8 ms·

I have thought about buying an Apple Watch multiple times. But, then, I see comments from a lot of Apple Watch users who say that they completely stop using it

I have thought about buying an Apple Watch multiple times. But, then, I see comments from a lot of Apple Watch users who say that they completely stop using it after few months. For many of them, the utility is not strong enough. Have things improved in that regard? What do you Apple Watch users think about it now?

philliphaydon 9y ago
I'm in the same boat. I want one... but I just can't bring myself to get one because of what people I know have said.
- wutwutwutwut 9y ago
  I want one but I also suspect I would stop using it quickly. I'm not sure what to actually use it for...
  - saagarjha 9y ago
    Fitness tracking and notifications on your wrist. If that sounds like something you'd want I'd recommend you get one.
austenallred 9y ago
It's a nice to have for me. But with cellular that completely changes. Now my phone will be the optional unit, and my watch a must.
toomuchtodo 9y ago
I had never considered an Apple Watch. I believed it to be too costly for what it offered. The selling point today was their heart study with Stanford and that the watch will detect irregular heartbeats. I'm genetically predisposed to atrial fibrillation [1] (TL;DR Abnormal heart rhythm), and having a watch that can alert me that my heart rhythm is deviating from a normal rhythm is cheap insurance against a poor cardiac outcome. For me, its medical telemetry first, and a phone second. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation
- wutwutwutwut 9y ago
  Hmm or just go to a doctor and ask for a long term EKG maybe. That's what I did. I had to wear some measuring equipment for a day and then I had the result (broken heart). I don't think this changes from day to day so you might want to get a check every few year.
  - scentoni 9y ago
    No, atrial fibrillation occurs in distinct episodes (imagine your heart occasionally having an epileptic seizure that lasts a few hours) and it can be difficult to get an EKG when you suspect something is wrong.
lotsofpulp 9y ago
I love it, especially the vibrate function for reminders and alarms, and while you're driving for navigation.. Battery for series 2 lasts me 1.5 days at least. I can live without it, but it's a nice add on.
DonaldPShimoda 9y ago
I've had mine for a while now. I totally love it. It's a lot of small quality-of-life improvements for me. Things like controlling my phone's music playback from the Watch, the turn-by-turn directions, the Siri integration, the activity monitoring... all those things. Plus it helps me not be on my phone all the time, which is a problem I tend to have. (Since the notifications get routed through the Watch, I don't open my phone to dismiss them and get distracted.)
jgrahamc 9y ago
I was a skeptic. I bought one because I want to experience and understand technology. I wear it every day. I find notifications to be the reason to put it on and then a collection of other reasons (e.g. when cooking I use the timer).
- gist 9y ago
  Opposite experience that I had. I was an early first buyer and wore it and talked positively about it. I thought it had utility (being able to take phone calls in the restroom and not having to carry my phone around the office) but in the end I just didn't like wearing it (given the utility). Lately I was not even taking it to work. Just today I did because the cleaning people are at the house and the easiest thing was to put it on my wrist.
- saurik 9y ago
  Why do you want notifications? I got one (also just to experience it) and found myself frantically trying to turn off the incessant notifications like a sick game of whack-a-mole until I realized it didn't offer the intrinsic value that my notification-less phone does.
  - spike021 9y ago
    You disable the notifications that you don't want to see on the watch. So for me personally I only have phone calls, SMS/iMessages, and one or two other communication apps enabled to send notifications to my watch, plus score updates from baseball since I follow the sport. Once you get it configured in a way that fits what you care about it works really well.
  - Angostura 9y ago
    I have a Pebble Time Round, basically just for notifications. Most of the Apps are disabled for notifying on the watch. Text messages, BBC News Alerts, Find My Friend geofencing alerts and Podcast available are the only ones I have on. Not having to pull out my phone while cooking, or cycling (my daughter alway seems to text me when cycling home from work) is very handy.
OberstKrueger 9y ago
