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That's progress for you. The one distinction I don't believe a lot of people make is that despite its name the  Watch is not a watch, shocking I know.
It's a very small, fully contained computer system. Which happens to get called a watch because we wear it on our wrist and well lets be honest, watch sounds a lot better than small fully contained computer system.

I remember my first mobile phone some twenty odd years ago, one thing that sticks in my mind about it is that despite being bigger than the actual phone the battery was utterly appalling. You sure as heck didn't get anything like 18 hours from it, you were lucky if you got 18 minutes of use.

Perhaps a better comparison would be to my first watch, which I got when I was four (thats 36 years ago for those keeping count :D ). I loved that watch, still got it somewhere. But the point I'm ambling slowly towards is that it also had an all day battery life. Well I say battery life, there was no battery, it was mechanical and it needed wound every single day or it would die on me.

The point I'm rather badly making is that since the dawn of timekeeping there has been an element of manual intervention needed to keep the tracking of time ticking along, well maybe not the sundial.

An hourglass needed turning every hour, clocks needed constant winding and adjustment to keep in time as did watches, many still do. But with all of these things technology progresses, my current watch is kinetic and very accurate so it rarely needs intervention from me at all.

Apple and others will improve the battery life of their smart watches in time, of that there is no doubt. But until then, for me 18 hours or more (or less) will do just fine. When the battery runs out, well I've got my hourglass to keep good time. Damn, time to turn it over again.


I really shouldn't type things out before I've had my medication in the morning :D

Dribble stuff like "small fully contained computer system" all you like. It's a watch. It tells time, it's worn on the wrist, IT IS A WATCH.

1000
 
Dribble stuff like "small fully contained computer system" all you like. It's a watch. It tells time, it's worn on the wrist, IT IS A WATCH.

1000


Yes and more accurately, no it isn't. It's a smart watch, something reasonably new. The comparison to a normal watch really starts and stops with telling the time.
 
Because it's about 1/1500th the life of a typical watch battery.



This is a bad comparison because a watch is not a phone.

"I plug in my camera battery to charge about twice a year. Why can't a watch battery last that long?"

See, the reason that statement sounds ridiculous is because you're comparing things that are inherently not the same.

People who wear watches (speaking as one) do not typically plug them in, and the battery typically lasts for years. So a watch whose battery lasts only 18 hours is quite jarringly short on life, compared to what we're used to.

Devils advocate here...

This is a bad comparison though, because the Watch is not a traditional Watch, nor is it only a watch.

"My watch that can only tell time and do basic timing functions only needs to have the battery replaced every few years. Why can't this smart watch, who's functions far far far exceed those of my traditional watch, have the same battery life?"

See, the reason that statement sounds ridiculous is because you're comparing things that are inherently not the same.

People who wear watches (speaking as someone who doesn't but has read enough criticism to know the arguments) typically do not plug them in and the battery typically lasts for years. They also don't make/receive phone calls on them, send receive messages with them, view pictures on them, track their physical activity on them (debatable over the past 7-8 years), pay for groceries with them, etc. So an Apple Watch whose battery only lasts 18 hours shouldn't be directly compared to the traditional watches of yesterday.

Just as the battery life of this:

3310.jpg


Shouldn't be a direct comparison for this:

gvp_Apple-iPhone6-Horizontal_5000178_640x360.jpg


Not to mention, it's a gen 1 product. Perhaps we could compare it's battery life before requiring user input, to the running time of early watches before they required winding (user input)?
 
Can we stop acting as though we had been told about the 18 hour battery life after we bought the watch?

If this is a deal breaker for you then do not buy the Apple Watch. Everybody has to make that choice for themselves, and then live with it. It's that simple. Battery technology will improve, sometimes it only takes one breakthrough to improve it by a factor of ten. But for now, this is what we have, this is what we're going to live with if we buy the watch. So there.

BTW, I intend to charge the watch when I get home from work, apparently it takes 1.5h to 80% or 2.5h to 100%. I will then wear it at night and use it as my alarm.

I also intend to get the battery replaced after 3 years or so when it's worn out. I know that's going to happen, I don't lament it, I don't bitch about it on forums.
 
1) have to charge it daily
2) No sleep tracking options
3) Have to worry about trying to charge it during specific situations (long international flights and camping trips)
4) all other competitors don't require daily charging
 
1) have to charge it daily
2) No sleep tracking options
3) Have to worry about trying to charge it during specific situations (long international flights and camping trips)
4) all other competitors don't require daily charging
1) Just like a phone
2) True
3) Carry a USB battery on you if you're so worried in those very specific occasions, after all, your phone's battery is as likely to die in those situations too, which makes the Watch moot - although it will still keep displaying the time :)
4) BS
 
Keep wearing it. The Apple Watch isn't meant to replace it. It's a whole new ball game and not comparable

The problem is apple does not differentiate it. They want apple watch to invoke the sense of familiarity. A watch is meant to be timeless. Ironically, it is the one thing that the apple watch is not.

no one wears two pairs of watches at a time.

----------

In the astronomical sense, yes. In a colloquial sense 24 hours are also known to comprise both day and night ;)

Jack Bauer would've been screwed had he used an apple watch then
 
I don't know about you guys, but 1 day is fine with me.

I have had numerous fit bits. pebble, sleep trackers etc etc. I had to buy a second charger for the pebble and keep it at work because the battery would last 5-7 days and I would always forget to charge it or the magnetic charger would fall out.

I have a number of watches, only when I am camping do I wear one to sleep ($25 Timex) It seems to make the most sense to have an Apple watch for the day and a fitness/sleep tracking bracelet that is more comfortable and smaller to wear at night. This way you never have a dead device and each is best suited to its own task!

