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Alternate place to wear watch?

A

Akober

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 17, 2015
13
1
NYC
Hi all- long time Apple fan and early adopter, but just joined the forum, and first post, so please be gentle...

I have my 42mm Sport w/ White Band all pre-ordered in the 4/24-5/8 delivery window, and I can't wait to receive it.

Here's what may be a strange question.

I'm an actor, currently in a Broadway show, wearing costumes that would make it impossible to wear the Apple Watch (the show is set in 19th Century France, so that's a no-brainier). But the fact is, most of the physical activity I get on any given day is during the show. I would love for my watch to still record and "credit" the activity.

Does anyone have any sense of whether the watch would record my physical activity if I wore it around my ankle? Around my bicep? Around my mic belt (an elastic band around my waist that holds my microphone pack)?

Castmates of mine have used pedometers and other fitness trackers in this way, during the show, to varying degrees of success. But, since I've never used a fitness tracker of any kind, it's hard for me to guess if this would be effective if it was on my ankle, my bicep, or on my mic belt, not making contact with my skin at all.

I guess I'll find out in a week or so, but this seems to be a safe place for speculation. Many thanks.
 
Apple designed the watch to track fitness from the wrist. Wearing it on your ankle will probably be extremely inaccurate.
 
Akober said:
Hi all- long time Apple fan and early adopter, but just joined the forum, and first post, so please be gentle...

I have my 42mm Sport w/ White Band all pre-ordered in the 4/24-5/8 delivery window, and I can't wait to receive it.

Here's what may be a strange question.

I'm an actor, currently in a Broadway show, wearing costumes that would make it impossible to wear the Apple Watch (the show is set in 19th Century France, so that's a no-brainier). But the fact is, most of the physical activity I get on any given day is during the show. I would love for my watch to still record and "credit" the activity.

Does anyone have any sense of whether the watch would record my physical activity if I wore it around my ankle? Around my bicep? Around my mic belt (an elastic band around my waist that holds my microphone pack)?

Castmates of mine have used pedometers and other fitness trackers in this way, during the show, to varying degrees of success. But, since I've never used a fitness tracker of any kind, it's hard for me to guess if this would be effective if it was on my ankle, my bicep, or on my mic belt, not making contact with my skin at all.

I guess I'll find out in a week or so, but this seems to be a safe place for speculation. Many thanks.
Click to expand...

http://youtu.be/YFtHjV4c4uw
 
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Interesting predicament. The watch measures your heard beat using deltas in capillary blood reflectivity... I would guess that works just as well on the ankle as it does on the wrist, but I guess you will have to tell us once you've tried it. As for measuring steps, it is likely calibrated to watch for the usual motion of an arm, not a leg, so who knows...
 
zmunkz said:
Interesting predicament. The watch measures your heard beat using deltas in capillary blood reflectivity... I would guess that works just as well on the ankle as it does on the wrist, but I guess you will have to tell us once you've tried it. As for measuring steps, it is likely calibrated to watch for the usual motion of an arm, not a leg, so who knows...
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking too... Maybe the bicep? I'm sure I could figure out a way to extend the sport band (not that I'm that jacked, but fitting even a large sport band over a small bicep seems like a stretch).
 
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Reactions: MxChino
Well, I think it would count steps of some sort to a greater or lesser degree if you put it anywhere. I've got a fitbit and they show it being everywhere from just slipped in a pocket to clipped to a bra. Take it off its band and slip it in a pocket and see how many steps it records by the end of the show.

But I don't think you will get a heartbeat read anywhere other than the wrist.
 
Akober said:
Hi all- long time Apple fan and early adopter, but just joined the forum, and first post, so please be gentle...

I have my 42mm Sport w/ White Band all pre-ordered in the 4/24-5/8 delivery window, and I can't wait to receive it.

Here's what may be a strange question.

I'm an actor, currently in a Broadway show, wearing costumes that would make it impossible to wear the Apple Watch (the show is set in 19th Century France, so that's a no-brainier). But the fact is, most of the physical activity I get on any given day is during the show. I would love for my watch to still record and "credit" the activity.

Does anyone have any sense of whether the watch would record my physical activity if I wore it around my ankle? Around my bicep? Around my mic belt (an elastic band around my waist that holds my microphone pack)?

Castmates of mine have used pedometers and other fitness trackers in this way, during the show, to varying degrees of success. But, since I've never used a fitness tracker of any kind, it's hard for me to guess if this would be effective if it was on my ankle, my bicep, or on my mic belt, not making contact with my skin at all.

I guess I'll find out in a week or so, but this seems to be a safe place for speculation. Many thanks.
Click to expand...

Huh. Unique challenge.
Is forearm an option?
 
This is where a Bluetooth chest strap may do the trick. You could then keep the watch in your mic belt. I don't think the current dev kit would support it, though. Maybe sometime down the line.
 
Could you just put it on your wrist and have the wardrobe lady cover it will something e.g. a string of onions or a soft baguette?
 
I would say it should work tied to your belt or something. It obviously can't take your HR but most fitness trackers don't and it's better than nothing
 
I was an actor in my "former life" (I wouldn't be surprised if we have some friends/acquaintances in common). And I've got to say that a piece of tech anywhere on my body would have been a distraction. Perhaps not a Fitbit (belt clip style) or something small and rather passive, but a device like the Watch would have inhibited my performance I'd imagine. And if your plan is to disable notifications anyway, might as well grab a HealthKit friendly device for $99 or less that tracks steps and nothing more. I've had good results with the Withings Pulse.
 
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