Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Was the Apple Watch instant love for you, or did it grow on you?

Love at first sight, or did it grow on you?

  • Total voters
    130
The Cockney Rebel

The Cockney Rebel

Suspended
Original poster
Jul 17, 2010
3,214
4,064
I bought & returned quite a few Apple Watches, before I kept my Series 8.

I quite like it, but I'm not active at all at the moment, so not really getting the full use out of it.

What about you? Did you fall in love with the Apple Watch as soon as you bought it, or did it have to grow on you?

Wishing you all well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Miicat_47, antiprotest and jbachandouris
dmr727 said:
It definitely grew on me. I got my series 5 as a gift - at the time I never would have thought to want one - and now I'm waiting on the new ones to be released an plan to upgrade.
Click to expand...
What's your favourite feature/use?
 
I actually liked it a lot before getting the S2 back in mid 2017. Had issues with finding the right band because the fluoroelastomer band gave me rashes around my wrist.

If iPhone is the best product Apple invented, the watch is the second best.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Cockney Rebel
The AW definitely grew on me. I was never really a watch wearer prior to the AW. I purchased (and subsequently sold) the S0, S1 and S2. With the S3, it finally caught on for me and I’ve worn a AW on my wrist every day since.

I’m not sure what it was with the S3 that finally made me stick with the AW. Maybe it was the lack of decent smartwatch competition or the fact that it syncs and works flawlessly with my paired iPhone.
 
I’ve had other smart watches and fitness trackers before (I was also switching back/forth between iOS and Android devices), but I just recently got my first Apple Watch (Series 7). I love it. Compared to all my previous devices, it does way more. I’m still learning all the capabilities and also excited for WatchOS 10.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Cockney Rebel
I like mine and am used to it and feel naked without it but I use it for so little beyond apple pay and tracking activity that I could definitely live without it. That said I would miss the apple pay alot and I do love that it tracks ambient noise for hearing protection. I likely wont upgrade until more health focused features come out like blood glucose monitoring or something of that nature.
 
jbachandouris said:
The biggest pitfall of the Activity app is that days off are not taken into consideration. If you want your streak you must close all rings everyday.
Click to expand...

But you can just tweak your rings for a given day. Want to close your rings today AND have a rest day? Reduce your goals and then turn them back up tomorrow.
 
Howard2k said:
But you can just tweak your rings for a given day. Want to close your rings today AND have a rest day? Reduce your goals and then turn them back up tomorrow.
Click to expand...
I’ve had everyone since the first and obviously know that. Basically these rings are more trouble than they’re worth but if I shut off exercise tracking I might as well just sell it.
 
jbachandouris said:
I’ve had everyone since the first and obviously know that. Basically these rings are more trouble than they’re worth but if I shut off exercise tracking I might as well just sell it.
Click to expand...

I'm not suggesting you shut off exercise tracking, I'm just saying that you tweak your goals. I might be misunderstanding.

The problem: A slow day (rest/illness) means that you don't hit your "typical" metrics and lose your streak.
The solution: For a slow day you can reduce your metrics for that day and then increase them again for the following day.

No need to turn off exercise tracking.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jbachandouris
Despite being my most used Apple device (since I wear it almost all the time), it's never meant that much to me as a device because it's so passive. I use it to mainly monitor my health, fitness, and sleep and to receive notifications. It's not like an iPhone, iPad, or Mac where I really go to engage with it to do something on it. I find that I most appreciate having an Apple Watch when I need to leave my iPhone behind but can still receive notifications and communicate with others if I need to. It feels like a rare kind of freedom these days.

I can't really answer the poll though. I wouldn't say I'm in love with Apple Watch or that it grew on me or that I dislike it. I'm kind of indifferent, and this has always been my feelings about it. I appreciate the utility it has which is why I buy Apple Watches and use them, but I just don't care as much about them as devices as I do my iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ndouglas, hirsthirst, msackey and 1 other person
After owning one with cellular for about 2 years, I more and more grew OUT of love with it. I ended up trading it in and didn't get a new one. The reason was that every time I actually needed it the most, it fell short, and I ended up needing the phone. The more urgent the situation, the less I could count on it to fully do what I needed it to. Part of this was due to it's form factor. Not due to Apple's fault, it's inherently unable to do what I needed it to in urgent situations. So it ended up just being another device to charge and take care of. Moreover, developers for the apps that I care about have been either satisfied with a token buggy app for the watch, or they have discontinued their watch apps altogether. However, that was just my experience for my use case. I fully agree that it could be almost a perfect device for many people.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: WP31
I have an apple watch series 7. Gotta say I started backwards where I loved it initially but have become more and more disenchanted with it. I've always been a garmin user and for me the battery life is just not anywhere close to acceptable.
Charging once a day is fine but sometimes I don't even get a full 24 hours out of the battery and then you have to worry about if you will have enough battery life for a workout.
It's not even something you have to think about with the garmins.
And no I don't think apple watch ultra is for me, the battery life is still not somewhere I feel that it'll last long enough, the fitness features are not where I want it to be and I'm not really a huge fan of the touchscreen.
All things I thought I could live with when I got the apple watch but slowly these things have become more of a pain and I think I'm going back to garmin.
I also realized I don't really love having all the notifications on my wrist and there's not enough apps for me that really take advantage of the watch to make up for the fitness shortcomings...
Don't mean to rain on anyone's parade here, it's great hardware just not for me...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Al Rukh and antiprotest
I guess it depends on when you start from. When it first came out, before I purchased one, it needed to grow on me. By the time I purchased my Series 2, I'd tried a Fitbit and realized it wasn't good enough. I did my research and knew the Apple Watch would be great for my purposes, and it has been.
 
