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Bought the Ultra - Keeping the 7 - experience with 2 watches 1 phone?

T

Trent0341

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 3, 2007
408
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Hi all,
I ordered the Ultra today and like a lot of the features for certain things but think it may be too big for everyday wear outside of sports or other specific events so I'm going to keep the S7 and use both. Anyone have experience with how well two watches on one phone works out? From what I've read you can do this but wondering about real world experience...

Does it automatically switch based on the one you are wearing?

Do your rings stay update between the two?

Are their issues you've experienced using two watches on one phone that no one mentions?
 
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I really would like an answer to this as well… i plan to keep my AW6, where I have various bands for various situations, and don’t plan to wear the Ultra with ORANGE band to every event. I’d love for the AW OS IOS watch app to understand the switch for HEALTH tracking and notification tracking in a better way. In the end, this would be better for APPLE - I mean don’t they want us to have many of these things all the time?
 
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I have 2 watches that I switch between (one being replaced soon with the Ultra) and I have no problem switching between the 2. You can either have them automatically switch when one is worn or you can manually switch in the watch app. It usually take a few minutes for the new watch to "catch up" but after that you are good to go.
 
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Hi, yes it auto switches to the watch you are wearing. The only thing that doesn't switch is cellular. So if you have cellular activated on one watch only that watch would have cellular.
 
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blueyz628 said:
I have 2 watches that I switch between (one being replaced soon with the Ultra) and I have no problem switching between the 2. You can either have them automatically switch when one is worn or you can manually switch in the watch app. It usually take a few minutes for the new watch to "catch up" but after that you are good to go.
Click to expand...
What IOS?
 
So it retains/updates your activity data from one watch to the next? I’m thinking of retaining my 7 especially since I didn’t see an option to trade it in!
 
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Thanks everyone. Will be a challenge deciding which one I want to keep cellular on but at least it’s doable.
 
Trent0341 said:
Hi all,
I ordered the Ultra today and like a lot of the features for certain things but think it may be too big for everyday wear outside of sports or other specific events so I'm going to keep the S7 and use both. Anyone have experience with how well two watches on one phone works out? From what I've read you can do this but wondering about real world experience...

Does it automatically switch based on the one you are wearing?

Do your rings stay update between the two?

Are their issues you've experienced using two watches on one phone that no one mentions?
Click to expand...
The first two questions have already been answered & my experience is the same as those. I will say that the one issue I have with using two watches is that some of the data doesn't appear to update. Specifically the calendar data & also less frequently the podcasts.

It's not all the time, and I can't figure out what triggers is, but sometimes I will swap to my backup watch, and notice that the calendar info has not updated & there's no way to get it to update. If I delete any of the events from the watch that isn't updated, it then duplicates that event on my Mac/phone, etc. There is a way to reset the sync data & that normally works pretty well, but it's frustrating to have to keep updating it, and I don't always think to check before I head out, so sometimes I am stuck with out of data calendar data.

Similar issue with Podcasts although those seem to updated themselves eventually. I'm not sure what causes it, but eventually the new podcasts will show up.

Aside from those 2 issues, everything else works great.
 
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So for those of you with two watches — how does it work? You wear one for a while then switch to another. Activity data is transferred seamlessly to the new one and vice versa? Do you have to do anything In particular to get it to work?
 
How grumpy do carriers get if you try to transfer cellular from one to another on a frequent basis?
 
I have 4 watches paired to my phone (and I ordered an Ultra for 9/23 delivery) so I'll have 5.

A S4 I use when I'm doing yard work or something else
A Ceramic S5 that I love so much, I wish Apple would release another Ceramic watch
A Black Stainless S5
A Stainless S6

And soon, a Ultra. I'm also scouring eBay for a used Product Red cellular only.

As for switching watches, it's seamless. You take off one, put on another, unlock it and your activity data or whatnot updates in a few minutes at most. The only drawback to pairing multiple watches is the update process. It's best to set the watches to auto update, then wear one per day until all are updated.

My wife has 2 paired to her phone

A S4 for sleep tracking
A S6 for everything else (but I ordered her a S8 to replace that).
 
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random person said:
How do you set the watches to auto update?
Click to expand...

Watch app on phone-General-Software Update-Set Automatic Updates on On

It will start the update process once you place it on the charger after wearing it, and an update is available, and downloaded to your phone.
 
Does anyone have cellular activated on multiple watches that they switch between? Is that even possible e.g. with Verizon, assuming you pay for two separate wearable lines?
 
I don’t think this is possible, since the Watch number syncs to the iPhone. Not sure if it could do that with two devices. ??
 
Really helpful post. I just got an ultra and want to keep my old watch. I think ill move the cellular to the ultra since thats the one ill be in more need of cellular.
 
The automatic transfer is much faster since the latest upgrade. I don’t know if it is iOS 16, WatchOS 9 or a combination of both, but the sync, at least for exercise, now takes about 30 seconds instead of minutes. I have not changed watches. I use a combination of S7 and S4 for daytime/sleep respectively.
 
bwoodruff said:
Does anyone have cellular activated on multiple watches that they switch between? Is that even possible e.g. with Verizon, assuming you pay for two separate wearable lines?
Click to expand...
I have not tried but I see on my old watch a link to add cellular. I moved the line to my Ultra but still have the old watch connected. I’m not interested in paying for two plans or I would have already tried it. Curious what you find.
 
Update from my post a few weeks back.

The limit of watch pairing is 5 to a phone. When I went to add my Ultra, I had a popup telling me I had to unpair an existing watch first, so....my S4 was retired.

So..present lineup:

S5 Ceramic
S5 Black SS
S6 SS
S7 Red
Ultra
 
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