It's just a watch for me now

[profmjh]

I still love my Apple Watch but I've pretty much given up on most of its features. I'm currently using the flowers time lapse face, which I think is really beautiful. It has no complications -- just date and time -- but that's enough, really. I still get notifications but to be honest I could probably live without those, too.

No regrets. It's a lovely thing that keeps good time.

 

[dotnet]

I'm not a user of complications either, I mostly use glances for that. The face I'm using is Solar.

I do use the watch for quite a bit more than telling time, though. I frequently check messages and sometimes respond with canned replies that I preconfigured for my needs. I look at (work) email notifications when away from the computer, mostly to make sure that there is nothing needing immediate attention. I screen phone calls before even getting the phone out. Sometimes I answer them while fumbling or looking for the phone. I frequently check the weather, which for some reason is more useful and accurate than the localised (AU) weather app I have on the phone. I use the remote app a lot, when the phone is playing music via Airplay. I use map routing while walking (in the car I have a built-in navigator). I use Siri while driving, mostly to control the music. I use the watch to find the phone when it's hiding between the sofa cushions or someplace. In the morning, when my phone alarm goes off, I silence it on the watch (which I'm wearing at night). I also used to track my sleep, but since I have no problems with that nothing spectacular ever showed up there. Oh, and I try to achieve my activity goals, with about 80% success.

From memory these are my most common uses for the watch. Everything else it can do I use far less often or never.

EDIT I should add, since I got the watch the phone has moved from the shirt pocket to the jeans pocket. That's just as well because it allowed me to get the 6S➕ last September. It's too big for shirt pockets.

Also, since getting the watch the mute switch on my phone has been permanently on silent.

 

[BarracksSi]

I was about to say the same thing -- I mostly just use mine as a watch -- but then I read dotnet's post and remembered how I do all of the same things with mine.

Well, except for finding the iPhone between the sofa cushions, because we don't have a sofa.

 

[Armen]

It's always been just a watch for me with complications as a primary function. I do use the music glance every now and then. Does a heck of a lot more than my Pebble did and I was content with it before the Apple watch was released.

 

[Mac2me]

profmatt I know you were on the fence for a while about getting one, not sure if you thought it was right for you. It's possible when the next software release comes out you'll find something in it that will get you using other aspects of it. I wouldn't say I'm a heavy user of what it can do but find the calendar reminders, phone calls (especially when I'm in the house and the phone is on the charger elsewhere), iMessages and timer functions extremely useful.

 

[xDKP]

I think the main issue with the complications is the lack of dynamically visible ones. For one I use the count down timer on my Apple Watch a lot, mostly during making dinner and such. The fact that I need the countdown timer on my watch face all the time is pretty bad. I only want it when I have a timer on. For the rest of the day it's better for me to have temperature, calendar and other useful stuff.

Could be pretty useful for golf apps, the music app or maps - stuff that we really don't need to see if we don't use it

 

[Caromsoft]

I think the main issue with the complications is the lack of dynamically visible ones. For one I use the count down timer on my Apple Watch a lot, mostly during making dinner and such. The fact that I need the countdown timer on my watch face all the time is pretty bad. I only want it when I have a timer on. For the rest of the day it's better for me to have temperature, calendar and other useful stuff.

Could be pretty useful for golf apps, the music app or maps - stuff that we really don't need to see if we don't use it

My workaround for this is to have a second modular watch face. My normal one has my activities in the center spot. the second has the timer in the center spot. When I use the timer I switch faces. Everything else on both faces is the same.

 

[JohnApples]

I'm mostly the same way. The 3rd party apps aren't very useful, and just downright slow as to this day, only 2 of my 25 AW apps have native support. I still text occasionally with the watch, but not enough where I would care if the feature would disappear completely.

Really, my AW has become a time-telling device, a light activity tracker, and a quick weather-checker. And that's fine with me. I'm content with my watch. I don't know if I'd pay $400 again for one, but I don't regret my purchase.

