Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Thoughts on buying Apple watch
- Thread starter mcfinch
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I enjoyed it right up until my bitch wife Courtney divorced me because I was passed out drunk and my girlfriend texted me and it popped up on the watch.
I was holding off then when best buy started the sale, I pulled the trigger. Glad I did. Love it!
Gotta watch that watch. Can get ya in trouble. Yeah...you already figured that out already!
I got it after having one and returning it prematurely without giving it enough time. I really enjoy mine, and the way I figured is if I am tempted by the second gen I will sell the first and buy one a few months after it's launched. And since I have a first gen, it will allow me to have patience and let others figure out if there are any issues, etc. before deciding to purchase.
Just rebought the 38mm SS ML yesterday after trying the 360 v2. Forgot how much better the Apple Watch is for the everyday basics. The taptic vibration is way better than the 360 which i would often miss. Having a speaker to take calls when driving is really useful for me. And Apple Pay is everywhere and oh so simple.
I always wear a watch due to needing to know the time and timing activities. I also wear a fitness band for activity tracking, running, cycling, as well as notifications. Combining two into one is definitely a benefit. The only thing I'm losing out on is waterproofing (swimming) and having to charge daily instead of every 4-5 days.
Best of all: the SS ML was brand new (just open box) for £290... less than half retail price.
Bottom line is if you will use it, get it. Ignore the reviews that complain about this app or that app not being usable on a watch - it's not a replacement for the phone. That's why things like a clock(!), notifications, weather, navigation, speaker to take calls, reminders...aka doing the basics really well... are the killer features for me.
I always wear a watch due to needing to know the time and timing activities. I also wear a fitness band for activity tracking, running, cycling, as well as notifications. Combining two into one is definitely a benefit. The only thing I'm losing out on is waterproofing (swimming) and having to charge daily instead of every 4-5 days.
Best of all: the SS ML was brand new (just open box) for £290... less than half retail price.
Bottom line is if you will use it, get it. Ignore the reviews that complain about this app or that app not being usable on a watch - it's not a replacement for the phone. That's why things like a clock(!), notifications, weather, navigation, speaker to take calls, reminders...aka doing the basics really well... are the killer features for me.
I bought my 38mm sport more than 5 months ago and I still love it. Not everyone will see the value in owning one, but it's definitely worth a try at $100 off.
Last edited:
Make sure you know the return date. I loved my watch at first but after a month or so it wore off. I bought mainly for the fitness aspects promised by Apple at the introduction and found them greatly lacking compared to a Garmin or Fitbit device I wear now.
For some the watch is a must have, just make sure to know the return deadline and use it it you find it not doing everything you want.
Did you return it before watch os2 came out? I have a Fitbit surge now that I like, but was considering getting the Apple Watch to replace it. How did you find the fitness features lacking compared to the Fitbit?
I wonder if the watch will continue to be $100 off after the holidays? My birthday is the end of January and I'm thinking I might get one. I'd hate to buy one and then they drop version 2 in a month.
Same way! I was holding off until the next version hits next year. It's been hard enough holding out this long. But once Best Buy had that $100 off sale it was a no brainer. I picked up one for myself for Xmas, one for my dad and one for my wife.
I figure, use the heck out of this one and if I love it, i'll get version 2...
What color did you get? I picked up silver w/ white band sport watches for the wife and father and a space grey and black band for myself. But I'm wondering if i'll regret getting the space grey version if the color easily scratches off. My iphone 5 had that issue where the color would scratch off easily. When I bought the 6+ I bought the white and haven't had an issue at all.
I was a Fitbit user before I got the Apple Watch. I'd say for pure fitness tracking options the Surge has more appeal: Built-in GPS (the Apple Watch relies on the iPhone's GPS... which must be in range), sleep monitoring (which the AW doesn't offer), and probably better automatic activity tracking (although I don't know about that feature... my Fitbit One didn't support it). Fitbit also has a social network for encouragement and just one fitness app on the iPhone, while the Apple health apps are three (and no social network): Activity Rings, Workout app, and the Health app (which is kind of a big database that can consolidate data from other apps... except the Fitbit app). Of course with the Apple Watch you can use other apps like Strava that have a social network component.
The question is whether or you want a fitness tracker with minimal Smartwatch features, or do you want a Smartwatch with some fitness tracking capabilities? I am much more about the smartwatch features, so I just use my Fitbit One for sleep tracking these days. I really like the Activity rings on the Apple Watch, and the workout app does fine for my modest needs. I mostly just track bike rides and hikes with the workout app. If I was more into the gym, or training for competition, I might prefer a more fitness oriented device. As far as accuracy goes, my Fitbit and my Apple Watch are pretty much the same (or within a few percent) when it comes to tracking my steps throughout the day. Others say there are discrepancies, so your mileage may vary.
Sean
About sleep tracking --
The AW seems at least capable of gathering sleep data, even if it doesn't display it. I checked my iPhone's Health app for sleep data, and it has some stored away even though I don't own a dedicated sleep tracker. Turns out that the data points came from Lark, which I had installed on the watch at the time.
It also tracks a bucketload of heart rate data (just another example), and although neither Health more Activity display it in great detail, third-party apps can dig it up and present it in their own way.