I wear mine through most of the day and night, and have done so since it launched. It's a lot more useful having Siri on my wrist for those types of needs, plus the health and sleep tracking is good information to have. I find that I don't use my phone as much as I used to, since I can read messages on it and just respond with voice. And it's great for doing small tasks like changing songs when I'm on the train and using a phone isn't convenient. It can't replace a phone just yet, but the convenience for many tasks has made it a worthwhile purchase for me.
mmjaa 9y ago
I have the position that I've had no interest in it, up to this point, for the simple fact that it hasn't functioned as a stand-alone device, general-computing'ish.. until now. For me, the tethering angle has always been the major, #1, reason not to get involved. I've been in computers since the beginning; having such arbitrary dependencies has been a significant detractor. However, as an observer of this segment, I have to say - isn't it about time we just had full-blown computers on our wrists, kind of, .. "anyway"? I mean, yeah .. these artificial boundaries make the machines more marketable - totally get that - but .. don't you think you'd adopt the whole platform a little more willingly - in your postulated time-scale - if it weren't for all the dependencies?
charrondev 9y ago
I ended up getting an apple watch, then returning it for Gear S3. Major improvements with the gear: - Looks like a watch - Always tells the time - Works with my normal leather watch band - Has a spotify app I use mostly just as a watch that can do fitness tracking and recieve notifications from my phone.
- achompas 9y ago
  > Looks like a watch I hear this constantly and I don't get this. There's a very long tradition of non-circular watches in horology. See the Reverso, the Tank, and the Monaco.
JohnTHaller 9y ago
The biggest thing folks I know like about watches on both the Apple and Android side of thing are notifications. I recently got a fitbit and found I wear it in place of my Android watch now. It's purpose-built for fitness monitoring and does a better job at that than Apple/Android have ever done. And it handles notifications. It lasts days on a battery charge and is lighter weight on my wrist. And it's much much cheaper. Plus, if you ever decide to switch to Android, you can keep using your fitbit. Yes, things turn by turn walking directions on a smartwatch are kinda neat the first time you try them, but the novelty wears off and glancing at your phone twice on a long walk is no bother. But I stopped using pretty much any watch functionality except notifications within a month. Side note: I'm not sure how well iOS notifications work on fitbit. Apple is notorious for locking out competitors (even going so far as to prohibit mentions of fitbit hardware integration in app descriptions on the app store) and it wouldn't surprise me if this affects fitbit functionality with iOS phones.
- dionidium 9y ago
  >"The biggest thing folks I know like about watches on both the Apple and Android side of thing are notifications." I think this is exactly right. Notifications are annoying and the watch reduces the effort required to see and dismiss them. However, I recently solved this problem another way; I turned off notifications (excluding messages and a few other very context-specific apps). This turns out to be the best way to deal with annoying notifications. Just turn them off.
  - marksomnian 9y ago
    Since getting my Fitbit I've taken a middle ground - turn them off on my phone, and let only priority apps to my watch. Things I care about I get on my watch, things I don't can wait.
  - tomelders 9y ago
    It also makes me look like I'm bored of the people I'm talking to when I keep looking at my watch while they're telling me something.
- 9y ago
sorenjan 9y ago
I own an Android wear watch, and I use it for three things: GPS and music while running without my phone, shopping list while buying groceries, and checking notifications when I have my phone in my pocket. When I first got it I thought it was really cool with a small computer on my wrist and tried to think of all sorts of things to do with it, but the truth is that your phone is better at almost everything. The only reason to prefer your watch is if you leave the phone at home or if it's quicker to not take it up from the pocket. If you try do make it do too much you'll probably get tired of it, since it won't be a good choice.
- hcurtiss 9y ago
  Which watch? And what app are you using to sync music to it?
  - sorenjan 9y ago
