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Considering an iWatch,some advice?

jay

jay

built for speed
Hi all

I think a few people use an Apple iWatch so I thought I’d ask a few questions about real world experience before doing some more investigation.

I am using a Fitbit Blaze at the moment, perhaps for 2 years or so. I like it, although the fitness features are great it lacks some features and not that flexible. I get annoyed with the lack of face choice and that you can’t increase the text size, the actual display isn’t that large. My vision is very good but I need reading glasses. On the plus side the companion app and battery life is good and I get perhaps 4 days use from each charge.

So now the iWatch is in it’s 3rd incarnation I read the battery life is much improved. I want the basic 42mm model, will it last 2-3 days on a full charge? What are the face display options, can you customise them? Is it intuitive to use? Teathered to a iPhone I assume I assume it’s primarily a glorified remote control? What arethe fitness and sleep functions like, have they proved to be accurate?

Are there any other gotcha considerations?

Many thanks in advance.

Jay
 
do you have an iPhone? if not and you have an Android phone, then consider the Samsung Gear S3 - I love mine, and I have stopped wearing all my expensive mechanical watches since I have had the S3
 
My son has a Garmin Chronos which connects to his IPhone and seems to also make the coffee :D He is very pleased with it.
 
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I have a series 2.
It does what I want ie I can take calls on it and it notifies me of texts, emails and what's app messages.
Lots of apps work on it too but I use very few of them.
The fitness things look good but I don't use them, apart from the basic stuff.
I can get 3 or 4 days of use easily if I use the power reserve function at night.
Some heavy users complain of time between charges.
I thought the aluminium ones felt very cheap so I got a stainless steel one at some ridiculous price.
The faces can be changed and I think you can customise them.
You can certainly customise the complications on each face.
As you can see, I don't use it to its full potential.

Simon
 
Thanks Simon. The series 3 is supposed to be better on the battery so that’s encouraging but I suppose it must heavily depend on how much use it gets during the day.

Can I ask how comfortable you find the standard strap?

Thanks
Jay
 
jay said:
Thanks Simon. The series 3 is supposed to be better on the battery so that’s encouraging but I suppose it must heavily depend on how much use it gets during the day.

Can I ask how comfortable you find the standard strap?

Thanks
Jay
Click to expand...

I don’t use the Apple rubber strap. I use a black ss one from Amazon. It was about £25.
 
Here’s some advice: spend the money on a vintage 1960s Omega automatic watch instead, and save the tech for your smartphone. You will get far more pleasure from a beautiful timepiece that doesn’t run out of battery, because there isn’t one.
 
Yomanze said:
Here’s some advice: spend the money on a vintage 1960s Omega automatic watch instead, and save the tech for your smartphone. You will get far more pleasure from a beautiful timepiece that doesn’t run out of battery, because there isn’t one.
Click to expand...

On the other hand, despite owning quite a few nice 1960's automatic watches (and quite a few earlier manual ones) I rarely wear them and instead mostly wear a smartwatch these days - in my case a Garmin Vivoactive 3.

On the original question my only comment would be that colleagues who have iWatch (2's and 3's) do seem to like them, but with the only complaint being around the battery life. A few other colleagues who are iPhone users have gone with Garmin smartwatches (various versions of the Fenix mainly) and seem very happy with those. I'm a long term Garmin user so wouldn't have considered an iWatch even if I was still an iPhone user, but that's mainly because I do use the fitness functions (running, cycling, swimming and walking) quite a lot and I think the Garmin is better for that. As a smart-watch with occasional fitness use though the iWatch does look a good option.
 
Yomanze said:
Here’s some advice: spend the money on a vintage 1960s Omega automatic watch instead, and save the tech for your smartphone. You will get far more pleasure from a beautiful timepiece that doesn’t run out of battery, because there isn’t one
Click to expand...

I am getting far more pleasure from my modern smart watch, than I have got from my 1960 vintage Omega auto. In fact I have a very carefully curated watch collection, that I haven't look at since I got my Samsung Gear S3
 
I have a genuine from the sixties owned from new Tissot Seastar PR 516.

It shows me the time.

I`m not smart enough for a smart watch that will be smarter than I am.
 
gintonic said:
I am getting far more pleasure from my modern smart watch, than I have got from my 1960 vintage Omega auto. In fact I have a very carefully curated watch collection, that I haven't look at since I got my Samsung Gear S3
Click to expand...

Fancy selling your collection? ;)
 
Oh I do like to be beside my Garmin 935. Battery lasts forever and it pings when my son and daughter call and timekeeping is pretty much as good as is possible (gps time). I saw in the airport some of the swanky brands are now doing smart watches with OLED or whatever faces mimicking their heritage.
 
Thanks for your comments everyone.

Do any friends or colleagues wear glasses for reading? I wonder how they get on. Most of the time with my Blaze is fine and it has a smaller screen than the iWatch, just every now and then it’s an issue.

I have a couple of other watches that can fill the need for analogue, so that base is covered. (It’s just like asking people for CD player recommendations only to them to tell you to get a good vinyl set up. I laugh!)
 
Garmin Fenix 5 here and I need reading glasses. More than readable in all cases without my glasses on and highly customisable. Very focused on fitness type stuff as you might expect; and golf for some bizarre reason and waterproof. Can get a nice metal band for it if that is your thing or it comes with a couple of rubber like straps as std with lot available as aftermarket options.

You can't answer the phone on it but it does repeat all texts and messages from the iPhone with a micro vibrate and or noise as well as text.
 
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Answering the phone on your watch sounds a bit poncey but can be very useful when your phone is hidden under a pile of something but still in range of the watch.
 
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