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

Watch for exercise, work and sleep tracking? Duo?

E

El_12

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 5, 2024
6
1
I come from using the Ultra 2 for about 6 months. Fantastic watch with great battery life, but I often find it cumbersome to wear due to the size and height on my wrist. I do love the flat usable surface of it and I am a tall adult with wrists large enough to make it look fairly normal.

I have considered going watchless, but really miss tracking acitivity and sleep - and being able to leave my phone around the house and when I feel like it at work. It really helps getting that screen time down and being in the moment without being worried about missing stuff on my phone. The Ultra 2 felt too big for sleep tracking.

I do not have a watch now and I have contemplated different options:

I could get a Series 8 SS for about 60% of the price of the Ultra 2. E.g. av 45 mm silver steel one. There is also the option of going with 41 mm SS, but I have large fingers so I do think it will make more instances of not hitting buttons skyrocket. :) The SS option would also handle scratches about the same as the Ultra (?).

I could also just get a 40 mm SE with LTE and manage at 50% of the price of the SS-watch, but I like the AOD being able to tell time without moving my hand to activate display.


Is the 45 mm Series 8 Stainless Silver a good middle ground, and will the battery life be sufficient? Or should I just get the Ultra 2 and an SE 40 mm for sleep tracking?

How well does acitivity tracking and sleep tracking function when switching watches throughout the day?

I like spending less, but can easily afford any combination of watches.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dmccombs
El_12 said:
How well does acitivity tracking and sleep tracking function when switching watches throughout the day?
Click to expand...
you can have up to 5 watches paired to a single iPhone, turn "auto switch" on and it is a seamless transition between them.
I wear my Ultra2 for ~ 38hrs non-stop (incl sleep tracking) and then wear my S7 every other night for sleep tracking while U2 is on the charger
 
  • Like
Reactions: El_12
Ok, that's great.

I have decided to try a 45 mm Stainless model first and se if it fits my needs.
 
I wear my Ultra 2 during the day and my Series 7 SBTi at night and the auto switching works perfectly. While the Ultra is a bit large, I got used to it. If I get tired of it then the S7 is the watch o choice for a week or two.
 
  • Love
Reactions: arc of the universe
Thanks! Might consider going Ultra 2 + 41 mm S8 SS Graphite to have "both ends of the spectrum".
 
I had never considered using more than 1 AW! Nice to know. My second Oura ring battery won’t last the night now, so it’s toast. Currently wear an AW U1, and was considering trying it for sleep tracking. A second watch to bridge the down time charging the main watch is an intriguing idea.

I was already planning on a new watch in September, returning to standard sizing. Instead of trading in my U1 for pennies, it would serve well as backup watch. For this practice. U1 is a great ‘flashy’ watch though. The regular size might be better wearing during sleep.

I guess I’ll have to see how much better an U3 will be over an aluminum watch during the hallelujah event in September.

I am retiring at year end, going through device upgrades while the money is good. I’ll need to be more practical in the future.
 
Bones13 said:
Instead of trading in my U1 for pennies, it would serve well as backup watch.
Click to expand...
Ultra 1 trade-in last Sep (when U2 was released) was like $380, went up a bit a couple months later and is now $370 I believe, best trade-in value of all AWs ever. of course it will go down by Sep ;)
Think what you need, I wear my U2 every other night, doesn't bother me. Sure, an all watch is lighter but if you only want it for sleep tracking, the SE will do. Me personally, will never get ion-x model again, but that's just me
 
So half an hour charge in the morning is enough to go the rest of the day? My brother mentioned that to me a few years back.

I am a surgeon, and in the past i could not use the bedtime function that signals the watch to measure sleep functions, while making it where my phone does not receive calls from the service. (That was a horrible morning after) Now, nearing retirement, I don’t take night call anymore, so I need to look that up again, and then see how my watch does recharging in the morning, during coffee.

set it up to try tonight
 
Last edited:
Bones13 said:
So half an hour charge in the morning is enough to go the rest of the day? My brother mentioned that to me a few years back.

I am a surgeon, and in the past i could not use the bedtime function that signals the watch to measure sleep functions, while making it where my phone does not receive calls from the service. (That was a horrible morning after) Now, nearing retirement, I don’t take night call anymore, so I need to look that up again, and then see how my watch does recharging in the morning, during coffee.
Click to expand...

With the Ultra, in my experience it's good enough. I don't usually keep it fully charged though, I'm trying to keep it in the 30% to 80% range and that seems to do the trick. Sometimes I use it more heavily though and can put a dent in it. If I'm running and listening to music or taking a phone call from the watch it goes down fairly quickly. Like any battery operated product - it depends how you use it. :D But as a blanket statement I think it's fair to say that 30 minutes a day of charging, or thereabouts, is probably sufficient most of the time.
 
Used U1 for sleep tracking last two nights with only one issue. The light at night.

Morning charging is working fine.I do miss the O2 sensor data from the Oura, but perhaps Apple will get that back one day.

About the light, other than making short cuts to turn on/off cinema mode, are there any new ways to slave this mode to bedtime settings?
I have 3 different wake up times during the 7 day week, making 6 different shortcuts seem excessive to not have the watch face on at night.
 
If automating it is too much work (and not to be flippant, but it doesn't sound like it is :D) then just create a shortcut to turn the display off and on and manually active it as needed.

I have a green icon on my phone for "AOD on" and a red icon for "AOD off". I do have automatons for screen on and off, but if I need to toggle it outside of that it's a simple button press from my Home Screen.

I don't use the Sleep Focus to activate AOD, but I believe that can be done too. I'm not sure. As I said, I use automations or just a manually triggered shortcut if there's a requirement.
 
El_12 said:
I could also just get a 40 mm SE with LTE and manage at 50% of the price of the SS-watch, but I like the AOD being able to tell time without moving my hand to activate display.
Click to expand...
Personally you couldn't pay to go back to a watch without AOD. My S8 batter is nowhere near depleted when I got to bed, but I don't use it for sleep tracking and charge it while I'm sleeping. But with fast charging just 30 minutes can get you I think 8 hours.
 
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