Back when the Apple Watch was originally introduced, processing was done by another Apple Watch that was close by. But this was different after the 2017 launch of the Apple Watch Series 3. The first Apple Watch to feature cellular connectivity, enabling call-making without an iPhone nearby. The Apple Watch Series 2 received its own GPS system in 2016 but, whenever possible, used the GPS on an iPhone that was close by.
But with the three new Apple Watch models that were introduced in 2022, this has altered. The Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch SE (2022), and Apple Watch Ultra fall within this category. Apple stated that the Apple Watch Ultra, Series 8, and SE (2nd generation) use the built-in Apple Watch GPS even when your iPhone is nearby in the support article titled “Calibrate your Apple Watch for enhanced Workout and Activity accuracy,” which was released earlier this month. Older Apple Watch versions, when available, use the iPhone’s GPS to conserve battery life.
So yeah, the older Apple Watch models relied on an iPhone nearby’s GPS technology to conserve battery life. Given that the Apple Watch Ultra has a larger battery and can operate for “up to 36 hours,” allowing it to use its own GPS makes reasonable. Similar to the Series 7 battery, the Apple Watch 8’s (308mAh) battery lasts 18 hours on a single charge. Apple believes the watch’s battery is big enough to support the watch’s own GPS. The 296mAh battery of the second-generation Apple Watch SE is the same.
It should be mentioned that the dual-band GPS frequency is used by both the Apple Watch Ultra and the iPhone 14 series. They are the first Apple products to have such a feature. In major cities, the second band offers more precise position information. Dual-frequency GPS measures its precision in centimetres as opposed to a single-frequency GPS’s accuracy of 5 metres (approximately 16 and a half feet).
