The Watch, 1 Year Later

[Macdude2010]

A year ago today, the Apple Watch launched, so today I wanted to take time to reflect on the impact it has had on my life.

The day the watch was announced, I knew I wanted one. I had tested the idea of a smartwatch by purchasing a Pebble a year prior, and decided that I actually found notifications on my wrist to be useful. So, on April 10th I ordered the Apple Watch Stainless Steel w/ Classic Buckle. Immediately I fell in love with it, even though there were some flaws in the way it worked (and yes it was a bit slow.) The reliability of the notifications was a lot more consistent than the Pebble ever was.

Fast forward about a month (May) and I was starting to expand my collection of bands, this was the first time I actually paid attention to what I was wearing and tried to get everything to match. A lot of my clothes were worn out, so I decided to replace them with things that would compliment the watch and the different bands I had purchased.

In August, I realized that I was only using the watch for 2 out of the 3 things it was built for. I was never a healthy person, and back then would have been considered overweight (234lbs, 5' 10"), so, I decided to start paying attention to the health improvement portions of the watch. Between eating healthier and paying attention to the reminders and activity rings on the watch over the past 8 months, I have dropped close to 50lbs (currently at 185lbs) and now have a 33 inch waist.

Even though the Apple Watch does continue to have some bugs and is definitely not a perfect product, it is the one that has had the largest impact on my life. This was just something I wanted to reflect on after owning the Apple Watch for a whole year.

 

[BarracksSi]

Nice to see the good news.

Did you budget for buying new clothes twice?

 

[profets]

I was thinking about that this morning. 1 year to the day that I received my watch. Happened to have a half marathon run this morning for which I used the watch. One year in, I've truly enjoyed it.

 

[Dr.Chroma]

This is a great post. I too have expanded my Band collection and look forward to version 2 of the Watch.

I appreciate the notifications and glances. Apple needs to release more Watch faces. Hopefully with Watch OS 3, we will see some major improvements. Yes, the Watch is slow in areas. However, the OS has improved with software updates. I personally do not use many apps on the Watch and I find it plenty fast for my daily uses. I am looking forward to see what Apple has in store for Version 2. It appears we will see a Fall release on 2016.

Keep up the good work.

 

[WarHeadz]

Great post. At this point when people see my apple watch and ask me what the point of it is, I just chuckle and give them a nice long speech that summarizes my experience with it this past year. When I'm finished with them they never question the Apple Watch again

 

[tom504]

Nice. I am watching the Travel Channel right now and they are going around the country showing off fried foods, have not seen one Apple Watch!

 

[cbronfman]

I bought one early on and became very attached to it - so with the recent price "drop" by $50 I bought a 2nd - both Sports Watches - silicone band on the first - one of the nylon on the second. As I swim with the watch at least two days a week, that really burns up the battery on those days - and on other days I do a long workout and like having the watch on me all the time as it's really useful. While I was always pretty active - I use a power wheelchair and find that the reminders to stand (which I can only meet if there are grab bars or whatever close by) are very useful as otherwise I can sit staring at the computer for hours. I think the watch is great - and want to see what Apple comes up with for Watch 2, but I for one really find the current version pretty useful. Apple Pay in particular is so easy using the watch.

 

[MH01]

That's awesome! Getting healthy, loosing weight is a massive change for the better , glad the watch helped

 

[Andreas222]

Nice to hear it has had such a positive impact for you!

 

[bluespark]

Good post, OP. I have been known to contribute to the cynicism here on occasion, but I appreciate the relatively rare post that's purely positive. Whatever we all think of Apple's recent shortcomings, it's cool to be reminded that their products sometimes offer users exactly what they want.

 

[tonoboon]

After one year ,
3 Watches 15 Bands
Love Apple Watch

 

[BlueMoon63]

A year ago today, the Apple Watch launched, so today I wanted to take time to reflect on the impact it has had on my life.

