Apple to Stop Sales of Series 9 and Ultra 2 Smartwatches

The smartwatches will be removed from Apple's stores and website this week due to a patent dispute, but current watch owners aren't affected

Allen St. John, Consumer Reports Senior Home & Tech Writer.

By Allen St. John
Senior Home & Tech Writer

December 19, 2023

Apple Watch Ultra 2 showing Blood Oxygen display (left), Apple Watch Ultra 2 showing sensor (right) — Blood oxygen sensors in the Apple Watch Ultra 2 are used for health-related functions.

Apple has announced that it will stop selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and the Apple Watch Ultra 2 later this week as the latest chapter in an ongoing patent dispute over the blood oxygen sensors in those two models. The blood oxygen sensor helps boost the accuracy of sleep tracking and is used in other health-related features.

What's Next for Apple Watch

Apple’s decision to remove these two smartwatches from its stores stems from its ongoing patent dispute with Masimo, a medical technology company based in California. The company claimed in court that Apple had hired several top executives and other employees before introducing a watch with blood oxygen sensor technology that was patented by Masimo.

The International Trade Commission, which has jurisdiction in disputes of this kind, ruled in October that the sensors in the two Apple smartwatches violate Masimo’s patent. The decision gave Apple two months to reach an agreement with Masimo to license the company’s technology, but no agreement has been reached. This fall’s ITC ruling upheld an earlier decision handed down in January 2023.

The ITC decision is under review by President Joe Biden until Dec. 25. The president has the option to veto the ban, which would allow Apple to continue importing and selling the Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches. However, such vetoes are rare—the last one coming in 2013 when President Barack Obama vetoed an ITC decision, allowing Apple to continue to sell iPhones and iPads that were at the center of a patent dispute with Samsung.

If there’s no veto, the ITC ban on these Apple smartwatches would go into effect Dec. 26. Apple says that it plans to appeal the ITC ruling in federal court.

The Series 9 and Ultra 2 are among the most popular smartwatch models on the market and both remain near the top of CR’s smartwatch ratings.

Allen St. John

Allen St. John has been a senior product editor at CR since 2016, focusing on digital privacy, audio devices, printers, and home products. He was a senior editor at Condé Nast and a contributing editor at publications including Road & Track and The Village Voice. A New York Times bestselling author, he's also written for The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Rolling Stone. He lives in Montclair, N.J., with his wife, their two children, and their dog, Rugby.