    Sony Smartwatch 3, and I use Google music to save a playlist offline. Subscription based streaming music is practical until it's not, and for some reason Spotify doesn't allow you to save music offline on Android wear. MP3 was so much easier when it came to portability. I wouldn't recommend the Smartwatch 3 though. It's a pretty good watch, one of the first with GPS, WiFi and NFC (still unused), but it won't get Wear 2.0 and the GPS ranges from pretty bad to unusable. The GPS antenna can't handle when your arm gets wet, like when you sweat, so after about 20 minutes of running the GPS connection deteriorates significantly unless you have a sweatband under it. Hopefully Garmin will launch a watch with Spotify support in the future.
S_A_P 9y ago
I always thought the apple watch was frivolous. Then I got one as a gift and cant imagine not having one. The ability to see whether or not a text/call is important without having to pull my phone out of my pocket is a killer feature for me. I always felt that it was rude to do that and this prevents me from having to. The fitness tracker is also really fun to use, and imo more accurate than the fit bit I had.
- badwolf 9y ago
  Second this. It seems much less rude to discretely glance at your wrist briefly.
  - jedberg 9y ago
    You think that, but it's super noticeable. Muliple times I've been in a situation where I'm in a conversation with someone who is constantly glancing at their watch. Depending on how well I know them, I either say, "You you like to just look at your phone?" or "Is time moving faster on your side of the table, because you seem to be very concerned with your watch." Or I say nothing and just think about how rude that person is.
    - kobeya 9y ago
      Not everyone is in a position to ignore their notifications. Would you rather they pull out their phone?
      - jedberg 9y ago
        As someone who was on call for 20 years straight, I'm well aware of that. :) And yes, I would rather they pull out their phone than stare at their wrist every 10 seconds. I don't have a problem with someone looking at their notifications, I'm just pointing out that people think they're being sneaky with the watch when they really aren't.
        S_A_P 9y ago
anindha 9y ago
Being water proof and having a cellular connection are great features. I like swimming and nothing else on the market does swim tracking as well. I can go for a run, a swim, buy lunch, and take an Uber home all without my phone. I bought the Series 1 and stopped using it because it drained the battery on my phone, especially if I was using something like Uber that needed to continuously communicate to the watch. Would love to read reviews on the battery life of the watch.
- photojosh 9y ago
  Better than the Garmin triathlon watch series? (920XT, 735, 935, etc)
dionidium 9y ago
I have one. I haven't worn it in almost a year. I guess I just don't get it. (Note: I also find watches uncomfortable. It's possible that I have a higher bar for usefulness than you because of this.)
rhinoceraptor 9y ago
I've had mine for 6 months. I like it for automatic sleep tracking (using the sleep watch app). The battery on the series 2 is good enough that it only needs about 30-60 minutes of charging a day (depending on usage). I also use the silent alarm it has to wake up. When I go for a bike ride, it's nice to track that and be able to check heart rate, distance, etc while riding without pulling out my phone. The cellular isn't enough for me to upgrade, I don't run so there's never really a time I'd be without my phone. I've ended up wearing it about 23 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- blang 9y ago
  Just out of curiosity, have you changed any sleep behaviors after using the sleep tracking app?
  - rhinoceraptor 9y ago
    I used to use sleep cycle on my phone. But I had the problem of wasting time in the morning just playing with my phone without getting out of bed. Now I have to at least get out of bed before doing that :)
- matthewking 9y ago
  Sleep tracking would be one of my primary use cases, how accurate is it? is it useful?
  - rhinoceraptor 9y ago
    It depends on the app. It's not a first party feature, so you won't get sleep data in HealthKit like you would for exercise. I'm using Sleep Watch, the times it reports for sleep and wake seem to be pretty accurate for me.
spike021 9y ago
I've been using my Series 1 (not Series 0) since last November and thoroughly enjoy everything about it except the battery life (I can usually get two days of life on it). It's great for what it is; personally I use it as a watch (checking date/time/setting timers/alarms) and as a device for filtering notifications. I don't need to keep pulling my phone out of my pocket just to check if the latest buzz was a spam email from work or a text from family/friends. It's just so much more convenient.
eridius 9y ago
I bought a series 0 the day it came out, and I've worn it literally every day since then. I don't really use apps on the watch, but notifications and complications are extremely useful, as is being able to ask Siri to do things (especially to turn lights on/off).
