Apple Executives Discuss Optimizations for Larger Apple Watch Series 7 Display, Lack of Third-Party Watch Faces

[citysnaps]

Very pleased with my Series 7, got exactly the green model in the screenshot. Upgraded from a Series 4 and couldn't be more happy with it.

I also have a Series 4 and am considering that green combination Series 7. Anything you don't like about it?

 

[jmgregory1]

but as soon as you use it for a workout - like their battery life description on their site says with an hour's workout tracking, lifetime is 18 hours. https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/

unacceptable. sure if you don't use any feature, I guess it'll last long. but what's the point. I'd rather stick with a basic timex if all I'm concerned with is what time of day it is.

but if I want to go for a run, track my heart rate, track my sleep, use any of the apps, etc then I'm needing to recharge. and have to either carry with me the charger or buy another for work to give it a boost to get home. no thanks. and that battery is going to show serious decay within a year. and their planned obsolescence whether it be needing a phone with consistent software updates, the watch updates...my previous Apple Watch became frustrating to use after a year for terrible battery and after 2 years when it couldn't keep up with new os updates.

until they take the battery life issue seriously, never again. Garmin, suunto, coros...just about any other smart watch out there will last 1000% longer at minimum.

I’m on a series 5 and although the battery shows a good amount of degradation, I’m still typically getting 30 hours of use per charge, which includes an hour of workout tracking and another hour of outdoor walking, plus sleep / heart rate tracking every day.

Would I like it if it lasted for 2 full days or a week, of course, but I keep a charger at my desk and one next to bed, and it’s easy enough to re-charge when needed. Apple isn’t designing products with a set failure point so that consumer have to upgrade. I assume you’ve never designed a consumer product before and don’t realize that there are enough mandates for product quality, efficiency, durability and price, that it’s ridiculous to think they also add in “oh yeah, let’s make it so that these things start failing after 12 months so people upgrade” to the list of things they design into every product.

You do realize that technology continues to move forward, and that what was leading edge 5 years ago, even 2 years ago, can often seem old and outdated today. I know people who daily with their series 3, purchased new at release, who are totally happy with it, but clearly your experiences are wildly different.

 

[warpdrive]

I have the 5, and I've never been overly happy with the watch faces. I tend to stick to a couple of the simpler ones, but I wish there was more choice. I like seeing the seconds, but there's only a couple of ways to see the second counter.

 

[Deguello]

I get 2 full days on mine. that includes 7/24 wear because I am monitoring a heart issue, and a bout of daily exercise, that includes walking or running for up to 8 miles - blood oxygen sensing, heart rate monitoring, tracking my route, the usual averages, speed, etc. It even shows me which side of the street I was walking on - cool, but not necessary. so yah, sorry, your narrative is a bit stale

I can certainly see some people want different stuff, but if you give up a lot to get extra battery life, well, you just gave up a lot

How in the name of all that’s holy do you get 2 full days with 8 miles of exercise?

i have to turn off cellular while I’m doing cardio and recharge more than once to get through one day.

4.25 miles of walking with music on but cellular off takes me from 100% to under 70%. Another 4.25 takes it to about 38%. I have to charge the watch after every workout to make sure I ca get through even one day.

The narrative isn’t stale. It happens to me every single day and has for 793 days in a row now.

 

[Stiksi]

The Apple watch is so boring if they at least offered us more watch faces, but with each passing year it's "same same but different".

Exactly. There’s two digital faces with a couple variations and a third that you can only use with photos taken with an iPhone, that contain faces – not restrictive at all and surely not a dig aimed at android users ? – then there’s the one analogue face with a couple variations. If you got one of the sponsor versions, you get a couple more faces. Each new OS update comes with a few variations more but it’s all just rearranged deck furniture. It’s incredibly condescending of Apple to think that their graphic design is the only working design in the world. And why do I as an iPhone user have to have silly restrictions on my watch face because Apple wants to stick it to Android users with a feature that only works with iPhones? The bloody marketing department runs Apple nowadays.

 

[dontreadtoolate]

unsure what you're getting at. but their own site mentions "up to 18 hours" - that's just not acceptable. I don't want a watch I have to recharge just to go to bed, or to recharge after a workout, or to recharge in the middle of the day. I don't want to buy an extra charger to have at work to give it a boost to last until I get home. and from my own experience, that 18 hour max lifetime will significantly decay over time. it's just ridiculous they can't get that battery life up. almost every other smart watch maker has weeks, if not days, of a battery life. this is the one apple product I just can't get behind.

