Bought My First Apple Watch

[jyl]

Well, I received my own Apple Watch. Now I need to figure out how to attach it to a NATO band. That has my existing watch on it.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Timely (no pun). I actually just picked one up myself. I've been a bit of a skeptic on these things (saw them as a "solution in search of a problem to solve"). I really hadn't had a burning desire for one or anything, just a detached curiosity. I happened to start playing around with one in the store when I was in there for something else and it ended growing on me. Apple apparently dropped the prices on these recently (flagging sales?) so it was "only" $300 (not cheap, but not terrible). I'm pretty impressed so far and heck - there are a lot more boring watches out there for 300 bucks.

Still learning the ins and outs and I've noticed I haven't been getting 100% of my e-mail notifications but I figure that's something to do with how I've got it configured. Not a bad invention actually. Very slick, Apple-esque design and build quality. So far I'm happy with it.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

My Pebble Time went into a drawer a few weeks ago and I haven't missed it. I stopped wearing a watch altogether.

[red-beard]

Still wearing/using my Samsung Galaxy Gear S after almost a year and a half. I'd like to upgrade to the Gear S2, but there isn't a compelling reason. But they look a lot better...



Especially the upgraded "classic" models. Except, the classic models are not 3G

[jyl]

Wore the Apple watch from 8 am to 11 pm. Battery at 46%. I'm not fussing with it a bunch, though. Just some texts, a couple short phone calls, checking the time, checking a few apps.

The wake on wrist lift doesn't work reliably if I wear it on the underside of my wrist. But the heart rate does.

I didn't actually want it to tell time with. I have a watch already. I wanted it for the ease of answering texts and calls, and to be an activity monitor and notification tool, mostly. It is a pain to stop riding the bike, fish my phone out unlock the screen, take off my glove.

I'm definitely going to find a way to wear it on the same band as my regular watch. Plus my Road ID. My left wrist is going to be multifunction.

The Milanese band is really nice. I'll fit that to my wife's watch.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Sat down and tweaked all the settings earlier - seems to be working flawlessly now. The speaker is a little quiet and hard to converse through but not impossible (just not ideal when there's a lot of noise in the background for example). I like the idea of having something small and unobtrusive with me more-or-less all the time although I'm too paranoid to wear it in the water surfing or swimming; that was one of my biggest concerns since I'm in the water a fair amount but I figure it'll be more-or-less like the phone (just remember to take the thing out of your pocket before you go in you numkin...).

FWIW the Apple store guy said he wore his swimming regularly without issue but I'll just take it off for water sports and wear it for running, cycling, etc. Here's the "official" word on it (probably conservative but more-or-less what I'm going to follow):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205000

[red-beard]

Can you set the Apple Watch display to be always on? Or really, on at a low level, so you can quickly read the time, any time?

[911_Dude]

Originally Posted by jyl

...snip...

I'm definitely going to find a way to wear it on the same band as my regular watch. Plus my Road ID. My left wrist is going to be multifunction.

The Milanese band is really nice. I'll fit that to my wife's watch.

Im very confused. You want two watches on one band? Thats a whole new level of nerd.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Can you set the Apple Watch display to be always on? Or really, on at a low level, so you can quickly read the time, any time?

I don't think so. The display turns on when you rotate your wrist. It works well when the watch is worn on the top of the wrist. Not so much, I
'm finding, if you wear your watch on the bottom of the wrist.

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by red-beard

Still wearing/using my Samsung Galaxy Gear S after almost a year and a half. I'd like to upgrade to the Gear S2, but there isn't a compelling reason. But they look a lot better...



Especially the upgraded "classic" models. Except, the classic models are not 3G

I want an S2 also... kinda hard to justify seeing as they cost more than my old Galaxy phone it would be paired with.

[red-beard]

Originally Posted by jyl

I don't think so. The display turns on when you rotate your wrist. It works well when the watch is worn on the top of the wrist. Not so much, I
'm finding, if you wear your watch on the bottom of the wrist.

The Gear S can be set for a low level stay on,

Full power



Low power



And it pops up text for e-mails. Plus you can make calls. Are they going to make a cellular/3G version of the Apple Watch?

[jyl]

I haven't read any rumors about Apple Watch 2. Right now you can make phone calls from the watch but it uses the phone's cellular connection. I think giving the watch an independent cellular tx/rx would be impractical, for carrier reasons and for battery reasons. Apple was so concerned about battery life when they designed the watch, and there's very little room for the battery. Today I've worn it from 7 am to 4:17 pm and battery is still 74%.