Looking Back on Five Years of Apple Watch

[riverfreak]

I already use an app and it seems actually incredible accurate for example I wake up at least once every night and also wake up half an hour before my alarm automatically and I can see it in the report the next day. Also when I fall back asleep, but not deeply, it shows.
HOWEVER at the end of the day it’s just a report of something I can’t really influence anyway. If I wake up I wake up, it’s not like my watch can force me to stay longer in the REM phase

To say that you can’t change your sleep patterns is like saying you can’t change your health by varying your diet.

Of course you can change your sleep patterns. It begins with understanding what they are via tracking, and then associating those patterns with other events: stress, diet, timing, alcohol. Because you aren’t conscious during sleep just means you have to be more deliberate. But it’s surprisingly easy — and beneficial — to try to optimize.i really hope a native solution for Apple Watch is on the way.

 

[kazmac]

I may finally jump in with a 6.

I’ve been very hesitant because I did not want Apple collecting health data and saw no need for the watch; but making calls without the phone and Apple Pay are now very appealing.

Given the way the world is right now, I am beginning to see the need for the health aspects too.

Mom’s been talking about one for awhile too.

 

[chucker23n1]

HOWEVER at the end of the day it’s just a report of something I can’t really influence anyway. If I wake up I wake up, it’s not like my watch can force me to stay longer in the REM phase

No, it doesn't quite come with built-in electric shock therapy just yet, but it can collect data and report it to you. And if that data says you've been going to sleep very late yet waking up early, or you've been sleeping long but not deep, or very erratically, that's something you can work on. Less alcohol, a more rigid day schedule so your body gets sufficiently exhausted in the evening, dealing with stress, etc.

 

[riverfreak]

Early adopter. Series 0 SS with a link bracelet. Silly purchase.

When 3rd party apps were introduced (the article fails to mention them) I could never get them to load. Upgraded to Series 3 for LTE which also had noticeable speed increase. Larger size and even better performance with Series 4 made the Apple Watch truly useful, so much so that I leave my phone at home now when going out. Yep, I’m a neo-Luddite.

 

[jimbobb24]

Its also interesting the stupid features Apple emphasized when they started with the watch. Initially they did not seem to understand the major role fitness would play with the original and had segments on sharing your heartbeat with others. That was cringe but soon passed as they understood the primary use was fitness and some extension of common phone functions. THey understood that so much that we now have an EKG in our watches which is amazing. A much more useful thing to share with the right person. Oxygen should be next as several other watches have figured that out. Glucose - never say never but right now we need blood for that and cannot see that changing.

 

[harriska2]

I’ll bet there’s not one person who’s actively happy they bought the series 1 edition. Even if money is no object. A waste.

As much as I complain about my Series 1 being slow, I am happy with it. Got it for $199 from Macy’s in early 2017. I bought a Series 4 for my son. It is faster. It looks better. But is it worth paying $300 when my Series 1 still works? Nope. The Series 5 was on sale (and available) just the other day from Walmart for $299. Is it worth upgrading my 3 year old working watch? Nope. I can afford it. I wear and use mine daily. I love it and complain about it being slow. But it still does what I need and the battery is perfect.

 

[lozanoj83]

So... is the article going to differentiate between Series 0/1 and 2? Seems they just went from launch to S2.

 

[chucker23n1]

So... is the article going to differentiate between Series 0/1 and 2? Seems they just went from launch to S2.

Well, the S1 is really just the S0 with the S2's chip (including CPU and GPU, but not GPS).

I'm guessing by watchOS 7 this year or 8 next year, the S1 and 2 won't be supported any more.

 

[TheSkywalker77]

I'm in love with my watch. It's easily my favourite product line from Apple. I can't wait to see where it goes in the future!

 

[ericwn]

The watch was first presented as a fashion item being sold in luxury shops like Harrods in London and something to do with Hermes I believe. It evolved to be a personal gadget.

Aren’t all wristwatches gadgets these days?

 

[Brandhouse]

I still wear my series 0. Works great, use it with the Sleep++ app, not perfect but useful. It has been through every water park in Disney several times, still kicking.

Mine's still going strong too and no scratches.

 

[dotnet]

Mine's still going strong too and no scratches.

Mine too. I’ve been wearing it virtually every day since 24th April 2015. The battery doesn’t last the whole day anymore, so I charge it at night now. The SS case and Milanese loop look awesome still, some signs of wear, but very good for their age. A couple of times I’ve buffed up the case, that makes it look like new. The crystal is absolutely spotless.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Bolded in your post highlights a lot of frustrations I never experienced with my first Gen watch (And Yes, I owned my First Gen through the entire WatchOS support lifespan). Have you considered perhaps Android Wearables? Seems like the Apple Watch isn’t for you with that many complaints.

Seems like im not allowed to complain about an Apple product without being told to switch to Android. Have you considered not dismissing me? Do I have to sugar-coat my experience or use weakling weasel words?

”My watch had some difficulties with getting through the day on two charges while many apps needed encouragement to run. I only had to tap 3 or 4 times on workout to get it to launched And it only locked up and crashed once or twice per day. It was not as fast as I wanted or as it was before, but I loved looking at the display waiting patiently for it to show the circles around the app icon each time I touched it. Most fun I ever had waiting.”

