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How will Ultra work on top of clothing

Robotti

Robotti

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 16, 2014
252
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There’s a number of photos showing Apple Watch Ultra on a wrist, with clothing between the watch and skin. I can’t find any mention on how this affects the features relying on the backside sensors, and how the user experience is altered. And whether these changes will be brought to regular Watch also. Is there some info available that I’m just missing?
 
A really good question. I'd be amazed if there wasn't any effect on the sensors if you're wearing it over clothing or a wetsuit...on the other hand, Apple *must* have considered that it would get worn over clothing as well as wetsuits--it was made for extreme conditions, after all, and it's hard to look at your watch while climbing an icy mountain if you have to pull back your coat and sleeves to see it. 🥶 The bands are super adjustable for that very reason. Maybe different sensors kick in in those instances? Or maybe you just lose certain things and gain others?
 
thirteen1031 said:
A really good question. I'd be amazed if there wasn't any effect on the sensors if you're wearing it over clothing or a wetsuit...on the other hand, Apple *must* have considered that it would get worn over clothing as well as wetsuits--it was made for extreme conditions, after all, and it's hard to look at your watch while climbing an icy mountain if you have to pull back your jacket and sleeve to see it. 🥶 The bands are super adjustable for that very reason. Maybe different sensors kick in in those instances? Or maybe you just lose certain things and gain others?
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I'm going to say confidently having seen no mention of it that none of those sensors will work if the watch is worn over clothing, especially a wetsuit.

But you may still want to use the watch to record other information about your activity, hence why they're selling the extension piece for use with wetsuits.
 
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I am considering using the new ultra watch over the jacket while riding my motorbike and alpine skiing. Using it directly on the wrist is a pain in those situations. I wonder if it will still try to keep track of heart rate anyway or there is a special mode to set for this?
 
I just posted on another thread about strapping the watch to bike handlebars in the past and the pita it is, disabling wrist detection and passcode and having to re-authenticate bank cards for apple pay etc.
This is obviously something they will HAVE to do with the Ultra but I'm hoping they will include it on all watches.
 
Monkswhiskers said:
I just posted on another thread about strapping the watch to bike handlebars in the past and the pita it is, disabling wrist detection and passcode and having to re-authenticate bank cards for apple pay etc.
This is obviously something they will HAVE to do with the Ultra but I'm hoping they will include it on all watches.
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I wonder if some sort of gel pad on the handlebars or mount could work to trick the watch’s wrist detection. Kind of like the sausage stylus thing from early iPhone days before gloves with conductive fingertips.
 
thirteen1031 said:
*snip*... while climbing an icy mountain if you have to pull back your coat and sleeves to see it. 🥶... *snip*
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Just nice marketing pictures as long as it has lithium batteries.

Winters here are the death of many modern phone batteries because people put them in their outer pocket or purse and not close to the body. The same goes for any device that has lithium battery without a heating element or kept close to a heat source (i e your body).

I've even killed (as in reduced to a battery time of 40 min) a iPod Mini (yes I'm that old) battery by having it in the inner pocket of my coat instead of my pants pockets when it was -12°C outside and I was out and using it for a couple of hours. Guess the sweater I was wearing insulated enough so the coat pocket got below 0°C.

Wearing an AWU on the outside of your clothes when climbing an icy mountain is almos guaranteed to make the entire watch go sub zero.

PSA! If you live in a cold climate don't use current chemistry (lithium)battery devices if the battery temp drops below 0°C!
 
Monkswhiskers said:
I just posted on another thread about strapping the watch to bike handlebars in the past and the pita it is, disabling wrist detection and passcode and having to re-authenticate bank cards for apple pay etc.
This is obviously something they will HAVE to do with the Ultra but I'm hoping they will include it on all watches.
Click to expand...
I don’t see Apple allowing a Watch with no passcode to have bank cards on it. I don’t believe you can do that on iPhone either.

I guess one could argue that a physical wallet doesn’t have a passcode either but I don’t think Apple will allow Apple Pay to be insecure like that.
 
Monkswhiskers said:
I'm hoping for a hot switch to allow this (on my regular AW), I just posted on another thread about strapping the watch to bike handlebars in the past and the pita it is, disabling wrist detection and passcode and having to re-authenticate bank cards for apple pay etc.
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russell_314 said:
I don’t see Apple allowing a Watch with no passcode to have bank cards on it. I don’t believe you can do that on iPhone either.

I guess one could argue that a physical wallet doesn’t have a passcode either but I don’t think Apple will allow Apple Pay to be insecure like that.
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Yes but it could allow to disable Apple Pay until a pass code is re-entered on the watch or even safer, bio-metric entry via the phone.
 
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Monkswhiskers said:
Yes but it could allow to disable Apple Pay until a pass code is re-entered on the watch or even safer, bio-metric entry via the phone.
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That would be interesting. I guess we will see but I suspect it’s not going to get some special feature like this unless it’s in watchOS 9. I bet they’re going to have to come up with something if people are going to wear this over a wetsuit

I’m just curious what’s the reason to strap it to handlebars? I think I would want it on my wrist just in case of a crash I could use it to call for help.
 
russell_314 said:
That would be interesting. I guess we will see but I suspect it’s not going to get some special feature like this unless it’s in watchOS 9. I bet they’re going to have to come up with something if people are going to wear this over a wetsuit

I’m just curious what’s the reason to strap it to handlebars? I think I would want it on my wrist just in case of a crash I could use it to call for help.
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I ride hills and like to see my live HR (e/chest strap) to gauge effort.
I would think the watch is much more likely to get smashed on the wrist than the bars in the event of coming off. (I always have my phone on a bike ride also)
 
The FAQ for the Oceanic+ dive app talks about how it will work. The ultra has a new mode that stays on and unlocked when it sees you’re deeper than 5’ underwater. It stays on, the dive app goes into buttons and crown only mode, and the sensors work if they’re against your skin. If it’s not on your skin, the sensors just pause function, but the rest stays on. Once you’re back within 5’ of the surface, it starts a countdown to end the dive mode, or you can end it manually at that point and resume normal function.
 
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