I love my Apple Watch. That’s been true ever since I got one in early April of 2016. I wore it every single day, with no exceptions at all, for over a year. I hadn’t worn a watch in years, but as soon as I got my Apple Watch, I didn’t go any longer without it than I needed to. I took it off at night to charge, then put it on first thing the next morning, taking it off again only to shower. I love my Apple Watch.
The day our story begins was just two days ago, on June 24 of 2017. I upgraded from a first generation Watch to the Series 2 in early May, and have been doing lap swimming at a local pool four times a week since then. The Series 2 tracks my distance, time, heart rate, and other metrics, in addition to doing everything else I enjoy about the Apple Watch.
Anyway, I was swimming along, getting near the end of my workout, when there was an odd tugging on my left wrist. I ignored it, figuring I’d imagined it. A few strokes later and the sensation hadn’t gone away, so I paused and felt my wrist. To my shock, I felt something terribly wrong. The smooth glass of my Watch screen met my questing fingers, but as soon as I touched it, the glass moved. It shifted about, clicking against the metal of the Watch casing with a sound I still remember as being oddly loud in the water. Not knowing how bad the damage was, I swam to the wall of the pool with just my legs, holding the glass in place with my right hand.
As I took the Watch off in the locker room, I realized how hot it had gotten. I brought it close to my nose and smelled hot metal. It turns out the waterproofing of the Series 2 doesn’t work if the screen falls off. My Apple Watch was dead in the water. To make matters worse, I hadn’t stopped my swimming workout on the Watch before this happened, so I had no credit for my efforts. Worse still, I was on day 297 of my move streak, meaning I’d met or exceeded the calorie-burning goal on my Watch every day since September of 2016. To the software, though, a broken Watch is the same as a missing Watch or a lack of effort. Good bye, longest move streak ever. Maybe I’ll see you next year.
In an effort to look on the bright side, I thought I’d use the days I’m suddenly Watch-less to evaluate things. Is the Apple Watch truly important to me, or is my relationship with it built more on habit? Is using my phone for everything really worse, or do those who question the need for a Watch have a point? Because I’m me, I wanted to take my Apple-related misfortune and turn it into a blog post exploring these questions. Here we go. Oh, and don't worry: my free replacement will arrive tomorrow.
Working Out if Workouts Matter
The biggest thing for which I use my Watch is workout and fitness tracking, hence my move streak. I track walks and interval training workouts mostly, and recently started doing the same for swims. I have no heart problems, but it’s nice to have my heart data saved all the same. I don’t need precise measurements of calories burned, but I really like having them. Basically, the data I can have automatically saved about my physical activity is just good to have so I can watch trends or see myself getting better. Besides, if a doctor ever needs to have the information for some reason, it’s there.
More than that, though, it’s motivation. Were the information not saved, I’d have less incentive to be active. For me, motivation comes from filling in those activity rings and beating previous achievements. I’m also more aware of my activity during the day. For example, while at my desk job today (sans Watch) I found myself standing up every so often. This is a habit that’s been firmly set in my mind over the last year, and I’m happy to have it there. Still, there was a pang of sadness at having done all that standing but not knowing how many hours I’d gotten to by the end of the day.
Case of the Missing Notifications
The other big selling point of an Apple Watch is as a way to offload notifications. You can push important updates—VIP emails, texts, messenger app pings, and so on—to your wrist. Not only does this give you a kind of hierarchy of importance, but it means that the bleeps and bloops of the various notification sounds on your phone won’t interrupt whatever audio you happen to be listening to. I’ve gotten used to this, and I find myself really missing it.
I took a walk last night, and during that time I got six notifications that would ordinarily have gone to my Watch. Instead, there were six times when my audio book volume dropped, and even a couple times when VoiceOver decided to jump in with my current track position, as VoiceOver does on the lock screen from time to time. Had my wrist been sporting its usual Apple companion, I could have paused my book when I wanted to, checked what was going on using my Watch or phone, dealt with it if necessary, and kept moving. Instead, I had to pause my book after already losing some of the words, pull out my phone, look, then put it away again.
