✓ My Apple Watch Review
Published on May 20, 2015
I have now had the Apple Watch for three weeks. I thought it would be good to jot down some thoughts about it. You know, for posterity.
##Getting Used to a Watch Again
I haven’t worn a watch since the band on my favorite Vostok watch broke. It has been about 10 years since I wore a watch daily, and as soon as the Apple Watch was on my wrist, I immediately went back to checking my wrist for the time. A lot of people have complained about the display taking a little bit of time to load, and that hasn’t really been a problem for me. I have noticed it, but it doesn’t really bother me. I just look at my wrist after it is raised, and the display is there.
##Apps
The apps that are out there are not that interesting to me so far. A good example is Marco Arment’s awesome podcast app Overcast. Once he had the watch, he was able to see what it was like on his wrist, and he redid the app to make it work in a way you would want to wear it.
I am excited for apps to be announced that will be worthwhile for the watch itself. Another good app is Instapaper, which reads the articles to you (from your phone, controlled on your wrist).
I am not interested in reading on my watch. It is horribly uncomfortable and I deleted Feedly immediately. If Feedly did what Instapaper does, that would be amazing. There is an app that reads your RSS feeds and I haven’t checked if they have a watch app yet.
##Load Times
Oh, man! This is brutal. Anyone who says that want an Apple Watch so they don’t have to pull their phone out to do stuff will likely not say that after having the watch. It takes so long to launch an app that you really don’t want to launch an app unless you know it will load quickly (see above Overcast app redesign).
##Watch Straps
I’m a little surprised at how small the watch straps are. The M/L sport strap is almost too small for what I thought were my slender wrists.
It seems that my wrists are too large for the Milanese Loop. I was hoping to buy that band because I love how it looks.
The sport strap is too tight on one setting, and a little too loose on the next setting, which seems to be a problem that could be solved by the Milanese Loop.
##Complications
My current watch face and complications.
I’m having a hard time settling on which complications I want for my watch face. The built-in ones are not that useful to me. I know it is always raining, so I don’t need the weather one that much. Now, if I could have Dark Sky (if it worked here) tell me in how many minutes it would rain, that would be pretty awesome. That would require 3rd party apps to have access to complications, which is probably unlikely, at least in the near future.
If not 3rd party complications, I’d like to have more choices for Apple apps. Having my latest heart rate on there would be pretty nice. It looks like the watch is checking my heart rate every 10 minutes. Having that up in the corner would be nice. Another good complication would my steps (maybe that only matters because I used a Fitbit for a long time).
The activity is there, but I haven’t found that too interesting to me personally.
##Heart Rate Monitor
I am fascinated by the idea of monitoring my heart rate. I love the app Pedometer++ and I would love an app like that for heart rate. The health app really stinks for viewing the heart rate history.
##Notifications
The notifications on my watch are only worthwhile if I can act on them. It is interesting how meaningless some notifications are now. I have removed a lot of notifications and feel that I am not as distracted as I may have been.
##Solar Watch Face in Alaska
The sun sets late in April.
This one is pretty cool, and will be even cooler when I get up north this summer where there won’t be any midnight.
##Conclusion
Do I need the Apple Watch? No. Do I like it? Yes.
I have always loved watches, though I have been too poor or cheap to buy them.
This is the most expensive watch I have ever bought, and I bought the cheapest version.
##The Best Feature
This may seem like a small thing, but the alarm tones are perfect for waking me up in the morning. PERFECT! They are just loud enough, and they are a pleasing sound. I have completely stopped using my iPhone alarm, and I only use my watch. The alarm wakes me up, but not my wife (or the kids who sneak into my bed at night).