How to use 2 Apple Watches

[KojiH]

I can see the OP's point. I don't see how having two Watches paired to the phone would be very difficult to arrange from Apple's standpoint. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this functionality added in a future update.

But in my case I carry two phones all the time (work and personal) so I'd love for a Watch to be able to be linked to two phones.

 

[Esoom]

this is sad... even pebble support multiple watches connected to the same iphone (and at the same time none the less!).

get your **** together appel!

You can pair a Pebble with an iPad or Android tablet, sort of fun to do

 

[jmh286]

Yea re-pairing everyday would become annoying rather quickly. I know I have to call my bank and verify my cards for Apple Pay, and needing to do that everyday wouldn't be worth the hassle as it takes 15-20 minutes on top of the 15-20 minutes for the watch to pair. I guess it's up to you though if you're willing to take 30-40 minutes each day to get your watch set up.

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

For the Apple Pay part, there is an issue, as it was explained to me yesterday:

The card information exists in the device's "Secure Element".
To have the card information exist on the phone and dynamically sent to the phone is a security issue, as these things can be hacked and such, so it's transferred once at card entry, and then the card's pseudo numbers are the information sent through the air. This way, the one-time card number that is the generated after each transaction is the only thing that is transmitted. People can hack the one-time use number, but since it's already used, it has no value to the hacker.

However, how it can transmit the information on your iTunes card to the watch but not the other cards you have in your passbook are beyond me. It does ask for the CVV (or whatever it's called) code from the back of the card.

Using that basis, there is no reason that two (or an infinite number of) watches cannot be paired to a single iPhone.

But we're still at version 1, so we're still at the dawn of this.

 

[Mac 128]

Obviously, this isn't true, as some people will want multiple looks beyond what is achievable from band swapping, but I suspect it's a fairly niche market and I don't know if they'll be willing to contradict the idea their marketing strategy by making it easy for people to have two.

Then you don't know anyone who wears a watch. I don't know anyone who ever wore a watch that didn't have more than one for different occasions. And the kinds of customer Apple is courting with their high end fashion focus definitely own multiple watches. No, Apple knows full well many of their customers will want to own multiple watches. This doesn't interfere with their marketing at all. Watch owners are very attached to their watches, each one is personal, yet somehow they buy more and rotate them throughout the week. Many will want to coordinate their watches with their jewelry and outfits, and swapping bands isn't enough, when your jewelry is gold and your watch is silver.

 

[mightyjabba]

The thing with the Apple watch is that they all have the same design. While I agree that a lot of people probably have more than one watch, I doubt that they choose the exact same design with a slight difference in materials. So I question whether large numbers of people will be wanting to buy two more Apple watches that are almost identical. That said, if there's a big demand for it I'm sure Apple would be more than happy to sell people multiple watches. They probably just didn't think it was a priority -- especially since they can't produce enough for everyone to have even single watch at the moment.

 

[x-android]

So I have a Stainless currently and love it. I have a Black Stainless on order. My intention is to switch watches daily. Since it appears I can only pair one watch at a time, will it be a simple as unpairing watch one and repair watch two daily? If so will my settings follow or will I have to separate screens settings and app profiles?


TIA,
Jeff

1. you dont want to pair/unpair your watch. takes too long.
2. the only solution to that is do what i did. buy an extra phone (you could use it as your duplicate phone or a burner phone). if you use it as a duplicate phone then it's easier.

 

[anez]

Then you don't know anyone who wears a watch. I don't know anyone who ever wore a watch that didn't have more than one for different occasions. And the kinds of customer Apple is courting with their high end fashion focus definitely own multiple watches. No, Apple knows full well many of their customers will want to own multiple watches. This doesn't interfere with their marketing at all. Watch owners are very attached to their watches, each one is personal, yet somehow they buy more and rotate them throughout the week. Many will want to coordinate their watches with their jewelry and outfits, and swapping bands isn't enough, when your jewelry is gold and your watch is silver.

I actually have a few high end watches myself, and am quite familiar with others who do, too. However, I still believe that market isn't what Apple is (currently) chasing, or they would have made it easier for people to have more than one Apple Watch in rotation at any one time.

I fully agree that it would be preferable to be able to change them out, especially for the reasons of metal matching you've mentioned. (I know none of my gold jewelery has seen any wear since I got my Watch because I hate that it clashes.) However, the fact that plenty of us would like to be able to have more than one Watch at a time doesn't mean it's going to become possible. Will it in the future? Perhaps. But Apple have shown a complete willingness in the past to ignore things their customers have expressed a strong desire for, so I would be wholly unsurprised if we're stuck with the one-Watch model going forward.

