco stop info if needed is not a good idea, especially when you really need it at those depths.
There is also no mention of nitrox, so I assume it's not supported. That would make this the only dive computer released in the last decade that doesn't support nitrox diving. Nobody who is interested in owning a dive computer will want a computer that doesn't support nitrox.
The one good thing I see about this is the haptics. It's really easy to get alert fatigue underwater from other dive computers beeping around you. Haptics would be far better.
You'd get over that quickly if you owned this watch. It stays above 80% all the time, with just a few minutes on a mag charge in AM, while you're showering for example, and a few minutes in the evening (during a TV show or video game, for example), even when using it all day for work notifications and all night as a sleep monitor.
It goes 2 or 3 days without charge, and that's before their software update to get a multiple of that. Assuming a 30W+ charger brick, it's surprising how quickly it tops back to 80% ready to go another day or two. Workout mode doesn't burn much more, neither does dive.
Your other takes could improve with actual use as well. Nitrox and gas config, for example, is on the 2nd to last and last screenshots of the watch app itself.
Nitrox: you can find the answer to this by searching the web. > Is the Oceanic+ app Nitrox compatible? > Yes. Oceanic+ is only compatible with air or Nitrox diving to 130 feet (40 meters).
If 40m is a dealbreaker, fine, although you probably would want to do some research to find out what the failure mode actually is. Does it just not work at that depth, but resumes working above it? Does the watch explode? Someone on YouTube probably can answer.
It's about marketing to people that want to signal.
If a person accidental loose buoyancy for a moment and end up at 41 meters, they could really end up in a terrible situation. The added stress, not being able to monitor ascent rate, and no information regarding NDL (the no decompression limit).
Humans can't survive on their own under water. Visiting there require equipment designed for that purpose. They don't need to be expensive but they do need to do the job. A 90% functional diving equipment can easily result in 100% dead diver.
Dive computer? OK... that makes way more sense...
This is perfect, as the limit for nitrox diving (ie the most frequently used mixture of gas for recreational dives) is a little over 130 ft.
My major worry would be bad sensor readings or software errors leading it to provide bad instructions on how fast you can surface, or how long you need to do decompression stops. Depending on the dive, it’s a situation where differences in the displayed numbers mean the difference between a great day and serious injury.
I really hope; but also expect that this is thoroughly tested.
Ideally, yes. However, a crash significantly increases the chances of diver error leading to an incident. Diving without a computer requires more careful adherence to a dive plan. If you lose your dive computer and haven't been carefully following a preset plan, you should generally start the process of surfacing immediately and do so with decompression stops that have as large a margin for error as feasible and then stop diving for the day (edit: or if you've been good at staying with your buddy, you use their computer while still adding a healthy margin for error).
EN 13319 may be sufficient, but I don't feel like buying the standard[0], to see.
Usually, you want to get PADI and NAUI on board for these types of things, and I don't see either, mentioned anywhere in the press release.
[0] https://standards.iteh.ai/catalog/standards/cen/5d35e933-ca5...
They aren't just training agencies. They also certify stuff. I remember seeing their names all over my stuff, but that was many moons ago (mid-1990s. I stopped diving, after I had my noggin worked over by a noggin mechanic).
I suspect that they are keeping their legal derrière covered. A lot of folks will probably use them as “in-dive” computers, like a Mares or Suunto unit, but that will probably be considered an “unsupported use case.”
edit: so the apple watch ultra has a WR of 100m. I stand corrected.
Recreational diving is regulated to 40m. The app follows the latter.
It is unlikely your Casio would be rated for recreational diving beyond the same limits either
b) The point of a dive watch is not just to tell the time. You need to know the depth, time spent underwater, no decompression limits, safety stops etc.
c) Not that I was able to test since the crown is disabled but the Apple Watch crown is very easy to use water even with gloves.
