Why no always on seconds?

[jclardy]

I've recently started to "give up" on the Apple Watch after 7 years and move back to my mechanicals, and for the times that I am on my AW S7 (Usually just for fitness tracking) the one thing that annoys me the most is the lack of an always on second hand (Or at least the option to have one.)

I use my watch for watch things. Sometimes I need to time something over 30 seconds to a minute, so I don't feel like tapping into my watch and scrolling around to find the stopwatch app, and I'm not on a chrono face...so I use the most basic function of the watch face - the current time. But every time without fail I am watching the seconds hand and the display goes back to sleep and boom, seconds hand is gone. Now I have to tap or drop and raise my wrist to get it back and that means I usually miss the timing because of it.

The display updates at 1hz in it's low power mode. That means 1 update per second, IE the perfect amount to update a second hand. Yes, you lose the perfectly smooth travel, but who cares? The watch should function as a watch, but it fails completely in this regard.

That and give us different watch hand options. Every single analog face has the same oval white hands. Tim Cook's "Most personal device ever" - right.

 

[russell_314]

Refresh rate. If they put the second hand that means it would need at least 60 Hz refresh rate and that would kill the battery

Maybe I’m wrong on this though

 

[Madhatter32]

I, too, need an always on seconds hand. The Seiko spring drives are fantastic technology if you enjoy the beauty of a sweeping seconds hand.

 

[bingeciren]

Samsung Galaxy watches display seconds on always on, but it eats the battery. I know it because I have one.

 

[MacDevil7334]

Refresh rate. If they put the second hand that means it would need at least 60 Hz refresh rate and that would kill the battery

Maybe I’m wrong on this though

They could technically do seconds with a 1 Hz refresh (which is actually what happens when using the workout app). But it would look like garbage on any of the analog faces. I suspect the feature also would simply drain the battery too fast, as others have suggested. The fact that AOD seconds is limited to just the doing workouts is probably not an accident.

 

[Mr.Blacky]

 

[MarkX]

Sounds like the Apple watch isn’t for you any more.

Apple offers the ability to add a timer complication for the specific situations you mention.

 

[Graham Caracas]

I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a phone. What is the use of a smart watch anyway?

 

[Howard2k]

I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a phone. What is the use of a smart watch anyway?

I would start by reading some reviews. Here's one:

Apple Watch 7 review

The Apple Watch 7 is the Series 6 with a slightly larger screen

www.techradar.com

They're not mandatory, I'm sure the vast majority of iPhone users do not use an Apple Watch.

 

[boak]

An analog second hand would look horrible on 1Hz. No smoothing on the change at all.

 

[TechRunner]

I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a phone. What is the use of a smart watch anyway?

I wear a watch for two reasons: One, it allows me to leave my phone in my pocket, in another room, etc. unless the notification needs immediate response, and two, it keeps me from annoying strangers and friends with my ringtone or notification chimes as it allows me to keep my phone on silent.

 

[Devnul0]

Have you tried telling your Watch “Hey Siri, count down 45 seconds” or similar? Works great, much easier than trying to navigate to the Watch app to manually set a timer.

 

[MauiPa]

I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a phone. What is the use of a smart watch anyway?

1) emergency phone when you are not carrying a phone
2) Exercise, heart rate monitoring
3) music
4) turn by turn instructions
5) irregular heart beat monitoring
6) let people know where you are for emergencies without carrying phone
7) blood oxygen

The list goes on and on and on

 

[jclardy]

Refresh rate. If they put the second hand that means it would need at least 60 Hz refresh rate and that would kill the battery

Maybe I’m wrong on this though

If they wanted the perfectly smooth sweep they would need it. 60hz is 60 updates per second. In the wrist down position it drops to 1hz, 1 update per second which means they could move the second hand every second.

An analog second hand would look horrible on 1Hz. No smoothing on the change at all.

Yeah, it would look like every quartz watch that has existed, horrible...

The wake duration is a decent fix, but I already have battery life issues on my S7 so I doubt having every wake last longer is a great fix. Also 15 seconds is too short, and 70 seconds is too long...if only they had some way to make a purely digital watch configurable...