Believe me, if I'm wrong on that, I'll be delighted. I'm just not sure it's going to happen. Just because something is desirable to a portion of consumers and makes sense in general doesn't automatically mean that Apple will facilitate it.

 

[mistertomlinson]

I actually sent my space black stainless steel back to Apple because I could only pair one watch at a time. This is stupid. I'm not wearing a $1,000 watch in any situation that could damage it, so this is what the sport watch was for. If I can only pair one, I gotta go with the cheaper one that I don't have to worry too much about damaging.

I can't imagine who's idea it was not to allow people to BUY MORE OF THEIR PRODUCTS.

 

[Newtons Apple]

It amazes me how important is it to have you watch look "appropriate" while running.

Who are you people running for, yourself, or those who might be watching?

 

[Arran]

In all cases it's the same watch

Clever.

 

[Arran]

Is that like "aluminium"?

Je m'appelle Jony?

 

[earthdog]

If figured what the heck and sent Tim Cook an email explaining my issue. Every once in a while he has been known to answer so you never know.

Mr. Cook,

Let me start by saying I found my current Apple Watch an outstanding product. As with all new products there are growing pains but overall I am very happy. I do have one issue I would like to see improved. As a true Jewelry, Time Piece and Watch Lover I ordered a second Watch a Black Stainless Steel to join my Stainless Steel. As a Jewelry/Watch Lover there are times you may want to have more than just a band to vary your look. I was very disappointed to find out from Apple Care Support yesterday there is no support for multiple watches to an iPhone. I personally believe this is an over site by Apple.

I was provided a solution that requires the following steps:

1. Unpair the existing Apple Watch, 1-2 minutes.
2. Pair replacement watch, 15 minutes.
3. Allow apps to reinstall, variable time.

On the surface I thought 20-30 minutes I can do that. Well the biggest item was the loss of Apple Pay items automatically via the unpair process. So I must input and re-approve each and every card 30-45 minutes minimum. As you can imagine this is simply silly.

I would hope for some in site on this issue from you and your Team. If not I will sadly be forced to return my second watch. I am hoping for a glimmer of hope to support multiple Apple Watches very soon.

Thank you for your consideration to answer my email.

The email was provoked by my return process... it was too simple click here and heres the label. No request for why nothing. I do feel silly for complaining its TOO EASY to return it but I had hope for somewhere to drive home the missing feature.

 

[Recognition]

When emailing Tim Cook, you might want to double check your grammar if you want him to take you seriously!

'Oversight'

 

[Mac 128]

So I question whether large numbers of people will be wanting to buy two more Apple watches that are almost identical. That said, if there's a big demand for it I'm sure Apple would be more than happy to sell people multiple watches. They probably just didn't think it was a priority -- especially since they can't produce enough for everyone to have even single watch at the moment.

First, as mistertomlinson points out, there's a huge visual difference between the black stainless and any of the other watches even though they are the exact same shape. Then there's the gold and silver issue. While this may not make any difference to you, for many people it is an issue. I know people who buy the exact same watch in multiple colors because they like the design. That said, I agree that this is an intentional crippling of this feature, for which I can see no technical reason it can't be implemented. It absolutely was not a priority for the launch, following which there are many more important concerns, like battery life, than whether two different watches are pairing correctly, when they can't even make enough watches to meet demand for one watch. Plus it gives Cook something to announce on the new list of features. And as you point out, the majority of people who buy a second watch for themselves are more likely to buy a completely different style with different features, and in that respect multiple watch pairing may be saved for 2.0 software and model release next year.

I actually sent my space black stainless steel back to Apple because I could only pair one watch at a time. This is stupid. I'm not wearing a $1,000 watch in any situation that could damage it, so this is what the sport watch was for. If I can only pair one, I gotta go with the cheaper one that I don't have to worry too much about damaging.

I can't imagine who's idea it was not to allow people to BUY MORE OF THEIR PRODUCTS.

Exactly. It would seem those posting in this thread think you are a minority Apple doesn't care about. But frankly I would be shocked to learn it wasn't part of Apple's plan all along to allow customers to pair multiple watches, in order to sell as many as possible, if nothing else. Apple allegedly dropped many things originally planned for gen 1 release presumably because of technical problems. The most visible one is the elimination of custom watch face backgrounds, and time-lapse watch faces which were demonstrated during the September keynote. Based on the comments on this thread I can only assume they will tell us that Apple thinks there aren't enough customers who want custom watch faces to make it worth their time. I think it's obvious there are more reasons for Apple to enable pairing multiple watches than not, just like we'll eventually get custom watch faces.