The day the watch was announced, I knew I wanted one. I had tested the idea of a smartwatch by purchasing a Pebble a year prior, and decided that I actually found notifications on my wrist to be useful. So, on April 10th I ordered the Apple Watch Stainless Steel w/ Classic Buckle. Immediately I fell in love with it, even though there were some flaws in the way it worked (and yes it was a bit slow.) The reliability of the notifications was a lot more consistent than the Pebble ever was.

Fast forward about a month (May) and I was starting to expand my collection of bands, this was the first time I actually paid attention to what I was wearing and tried to get everything to match. A lot of my clothes were worn out, so I decided to replace them with things that would compliment the watch and the different bands I had purchased.

In August, I realized that I was only using the watch for 2 out of the 3 things it was built for. I was never a healthy person, and back then would have been considered overweight (234lbs, 5' 10"), so, I decided to start paying attention to the health improvement portions of the watch. Between eating healthier and paying attention to the reminders and activity rings on the watch over the past 8 months, I have dropped close to 50lbs (currently at 185lbs) and now have a 33 inch waist.

Even though the Apple Watch does continue to have some bugs and is definitely not a perfect product, it is the one that has had the largest impact on my life. This was just something I wanted to reflect on after owning the Apple Watch for a whole year.

Bravo to your weight loss! The Apple Watch may have some bugs but the health and fitness aspects are good. Most OCD that it needs to be great. If all you want is fitness, get a Garmin.

I've worn my Apple watch every day for a year now and have about 270 workouts and average about 1000 calories a day which would never happen without the Apple Watch.

Maybe the best thing I can say about the Apple Watch is that I can workout with just the watch and Bluetooth headphones and play my library and use a workout app and still take down notes, reminders, to-do's and still never miss an important message. What other device does that? If I was a serious runner or biker that needed to know "exacts" I would use a dedicated device on one arm and the Aplle watch on the other. After the workout, the dedicated device goes in the drawer, the Apple Watch stays on the wrist.

 

[BarracksSi]

After the workout, the dedicated device goes in the drawer, the Apple Watch stays on the wrist.

This is pretty much why I don't use my Garmin anymore. I hoped it could do well as an everyday watch, but it was just too bulky and, well, too ugly. The AW is much nicer to wear all the time.

 

[smacrumon]

Congrats on your health improvements!

 

[largefarrva]

I also bought the Apple Watch and didn't really have the health aspects on my radar at the time. But my inner OCD got the better of me and I just HAD to fill those dang circles every day, especially after stepping on the scale around my 40th birthday last May and tipping the scales at 298 lbs!! Had to do something about that.

So I got my old Trek Navigator 3.0 tuned up and road ready...did my first bike ride on May 31st for a grand total of a mile and a half ride. My legs felt like jelly and I was winded...it was an eye opener for sure.

Fast forward to this year and two different road bikes later. I hit my weight loss goal of 180 lbs (worth mentioning that my height is 6' 2") on March 12th, for almost 120 lbs lost in around 9 months time. That mile and a half ride has turned into an average of 30-35 miles per day on the bike, and I've put in over 9000 miles of saddle time since that first bike ride. I've ridden each and every day since that day.

Activity circle-wise...I've achieved a perfect month for every month since July last year. Had it not been for missing my exercise minutes by 4 minutes on June 1st last year I would be gunning for a perfect year after this month. I'll have it by July 1st though.

 

[xDKP]

Great story mate - very happy for your new improved health. You might send Tim a mail and be a part of a cool video for WWDC ;-)

 

[maxsix]

Upon release I ordered a SS AW.

A serious Apple enthusiast since the nineties, I really wanted to like this product. I gave it the majority of my daily focus each day for two weeks, in order to evaluate it fairly.

But too heavy on gimmicks and too light on useful features, I rather reluctantly returned it. Error prone, it simply could not serve as my mission critical fitness watch. 100% accuracy is the norm from my SUUNTO-AMBIT3-PEAK fitness and competition watch, that syncs perfectly with my iPhone 6S Plus.