My comments are honest and extremely non-biased. If anything, I’m too pro-Apple. I ordered the watch the day Apple let us and waited and waited and waited for it to finally ship.

I don’t own any Android anything and never will In spite of suggestions. Apple isn’t perfect. I’m here to point that out to those offering only praise. They screw up sometimes. How about that Catalina file copy bug?

I stand by what how I describe happened because it did. Just because it didn’t happen to others doesn’t mean I can’t say it It didn’t happen to me.

Not my experience at all. Series 0 to me was never fast but slow from the start.

I used mine every day for workouts and texting. it was working great doing everything I needed it to do on watchOs2. That all changed at the beginning of the third year of ownership.

WatchOs3 was a disaster on mine, Crashing, not counting calories, terrible battery life. I filed bug reports, un-paired and re-paired, rebooted, etc. The last version of watchOS3 saved it from being trash. And it wasn’t just mine, it was also my wife’s. She got a 3 and I used my 0 until 6 months after the 4 came out. I paid a lot for the SBSS just to get the link band. The band lives on.

The 4 is great. But I’m scared of an OS upgrade that would degrade the experience not improve it.

I had to replace the battery and the screen popped off my 0. Fixed it myself because it mostly still works.

 

[tehStickMan]

I'd just love it if they fixed the bugs and performance issues with watchOS6.

My Series 4 and watchOS5 was truly amazing, huge step up from S2. watchOS6 has been so poor I have depression if I think about it too much - totally ruined this device.

 

[TheFluffyDuck]

I've had the Apple watch since version 0. To be honest it was pretty average and undercooked until the last couple of versions.

 

[JKAussieSkater]

Looking forward to… blood glucose levels, blood oxygen…

Hmm. 🤔 I don't think blood glucose levels are possible… unless the watch pierced the skin to reach the bloodstream; but that doesn't seem sterile. Probably impossible. Perhaps the watch itself could communicate with a glucose sensor implanted under the skin, or perhaps the watch could measure the readings of a prick-test strip? But as far as I'm aware, blood glucose can only be measured invasively with modern technology.

Now blood oxygen on the other hand… I'm not sure how a non-invasive device could be manufactured into a watch, but perhaps if the watch can somehow compare the veins to the arteries from the wrist? Perhaps an estimate of blood oxygen is plausible. It would be an estimate or a ratio at best, but this could be interesting.

 

[chucker23n1]

Perhaps the watch itself could communicate with a glucose sensor implanted under the skin, or perhaps the watch could measure the readings of a prick-test strip? But as far as I'm aware, blood glucose can only be measured invasively with modern technology.

Yup. Measurements are still invasive.

The wireless communication approach you suggest does exist, typically via NFC.

 

[PostApple2016BrainWash]

Clearly, the Apple smartwatch failed to sell over 20m unit per quarter in the past five years and that's quite a disappointment.

 

[ericwn]

Clearly, the Apple smartwatch failed to sell over 20m unit per quarter in the past five years and that's quite a disappointment.

And where would such an expectation come from? Since Apple is unlikely to share the numbers it’s a non issue in the first place.

 

[Don1985]

Uh... that's not how bits work.

In any case, Watch 6 needs to finally have AC WiFi. And sort out the darn music sync issues. It's slow AF, even with the "disable BT and pull down the charger and put back on" trick, it just randomly stops, and random tracks are missing. I hate it. I sync the first playlist, there's 789 songs, so it takes like a full night, but it syncs them all, great. Alright, add the 2nd playlist, another 968 songs, so it should be 1757 the next morning, right? Wrong! It's 1708. Ok, something went wrong, so remove the 2nd playlist and try again next night, right? NOPE. Still 1708. WHY.

And no, it's not "incompatibility", I convert ALL songs with the same settings to the same format (MediaMonkey).

I have to agree. The music sync is such a pain. Mine shows as being full despite only having about 800 songs on it. The S5 is 32gb so should fit more than double that.

Otherwise I have no other complaints. It's great for notifications and running, AirPods in and no phone weighing you down, bliss.

 

[chucker23n1]

Clearly, the Apple smartwatch failed to sell over 20m unit per quarter in the past five years and that's quite a disappointment.

Yeah. 37.9% market share is awful. They should wrap it up and cancel the project.

 

[MacBH928]

Aren’t all wristwatches gadgets these days?

no...Rolex and Patek Philippe that Apple wanted to compete against with their gold edition only tell the time.

 

[ericwn]

no...Rolex and Patek Philippe that Apple wanted to compete against with their gold edition only tell the time.

And any phone today does the same and is equally as accurate or better. In fact in the years prior to smart watches I saw less and less folks wearing watches. All watches these days are fashion gadgets, smart or not. Some are limited to only telling time, some do a bit more.

 

[chucker23n1]

no...Rolex and Patek Philippe that Apple wanted to compete against with their gold edition only tell the time.

So they're even more "gadgets" than a smartwatch is.

 

[UltimaKilo]

You would think the battery would need to be better if sleep tracking is coming in series 6...

It doesn’t need to be a dramatic increase either. As it is, I’ve slept with an Apple Watch for years now and I only charge my Watch once a day.