If not fitness and health is their a point to owning an Apple Watch?

[mblm85]

I'm single, live alone, and getting old. I see my cellular apple watch increasingly as a a safety and emergency device.

- It has fall detection

- It improves my chances of being able to summon help, and of help being able to find me

- Check In is handy

- I don't have to take my phone everywhere with me as much as I used to

- If I did take my phone out and it was snatched in the street (an increasing issue in the UK) I can put it in lost mode from my watch and protect my cards and information. If they steal my watch, just taking it off my wrist will lock it.

- Apple Pay is king in the UK and only a double-press away

- I love using my devices in silent mode with just a gentle tap on my wrist for important things

- Recently, I've found that some changes detected by health tracking indicate when I'm coming down with a cold or illness a day or two earlier than I would've normally realised, enabling me to act faster to reduce duration

- I've realised that Apple Watch is the dumb phone I'd been looking for. And it shares my regular phone number, instead of needing a backup number.

 

[mpetrides]

But I'd still say inferior for time telling because the Apple Watch needs to recharged regularly, while the mechanical watch stays wound by simply wearing it and is definitely accurate enough for almost all purposes

Well, if the brief period of time required to charge up your Apple Watch bothers you, you can do what I do. Whenever I upgrade my Apple Watch to the next generation, I keep the old watch and leave it on a charger, so it's always fully charged. Then when I slap my AW Ultra 2 onto the charger, I simply put on my AW 8 until the Ultra 2 is fully charged.

Battery life on the Ultra 2 is sufficiently good that I can wear it all day and through the night and still have more than 60% charge left. When I get up in the morning, I put the Ultra 2 on its charger and wear the AW 8 for the hour or so it takes the Ultra 2 to charge to full. If I'm in a big hurry in the morning, I might even keep wearing the Ultra 2 without charging it. It typically can make it through that second day and get charged over the hour or two before I go to bed. (I like wearing the Ultra 2 in bed because of the sleep apnea detection feature. Either AW will suffice as a sleep tracker.)

 

[kkclstuff]

well the 'point of owning one' is the beholders.

(PS But as many have said earlier...)

if you take public transit the Watch is great way to pay when your hands are full.​

same if paying for groceries, gas, etc.​

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I guess "sleep tracking' may be under the term "Health" but its been great for me to actually 'see' how much sleep (or lack there of) im getting.​

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As a musician I use it as a remote while recording at my instrument​

same for playing audio​

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Use my watch daily both with Siri and manually to operate HomeKit items.​

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Every time I go to the laundry room I use the Timer​

same for cooking in kitchen​

But yes. the Watch can do many 'other' things

 

[MisterSavage]

I use my watch for SO many things on top of fitness. I would buy it for Apple Pay alone.

 

[TallManNY]

Well, if the brief period of time required to charge up your Apple Watch bothers you, you can do what I do. Whenever I upgrade my Apple Watch to the next generation, I keep the old watch and leave it on a charger, so it's always fully charged. Then when I slap my AW Ultra 2 onto the charger, I simply put on my AW 8 until the Ultra 2 is fully charged.

Battery life on the Ultra 2 is sufficiently good that I can wear it all day and through the night and still have more than 60% charge left. When I get up in the morning, I put the Ultra 2 on its charger and wear the AW 8 for the hour or so it takes the Ultra 2 to charge to full. If I'm in a big hurry in the morning, I might even keep wearing the Ultra 2 without charging it. It typically can make it through that second day and get charged over the hour or two before I go to bed. (I like wearing the Ultra 2 in bed because of the sleep apnea detection feature. Either AW will suffice as a sleep tracker.)

Oh, it doesn't bother me much. I switched to wearing Apple Watch daily with series 0, so I've been doing charging for nearly a decade now. Charging is just a negative compared to my mechanical watch that I would wear 24/7 and never have to think about. Sometimes I forget to charge my Apple Watch and it dies in the middle of the day. Obviously user error since it could easily be recharged during my morning shower. I just sometimes forget and with the mechanical I never had to remember anything.

The Ultra would help with battery life, but the regular watch goes better with my style (which often involves wearing suits to my office job). And I think the Ultra literally wouldn't fit under the cuffs of a few of my dress shirts. Maybe I will get the Ultra after I retire.

 

[Rainshadow]

That's the kind of answer I'm looking for. Thank you

I spend far less time on my phone with a watch. I can more quickly and effectively dismiss notifications and still stay on top of work related questions.

Plus, the unsung hero is the alarm feature. Doesn’t wake my wife. Calm wake-up. And no, the watch doesn’t bother me to sleep with on my wrist and I have an ultra.