Yes, I know. This sounds like the very definition of a “first world problem”. Here I am, whining about how I was so inconvenienced by the need to actually touch my $750 piece of metal, glass, and magic. But after a year of having notifications triaged for me and of needing only lift my arm and touch the screen—on my terms no less—the experience of dropping back to using only an iPhone is quite a shock. I can get used to it, of course, but it’s not the even better solution I’ve come to see as the norm.
Not So Happy a Home
In the last six months, my family has slowly amassed more and more HomeKit products. We have an Eve Degree, four smart outlets, a smart thermostat, and an Apple TV tying them all together. I put the Home app right on my primary Watch face, and could easily open it up to check on and change any of our HomeKit devices. Now, it’s back to the phone. As with notifications, it’s not that using my phone is difficult or bad. But going from not even having to have my phone in the same room, to having to pull it out just to turn on my air conditioner or find out the temperature, I realize how much I’ve come to appreciate the ease of the Apple Watch.
I know some of you are thinking that Siri can do all this. Yes, I use Siri on my Watch constantly, for HomeKit control among other things. The problem with Siri on my phone is that I always have a set of Aftershokz connected. This is a great headset, but its bluetooth support only allows Siri to work at very low-quality audio. Plus, it takes a relatively long time to activate with the Aftershokz enabled. My Watch is far faster. Your milage will vary based on your headset of choice, or lack thereof. The bottom line, though, is that my Watch (with Siri or not) is faster than Siri on my phone. It’s also more convenient, working so long as I’m in the same house as my phone.
Facing the Lack of a Face
The last thing I find myself missing is the face of my Watch. I used to be able to double tap it to feel the time in vibration, or tap it once to hear the time. I could check how long a timer had left, or find out the weather. I could quickly get my next calendar event, complete a reminder, or do any of the wide range of things Apple Watch widgets allow. As with everything else, this is all doable on my phone. Indeed, my Watch would be incredibly limited with no iPhone to keep it up to date and handle its version of Siri. But I still miss having my day just a tap away.
What I Learned
To no one’s surprise, I don’t think the Apple Watch is an essential piece of hardware. For many people, an iPhone or an iPad can easily be placed somewhere between important and vital. But the Watch is all about taking the power of the iPhone and moving some of it to my wrist. No need to touch the phone at all, no wondering what that text said, no interruptions to audio playback. The Watch makes iOS a more intimate, easy part of my life, bringing my iPhone to the next level even as it lets me do that much less on the larger screen. Workout tracking and fitness goals complete the package, and make the Apple Watch an unnecessary, but undeniably good, device for me.
Maybe you feel differently. Maybe you don’t care about any of this, and you’re baffled that anyone could possibly be complaining about having to touch their iPhone. Maybe you love your Apple Watch, but for different reasons. After all, it’s a music remote, a Keynote presentation remote, a speakerphone, a podcast player, an Apple Pay device, a remote camera viewer, and plenty more. What I found during these few days of unexpected, forced Apple Watch withdrawal is that I don’t need one, but I love having one enough to make it worth the trouble. Sure, my wrist gets sweaty in the summer, I have to charge yet another thing every night, and I have more hardware to pack when I travel. But being without a Watch completely has reminded me why, after putting a Watch on that day in April, I’ve never wanted to take it off.
Comments
Excellent
Very well written, entertaining, and quite compelling. I still sport nothing on my wrist, but I am once again tempted after reading your article.