mleo 9y ago
I had a Series 0 and Series 2. The first 8 months with Series 0 was more about having the new tech than the watch really being all that useful. Then at the start of last year I made changes to lifestyle and have lost 90 lbs of weight over 16 months. The watch's functionality is not a daily motivator to keep things up and improve fitness, but it is certainly helpful. I can decide based on activity levels and food consumption to do some more exercise or watch some Netflix. The addition of GPS in Series 2 improved accuracy of walking and running distance when I go without a phone. Strangely, the calorie counts of walking multiple miles are generally 20% higher when I just have the watch vs watch and phone, even though the distance, time, bpm are the same with or without the phone. So while I expected to ditch the phone more this has me keeping the phone with me. There isn't as much variety in music or podcasts with just the watch. Finally, if I need to make a call for emergency having the phone present is security. So, the Series 3 provides another set of features that makes sense for my situation. More music, can make/receive calls if required, maybe more accurate tracking with faster CPU. And with faster, more reliable data connection, maybe some 3rd party apps will become useful as well. I have rarely had battery issues during the day. Usually, I just take it off and charge it when I sleep and put it on again in the morning. Don't think it something i would want to sleep with it on anyway, so multi day battery life isn't a concern.
monochromatic 9y ago
I like being able to glance at my wrist when a text or an email comes in. But what I LOVE is the way it does driving directions.
jen729w 9y ago
I adore mine. I'd be lost without it. Weirdly, as a total Apple nerd, I wasn't interested at first. My boss had one for ages before I was convinced by the waterproofing on the Series 2. He kept going on about it and couldn't believe that I didn't want one. (I was wearing a vintage '70s Omega.) Now the standard joke is that I "wish he'd told me how good it was earlier". Top tip: get yourself another band as soon as you buy a Watch. I splashed out and got the steel with steel link bracelet. I know, it's way more expensive than the standard aluminium/black sports, but it makes me feel like I'm actually wearing a watch and not a generic fitness device. Of course you don't have to go that crazy, just get a nylon band or one of the leather options. Anything. Just get that black sports thing off immediately.
dpkonofa 9y ago
I've had both generations of Apple Watch and Series 2, to me, is a big improvement over Series 1. Not sure about 0 since I had no reason to get one. I definitely don't think I could stop using it after a few months on the fitness tracking alone. Being able to track my runs and listen to my music without needing my phone is awesome. The notifications are great once you filter out the noise and turn off the ones you don't care about but that may also inspire you to uninstall some apps. I also use the timers all the time for cooking and working out and the actual Workout app is great as a diary for me. I can look at the Health app and see everything I did and I use that in conjunction with MyFitnessPal. I also like the general motivation I get from the activity rings. They're so stupid and simple but there's no feeling quite like closing all 3 of those damn things out or getting the occasional ring to loop back around itself. I dunno... I feel like it's definitely changed my life for the better and I really don't see much technology advances making similar changes. I mean, it's great and all to have a Retina display on my phone to see all the pictures on Instagram as clearly as possible but that's just not as big of a deal as having a device that actually motivates me. I've had Fitbit and heart monitors and even pouches and clips for the iPhone and none of them keep it dangling in front of me like the Apple Watch does. But that's just, like, my opinion, man...
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
  > But that's just, like, my opinion, man... "... and anyone who is influenced by it is a dummy." (Speaker's final remark at a meeting, many moons ago.)
  - dpkonofa 9y ago
    umm... what?
    - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
      The "just my opinion" phrase often reminds me of this more forceful version. Should I be more or less inclined to agree with his opinion? Not being a dummy (of course ;-) I'm not being influenced, just rational, right? (Thanks for the watch info, it was interesting. But I'm not being influenced ;-)

