altitude limit for the apple watch?

[YakAttack]

My wife and I take teams to Nepal every other year and spend time trekking in the mountains at 10,000+ ft. Every now and then somebody's phone will have weird glitches for the first few days in the mountains. It's never anything permanent or majorly disruptive. It's like an app opening itself on the home screen or the animations bugging out. After 1-2 days these glitches pass. I haven't seen them with every electronics we've brought up, just a a couple of iPhones. Can't say anything about the watch specifically. But I suspect it will be fine.

 

[0007776]

I am issued an iPad for work to use as an EFB (electronic flight bag). iPads have been tested to work up to 51,000 feet or higher.

While there are no moving parts so they should work up to any altitude as long as the temperature is ok, using them at 51,000 feet in a plane is not the same as using it outside at that altitude. Airplane cabins are usually pressurized to about 8000 feet, otherwise at typical cruising altitudes you'd have maybe a minute of being conscious without supplemental oxygen.

 

[CobraPA]

Well, can't really compare to iPhone or iPad, since they are not waterproof rated. Once you seal a watch for waterproofing, you have to be concerned about pressure outside the watch and a max rating. I assume that is why OP asked.

 

[Richdmoore]

While there are no moving parts so they should work up to any altitude as long as the temperature is ok, using them at 51,000 feet in a plane is not the same as using it outside at that altitude. Airplane cabins are usually pressurized to about 8000 feet, otherwise at typical cruising altitudes you'd have maybe a minute of being conscious without supplemental oxygen.

???

I think you didn't understand my post or the accompanying article.

The iPad models were tested to work at 51,000' AFTER depressurization. If they turned off, broke the screen, or were damaged after suddenly losing the pressurization in an airplane, they would be useless as an EFB.

If I remember correctly, when the iPad was first being used as an EFB, the FAA required each iPad individually to undergo the depressurization testing, now they just test each model of device.

I am familiar about airplane operations, and the difference between the outside altitude and cabin altitude, being a commercial pilot for over 20 years.

 

[CobraPA]

and the difference between the outside latitude and cabin altitude,

As a pilot, I hope you find this typo as entertaining as I did!

 

[Richdmoore]

As a pilot, I hope you find this typo as entertaining as I did!

Autocorrect..... It's fun when it changes what we write about an airplane issue.... Then it gets automatically published on the MEL paperwork in the airplane for all to see for weeks/months....

I corrected my post.

 

[Mac 128]

Well, can't really compare to iPhone or iPad, since they are not waterproof rated. Once you seal a watch for waterproofing, you have to be concerned about pressure outside the watch and a max rating. I assume that is why OP asked.

Well that is an interesting point. However it's not IPX8 rated, and therefore theoretically permits ingress and egress of both water and gas, just like if it had no water-resistance.

Also if it were IPX8 and completely sealed, I can't imagine that outside pressure would affect the protected internals at all, as the pressure would be maintained, only the failure of the external case would be at issue.

 

[zmunkz]

Well we know they work fine and airplanes which are pressurized to between 8,000 and 10,000 feet, so I would say you have absolutely nothing to worry about in that range.

 

[Apples n' Stone]

does anyone know? thanks..

ps. i did go to the site

Well, try and throw it upward. If the screen is cracked when you pick it up, it reached the limit.

 

[Etiene]

Have you thought about a way to charge them? The phone probably would last that long, I've gotten close to a week out of an iPhone while traveling and only occasional use for pictures, but the watch won't last that long without a charge.

I figure one of the pebble smartstick chargers should do, couldn't find the capacity of the battery in the 42, but figure at 250mAh one of those ought to cover ten charges or so...

 

[iConnected]

does anyone know? thanks..

ps. i did go to the site

As far as I can see, this parameter hasn't yet been specified by Apple.

So you need to ask Apple to specify it.

And preferably then share that info, for the avid mountain climbers among us

Disclaimer: I get vertigo halfway up a regular height ladder

 

[McDaddio]

Of course attitude matters.

I think if you have a positive attitude you would enjoy the watch.
Some people with a negative attitude may never be happy since no device is perfect.

 

[shenan1982]

As a pilot, I hope you find this typo as entertaining as I did!

I personally found it hilarious. One time I was sitting in First Class, and an old lady next to me said "I live in Colorado and the high altitude directions have me baking the cookies 2x as long to cook at 10,000 feet, so up here at 40,000 feet, it must take the Flight Attendant 4 hours to bake the cookies" ahahahahaha.

She was just so old and cute, I couldn't be mean, but ugh.

 

[iamasmith]

As far as I'm aware there aren't any sealed at 1atm pressure pockets inside the watch, the case seems open to the components via the speaker, mic, crown and button entry points, within that you have the speaker components and mic covered in an elastomer covering and the S1 which by all accounts is resin filled.

There isn't even an altimeter/barometer to get worried about unlike the iPhone 6.

My suspicion is that the Apple Watch would outlive you in terms of tolerance to lower pressures associated with Altitude.