 

[xthine]

I too thought would be easy to swap out watches for 1 iPhone but like what others said it is a pain. After a week of trying to make it work I sold my Sport and kept the SS, got a Sport band instead.

 

[adib]

I can see the OP's point. I don't see how having two Watches paired to the phone would be very difficult to arrange from Apple's standpoint. I wouldn't be surprised if we see this functionality added in a future update.

But in my case I carry two phones all the time (work and personal) so I'd love for a Watch to be able to be linked to two phones.

Then why not get a real watch-phone instead of the Apple Watch? Put one of your SIM cards in the watch-phone and the other one in your smartphone. Saves pocket space.

 

[nicho]

I really want this. how likely is it they'd sneak a feature like this into OS2 without putting it into the beta?

 

[bevsb2]

I also wanted to have 2 watches, my SS for most things and a sport watch for exercise. I have the WSB but find changing the bands daily to be cumbersome and I'm concerned about damaging the watch or band with frequent changes. I spoke to an Apple employee about pairing 2 watches with one phone and was told it could be done but would be more trouble than it was worth. And no, I don't have any plans for getting a second phone.

 

[Night Spring]

I think the problem with pairing multiple watches to a single phone is, what happens if more than one watch gets used at a time? I know that people who want this feature are thinking that they will only use one watch at a time, but the phone needs a way of knowing which watch is in use, if you see what I mean? Otherwise, if you are wearing one, and someone else, like your spouse or kid, picks up another one and puts it on... See the problem? So the phone needs a way for you to tell it which watch you want active. And writing code for that is a bit complicated than just writing code where you can pair only one watch to a phone at a time. So I don't blame Apple for deciding it's not a priority for first release.

 

[Abqpete]

I have 2 watches and because of the issues associated with un-pairing / restoring, and Apple Pay, I purchased a second iPhone that I cloned with a backup from the first phone. Initially, I tried swapping SIM cards but that caused all my recent visual voicemail to disappear and various messages from IOS and OS X asking about adding the phone number to my account (repeatedly). So the final solution that I currently use is forwarding one number to the other (in phone settings) depending on which watch / phone combination is in use. Th only minor nit is that real SMS (not iMessage), does not show up on both phones. Of course, if you add an app to one phone, you must do the same for the second. I do hope that Apple allow us to pair multiple watches to one phone...

 

[nicho]

I have 2 watches and because of the issues associated with un-pairing / restoring, and Apple Pay, I purchased a second iPhone that I cloned with a backup from the first phone. Initially, I tried swapping SIM cards but that caused all my recent visual voicemail to disappear and various messages from IOS and OS X asking about adding the phone number to my account (repeatedly). So the final solution that I currently use is forwarding one number to the other (in phone settings) depending on which watch / phone combination is in use. Th only minor nit is that real SMS (not iMessage), does not show up on both phones. Of course, if you add an app to one phone, you must do the same for the second. I do hope that Apple allow us to pair multiple watches to one phone...

why not set up text message forwarding? then all of your SMSs will show up on the other phone - only problem being that they dont seem to come through to the watch when forwarded (yet, i hope this changes). I have two phones, one from the UK and my main one from China (I still get SMSs to my UK number from banks and things)

 

[Steve686]

I'd like to do the same. One watch for work, and one watch for other times.

I do have two iPhones si I actually thought about pairing a watch with each phone since there is redundancy in the way the Apple ecosystem can notify each device when calls and messages arrive.

 

[Abqpete]

why not set up text message forwarding? then all of your SMSs will show up on the other phone - only problem being that they dont seem to come through to the watch when forwarded (yet, i hope this changes). I have two phones, one from the UK and my main one from China (I still get SMSs to my UK number from banks and things)

Thanks! I did not see that option. Now even less of a hassle.

 

[riverfreak]

I think the problem with pairing multiple watches to a single phone is, what happens if more than one watch gets used at a time? I know that people who want this feature are thinking that they will only use one watch at a time, but the phone needs a way of knowing which watch is in use, if you see what I mean? Otherwise, if you are wearing one, and someone else, like your spouse or kid, picks up another one and puts it on... See the problem? So the phone needs a way for you to tell it which watch you want active. And writing code for that is a bit complicated than just writing code where you can pair only one watch to a phone at a time. So I don't blame Apple for deciding it's not a priority for first release.

I think it would be trivial. Both watches are paired but only one is tethered and active at any one time.

When you switch, the new watch is tethered and updated, and the inactive watch untethered. Simple.

This could be user-initiated but say a "make active" button or simply automatic when a watch is put on.

Simple.

I think it was left out of the first release because it makes the interface more complicated in order to serve a truly tiny number of users. I fully expect this feature to be added soon.