Thank you!
well said.
hiya, well, as somebody who tried the first edition of apple watch when they first came out, and ended up sending it back, i would have said nope, don't agree. how ever, i bit the bullet a week and a half ago, and as of today, 1 week and 1 day ago, i put on my flash new apple watch s2. so far, i'm loving it. there are a few things i don't like, IE can't change how time is displayed on modular faces and so on, but mostly small things, nothing that is a deal breaker. not taken mine in the water, not sure i ever will. there is still that part of me, having grown up around electronics since i was a kid, that says, no no no no no! electronics and water simply! do! not! mix! ... but of course, i have apple care, so if it does go wrong, they do have to replace it. i still think it's way over priced for what it is, but hey, it's apple. that's kind of par for the course. lol.
i love the notifications tapping my arm, though i did have to ramp it back a bit, as from the first setup, i had everything mirrored. the damn thing was going off all the time. lol. but now that i have sorted that out, it's working quite well. workouts work well, though i wish i could actually access the calibrated info it gains, such as stride length, to see if it's actually doing any changes. lol. there is that part of me that just likes to be able to see the numbers.
never the less, it does seem mostly accurate. i've not been able to do a walk that is over 20 mins in one go, so i've done multiple outdoor walks of about 5 to 6 mins. they say that's ok, and that it will put them all together to gain info over time. hope that's true, as that's one way where this just beats the fitbit i had till monday last week.
Battery life is another awesome thing to talk about here, the s2 ran for a total of about 1 day 21 hours or so, when i did a discharge test. so that's not doing too bad on the 18 hours they talk about!
Awesome rundown though, as to if it's required. and i feel much as you do. in that i like it, but i'm not sure that i'd bee all that torn up if i didn't have it.
oh, and the other side of things to contend with, is my phones battery dies all that much faster now, having to keep bluetooth on all the time. i know i don't technically, but you do if you want instant communication of most things to and from the watch. wi-fi works, sure, but there are some very annoying bugs in that. such as even though it's the same network, if my iPhone is connected to the 5g connection, and the watch is of course on the 2.4, it quite often won't communicate at all. even though the iPhone still has the remembered info about the 5g as well as the 2.4. which is another gripe i have. why don't they simply have it set so that the watch app on the phone will let you configure over bluetooth, what wi-fi to connect the watch to and or manage a list of wi-fi networks it can use, separate from the phones. as i actually don't like having the 2.4 network rememberd in my phones connections, as it tends to keep falling to that one in stead of the much much better 5g. i have to keep manually changing it to the 5g.
if you have a fix for this, please let me know, as it's annoying the hell out of me.
my phone is the iPhone 6, and there for, battery isn't as good as say a 6 plus, or of course even better 6s plus or 7 plus. so bluetooth being on all the time these days, tends to drain it a lot faster than i like.
I Concur
So far, I have only had the experience with the Apple Watch series 1 since June, 2016. However, despite the obvious drawbacks of a first generation device, I wouldn't want to be without my beloved watch. I find the activity and workout features to be extremely important to me. I also like being able to quickly respond to a message on my wrist, instead of picking up my really expensive iPhone, which I also couldn't live without. For me, the Apple Watch is just a natural extension to my iPhone and I wouldn't want to be without either device.
Thanks for the good post. Your description has reminded me of just how important my iDevices really are in my personal life.
Series 1
Great article !
Just as an aside ... I have the series 1 and have swum about 180 miles with it ... not bad for a watch that isn't waterproof :) I even sit in the sauna with it and it gets very hot and will shutdown. Always works once it has cooled down a bit :)
For me ... the top three features of the watch are;
1. Time
2. Apple pay
3. Activity tracking
Nice Article
This is a nice article. I don't want another electronic device tethered to me, but I still enjoy reading about your experiences.
Very Good
This is a very good read. I don't own an Apple Watch, and at this point in time I don't think I ever will since I already own a good talking watch from another manufacturer. I don't know which manufacturer it is, since I got it as a Christmas gift and have never bothered to ask. I suppose asking which brand mine is wouldn't be a bad thing, but that's besides the point. I have at times thought about dunking my MacBook Air in my next-door neighbors' kiddy pool outside just to see what would happen. Lol I'm only kidding. I don't think my parents would be too happy with me if I did something like that, since I got this gem for Christmas a few years ago. But thanks for the laughs, and I'm glad you learned your lesson.
A very well elaborated article ...