In fact, I'd love it if all it did was tell time. But, we need more watch faces!! I finally have a digital watch with a beautiful screen and I feel that so much potential has gone to waste since we have literally endless kinds of faces that could be possible. I'm really hoping that at this March event, they announce something about the Watch's faces instead of bands.

 

[testcard]

I think the main issue with the complications is the lack of dynamically visible ones. For one I use the count down timer on my Apple Watch a lot, mostly during making dinner and such. The fact that I need the countdown timer on my watch face all the time is pretty bad. I only want it when I have a timer on. For the rest of the day it's better for me to have temperature, calendar and other useful stuff.

Could be pretty useful for golf apps, the music app or maps - stuff that we really don't need to see if we don't use it

You could ask Siri to set a timer. "Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes".

 

[KPOM]

Notifications are useful for me. Plus it's sometimes more convenient to use the Watch for Apple Pay than my phone (no worries about whether Touch ID will register my fingerprint).

 

[IphoneIssues]

Notifications are useful for me. Plus it's sometimes more convenient to use the Watch for Apple Pay than my phone (no worries about whether Touch ID will register my fingerprint).

Does this happen often? Are you concerned you may be taken into custody for trying to pay with somebody else's phone?

 

[Cayden]

I use mine almost exclusively just as a watch. I do enjoy getting the notifications, but I never respond on the watch. The activity tracking is great as well, but I always look at the data on my iPhone

 

[xDKP]

You could ask Siri to set a timer. "Hey Siri, set a timer for 5 minutes".

I know and I do, but the count down should appear as one of my complications when it's counting so I can follow it

 

[KPOM]

Does this happen often? Are you concerned you may be taken into custody for trying to pay with somebody else's phone?

Touch ID is very twitchy in cold, dry weather.

 

[Bromeo]

Primary function of my Apple Watch (Sport) is telling time at a glance. For that reason, despite trying several different watch faces, I keep coming back to the Utility analog face. It's easy to read at the quickest of glances, even in bright sunlight here in the desert southwest. My previous daily ticker was a Rolex Air King, which I still have in a desk drawer. I wore that for 15 years. I keep it in case someday I decide to go back to the simple, pure, automatic mechanical watch.

While the Apple Watch is not the "always-on clock" of a mechanical watch, it's pretty close... probably 98% of the occasions I look at it for the time, it's already showing the watch face. 2% of the time I might have my wrist at a strange angle while holding a coffee cup or something and can't tilt it conveniently to check the time.

I frequently use the activity tracking, notifications, screen / answer phone calls / voicemails, read important emails from people on my VIP list, reply to texts, set timers using Siri, check the outside temperature (surprisingly accurate), and stay mindful of any upcoming conference calls and tasks. My phone stays on my desk most of the time. The Watch is also my bedside clock and occasional alarm clock. Oh... and yes, Apple Pay is just neat on the Watch. I use that whenever I can.

However, as much as I like my Apple Watch, I realize it isn't for everyone, and neither is the iPhone itself. Some people are best off without, or with a much simpler single-tasking device... or perhaps one of the Android offerings. Nothing wrong with a flip-phone and a regular watch. The world continues to spin. That we have these amazing choices in the first place is really pretty neat.

 

[Seamaster]

I feel much the same way as the OP. A useful watch when travelling (auto time zone and nightstand mode). Otherwise, meh. My mechanical watches get all the wrist time at home.

 

[lordhamster]

I love mine for travel with the auto-timezone adjust. But recently I started working out and am finding the workout tracking and step tracking/heartrate monitor hugely valuable. So really I'm using the watch as a Fitness tracker with really nice notifications as a bonus.

 

[thelookingglass]

Wife and I just now were heading out and she asks me if we need to wear our watches. We both said nah simultaneously. This might be the beginning of the end. I was never previously a watch wearer and the Apple Watch is turning into nothing but a watch for me.

 

[xDKP]

I was never previously a watch wearer

I think you pretty much summed it up here... It's a watch, even though a pretty smart one, still a watch... I always wear my watches - almost feel naked without them, so to me it's a nice watch with some added features on top... Just come home from a weeks holiday, and the AW stayed home - On holidays (except skiing maybe) my diver watches get the 24/7 wrist time..