I have the first generation SE. I was thinking of getting Apple Watch Series 3, but believe it or not the price difference was only $50 in my country, so I thought I'd get a newer one for my birthday.
At first I didn't like it at all and was thinking for awhile why did I buy it, but now I can't live without it. I just wish more apps would support it, but right now only Duo is fully supported. Microsoft Authenticator is just horrible on it as well.
I mostly use it to track my sleeping with it, because I work different shifts and I can't really sleep when I have nightshifts and I also like that it records sound levels.
A few weeks ago someone rang my doorbell at 2am and it has never happened before, I sent my friend a message that someone's behind my door and in the morning I honestly started to doubt if it was a dream or it actually happened and thanks to my Apple Watch I figured out that it actually happened.

I often have 12 hour shifts too and during my 12h shifts I don't go out a lot and I like that my Apple Watch informs me that I am in a bad shape and have a low fitness level, but when I start walking a lot and going outside every day it shows that I'm getting better.

I know those are weird and little things, but thanks to those things I love my Apple Watch and am determined to change my life fully for the better. Without the watch I didn't even know that my physical fitness suffers a lot during my long shifts.
 
I've had two different stints at owning and using an Apple Watch. Both times I gave up. The health benefits and nagging to exercise were good, but not great and ultimately not successful. Otherwise, app support and the ability to do anything other than answer calls and iMessages/SMS texts on it didn't justify my continuing to use it. I'm strongly considering going back to it with some form of cellular version (as the idea of being able to leave my phone at home greatly appeals to me), but past that and I can't say it's an Apple product I have use for.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WP31
I need a "still not sure" category :). I use it for exercise only, mostly because I don't wear a watch through the day so it's just a workout tracker. The big thing for me is it can do the basic stuff I want a tracker to do (time, distance, heart rate) but also control music to my AirPods without another device (phone) to carry when walking/running/working out. No other item does that. So basically I'm stuck with it and don't really love it.
 
Got the S0 on day one and have loved it since then. I used to go days and sometimes even weeks without leaving my house, but now I go for a walk every day, and it's because of the Apple watch that I was able to get to this point.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Matz
I wasn’t sold on it until the 3rd gen, so that was the first one I bought. I had used and enjoyed other wearables before that point but the Series 3 was the first Apple Watch I considered to be good enough to buy (and actively wanted).
 
I bought a used Apple Watch 4 and didn't love it. My wife had a 7 and wanted an 8 because of some of the new features. Once I started using my wife's old 7, I love using it. The always on screen made a big difference for me.
 
WP31 said:
I need a "still not sure" category :). I use it for exercise only, mostly because I don't wear a watch through the day so it's just a workout tracker. The big thing for me is it can do the basic stuff I want a tracker to do (time, distance, heart rate) but also control music to my AirPods without another device (phone) to carry when walking/running/working out. No other item does that. So basically I'm stuck with it and don't really love it.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you use your Apple Watch as a Fitbit + iPod when you want to work out and leave your phone behind. I wonder if that's what most people use it for?
 
Howard2k said:
I'm not suggesting you shut off exercise tracking, I'm just saying that you tweak your goals. I might be misunderstanding.

The problem: A slow day (rest/illness) means that you don't hit your "typical" metrics and lose your streak.
The solution: For a slow day you can reduce your metrics for that day and then increase them again for the following day.

No need to turn off exercise tracking.
Click to expand...
You cannot set your exercise goal to zero minutes though. The lowest is 5. Someone could set 5 minutes and then track a low intensity exercise like yoga (and not do anything), but that's fudging what is done.

Having to change move and exercise goals every time you have a rest day (some of us have one weekly to allow for recovery) is an inconvenience.

What would be better is being able to set a weekly set of goals. Here's an example:
  • M-F with 600 move, 30 exercise, 14 stand
  • Saturdays at 800 move, 45 exercise, 16 stand
  • Sundays at 0 exercise, 250 move, 12 stand
Yes, that could be done (other than 0 exercise) manually but that's one more thing to do. Apple could allow for schedules.

I understand why Apple doesn't allow a 0 minute exercise goal but just because some people might abuse it by always setting 0 minutes doesn't mean it shouldn't be an option.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BullHorn, schneeland, Howard2k and 1 other person
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back