Apple Watch – A Year Later

Recently, Steve has been discussing his relationship with his smart watch and it’s got me thinking about mine. I bought my Apple Watch SE about a year ago. The main purpose at the time was to help me track my workout and hopefully encourage me to keep at it. It was a reward for losing some weight and hopefully an investment in continued good health. A year later, it hasn’t quite worked out that way.

I haven’t stepped on a scale, but I’m pretty sure I gained back the 20 lbs. I lost. I feel pretty sick about it to be perfectly honest, but I just haven’t found the motivation to get back down in the gym and working out. I think I’ve just been overwhelmed with stuff at the apartment, our routine changes (my wife getting a job, the kitten, my promotion) and I just haven’t made it a priority like it should be. But enough about that, let’s talk about the watch.

Currently, my main use for my Apple Watch is twofold: text notifications and as an alarm clock. I love how great the texts come across, although it doesn’t have full support for Signal and since a couple of my friends primarily use that, it defeats the purpose. The alarm clock is great. I still use a traditional alarm clock, but my watch is my backup and I got to admit, a little vibrating watch is so much better than an annoying alarm sound.

I occasionally use my watch to start/stop Spotify, but I find the Spotify app doesn’t always work well. So, it’s usually just easier to pick up my phone.

It’s interesting because these features were the features I cared nothing about. The features I was excited about Workouts and Meditation Timer are the ones I no longer use.

The Meditation Timer isn’t bad, it just isn’t much. I’d prefer to use the Oak app or something else to track my meditation.

The workouts were great, at first. All day long I’d get my wife’s updates on her workouts, and I’d have mine, until that got annoying. So, I had to turn those off. But what ultimately ruined the workouts for me was two things:

1. Sometimes I’d hit my watch or forget to turn it on. So having inaccurate data is worse than having no data at all, at least in my all or nothing mindset.
2. The watch became a problem when using kettlebells and even boxing gloves. I’d end up having to flip my watch around, or loosen it up to wrap my hands, and all the time I wasted managing the watch could have been used to work out.

I still love the fit and size of the Apple Watch and I have no regrets buying it. I still find it useful. I do, however, wish I had upgraded to one with better battery life because charging this watch daily has gotten old, fast. But with how I currently use my watch, there is no way I can justify upgrading, so I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing and maybe something else neat with come along for the Apple Watch.