Now one year later, Apple's Watch is but a distant memory. Many of my training partners and fellow competitors have had the same experience. For Apple to be taken seriously when it comes to fitness... They've got a lot of work to do.

 

[Armen]

A year ago today, the Apple Watch launched, so today I wanted to take time to reflect on the impact it has had on my life.

The day the watch was announced, I knew I wanted one. I had tested the idea of a smartwatch by purchasing a Pebble a year prior, and decided that I actually found notifications on my wrist to be useful. So, on April 10th I ordered the Apple Watch Stainless Steel w/ Classic Buckle. Immediately I fell in love with it, even though there were some flaws in the way it worked (and yes it was a bit slow.) The reliability of the notifications was a lot more consistent than the Pebble ever was.

Fast forward about a month (May) and I was starting to expand my collection of bands, this was the first time I actually paid attention to what I was wearing and tried to get everything to match. A lot of my clothes were worn out, so I decided to replace them with things that would compliment the watch and the different bands I had purchased.

In August, I realized that I was only using the watch for 2 out of the 3 things it was built for. I was never a healthy person, and back then would have been considered overweight (234lbs, 5' 10"), so, I decided to start paying attention to the health improvement portions of the watch. Between eating healthier and paying attention to the reminders and activity rings on the watch over the past 8 months, I have dropped close to 50lbs (currently at 185lbs) and now have a 33 inch waist.

Even though the Apple Watch does continue to have some bugs and is definitely not a perfect product, it is the one that has had the largest impact on my life. This was just something I wanted to reflect on after owning the Apple Watch for a whole year.

email your story to tcook@apple.com You know never, Tim Cook's team may respond to you. They like stories like this.

 

[Macdude2010]

So it's now been around 1 year and 1 month and I've continued to lose weight. I am now at 175.5lbs down from 234lbs. My large leather loop bands no longer fit because my arm has become a lot smaller. I was in the Apple Store last week picking something up when I mentioned this to one of the employees. They said to call apple and explain the situation to them, just to try to see what they would say. I did that today, and now there are 2 medium sized leather loops headed my way, they said think of it as a congratulations on the weight loss.

 

[Neverbepeace]

So it's now been around 1 year and 1 month and I've continued to lose weight. I am now at 175.5lbs down from 234lbs. My large leather loop bands no longer fit because my arm has become a lot smaller. I was in the Apple Store last week picking something up when I mentioned this to one of the employees. They said to call apple and explain the situation to them, just to try to see what they would say. I did that today, and now there are 2 medium sized leather loops headed my way, they said think of it as a congratulations on the weight loss.

Congrats on the weight lost......and kudos to apple for the gift.....

 

[jonnysods]

Is this purely because of walking each day?

 

[Talkingtoaster]

Still working great for me. Tracking weight loss. used for apple music and its great. use the timer all the time (i cook a lot) and use for phone calls for and texts a lot. I feel these are the main functions the watch provides and if you don't utilise them then its a lost product and a novelty.

 

[Flow39]

I still love mine as well. For the fitness aspect, I'd like it if it would actually tell me to eat to gain weight! I'm 6'2" and 155. I've lost 5 lbs in the last year and I don't need to lose any more!

 

[BarracksSi]

I still love mine as well. For the fitness aspect, I'd like it if it would actually tell me to eat to gain weight! I'm 6'2" and 155. I've lost 5 lbs in the last year and I don't need to lose any more!

I think the LoseIt! app has an option for gaining weight, probably maxing out at +2 lbs per week.

 

[rockyromero]

They said to call apple and explain the situation to them, just to try to see what they would say. I did that today, and now there are 2 medium sized leather loops headed my way, they said think of it as a congratulations on the weight loss.

Great interest story and encouraging to me.

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