# Motorola's first LTE smartwatch costs more than a Pixel Watch

Source: https://idevice.com/motorolas-first-lte-smartwatch-costs-more-than-a-pixel-watch
Published: 2026-09-05

> The Moto Watch Ultra brings cellular calling, a steel case and Polar's fitness software to 429 euros, with no US price announced.

Motorola put a cellular radio in a smartwatch for the first time and priced it at 429 euros.

The Moto Watch Ultra arrived at IFA 2026 in Berlin, where Dan Bracaglia handled one for Tom's Guide. That LTE radio is the headline part. It means the watch holds its own cellular connection, so calls and data work when your phone is at home, and it means a second line on your carrier bill to switch on. Motorola put a microphone and a speaker in the case, so the calls happen on your wrist rather than through earbuds.

The case is brushed stainless steel around a 1.5-inch OLED screen that peaks at 2,700 nits. Nits measure how bright a screen gets, which is what decides if you can read it outdoors at noon. The [Pixel Watch 5](https://idevice.com/smart-watches/google-pixel-watch/roadmap) and [Galaxy Watch 9](https://idevice.com/smart-watches/samsung-galaxy-watch/roadmap) reach 3,000. The Apple Watch 11 stops at 2,000. Two controls sit on one side, a plain button and a digital crown that also clicks. At 46mm across, 12.1mm thick and 51 grams, it is a big watch by the standards of anything that is not sold as rugged.

For the health half of the product, Motorola hired someone else to do it.

Polar, the Finnish training-watch company, supplies the fitness and sleep work: sleep stages, workouts, productivity and energy levels. The watch also carries dual-band GPS, which listens to two satellite frequencies at once so your route holds its shape between tall buildings and under trees, and a running coach that builds a plan for a race. None of that is Motorola's own science, and the company has been open that it is not.

Battery is where the numbers get soft. Motorola will say two days with the always-on display switched off, and that a 15-minute charge covers 24 hours of use. Always-on is the setting that keeps the screen dimly lit instead of dark until you raise your wrist, and turning it off is how every one of these watches posts its best figure. Two days on that basis lands the Moto above the Apple Watch 11, which manages around 38 hours the same way, and well under the Pixel Watch 5 at 72 hours or more.

It ships on Wear OS 6, Google's smartwatch operating system, which brings Gemini along with apps like Google Wallet and Google Translate. Motorola promises up to two future versions of that operating system. On a watch this expensive, that number is the one to read twice.

What Motorola has built is a watch that asks Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch money for a metal case, a cellular radio and Polar's training software, from a company that has never sold a watch in this class before. Whether that trade lands depends on how it performs over weeks, which a show floor cannot tell you.

Motorola says European buyers will see it in stores within a few weeks. It has not given a United States price or a United States date.