Plus the find-my iPhone ringer if I misplace my phone. If you never misplace your phone, maybe you’re too glued to it and need a watch 😂

 

[aevan]

I'm not into the fitness or health tracking stuff. I understand many people are. I throw a watch on when I leave the house every so often as a fashion accessory. I never owned an Apple Watch and remember when they first came out and can't believe there are already ten versions of them plus SE and Ultra models. Feels like they only came out a few years ago. I kind of thought that might be a dud product category for Apple when they first released them. Tim's little Dick Tracy project that would turn out like the Apple HiFi or something. Guess I was wrong. Although I have to admit the gadget geek in me has always had a mild interest in them, even though I always felt like there wasn't really a point for me to own one. Which is why I never bought one.

I guess what I'm asking is, does anyone own/use an Apple watch where their use case isn't fitness/health tracking? If so, what do you actually use your watch for? Is there any point in owning one if not for that?

I use my Apple Watch for notifications. It’s great. Also, for time, which I didn’t think would be useful as I’m not a watch person (and we have clocks on our phones) but turns out, it’s great to be able to glance at the watch for the time.

One other amazing thing is the maps app and using your watch for walking directions.

Alarm is also great, sounds strange, but it’s far less dramatic then your phone.

And I use it to control podcasts sometimes, and to turn my lights on and off.

 

[Biro]

I tried an Apple Watch for a few months. But I didn’t use it for any fitness/health reasons. I also didn’t like having yet one more device to charge and had/have most notifications blocked on both my phone and watch (the way I like it - I am not a slave to technology). So it wasn’t even that useful. After trying out the AW for a while I decided that I prefer my mechanical watches. So I gave away my AW. I don’t miss it.

 

[MAGA-Cap9361]

fashione piece, show i do not need to iritate my friends with my AP, nor I will feel better with my friends with richard miller

 

[terryw1]

I was gonna start a thread asking what you used the aw for other than health and fitness or time. You took the thought and really addressed what I was looking for, more ways to use my aw!

I use mine in almost all of the different functions that have been mentioned. I have two ultras because of the battery life, screen and speakers. Following are a couple of functions that haven’t been mentioned that I find incredibly useful.

*my alarm system, cameras and security functions can all be used from my watch, this includes things like…
-viewing what any one of my twelve cameras are seeing:recording
-especially useful for the front door/walkways/driveway……… can see and interact with anyone at the frontdoor
-basically can replicate any function of the alarm/security/automation directly from the aw ultra, the big flat screen makes viewing film/pics very easy

*notifications,alerts,reminders
-have medical issues that require much daily medication……… being able to set the timing and frequencies of the medications has been a game changer
-have eliminated all the messages my phone receives and send only those I want to my watch, same with text messages, get only the ones I want to see or new ones
-alot of functions fall under this area, like getting calender events(I use the calender a lot), getting notifications from scripts I have running, alerts I have set up etc

*stocks,financial news and finance tracking
-have set up my stock portfolio and alerts as to whether I want to take action on a particular holding
-any financial news I may be interested in, such as earnings reports, product announcements etc that may impact anything in my financial portfolio
-up to the minute timing on bank accounts, bills paid, checks cleared and balances

*headline news and when needed traffic reports
-3 different complications to receive the latest news
-have tied my trips/gps into traffic news for those routes

*fundamental automation
-garage doors/locks
-tied to electrical readings so that I can comply with the electric companies saver rates, especially useful in arizonas hot summers, can turn on and off hvac for instance
-smart home lights and outlets

I use quite a few complications and find that many of the uses previously written about apply as well. Can’t imagine not having an aw!!!

 

[subjonas]

1) haptic notifications (I often miss notifications when I only have my phone, plus it lets me leave my phone on silent always)
2) quick functions that I don’t want to pull out my phone for (there are many now and I’m hoping for many more in the future once they first come to the phone, like hotel keys)
3) audio consumption when doing activities without my phone

No health stuff for me either (yet), but I still find it very useful, borderline indispensable.

 

[subjonas]

The silent alarm is super slept on

Literally haha

 

[Ctrlos]

It’s still a really useful wrist computer and not that far from being the new default comms paradigm. I find it useful for tracking weather and such whilst hiking and use it almost 100% as a phone when I’m in London so I don’t risk my iPhone getting snatched. Apple Maps on the Watch is surprisingly good and tapping your way through the tube just a double press away.

However I’m currently snowed in and been working from home for the last week. It’s been sat on my desk gathering dust as I’ve not been out anywhere. I don’t see the point wearing it around the home when I have a clock in most rooms.

 

[kinga]

Changing watch faces and bands keeps it feeling fresh, almost like a new accessory each time.