The title should be renamed "Available today, the Oceanic+ app on Apple Watch Ultra"
Because the current title of "Apple Introduces Oceanic+" implies this is a 1st party app from Apple, which it is not.
Seems like the proper candidate for HN story title, to avoid the marketing-speak in the actual title.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
Where in any dictionary doesn’t imply any such thing?
So if a consultant from McKinsey “introduces cloud best practices to company $x”, does that imply that McKinsey created AWS?
Apple Watch Ultra has a water resistance rating of 100 meters under ISO standard 22810.
Apple Watch Ultra may be used for recreational scuba diving (with a compatible third-party app from the App Store) to 40 meters, and for high-speed water sports.
Apple Watch Ultra should not be used for diving below 40 meters. Water resistance is not a permanent condition and can diminish over time. For additional information, see support.apple.com/en-us/HT205000.
Your quotes don’t say that at all. They say it’s waterproof up to 100m but you should not use it deeper than 40m. There’s a lot to do under water between 0 and 40m.
Almost every recreational dive site for commercial reasons would only be taking divers down to those depths.
If you're going beyond 30m then you know what you're doing and are not going to be reckless enough to use any device which is not rated for that depth. No one is going to care about warranty if they are dead.
IIUC, local water pressure varies significantly when you move something around underwater
Movement induced dynamic pressure increase is sometimes the subject
of urban myths and marketing arguments for diver's watches with
high water resistance ratings. When a diver makes a fast swimming
movement of 10m/s (32.8ft/s) (the best competitive swimmers and
finswimmers can not swim nearly that fast) physics dictates that
the diver generates a dynamic pressure of 0.5 bars (50kPa) or the
equivalent of 5 meters of additional water depth.
It means, essentially, that it theoretically would be safe at 100m depth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Resistant_mark
ISO 6425 is much more stringent and specifies that every single unit is pressure tested to 125% of rated capability, ie a 200M ISO 6425 watch has been individually tested at 250M for a period of time.
I looked at the Garmin spec sheets before buying my Apple Watch and didn't find any of their computer/watch combos listing ISO 6425. Instead they list a depth (usually 100M) and attest "Tested to engineering standard EN13319 for dive compliance", see https://www.garmin.com/en-US/legal/waterrating-definitions/
they seem like mostly a fashion / status symbol kind of thing
They've become kind of a genre unto themselves. Citizen, Seiko, and others make affordable ISO 6425 models. I own a few, didn't pay more than $150 for any of them.
Though, I dunno about the "status symbol" aspect. For $30 you can get a diver-style watch that looks like an actual ISO 6425 watch unless you know specifically what you're looking for. So I don't think anybody would be impressed by them. But they are fun to own and rather handsome, if you like that kind of thing.
I stand corrected, but the same article also states:
“Water Resistant 100 m […] NOT suitable for diving.”
“Water Resistant 200 m [.] Suitable for skin diving only. NOT suitable for scuba diving.”
And, IIUC, WR100 is exactly what the Apple Watch Ultra has.
My hypothesis is that this is perhaps a new approach for marketing: find hobbies that correlate the most with the populations with the biggest potential revenue, taking into account the networking and demographic effects within such a population.
Just throwing this off the top of my head. Bear with me :-).
It worked really well for Apple in the '00s. Their computer hardware was expensive enough that most people wouldn't think to buy it over a similar PC. Today, Apple's phones, watches and tablets are much more commodity items (cue someone telling me the sales figures tell a different story). The economics are still largely the same now, but the perception of Apple hardware has changed. They use the XDR screen, the Mac Pro (the big boxy one) and now the Ultra series watch to create the sense of mystique.
A big part of the way Apple signals their products as clean, healthy, and high-status is by depicting themselves as exactly that sort of people.
(Not to imply that this is particularly disingenuous, but they know exactly what they're doing)
For instance, consider all of watch brands which have basically created an entire company under the premise of diving.
Though I suspect more people would regard the submariner line as better looking than any smart watch, albeit less capable.