A US Apple Watch Series 9 cellular support in Israel

This info is from the Pelephone services in Israel they provided this when I asked them about these two models 41mm case (Model: A2982 North America, Europe, Asia Pacific; A2983 China mainland)

45mm case (Model: A2984 North America, Europe, Asia Pacific; A2985 China mainland)

Midnight, Starlight, Silver, Pink, or (PRODUCT) RED aluminum with a red ring on the Digital Crown

Ion-X glass, Retina display, and ceramic back so to confirm they would provide an e-sim that should work!

Yonatan,

Were you able to test this use case? I have the same question as you. I want to purchase the A2984 model which is also sold in the EU, but afraid the cellular network will not work in Israel.

Thank you.

Differences in Watch functionality between countries depends largely upon if it is a cellular or GPS-only model, and then to the degree your iPhone and Watch work with the cellular services in the places where you are using your hardware. This is discussed in this topic --> apple watch outside of US - Apple Community

Check the list of Apple Watch carriers provided in this page --> Apple Watch - Carriers - Apple

"To cover the LTE and UMTS bands used around the world, there are two separate cellular models for Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch SE, and Apple Watch Ultra. They have been optimized for use in the country of purchase, and not all models work in all countries or regions. There is no single model that supports cellular service worldwide. To see which carriers in your country or region offer cellular service for Apple Watch, refer to the chart below."

Click on the link to read more.

Don't forget that even if you find one that works, you may have issue with warranty restrictions if you take it to another country.

www.apple.com/legal/warranty - follow links to your device, then country

"IMPORTANT RESTRICTION.

Apple may restrict warranty service for hardware products to the country where Apple or its Authorized Distributors originally sold the device."

We are just users like you.

I have serious 1 post in this forum that said they could use a new Apple Watch in the U.S. and EU.

That is an extremely small sampling size.

Until the volunteers here see a lot more success (or failure) posts, or a definitive Apple webpage, we can only speculate. And there is no way a bunch of Apple Watch users can guaranty anything!

The country specific warranty has already been mentioned.

Also some countries limit the features an Apple Watch is allowed to use:

https://www.apple.com/watchos/feature-availability

so cross country purchase may result in functionality loss.

We are volunteer fellow users. We do not know. We can only go by what other people post in the forums that we happen to read, and maybe from Apple coverage blogs.

If you buy an Apple Watch Series 3 through 8 in the EU, that we know works in other parts of the world (outside Canada, U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico). It is just the Canada, U.S., Mexico, Puerto Rico vs the rest of the world that we do not have any solid knowledge about Series 9 and Ultra 2. I fully expect an EU Series 9 or Ultra 2 will work in Israel.

And NO, you cannot just buy an eSIM. The Apple Watch must be paired to an iPhone, and the iPhone's cellular provider must support the Apple Watch. Then the Apple Watch shares the iPhone's phone number. In the U.S. the sharing fee in $10 U.S. per month.

https://www.apple.com/watch/cellular

The other Apple Watch option is the Family Plan, were the Apple Watch is treated as if it belongs to a dependent child or aging relative. The parent's iPhone sets it up. But because the Apple Watch is not paired to its own iPhone, it lacks features that come from being paired to an iPhone, such as not being able to send/receive SMS/MMS TEXT messages, and a host of other things that depend on the paired iPhone.

Of course there is GPS ONLY mode, where the Apple Watch can do everything the cellular model can do AS LONG AS the iPhone is nearby. Away from the iPhone, the GPS only mode Apple Watch can still track your exercise, play music or podcasts stored on the Apple Watch, and tell time. It just cannot do anything that requires a cellular connection and the Internet.

So here's what I'd suggest doing: if you plan to use the Watch in Israel, reach out to your Israeli carrier and ask them what LTE bands they use for their service, specifically smart-watch service. Then take a look at the Watch LTE page itself, and you'll see which models support which LTE bands. If the USA model of Apple Watch supports the bands your Israeli carrier uses, then you'll know it'll work. However, if the Israeli carrier uses LTE bands that are not present on the USA model of the Apple Watch, I would avoid buying it. That would be my approach, as it should be more black & white and scientific, compared to threads and word of mouth. In general, if a local carrier operates on LTE bands which the device supports, then we know it'll work just fine. But to your point, we do sell different models in different countries, and there are slight differences in the networks it can support. Apple Watch - Carriers - Apple