 

[ThailandToo]

I guess mine is a fashion statement. I have a lot of different bands and cases and I change them to match my clothing sometimes.

I also like the fact that I can wear my watch and leave my phone behind whenever I just don't feel like taking my phone with me.

I also like the fact that I can wear it around the house and get calls, texts, other notifications without having to carry my phone on my person, worry about unlocking it when I might be busy cooking, etc.

And then there are several apps that come in handy, like Shazam, the calculator, weather...

I will admit that I find it less useful than some other smart watches I've owned, like the Gear 2 which had a camera and could actually play loaded music on the device's speaker.

(I keep waiting for the Apple Watch to get a camera but that will probably never happen.)

I said all that to say that it's worth it for my use cases to have a watch that I don't use first and foremost for fitness/health.

Apple Watch is a fashion statement? The notifications are terrible. The battery life is awful. The thing is not fun to use. It’s simply a wearable that records some data the iPhone will not record. Wear a nice watch and forego the AW. To me the AW might be good for workouts and sleep tracking but nothing else.

I disagree with it but the cellular could make it worth it if going for a run or need music on the go and not carrying an iPhone. But I tried it for those purposes and not worth it with series 4. Now on series 7 and I wear it for workouts when I remember, but really not worth it even for that. At one point, was worth it for heart rate monitoring, but would much prefer a tracking ring than having a fashion statement that everyone wears which makes it not fashionable at all in my opinion.

 

[Bodhitree]

Interesting topic, I enjoyed reading all the uses people have for their Apple Watch.

I bought an Apple Watch (requested one as a gift actually) mainly for health and fitness reasons. I was going on a fitness jag and wanted to see if it could track my heart rate over an extended period, and help motivate me. It didn’t really work out.

In the end I ended up putting it on the bedside table, and using it only when I go out for a hike. I’m not such a watch person, having gotten into the habit of taking my phone and checking the time on that.

I probably won’t buy another one when this goes out of support.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

I use mine for fitness but also for texts, calls, sleep tracking, ECG, blood oxygen, Shazam, timers, alarms, tracking medication/vitamin does etc etc. Lots of uses for an Apple watch apart from the fitness benefits.

 

[mk313]

Agree with everything written so far. One thing I did not see (although I did skim the replies) was being able to add groceries to my grocery list with siri immediately, so I don't forget them. Right when I use up something, I can add it to the list, instead of thinking I need to add that later. And then when I am at the grocery store, my list is on my watch (also my phone if I have that).

 

[RafaelHO]

Interesting topic. I use mine of course for the notifications, sleep tracking, medications, but as an Airplane Pilot, I use a lot the altimeter feature, as well as the screenshot (thank you 11.2 for breaking this feature) to get the Off block, takeoff and landing time, because I use the World Clock UTC as a complication. Recently, started using the Workout, while looking at my exercises in the Hevy app.

 

[techyOS]

In addition to the notes in posts above:

Electronic boarding passing when flying + flight updates from the Flighty app

Love the Flighty mention; one of my favorite apps, and the notifications are extremely useful. At least for me, the $4/week Pay-As-You-Go plan is completely worth it.

 

[JonMPLS]

After having an Apple Watch for several years I retired or sold several of my automatic watches. I became addicted to having timer, stopwatch, temperature and wind on the screen all the time. Time too, of course. Go back and forth between digital and analog displays. I do count steps, but that was secondary to the other functions. Apple Pay is slick when available.

 

[VulchR]

Love this list. It’s such a practical and helpful device.

Thank you! I have been known to overthink things. 😇 However, my AW was expensive, and so I looked into it thoroughly and asked around before buying. I am happy with the choice I made. It has been one of my best purchases, despite my initial doubts about the AW being of no other use than looking like a Dick Tracy communicator.

(source: link )

EDIT: I forgot to add using the AW to unlock my iMac.

 

[Leading_Top_7001]

apple pay, music, and remind me of phone calls

 

[QCassidy352]

I do use mine for health and fitness, but I'd have one even if I didn't. My top other uses include haptic notifications (it's such a joy to never hear my phone make a sound), Apple Pay, weather updates, Siri (set timers, add reminders, etc), and quick replies to messages. Very nice not to need my phone on me or in my hand for these things.

 

[mansplains]

A lot of these posts make me wish Apple sold the watch, stripped of most health features for an increased battery, alongside a ring for those who want the health sensors. The back of the wrist is less accurate for some sensors than a finger anyway, notably the pulse oximeter. A basic model (limited health) with a week-long battery for about the price of an SE? I'd be sold. The ring would also have a longer battery more than likely, and offer health tracking without the need for a miniature cellphone on your wrist.