philliphaydon 9y ago

I'm in the same boat. I want one... but I just can't bring myself to get one because of what people I know have said.

wutwutwutwut 9y ago
I want one but I also suspect I would stop using it quickly. I'm not sure what to actually use it for...
- saagarjha 9y ago
  Fitness tracking and notifications on your wrist. If that sounds like something you'd want I'd recommend you get one.

austenallred 9y ago

It's a nice to have for me. But with cellular that completely changes. Now my phone will be the optional unit, and my watch a must.

toomuchtodo 9y ago

I had never considered an Apple Watch. I believed it to be too costly for what it offered. The selling point today was their heart study with Stanford and that the watch will detect irregular heartbeats. I'm genetically predisposed to atrial fibrillation [1] (TL;DR Abnormal heart rhythm), and having a watch that can alert me that my heart rhythm is deviating from a normal rhythm is cheap insurance against a poor cardiac outcome. For me, its medical telemetry first, and a phone second. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrial_fibrillation

wutwutwutwut 9y ago
Hmm or just go to a doctor and ask for a long term EKG maybe. That's what I did. I had to wear some measuring equipment for a day and then I had the result (broken heart). I don't think this changes from day to day so you might want to get a check every few year.
- scentoni 9y ago
  No, atrial fibrillation occurs in distinct episodes (imagine your heart occasionally having an epileptic seizure that lasts a few hours) and it can be difficult to get an EKG when you suspect something is wrong.

lotsofpulp 9y ago

I love it, especially the vibrate function for reminders and alarms, and while you're driving for navigation.. Battery for series 2 lasts me 1.5 days at least. I can live without it, but it's a nice add on.

DonaldPShimoda 9y ago

I've had mine for a while now. I totally love it. It's a lot of small quality-of-life improvements for me. Things like controlling my phone's music playback from the Watch, the turn-by-turn directions, the Siri integration, the activity monitoring... all those things. Plus it helps me not be on my phone all the time, which is a problem I tend to have. (Since the notifications get routed through the Watch, I don't open my phone to dismiss them and get distracted.)

jgrahamc 9y ago

I was a skeptic. I bought one because I want to experience and understand technology. I wear it every day. I find notifications to be the reason to put it on and then a collection of other reasons (e.g. when cooking I use the timer).

gist 9y ago
Opposite experience that I had. I was an early first buyer and wore it and talked positively about it. I thought it had utility (being able to take phone calls in the restroom and not having to carry my phone around the office) but in the end I just didn't like wearing it (given the utility). Lately I was not even taking it to work. Just today I did because the cleaning people are at the house and the easiest thing was to put it on my wrist.
saurik 9y ago
Why do you want notifications? I got one (also just to experience it) and found myself frantically trying to turn off the incessant notifications like a sick game of whack-a-mole until I realized it didn't offer the intrinsic value that my notification-less phone does.
- spike021 9y ago
  You disable the notifications that you don't want to see on the watch. So for me personally I only have phone calls, SMS/iMessages, and one or two other communication apps enabled to send notifications to my watch, plus score updates from baseball since I follow the sport. Once you get it configured in a way that fits what you care about it works really well.
- Angostura 9y ago
  I have a Pebble Time Round, basically just for notifications. Most of the Apps are disabled for notifying on the watch. Text messages, BBC News Alerts, Find My Friend geofencing alerts and Podcast available are the only ones I have on. Not having to pull out my phone while cooking, or cycling (my daughter alway seems to text me when cycling home from work) is very handy.

