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Charge Apple Watch whilst running?

J

Jerus

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 13, 2017
64
61
Hi

I'm doing a 85Km race in a few months and have encountered a problem.
I estimate it will take me 12-14hrs to complete the course, Apple watch with Strava only lasts 4-5 hrs.

Buying a new running watch just for one race feels a bit expensive. Has anyone tried to charge their Apple Watch during running? I know some some running watches from Suunto, Garmin etc can be charge when running.

What are your thoughts?
 
Your only choice would be to use multiple Apple Watches. You can't charge it while wearing since the charging induction coil is located below the HR/LED sensors.
 
Last edited:
Jerus said:
Hi

I'm doing a 85Km race in a few months and have encountered a problem.
I estimate it will take me 12-14hrs to complete the course, Apple watch with Strava only lasts 4-5 hrs.

Buying a new running watch just for one race feels a bit expensive. Has anyone tried to charge their Apple Watch during running? I know some some running watches from Suunto, Garmin etc can be charge when running.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...

Wouldn’t be possible in the sense your asking. How would you achieve an accurate heart rate if the Watch was Charging?
 
I’m happy to be without the heart rate readings for a bit. Happy to run with the charger (connected to a small battery pack) between my arm and the watch, as long as the gps etc will continue to work.
 
I thought no what you’re looking to do would work. I’ve seen several different smallish chargers that would fit between the watch and your arm but the easiest way would probably be to just run the charging cable to a battery pack that you could store in your pocket or hydration pack.

Also, you may already be doing some or all of these but if you’re bringing a hydration pack, putting your ph e in there will allow the watch to use the phones gps. And also if you use an external Bluetooth HRM that will help your battery life as well.
 
Ultra Runner here - If I were you, I would try taking your phone with you in a hydration pack as mentioned, or getting a Suunto or Garmin for the 52 mile trek. I have a Suunto Ambit Peak 3 that I use for the ultra distances.

Your estimated time (13 - 14) is very good. Is that on trail or asphalt? I did a 100m not too long ago in just under 25hrs.

I wish you well on your running journey.

Here is something for you to get fired up over, OP.

 
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BasicGreatGuy said:
Ultra Runner here - If I were you, I would try taking your phone with you in a hydration pack as mentioned, or getting a Suunto or Garmin for the 52 mile trek. I have a Suunto Ambit Peak 3 that I use for the ultra distances.

Your estimated time (13 - 14) is very good. Is that on trail or asphalt? I did a 100m not too long ago in just under 25hrs.

I wish you well on your running journey.

Here is something for you to get fired up over, OP.

Click to expand...

Love that film, cant belive how anyone can run that fast for such long time.

My race is mainly bridalways with some asphalt here and there. Nothing technical.

The Ambit Peak 3 is really nice, but but it's a lot of money unfortunately (since there are a few other things I need to buy for the race) . And I don't want to buy a second hand once since I want to make sure the battery is ok.

I started to play around with how I can charge the watch when it's on my wrist, I'll do some testing in the weekend and let you all know how it goes.
 
Ok, just for the sake of trying things just because it’s fun, I did a test with the Apple Watch to see if it can charge when running. The answer is yes, and no.

Yes:
I used the an old cheap Amazon copy of the wide Hermès watch strap. It worked great and the hole in the leather kept the charger in place. Had the cable in my sleeve and a small usb power pack in my chest pocket. The setup worked well.

No:
The strava app (or the watch) stopped to record GPS data (and heart rate obviously). It also put the screen saver of which was very annoying.

So I had to take the charger off.

To conclude, the first try was a failure.
 

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What about turning on Workout Power Saving Mode which turns off built-in heart rate monitor? Blutooth connected heart rate monitors still will still work. That should save some battery power on the watch (i'd think). Turn off Handoff, reduce screen brightness, turn off wake screen on wrist raise, anything else you can think of....

Give that a try on a training run and see how you get on.
 
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Groot said:
Apple Watch Series 3 can handle easily 14 hours of continuous activity.
Click to expand...
Not without the phone, when it is running continuous GPS and heart rate monitoring. And some people (like me) stream music as well. And even with the phone it is a struggle to get long use. The Apple Watch isn't meant to be an ultra type device.
 
Perfect. So instead of an external battery and a charger between the watch and the wrist, you just wear an arm band and an iphone on the opposite arm.
 
I've came up with another idea....

Buy a really powerful wireless charger and attach it to the bottom of your wrist so that your pulse is sandwiched between AW and charger. That way it can charge and measure pulse at same time.


ps. you might get electrocuted
 
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While this seems like it's getting complex, another option might be to bring your phone, and when the watch dies, put it on a charger & track your activity for that portion of the run using your phone, and then putting the watch back on after it charges for a while.

I do agree with one of the above posts about limiting all of the battery drains that you can to extend battery life.
 
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Jerus said:
Hi

I'm doing a 85Km race in a few months and have encountered a problem.
I estimate it will take me 12-14hrs to complete the course, Apple watch with Strava only lasts 4-5 hrs.

Buying a new running watch just for one race feels a bit expensive. Has anyone tried to charge their Apple Watch during running? I know some some running watches from Suunto, Garmin etc can be charge when running.

What are your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Have you looked into something like Ampy?
http://www.getampy.com/ampy-move.html

On my long runs I use a garmin, on my daily runs I use AW3 with built in running app. I find the 3rd party app tend to kill the battery much faster.
 
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