 

[Graham Caracas]

1) emergency phone when you are not carrying a phone
2) Exercise, heart rate monitoring
3) music
4) turn by turn instructions
5) irregular heart beat monitoring
6) let people know where you are for emergencies without carrying phone
7) blood oxygen

The list goes on and on and on

1) carry the phone
2) do you know how to take your pulse with just one finger and a phone?
3) phone
4) phone
5) you don't need a monitor to know when you're having an arrhythmia (see item 6)
6) carry the phone
7) blood oxygen levels are used only to confirm more serious diagnoses. a blood draw is the most accirate way to test based on other symptoms. no one should ever trust any medical information from a toy watch

the list goes on and on

 

[Mr.Blacky]

If they wanted the perfectly smooth sweep they would need it. 60hz is 60 updates per second. In the wrist down position it drops to 1hz, 1 update per second which means they could move the second hand every second.

Yeah, it would look like every quartz watch that has existed, horrible...

The wake duration is a decent fix, but I already have battery life issues on my S7 so I doubt having every wake last longer is a great fix. Also 15 seconds is too short, and 70 seconds is too long...if only they had some way to make a purely digital watch configurable...

As soon as you lower your wrist, the screen will dimm/turn off. Doesn't matter if you set the duration to 15 or 70 seconds.

 

[dmr727]

the list goes on and on

Then don't buy one. Pretty simple, really.

 

[utzelu]

Have you tried telling your Watch “Hey Siri, count down 45 seconds” or similar? Works great, much easier than trying to navigate to the Watch app to manually set a timer.

So far this is the most helpful comment on the thread. It doesn’t get easier than just telling the watch to count down whatever time interval you need. But I can understand that it takes a bit of getting used to talking to your watch. I know I still forget about this option sometimes.

 

[Howard2k]

Then don't buy one. Pretty simple, really.

No. He must buy one. It’s mandatory.

 

[boak]

Yeah, it would look like every quartz watch that has existed, horrible...

Nope. With that you see the second hand moving into the next position. With 1Hz the second hand disappears suddenly and appears suddenly in the next position.

 

[Madhatter32]

Yeah, it would look like every quartz watch that has existed, horrible...

Quartz watches are the best. Durable, inexpensive, accurate enough, no wind or daily charge, minimal maintenance and can be quite beautiful. You can also buy a purely digital quartz watch. You need to worry about the battery once every three to five years. I mean really -- what's not to like? If you need a display always-on seconds hand, there is no better alternative.

 

[HDFan]

I stopped wearing a watch when I started carrying a phone. What is the use of a smart watch anyway?

) emergency phone when you are not carrying a phone
2) Exercise, heart rate monitoring
3) music
4) turn by turn instructions
5) irregular heart beat monitoring
6) let people know where you are for emergencies without carrying phone
7) blood oxygen

8) Timer. You wake Siri and just say "41 minutes" and it sets a timer.
9) Notes/reminders updates. As I run out of things I tell Siri "Please add snails to grocery list".
10) If you sleep with the watch if a call comes in you can take it right there without having to grab the phone, or reject it and go back to sleep.

 

[jclardy]

As soon as you lower your wrist, the screen will dimm/turn off. Doesn't matter if you set the duration to 15 or 70 seconds.

That is true, but it turns out this setting doesn't matter for what I want, which is adjusting the 5 second raise to wake timeout. If I have to tap the watch face I might as well make it two-three taps and open the timer app.

Look, I like the Apple Watch, I have worn one since S0. But it just pains me that it fails at basic watch functions 8 years later, things that literally just need a default settings tweak. Raise to wake works perfectly for me, the problem is just the hard 5 second limit that means you have to move your wrist around to wake it up repeatedly, or use two hands which defeats the purpose of having something strapped to your arm.

 

[Bento.Box]

I just realised how big of an issue it is. The iPhone doesn’t support seconds resolution, my mii band also doesn’t. Was curious if the AW is more precise. But it isn’t.

All this technology - outperformed by my mechanical tissot watch, 60 times more temporal resolution.

 

[MisterSavage]

Samsung Galaxy watches display seconds on always on, but it eats the battery. I know it because I have one.

This. Having to update the screen generally once a minute as opposed to once a second is a LOT different over time. The iPhone 14 Pro (unsurprisingly) does this also with its always on display.