OberstKrueger 9y ago

I wear mine through most of the day and night, and have done so since it launched. It's a lot more useful having Siri on my wrist for those types of needs, plus the health and sleep tracking is good information to have. I find that I don't use my phone as much as I used to, since I can read messages on it and just respond with voice. And it's great for doing small tasks like changing songs when I'm on the train and using a phone isn't convenient. It can't replace a phone just yet, but the convenience for many tasks has made it a worthwhile purchase for me.

mmjaa 9y ago

I have the position that I've had no interest in it, up to this point, for the simple fact that it hasn't functioned as a stand-alone device, general-computing'ish.. until now. For me, the tethering angle has always been the major, #1, reason not to get involved. I've been in computers since the beginning; having such arbitrary dependencies has been a significant detractor. However, as an observer of this segment, I have to say - isn't it about time we just had full-blown computers on our wrists, kind of, .. "anyway"? I mean, yeah .. these artificial boundaries make the machines more marketable - totally get that - but .. don't you think you'd adopt the whole platform a little more willingly - in your postulated time-scale - if it weren't for all the dependencies?

charrondev 9y ago

I ended up getting an apple watch, then returning it for Gear S3. Major improvements with the gear: - Looks like a watch - Always tells the time - Works with my normal leather watch band - Has a spotify app I use mostly just as a watch that can do fitness tracking and recieve notifications from my phone.

achompas 9y ago
> Looks like a watch I hear this constantly and I don't get this. There's a very long tradition of non-circular watches in horology. See the Reverso, the Tank, and the Monaco.

JohnTHaller 9y ago

The biggest thing folks I know like about watches on both the Apple and Android side of thing are notifications. I recently got a fitbit and found I wear it in place of my Android watch now. It's purpose-built for fitness monitoring and does a better job at that than Apple/Android have ever done. And it handles notifications. It lasts days on a battery charge and is lighter weight on my wrist. And it's much much cheaper. Plus, if you ever decide to switch to Android, you can keep using your fitbit. Yes, things turn by turn walking directions on a smartwatch are kinda neat the first time you try them, but the novelty wears off and glancing at your phone twice on a long walk is no bother. But I stopped using pretty much any watch functionality except notifications within a month. Side note: I'm not sure how well iOS notifications work on fitbit. Apple is notorious for locking out competitors (even going so far as to prohibit mentions of fitbit hardware integration in app descriptions on the app store) and it wouldn't surprise me if this affects fitbit functionality with iOS phones.

dionidium 9y ago
>"The biggest thing folks I know like about watches on both the Apple and Android side of thing are notifications." I think this is exactly right. Notifications are annoying and the watch reduces the effort required to see and dismiss them. However, I recently solved this problem another way; I turned off notifications (excluding messages and a few other very context-specific apps). This turns out to be the best way to deal with annoying notifications. Just turn them off.
- marksomnian 9y ago
  Since getting my Fitbit I've taken a middle ground - turn them off on my phone, and let only priority apps to my watch. Things I care about I get on my watch, things I don't can wait.
- tomelders 9y ago
  It also makes me look like I'm bored of the people I'm talking to when I keep looking at my watch while they're telling me something.
9y ago

sorenjan 9y ago

I own an Android wear watch, and I use it for three things: GPS and music while running without my phone, shopping list while buying groceries, and checking notifications when I have my phone in my pocket. When I first got it I thought it was really cool with a small computer on my wrist and tried to think of all sorts of things to do with it, but the truth is that your phone is better at almost everything. The only reason to prefer your watch is if you leave the phone at home or if it's quicker to not take it up from the pocket. If you try do make it do too much you'll probably get tired of it, since it won't be a good choice.

hcurtiss 9y ago
Which watch? And what app are you using to sync music to it?
- sorenjan 9y ago
  Sony Smartwatch 3, and I use Google music to save a playlist offline. Subscription based streaming music is practical until it's not, and for some reason Spotify doesn't allow you to save music offline on Android wear. MP3 was so much easier when it came to portability. I wouldn't recommend the Smartwatch 3 though. It's a pretty good watch, one of the first with GPS, WiFi and NFC (still unused), but it won't get Wear 2.0 and the GPS ranges from pretty bad to unusable. The GPS antenna can't handle when your arm gets wet, like when you sweat, so after about 20 minutes of running the GPS connection deteriorates significantly unless you have a sweatband under it. Hopefully Garmin will launch a watch with Spotify support in the future.

