- Apple Pay (I don't have to take out my phone to pay for things). One really cool feature is that the apple watch maintains your credentials as long as you don't take it off your wrist, so you don't need to unlock anything to pay for something.
- Apple Car/Home Key (I don't have to take out my phone to unlock my front door)
- notifications on my wrist when my washer machine is done
- notifications on my wrist when an unhoused neighbor door checks my car in the middle of the night.
- Apple Health: metrics on my daily workout.
- Screen time: grant kid 15 minutes of Roblox without taking my phone out of my pocket
- Edit: I'm embarrassed to admit that I also use the "find my phone" feature a lot when at home.
I don't really need an ultra for any of that, and I don't see a reason to upgrade my 2-3 year old Apple Watch now.