I have a car, my wife has a small SUV, we take the car on long road trips and the SUV in the snow. Who are these people that do everything with their watch on? (Shower/sleep/etc)

For $100 you can get a number of waterproof sleep/fitness trackers and give the Apple watch a break once in a while. It only takes an hour or two to charge!
 
Vector it with other data: What did I eat the night before? How much did I work out? When did I work out? What time did I actually fall asleep? If I want to be extra pedantic, I can track if I have trouble falling asleep and sleeping well after Game of Thrones.

That makes sense.

Since my children stopped coming into my room and waking me far too early in the morning, I generally fall asleep within minutes, and sleep through the night.

So I guess it would not be terribly useful to me.

...personally, I think the whole idea of wearing something like a watch on your wrist whilst trying to sleep - would actually keep you awake? No? How would one be able to relax with a tight watch on their wrist 'monitoring their sleep'?!

Also, with the high price point of the Apple Watch (£300 for the cheapest model) - who would want to risk wearing that whilst they slept, for fear of inadvertently smacking it against the bed frame/ bed cabinet or whatever else you may have by your bed, whilst they were asleep? Certainly not me......
 
...personally, I think the whole idea of wearing something like a watch on your wrist whilst trying to sleep - would actually keep you awake? No? How would one be able to relax with a tight watch on their wrist 'monitoring their sleep'?!

Also, with the high price point of the Apple Watch (£300 for the cheapest model) - who would want to risk wearing that whilst they slept, for fear of inadvertently smacking it against the bed frame/ bed cabinet or whatever else you may have by your bed, whilst they were asleep? Certainly not me......

I can sleep with a CPAP machine strapped to my head like Bane's mask in Batman. A watch isn't a problem.

Also, given my cat's love of golfing objects, my wrist is probably the *safest* place for the watch.

Also, if I smacked my wrist against objects a lot, I'd be waking up with bruises, no?
 
1) Just like a phone
2) True
3) Carry a USB battery on you if you're so worried in those very specific occasions, after all, your phone's battery is as likely to die in those situations too, which makes the Watch moot - although it will still keep displaying the time :)
4) BS

the point is it isn't a phone and honestly I don't charge my phone daily now. I also turn it off for specific situations like traveling or even camping until I need it. The watch will have some functions, especially activity tracking, without the phone.

And yes, competitors in the market have multiple days charging and depending what market you are talking about, it can go beyond. Yes it is a smart watch but if you are focused on health features, competitors have watches/fitness bands that go without charging from 5 days to 3 months.
 
Having to charge it every night is great as it gets me into a habit pattern that I won't forget. Imagine if it was every 1 1/2 days or 2 1/4 days...I'd never remember when to charge it and I would just end up charging it every night anyway.

Discussions are great, but for folks that are whining incessantly about it's quite simple: don't buy one!
 
I would like to see more battery life eventually, I think 48 hours and folks might start shutting up about it.. others not.

Can I fly from Manchester, UK with an early start, down to London and across to San Francisco and even though I'm not so functional the watch is..? Probably if I shut it down.

Still getting one though :D
 
Aside from having to take yet another cable when traveling, even for a short one or two day trip, the main problem is that if it is just getting through the day now, it won't be making it through a day in a year or two, and you will need to have the battery replaced. If it were more along the lines of 24, 36, 48 hours, now you know it will make it through a day for several years, and you can start thinking about not needing to charge it for a 1 night, maybe 2 night trip.

The good news is that it sounds like it should make a day, no problem, and that is encouraging, but I still would have traded many of the "features" they added for 2-3 day battery, or more.
 
Aside from having to take yet another cable when traveling, even for a short one or two day trip, the main problem is that if it is just getting through the day now, it won't be making it through a day in a year or two, and you will need to have the battery replaced. If it were more along the lines of 24, 36, 48 hours, now you know it will make it through a day for several years, and you can start thinking about not needing to charge it for a 1 night, maybe 2 night trip.

The good news is that it sounds like it should make a day, no problem, and that is encouraging, but I still would have traded many of the "features" they added for 2-3 day battery, or more.

This is very relevant, I found the AppleCare+ to be obligatory for this reason
 
Devils advocate here...

This is a bad comparison though, because the Watch is not a traditional Watch, nor is it only a watch.

"My watch that can only tell time and do basic timing functions only needs to have the battery replaced every few years. Why can't this smart watch, who's functions far far far exceed those of my traditional watch, have the same battery life?"

See, the reason that statement sounds ridiculous is because you're comparing things that are inherently not the same.

People who wear watches (speaking as someone who doesn't but has read enough criticism to know the arguments) typically do not plug them in and the battery typically lasts for years. They also don't make/receive phone calls on them, send receive messages with them, view pictures on them, track their physical activity on them (debatable over the past 7-8 years), pay for groceries with them, etc. So an Apple Watch whose battery only lasts 18 hours shouldn't be directly compared to the traditional watches of yesterday.

Just as the battery life of this:

Image

Shouldn't be a direct comparison for this:

Image

Not to mention, it's a gen 1 product. Perhaps we could compare it's battery life before requiring user input, to the running time of early watches before they required winding (user input)?

Comparing this to phone versus smart phone doesn't really work. Although dumb phones had better idle times than smart phones, their actually use time was much lower. Only about 3-5 hours in call, vs up to 10 hours for an iPhone (up to 24 hours for a 6+). Consequently, it was never unusual for people to carry their chargers with them for their phones.
 
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