S_A_P 9y ago

I always thought the apple watch was frivolous. Then I got one as a gift and cant imagine not having one. The ability to see whether or not a text/call is important without having to pull my phone out of my pocket is a killer feature for me. I always felt that it was rude to do that and this prevents me from having to. The fitness tracker is also really fun to use, and imo more accurate than the fit bit I had.

badwolf 9y ago
Second this. It seems much less rude to discretely glance at your wrist briefly.
- jedberg 9y ago
  You think that, but it's super noticeable. Muliple times I've been in a situation where I'm in a conversation with someone who is constantly glancing at their watch. Depending on how well I know them, I either say, "You you like to just look at your phone?" or "Is time moving faster on your side of the table, because you seem to be very concerned with your watch." Or I say nothing and just think about how rude that person is.
  - kobeya 9y ago
    Not everyone is in a position to ignore their notifications. Would you rather they pull out their phone?
    - jedberg 9y ago
      As someone who was on call for 20 years straight, I'm well aware of that. :) And yes, I would rather they pull out their phone than stare at their wrist every 10 seconds. I don't have a problem with someone looking at their notifications, I'm just pointing out that people think they're being sneaky with the watch when they really aren't.
      - S_A_P 9y ago

anindha 9y ago

Being water proof and having a cellular connection are great features. I like swimming and nothing else on the market does swim tracking as well. I can go for a run, a swim, buy lunch, and take an Uber home all without my phone. I bought the Series 1 and stopped using it because it drained the battery on my phone, especially if I was using something like Uber that needed to continuously communicate to the watch. Would love to read reviews on the battery life of the watch.

photojosh 9y ago
Better than the Garmin triathlon watch series? (920XT, 735, 935, etc)

dionidium 9y ago

I have one. I haven't worn it in almost a year. I guess I just don't get it. (Note: I also find watches uncomfortable. It's possible that I have a higher bar for usefulness than you because of this.)

rhinoceraptor 9y ago

I've had mine for 6 months. I like it for automatic sleep tracking (using the sleep watch app). The battery on the series 2 is good enough that it only needs about 30-60 minutes of charging a day (depending on usage). I also use the silent alarm it has to wake up. When I go for a bike ride, it's nice to track that and be able to check heart rate, distance, etc while riding without pulling out my phone. The cellular isn't enough for me to upgrade, I don't run so there's never really a time I'd be without my phone. I've ended up wearing it about 23 hours a day, 7 days a week.

blang 9y ago
Just out of curiosity, have you changed any sleep behaviors after using the sleep tracking app?
- rhinoceraptor 9y ago
  I used to use sleep cycle on my phone. But I had the problem of wasting time in the morning just playing with my phone without getting out of bed. Now I have to at least get out of bed before doing that :)
matthewking 9y ago
Sleep tracking would be one of my primary use cases, how accurate is it? is it useful?
- rhinoceraptor 9y ago
  It depends on the app. It's not a first party feature, so you won't get sleep data in HealthKit like you would for exercise. I'm using Sleep Watch, the times it reports for sleep and wake seem to be pretty accurate for me.

spike021 9y ago

I've been using my Series 1 (not Series 0) since last November and thoroughly enjoy everything about it except the battery life (I can usually get two days of life on it). It's great for what it is; personally I use it as a watch (checking date/time/setting timers/alarms) and as a device for filtering notifications. I don't need to keep pulling my phone out of my pocket just to check if the latest buzz was a spam email from work or a text from family/friends. It's just so much more convenient.