Congratulations on this exceptionally well written article in which you describe your experiences with your Apple Watch. Definitely, after reading your article, I am feeling very tempted to own one. Thank you for sharing with us.
Wow!
Now I have to get my parents to get me an Apple Watch and a phone. Never owned an Apple Watch but I really want one.
re: Dallas
Hi,
Just a few things.
The watch doesn't have 5 ghz - nor should it. 5 ghz, for me, has horrible signal when I get out of the actual room the router is in due to this house construction. It's not too terribly difficult to get the phone back on 5 ghz and the only place that's going to make a difference is in network transfers. 2.4 will still download at a solid 6 mb/s which should, in theory, be more than fast enough for what anyone need do on their phone. 5 also uses a ton more batterylife - especially with this watches tiny little fella in there.
Re: bluetooth and battery - I actually notice my phone getting far better battery since my apple watch. I have tons of notifications, though, and the watch can still snatch some of them up if the phone isn't on bluetooth over wi fi, which is nice. Sometimes it spikes, though, especially with twitter. Yesterday it said 40% of the phones battery was used up by apple watch twitter, just wow.
I use my watch to work out with, I have the series 2 - and it's definitely changed how I go to the gym. Even if I'm just weightlifting, the calorie counter is super nice. I also recommend an app called sleep watch so you can do what the fitbit does and monitor sleep.
My only gripe, and it's quite a large one I guess, is I wish I could put audiobooks on the watch. If I could do this it would be my all time favorite. I theoretically can with iTunes but I can only have one playlist and I use that for music.
No, I don't need the watch. But not having it on my wrist makes me feel naked in a sense and I never thought I'd say that. Everything is just a tap away.
re: dallas
Oh dear. I hope I can post this. I posted a regular comment I missed the reply button right under your name so I hope you get notified about this.
Hi,
Just a few things.
The watch doesn't have 5 ghz - nor should it. 5 ghz, for me, has horrible signal when I get out of the actual room the router is in due to this house construction. It's not too terribly difficult to get the phone back on 5 ghz and the only place that's going to make a difference is in network transfers. 2.4 will still download at a solid 6 mb/s which should, in theory, be more than fast enough for what anyone need do on their phone. 5 also uses a ton more batterylife - especially with this watches tiny little fella in there.
Re: bluetooth and battery - I actually notice my phone getting far better battery since my apple watch. I have tons of notifications, though, and the watch can still snatch some of them up if the phone isn't on bluetooth over wi fi, which is nice. Sometimes it spikes, though, especially with twitter. Yesterday it said 40% of the phones battery was used up by apple watch twitter, just wow.
I use my watch to work out with, I have the series 2 - and it's definitely changed how I go to the gym. Even if I'm just weightlifting, the calorie counter is super nice. I also recommend an app called sleep watch so you can do what the fitbit does and monitor sleep.
My only gripe, and it's quite a large one I guess, is I wish I could put audiobooks on the watch. If I could do this it would be my all time favorite. I theoretically can with iTunes but I can only have one playlist and I use that for music.
No, I don't need the watch. But not having it on my wrist makes me feel naked in a sense and I never thought I'd say that. Everything is just a tap away.
Interesting Article
Recently I've started looking into purchasing an Apple Watch as well, but am still kind of on the fence about it. I love my phone and Mac, so who knows? I might just end up taking the plunge and buying a watch soon. Isn't the point of the Series Two that they're supposed to be water proof? I do a lot of swimming, and if the face falls off in the water,, that definitely would deter me from purchasing one. Glad Apple sent you a new one. I do have a question though, would the watch still track my walking if my phone had no cell service? I live in a rural area, and I'd hate to buy something that doesn't work because there's no reception to be had where I walk everyday.
PS the fact that you can still get notifications and listen to audiobooks and music on the phone without the volume getting turned down and the alert tone played sounds fantastic.
Workout tracking with no iPhone
Yes, the Watch will track workouts without your iPhone present. The series 2 even has onboard GPS, letting you get exact distances and locations with no phone. If a phone is present, the Watch uses its GPS instead to save battery.