Apple’s own materials state that Apple Watch Ultra 4 is 45 percent recycled by material, with a 100 percent recycled titanium case and a 100 percent recycled cobalt battery. What they do not state, anywhere we could check, is a matching carbon-emissions total, the kilograms-of-CO2e figure Apple prints for iPhone 18 Pro.
The two watches Apple announced on the same day get different treatment on this specific point, and the gap is worth naming rather than papering over.
Key facts
| Figure | Apple Watch Ultra 4 | iPhone 18 Pro (for comparison) |
|---|---|---|
| Recycled material overall | 45 percent | 40 percent |
| Recycled content in the main case material | 100 percent (titanium) | 85 percent (aluminum) |
| Carbon total (kg CO2e), by configuration | Not published in the material we checked | 63 kg at 256GB, rising to 109 kg at 2TB |
| Where the carbon figure appears, when it exists | Not applicable | A PDF, not any shop or specs page |
What Apple does publish for Ultra 4
Apple’s September 9 press release states Ultra 4’s recycled-content figures plainly: 45 percent recycled material across the watch, 100 percent recycled titanium in the case, and 100 percent recycled cobalt in the battery. These are the same kind of percentage claims Apple makes for Apple Watch Series 12, which lists 40 percent overall with 100 percent recycled aluminum and titanium cases.
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Apple Watch Series 12’s own recycled figures sit close to Ultra 4’s without matching them exactly, which is itself worth stating plainly rather than rounding away: 40 percent overall against 45 percent, with the same 100 percent claim for the recycled aluminum and titanium cases each watch uses. Neither press release ties either percentage to an emissions number.
What Apple publishes for iPhone, for contrast
Apple’s practice for iPhone 18 Pro is different in kind, not just in number. Its Product Environmental Report states a carbon total in kilograms of CO2e for each storage tier, 63 kg at 256GB rising to 109 kg at 2TB, and that figure lives in a PDF rather than on the shop page a buyer actually sees. Apple publishes the number; it simply does not put it where most shoppers look.
What is missing for Ultra 4
No equivalent carbon-emissions figure for Apple Watch Ultra 4 appears on its shop page, its tech specs page, or in its press release, in the material we could verify. That is a gap in what we can check, not a claim that no such figure exists anywhere in Apple’s paperwork. We report the absence rather than guess at a number.
The iPhone comparison matters here for a specific reason: it shows Apple is capable of publishing a full carbon total for a September 2026 product, tier by tier, when it chooses to. That capability existing for one product and not appearing for another, in the pages we can check, is the entire basis of this piece. We are not asserting Apple withheld anything on purpose, only that the number is absent from what we could verify.
Recycled content and carbon are not the same claim
A material being fully recycled does not by itself say anything about the emissions produced making or shipping the finished product. Apple’s 100 percent recycled titanium figure describes where the metal came from; a carbon total would describe what it cost to turn that metal, plus everything else in the watch, into a finished Ultra 4. Apple’s own iPhone reporting keeps these as separate figures, and nothing in the Ultra 4 material we checked merges them either.
What Apple has not said
- Any carbon-emissions total, in kilograms of CO2e or any other unit, for Apple Watch Ultra 4.
- Whether such a figure exists in a report we have not been able to check.
- A carbon total for Apple Watch Series 12, SE 3, or AirPods 5, on the same basis.
- Any claim that Apple Watch Ultra 4 is carbon neutral, which does not appear in the material we checked either.
Apple Watch Ultra 4 reaches stores Friday, September 18. If a carbon figure for it surfaces on an Apple page between now and then, it is not in any source we have been able to verify as of this writing.
