Apple Watch update after 1 month of use
I’ve had one for about 3 weeks.
Initially, when I got it, I was enamored. After a couple of days, I wasn’t feeling the love. For $400 (black sport with black sport band), I didn’t feel buyer’s remorse, but I think I had higher expectations. Part of the reason is I’m a runner, and I was trying to use the heart rate monitor in the “glances” (swipe up from the clock face and right a few times). It wasn’t updating frequently enough on my runs and I was starting to get irritated about buying a first gen, buggy product.
However, I mentioned this to a few of my Apple developer friends, and I learned that the “glances” version only takes a reading every 5 minutes. If you want real time, you need to open the Fitness app, and choose one of the exercise routines from the menu. I found out by choosing an open-ended running routine, I could get my instant heart rate, calories burned, distance run, elapsed time, etc, and it’s easy for me to see with my middle aged, +2.5 presbyopic eyes.
If you read this far and the idea of swiping and interacting don’t appeal to you, keep your Breitling on.
What you have to understand, is that for this first iteration, it is simply a display extension to your iPhone. There are no embedded smarts from an app perspective.
This week at the Apple developers conference (WWDC), they announced the ability for a lot of new embedded smarts in the watch. So, in September (roughly) when they release the software update, you will be able to do much more with the watch, and it won’t simply be an iPhone display screen. The new software will work fine with the current hardware. I don’t expect a hardware update until battery technology SIGNIFICANTLY improves, which might be a few years. I also think there are quite a few things in the current watch hardware that aren’t turned on or fully realized, yet.
I will also mention there is a Watch app on the iPhone that controls all of the config parameters for the watch, including settings, apps and app settings, health settings, etc. It’s worth getting very familiar with this app to really get the most from your phone. Also check the Health app on the phone, as this is where the watch dumps it’s data.
Now that I’ve had the watch for 3 weeks, I’m not wearing any of my other watches any more. (Breitling, Citizen Blue Angels, Rado, Baume & Mercier) I’m not going to sell any of them because I like them, but they just don’t feel useful anymore.
And I love my Mickey Mouse watch face. There is something very cool about Mickey pointing out the time while tapping his foot each second. It makes me happy when I see his smiling face. (And my two young sons love it, too!)
Here’s what I love about it:
1) On the main face, you get the current time as well was a few “complications”. I’ve got mine set to show today’s date and the current temperature for my location. There are a wealth of new “complications” coming with the new update in September, such as real time game scores, etc.
2) I can monitor my heart rate on my daily runs and I don’t have to wear an uncomfortable chest strap anymore.
3) You can ANSWER a call on your phone, Dick Tracy style. I’ve done this a few times when I was working on something and the phone wasn’t convenient. Like a few weeks ago when I was curled up in the baggage compartment of my airplane trying to get some window tint finished and my phone was outside on the workbench. Someone called, and I just tapped the watch and answered the phone. That was VERY cool.
4) I can quickly check the Metars with the Foreflight app for the airports I’ve configured.
5) My app will “tap your wrist” when a timer goes off, which is the best way to get your attention when you are flying (or doing anything, really).
What I don’t love about it:
1) Having to charge it every night. I usually end each day with 40% or more battery life. So, it’s not that big of a deal. I don’t strap it on unless I specifically need it. I’d estimate that I wear it 40-50% of the time. I don’t normally wear a watch all the time anyway, and never really have unless I specifically needed a time-keeping function on my wrist. (Who wears their watch to bed anyway?? :shrug: )
2) The rubber gets uncomfortable on my wrist after several hours. But this might be related to the fact that I’m not a die-hard watch wearer anyway and I’m not used to having a watch on 100% of the time. (My wedding band used to itch like crazy, but I don’t wear it anymore.)
There are plenty of internet videos that show people diving to 20+ feet with their watch on and nothing seems to happen. I saw one video of an olympic class swimmer who was concerned about his watch surviving water workouts, and it did just fine. Apple suggests running tap water over the crown if it gets sticky. I’ve got a feeling it’s just fine for swimming and I don’t worry about getting it wet. I’m not sure why Apple hasn’t put anything in the documentation about water resistance. They actually don’t say anything at all.
I’m keeping mine. I like it. But I won’t spend any real money on it beyond the sports version until the next hardware iteration.