Do you actually use a Series 7? It doesn't sound like you do. I do and none of what you describe corresponds to my own experience. First off the watch does last 24 hours (and I work out with the screen actively on, heart rate monitor going on continuously for an hour, I take phone calls during the day, send texts, check calendar events, have O2 and HR monitored all day long, etc. ...) and you'll have battery left (more than 25%) after 24 hours of my type of active use. Second, with the new charging system you're not doing long touch up charges, you literally give your watch a full charge (from say 55% to 95%) in a matter of 10-15 minutes. This update is greatly underrated, especially compared to the Series 5 to the Series 6 update, which to me actually felt like I had just bought the same watch again.

 

[dontreadtoolate]

their own site claims 18 hours what what you've described. glad you're getting more out of it than they engineered possible, or claim. https://www.apple.com/watch/battery/ I'll take apple's own claims over anecdotal evidence. and anecdotally, I have a friend with the AW 7 that doesn't last 18 hours with an hour long run mid day. but he's happy with it. good for him and you.

my own history with the apple watch is nothing but a terrible battery that decays quickly over time and then can't keep up with software updates in a couple years. my Garmin going on 3 years lasts 2 weeks on a single charge - with gps tracking of many many hours of running.

Man... I have had a Garmin watch. First off they're huge, thick and fugly. Not at all comparable. Before electronic watches existed, watches were mostly part of a person's apparel and were meant to complement your style, and in some instances make a statement about who you are (Rolex, Omega...). I don't know whether style matters to you, but it does to me. The Apple Watch is one of the best looking electronic watches, especially when paired with a good looking band.

The main key differentiator that Garmin has going on for them is when you're a serious athlete, then they offer certain functionalities that are very specific to very special types of trainings and in that situation an Apple Watch may not be for you. A guy like me who runs, bikes, goes on the elliptical from time to time, and swims is plenty happy with an AW. I don't do triathlons or Iron men and whatnot, and I think for that a Garmin is likely better... Now outside of working out, Garmin watches suck at managing the rest. Unlike Apple Watches, they don't do well with paying for stuff (apple pay) at the grocery store, texting & phoning without having to pull your phone out of your pocket or out of your bag, weather forecast updates, sending Siri commands (ie "set a 10 minute timer" for when you're cooking), controlling stuff in your house (Nest, Lutron), or playing music or podcasts right from your watch straight to your earbuds.

While battery isn't a concern for me, and I have to travel a lot for work, I have a spare 1-foot long apple watch charging cable and a battery pack in my luggage, and it's enough to potentially charge up my watch many many times over when I have absolutely no access to power, which happens so rarely. It's just for piece of mind.

 

[dampfnudel]

Did they dodge it? Seemed like they said very directly that they want to control what the watch face looks like to make sure it is distinctly an Apple Watch. They don't see that changing anytime soon. Whether the specific examples they gave are exhaustive or not could be debated I guess.

I guess Apple doesn’t want users to walk around sporting the watch face of a $20 Casio watch.

 

[technole]

Apple is a premium brand, and I genuinely feel they just don’t want people seeing an Apple Watch with a face that looks like it was created by a colourblind kindergarten kid with a head-wand

Their partners Nike and Hermes wouldn't like it either.

 

[QuarterSwede]

Did they dodge it? Seemed like they said very directly that they want to control what the watch face looks like to make sure it is distinctly an Apple Watch. They don't see that changing anytime soon. Whether the specific examples they gave are exhaustive or not could be debated I guess.

Nobody realizes you’re wearing an Apple Watch by looking at the watch face. It’s the distinct design of the round rect hardware that they recognize.

 

[henzpwnapple]

Apple is a premium brand, and I genuinely feel they just don’t want people seeing an Apple Watch with a face that looks like it was created by a colourblind kindergarten kid with a head-wand

But it would be fun. At least people are still playing minecraft.

 

[JetLaw]

Alan Dye is a poison to good software design.

 

[dwaite]

Ahhh, Apple is over here justifying themselves.

Also known as answering the question they were asked.

To me it's a dodge. They explained they wanted the control but didn't explain why they wouldn't allow other designers to provide different options

Because that would be giving up the control?

I have the opposite request. Do any of the watch faces have to option to always have hands? On my S4 the second-hand goes away after a few seconds, and while I can do the tap for 70 seconds or whatever that's not good enough. I just want the option for the second hand to always be on.

You may be having the display go to sleep - the seconds hand is not displayed because the refresh time is too slow. See if it works better if you turn the time to sleep longer (say, 90 seconds).

 

[dwaite]

They need to give up some control over things, like watch faces. I do not see the harm.

Watch faces are basically built into the UI "springboard" itself so that they are available instantly, and even update the display in the background. This is also why complications are never run on-demand - they instead get called periodically to provide a catchable image, and can schedule changes to that image in the future to e.g. update the weather throughout the day. The watch face "app" is perhaps the most power-optimized app on the device.

