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Charging Apple Wach For The First Time?

macness

macness

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 4, 2011
567
23
Vancouver Canada
As much as I'm going to want to play around with my Apple Watch the minute I get it; how long should I charge it for when I get it? Do I need to charge it first? I know as similar debate has gone on with iPhones, but I've never quite foundation clear answer.
 
Same as with the iPhone, you don't have to do anything out of the ordinary.

Just use it, and charge it when it needs charging.

The days of charging a phone for 18 hours when you first get it ended about 10 years ago.
 
With a new iPhone or iPad I always let the device battery drain & turn off at least once in the beginning

In my mind that helps with battery life
 
Yes. Really the only things that can damage the battery now is high or low voltage / over or under charge (eg letting it drain toon long), and time (charge cycles). I'm not sure what charging out of the box would do.
 
As with most electronic devices that Apple ships... the WATCH will likely have 50% charge out of the box... you should be able to use it until the battery starts to go flat and then charge it up again, no problems.

Not sure what type of rechargeable battery they're using in the WATCH, but if it's a LION then you probably shouldn't flatten the battery dead if you can avoid it.

It will be interesting to see how many recharge cycles the battery can handle before it starts to degrade (not hold as much charge)... typically with Apple batteries in other products like iPhone/iPad/MackBook you get around 800-1000 cycles and still have 70-80% charge capacity.

With that in mind I'd expect to get at least 3 to 4 years of good use out of an :apple:WATCH battery, but due to how small the battery is, I'm unsure if the same rules apply...
 
Note that it only takes 90 minutes to charge the watch from 0 to 80%, so if you do need to charge it day 1, it's not gonna take long.
 
Nickel based batteries needed to be fully charged before first time use to regulate the battery. Now that lithium-ion batteries are used in everything now there's no need.
 
What about all this business about "not letting your battery fully drain" or "keeping it above 20% at all times"?

Also, is it ok to do mini 20 min charges during the day while on your lunch break or what not? Does that have any negative affect on the battery?
 
macness said:
What about all this business about "not letting your battery fully drain" or "keeping it above 20% at all times"?

Also, is it ok to do mini 20 min charges during the day while on your lunch break or what not? Does that have any negative affect on the battery?
Click to expand...

Charge as you please. If you can only charge in 20 minute bursts throughout the day, there's nothing wrong with that.

Anyone going to fully charge their watch right out of the box?
 
macness said:
What about all this business about "not letting your battery fully drain" or "keeping it above 20% at all times"?

Also, is it ok to do mini 20 min charges during the day while on your lunch break or what not? Does that have any negative affect on the battery?
Click to expand...

"Topping off" the battery during the day will not harm the battery.
 
tgi said:
Charge as you please. If you can only charge in 20 minute bursts throughout the day, there's nothing wrong with that.



Anyone going to fully charge their watch right out of the box?
Click to expand...


I will do a full charge before I even play with it. I wanna get a rough idea of the battery life
 
macness said:
What about all this business about "not letting your battery fully drain" or "keeping it above 20% at all times"?
Click to expand...
The rules of battery maintenance have changed, but these days the devices themselves enforce them. Like, it's bad for a battery to get all the way to zero, so devices auto-shutdown from low battery before that point has been reached.
 
My main worry is what will the battery level be like out of the box? Will I be able pick it up from UPS then go on with my day or will I need to make a pit stop at home to charge it?
 
I plan on slapping it on my wrist and pairing it as soon as it arrives. if I have to use power reserve mode on day one, so be it. I'll charge it when I get home and enjoy a full day on day 2.
 
Even if it arrives at 50% battery, that's still more than 8 hours of use, and it's not going to be arriving first thing in the morning for most people.
 
DreamPod said:
Even if it arrives at 50% battery, that's still more than 8 hours of use, and it's not going to be arriving first thing in the morning for most people.
Click to expand...

I've had one Apple preorder show up first thing in the morning once. It was my iPhone 5 and it was awesome. It's never happened since though lol.
 
I've had a battery electric vehicle (Nissan Leaf) for several years now. All EV owners learn the basics of Lithium batteries.

When you run down a Lithium battery a lot, and then leave in that state, it will (over time) degrade the battery. Other than that, these batteries are the same as other rechargeables - the main enemy is heat. Heavy usage and recharging to 100% create heat, and slowly reduces the useful longevity of the battery. IOW, if you are in 100 degree ambient heat and are heavily using the device, and then charge to 100%, it accelerates long term capacity degradation.

None of this is much worry for watch/iphone/ipad batteries, as they are so much smaller than the battery packs needed to run an automobile. If there is any battery degradation over time, most of us would never notice. By the time we would, we'd have the latest/greatest for replacement.
 
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