Apple Watch Ultra GPS in areas with no cell service

The GPS radio does not need cellular, nor WiFi, nor Bluetooth.

A GPS only Apple Watch will still track your exercise when away from its paired iPhone, and all WiFi signals.

Cellular assisted GPS just allows the GPS radio to lock onto the GPS signals faster, but it does not stop GPS from finding your location.

See the 'If your Apple Watch can't connect to Wi-Fi, cellular, or your iPhone' section in:

Use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby - Apple Support

From what I gather, you can still use the compass but (comparing with the previous section), I suspect the GPS function will be severely degraded if it works at all. See the third footnote.

Even if it’s the old thread I’m just replying here so others with similar issues will get the answer. Based on the Apple support reply, Apple Watch’s GPS (cellular model) doesn’t work well without a good cellular coverage. So, based on that it doesn’t have a fully functioning GPS module. If I have the only one bar showing, the location is not updating on a timely basis or may not even showing at all. In other words you won’t be able to track let’s say your children in a poor covered signal area through Find My app from your phone. In a good coverage areas the location is working and visible from FindMy app. If you live in the area without a full bars 5G coverage, don’t buy it if you need to use GPS on your watch on the regular basis.

Apple should prevent a confusion and make a statement on the watch website that the location service is only limited to a good coverage area and doesn’t have a fully functional GPS module like some Garmin tracker for example.

Ok, so if I’m following a map in the back country it will show me where I am on that map? I carry a Garmin ireach as backup and wear a fenix 6 but the Ultra has so many more features. If it’s tracking me gps in the back country then all that’s lacking is power reserve and I can solve that by carrying a battery pack.

Even with no cell signal, it will definitely know where you are (GPS coordinates) – the only question is whether it can also draw a visual map to go along with it. I'm not sure how it caches map graphics, and I believe 3rd-party apps are required to download maps in advance for offline use. I believe this is being improved in watchOS 10.

Yes, the Find My App requires that the devices you're trying to find are able to connect to some sort of network. That has absolutely zero to do with the GPS capabilities of the Apple Watch. The Watch is perfectly able to determine the correct location but, without a way to transmit that location to a network, Find My won't be able to find it. The Watch is still determining location accurately.

Correct. Apple Watch advertises like it’s as good as Garmin and it isn’t even close. I have to wear the Apple Watch, a Garmin Felix 6 and carry my inreach as when i am in the back country the Apple Watch is basically useless. They advertise people climbing shear peaks that are clearly out of cell phone range. It’s false advertising. I love the Ultra but it is not a good substitute for a Garmin ion someone really enjoys the wilderness.

Greenroger wrote:

Correct. Apple Watch advertises like it’s as good as Garmin and it isn’t even close. I have to wear the Apple Watch, a Garmin Felix 6 and carry my inreach as when i am in the back country the Apple Watch is basically useless. They advertise people climbing shear peaks that are clearly out of cell phone range. It’s false advertising. I love the Ultra but it is not a good substitute for a Garmin ion someone really enjoys the wilderness.

You should always use the tool that best meets your needs and expectations.

No. I’m saying that if you want to track your Apple Watch from Find My app on your iPhone or even from the iCloud in the browser and if your watch is located in the poor cellular coverage area, you won’t be able to do it. As per Apple support description, Apple Watch location and GPS service is relying on the cellular provider and the areas. Even if you can make calls from your watch in that area, the GPS location is so unreliable unless you’ll move somewhere close to the city with full bars coverage. I tested this myself and opened a ticket with Apple to clarify that. They confirmed that the watch location depends on your cellular network in most cases which surprised me as I thought GPS should work independently. So I’m assuming that to transmit your GPS location from your watch, a full bars coverage is required.

Then it’s not really gps

So, are you saying that Apple uses a different, less capable GPS module in the Watches with Cellular than it does in the ones without?