At best, Apple would provide options for third parties to compose their own watch faces from the available widgets. Which they kinda have - it is just limited to background images and default complications right now.

There should be the ability to add 3rd-Party faces, but not user-defined ones. Maybe have a Tag one for purchase, Omega etc.

I don't give good odds of other watch makers wanting to make the Apple Watch a stand-in for their brand. Those faces are part of buying a Tag, Omega, etc.

I think that the series 7 was pushed out because a total redesign wasn't ready to ship and they needed to stick to the yearly upgrade schedule. I am guessing that the series 8 will be a redesign but use the same display as the 7

Possible, but keep in mind that at Apple's scale that decision would have happened ~18 months ago.

 

[JM]

Looks fine on my AW5.

The red dot is bigger, and the control center has a cut off bottom row of icons. This was not dog-water design before the watch 7 was released.

 

[bLackjackj]

all design and no attention to battery life. less than 24 hours in today's world is ridiculous.

Rediculous response. You can have all day battery life by simply making a few adjustments. I always have the watch on for notifications, never worry about always on and simply tap the screen to view. Mine is cell and at 2.42pm, is only sitting at 90%! Was taken off 100% at 8.30am.

So it all depends on how you configure the watch & what your day to day use case is.

 

[bLackjackj]

I wish we had an option to turn the watch hands OFF, at least on certain faces.

Then it wouldn't be Infograph! ?

 

[Arsenikdote]

Nobody realizes you’re wearing an Apple Watch by looking at the watch face. It’s the distance design of the round rect hardware that they recognize.

I can see your point, but Apple would obviously disagree

 

[Take Flight]

I use the Infograph face but I want numbers around the perimeter instead of major tick marks. I also don't the point at all for minor tick marks at 30 intervals vs the customary 1 minute intervals. I also don't see the need for a second hand that sweeps continuously like a Rolex - having it jump every second is fine by me and it would likely save power as well. However, I'm stuck because Apple made all those design choices for me. I would love to see an ecosystem where these things can be tweaked.

There are a lot of comments like this in the thread.

I found that the digital solar dial face offers the best of everything. You get less complications, but just having the digital clock with precise seconds read out (the ticks around the time circle) is great in the time of video calls . The 24 hour clock and solar visuals and times for various stages of the sun when you twist the crown is just cool as well.

 

[AirunJae]

I had a Samsung S3 prior to the Apple Watch and the third-party custom watch faces were universally bad.

I tried a Huawei watch a couple of years back, and yeah, the third-party custom watch faces were mostly terrible. That said, I still think Apple could loosen the reigns a little bit and enable great third-party watch face options for the Apple Watch.

 

[jicon]

Battery needs improvement before we see some meaningful changes. I'm one who very much relies on wearing the watch as long as possible, often needing information on the watch face in the middle of the night, meaning having to find an adequate time to charge during the day.

Frustrating that 3rd party complications are limited to four download refreshes per hour, when I'd like that number to be twelve. Many, many times the complication needs to be clicked to open the app, and refresh the graphic.

I suspect to get that refresh to happen more, there's battery compromises with a device already limited to a 24 hour use with normal exercise tracking in a day.

 

[sviato]

The only way this could ever happen is if a competitor released a more successful smart watch that allows custom design of watch faces. Seems like Apple is obsessed with control over the image of their products and they won’t allow just ANYONE’s random design to be featured.

Apple allows home screen customization and lock screen backgrounds on iPhone. Let's not pretend this is part of design - customization will be a top feature for a future Apple Watch, no need to introduce it yet when sales are strong

 

[I7guy]

disagree. and by "use" - that should also count for monitoring heart rate overnight in addition to tracking sleep. apple has made a watch with the intent that it is worn all day and night if you want to take full advantage of its capabilities...without a battery strong enough to sustain it all day and all night.

Garmin, suunto, coros...there's so many options for a smart watch that tracks activities, health, sleep, heart rate, irregular heart beat...apple is just so concerned with looks they sacrifice basic function.

Which watches can be used in place of the phone? And has major ecosystem development? I get some other watches have more specialized uses, some for heavy duty fitness tracking. Every "smart" watch these days does heart rate and even the cheap ones do sleep tracking.

 

[svish]

So definitely no watch face store from apple in the immediate future

 

[wd4fsu]

Did they dodge it? Seemed like they said very directly that they want to control what the watch face looks like to make sure it is distinctly an Apple Watch. They don't see that changing anytime soon. Whether the specific examples they gave are exhaustive or not could be debated I guess.

A custom face on an Apple Watch wouldn't tarnish the brand any more than a crappy iPhone app tarnishes the brand of an iPhone.

I can make an iPhone app look any way I want, why should watch faces be any different? I am truly saddened at this stance by Apple. They have missed a tremendous opportunity in my view.