eridius 9y ago

I bought a series 0 the day it came out, and I've worn it literally every day since then. I don't really use apps on the watch, but notifications and complications are extremely useful, as is being able to ask Siri to do things (especially to turn lights on/off).

mleo 9y ago

I had a Series 0 and Series 2. The first 8 months with Series 0 was more about having the new tech than the watch really being all that useful. Then at the start of last year I made changes to lifestyle and have lost 90 lbs of weight over 16 months. The watch's functionality is not a daily motivator to keep things up and improve fitness, but it is certainly helpful. I can decide based on activity levels and food consumption to do some more exercise or watch some Netflix. The addition of GPS in Series 2 improved accuracy of walking and running distance when I go without a phone. Strangely, the calorie counts of walking multiple miles are generally 20% higher when I just have the watch vs watch and phone, even though the distance, time, bpm are the same with or without the phone. So while I expected to ditch the phone more this has me keeping the phone with me. There isn't as much variety in music or podcasts with just the watch. Finally, if I need to make a call for emergency having the phone present is security. So, the Series 3 provides another set of features that makes sense for my situation. More music, can make/receive calls if required, maybe more accurate tracking with faster CPU. And with faster, more reliable data connection, maybe some 3rd party apps will become useful as well. I have rarely had battery issues during the day. Usually, I just take it off and charge it when I sleep and put it on again in the morning. Don't think it something i would want to sleep with it on anyway, so multi day battery life isn't a concern.

monochromatic 9y ago

I like being able to glance at my wrist when a text or an email comes in. But what I LOVE is the way it does driving directions.

jen729w 9y ago

I adore mine. I'd be lost without it. Weirdly, as a total Apple nerd, I wasn't interested at first. My boss had one for ages before I was convinced by the waterproofing on the Series 2. He kept going on about it and couldn't believe that I didn't want one. (I was wearing a vintage '70s Omega.) Now the standard joke is that I "wish he'd told me how good it was earlier". Top tip: get yourself another band as soon as you buy a Watch. I splashed out and got the steel with steel link bracelet. I know, it's way more expensive than the standard aluminium/black sports, but it makes me feel like I'm actually wearing a watch and not a generic fitness device. Of course you don't have to go that crazy, just get a nylon band or one of the leather options. Anything. Just get that black sports thing off immediately.

dpkonofa 9y ago

I've had both generations of Apple Watch and Series 2, to me, is a big improvement over Series 1. Not sure about 0 since I had no reason to get one. I definitely don't think I could stop using it after a few months on the fitness tracking alone. Being able to track my runs and listen to my music without needing my phone is awesome. The notifications are great once you filter out the noise and turn off the ones you don't care about but that may also inspire you to uninstall some apps. I also use the timers all the time for cooking and working out and the actual Workout app is great as a diary for me. I can look at the Health app and see everything I did and I use that in conjunction with MyFitnessPal. I also like the general motivation I get from the activity rings. They're so stupid and simple but there's no feeling quite like closing all 3 of those damn things out or getting the occasional ring to loop back around itself. I dunno... I feel like it's definitely changed my life for the better and I really don't see much technology advances making similar changes. I mean, it's great and all to have a Retina display on my phone to see all the pictures on Instagram as clearly as possible but that's just not as big of a deal as having a device that actually motivates me. I've had Fitbit and heart monitors and even pouches and clips for the iPhone and none of them keep it dangling in front of me like the Apple Watch does. But that's just, like, my opinion, man...

B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
> But that's just, like, my opinion, man... "... and anyone who is influenced by it is a dummy." (Speaker's final remark at a meeting, many moons ago.)
- dpkonofa 9y ago
  umm... what?
  - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
    The "just my opinion" phrase often reminds me of this more forceful version. Should I be more or less inclined to agree with his opinion? Not being a dummy (of course ;-) I'm not being influenced, just rational, right? (Thanks for the watch info, it was interesting. But I'm not being influenced ;-)