The AW seems at least capable of gathering sleep data, even if it doesn't display it. I checked my iPhone's Health app for sleep data, and it has some stored away even though I don't own a dedicated sleep tracker. Turns out that the data points came from Lark, which I had installed on the watch at the time.
It also tracks a bucketload of heart rate data (just another example), and although neither Health more Activity display it in great detail, third-party apps can dig it up and present it in their own way.
My watch lives in the drawer. I did take it out to install os2 but found little difference, if any, in the fitness aspect. I continue to use the Fitbit products I used before. I used the Surge for a while but settle down to the Charge HR which does a great job on the heart rate compared to the AW. Apple has much work to do on the sensor to beat the heart rate sensor on the Charge. I can wear it lose or tight and it still track my HW.
If I were you I would wait till March for the AW2. Hopefully Apple will fix a few things. Most disappointing is the Apple health apps when compared to Garmin or Fitbit.
Last edited:
Lark basically tracks the time your iPhone spends on the charger at night and writes that into the Health app as sleep time. It doesn't seem to use the watch to track when you are sleeping.
There are other apps that uses the motion data from the watch to try to track when you are sleeping, but Apple hasn't built sleep tracking into the watch as a native feature.
I don't know what it's tracking, then, because it only has sleep data from when I had it on the watch. It's been on my phone since I removed it from the watch, and sleep data stopped at that point. I can't remember when I had originally downloaded Lark from the App Store, though.
The key questions here are what do you like about the Fitbit and how do you use it?
If you use your FB just to see daily steps, then the AW performs similarly. However, if you manually enter activities, sync activities from other devices, have a social network for activity challenges and motivation, use the FB web site to see trending and changes over time, etc., then you will miss the FB. The AW mobile app is limited and there is no web app.
To me, the activity tracking and fitness maturity of the AW are not so much with its hardware is it is the supporting software. The AW2 will likely not be appreciably different in these two areas unless Apple invests significantly in the surrounding apps. And if they do, all boats will rise, including anyone with an AW1.
how rude of her. Gotta know those privacy settings do not carry over to the watch!
I love mine and use it quite a bit. People that are unhappy seem to be those that a) don't give enough time and experimentation to fit it into their daily workflow, and b) don't really understand what it is/does when they bought it. I'll start with the second one... the AW is an extension of your iPhone. If you don't get that going in, you will be disappointed. Nearly everything it does can be done on the iPhone, but with less convenience and more intrusiveness. The argument of, "I could just pull out my phone and do that." is kind of silly because of course you could.
Back to my first point, after getting the AW, I for the first time really looked at my iPhone notifications and thought through what I really wanted to receive, from which apps, etc.. Then I decided which of those I wanted to go to my watch. Now I get pretty much exactly what I want on my wrist. Also, there are a lot of apps that have AW functions now. Some are great and some are either total crap or don't work at all. I am very judicious about what apps I push to my watch, how I push them, and when. If I'm going to be traveling for a week, I spend 5 minutes to change what's on my watch. If I'm working in the yard during the weekend, I have different apps I like to use.
On the AW, apps manifest themselves in several ways... notifications, glances, complications, and then the apps themselves. I rarely use the last. The first 3 I use quite a bit. The first 3 require an effort on the owner's part to figure out how to blend into your life. That is where I think a lot of people fail in "getting" the AW. They buy the AW. They let it replicate all their stuff (the default) to mirror on the AW from their iPhone. it runs like crap and is just a total mess. They determine its crap, and give up. Then they come on MR and bash the AW. There is a continual effort to tweak and learn and tweak those three areas of usage.
As for buying now... I don't really think the next generation watch is going to be dramatically different. I think there will be maybe be some new styles and colors and maybe a speed bump. I will even be surprised if its thinner. I just bought mine a few months ago. I bought a sport. I kept it for about a week and decided I really liked it but wanted the SS. I returned it to Apple and found on eBay a mint SS with classic buckle and AppleCare+ for about $200 off of new price. I couldn't be happier with my purchase. I'd say to shop around a bit. I would definitely not buy one for full retail right now, but there are deals to be had like you mentioned and also used.
I was resisting the AW since launch and had backed a watch on Kickstarter instead (Olio). My Olio arrived just before thanksgiving and it went back to Olio last week. Physically it is beautiful, and the idea behind the UI is good, but they brought it to market at least two months too early based on all of the firmware issues that I (and others) experienced.
But... Having it for a couple of weeks made me realize that I liked the convenience of a smart watch. I went to Best Buy about 10 days ago and played with several Android watches and the Apple Watch. Physically the AW isn't the best looking, but the functionality and integration with IOS, plus the $100 off, sucked me in
But... Having it for a couple of weeks made me realize that I liked the convenience of a smart watch. I went to Best Buy about 10 days ago and played with several Android watches and the Apple Watch. Physically the AW isn't the best looking, but the functionality and integration with IOS, plus the $100 off, sucked me in
Were you wearing the watch while you were sleeping?
I'm just going by what the Lark app says they are doing, but it's possible they updated to track data from the watch and didn't update the in-app explanation. Or it's just coincidence that it managed to detect sleep during that period -- their sleep tracking feature is very hit and miss.
In any case, my point remains that there is no native sleep tracking feature built into the watch, and any apps that try to track sleep using data from the watch are just extrapolating from the motion and perhaps heart rate data.
What do fitness bands like the Fitbit use? I haven't used one, but do they get more info from the wearer?