Is it worth Buying an Apple Watch?

[Cheetah Designs]

If you are wearing a smart watch already, then I'd lean towards yes.
I didn't, borrowed my wife's for a week, figured it wasn't for me - saved me £400.

 

[julianhj]

I have a question about Ultra screens vs standard - my Series 5 is incredibly scratched, as I was an idiot and didn't immediately put a screen protector on it despite the fact I'm pretty clumsy. Are the Ultra screens much better in terms of scratch resistance, have the regular series improved, or do I just need to get a protector on regardless of what I upgrade to?

 

[silvagti]

My phone lives in my pocket, and I use iMessage/WhatsApp etc on my Mac when working. Most of work systems are protected by 2FA and it's so easy just to tap on my watch when prompted, rather than having to get my phone out of my pocket all the time.

Having decided to buy myself one I’ve found that Notifications are the most useful feature IMO.

The fact that when I receive a message, call, email, etc I can quickly check my watch to see if it’s important. Saves the hassle of having to take my phone out of my pocket/bag.

I’ve found the calendar appointments/ schedule pretty useful to have at hand as well.

 

[Feek]

I have a question about Ultra screens vs standard - my Series 5 is incredibly scratched, as I was an idiot and didn't immediately put a screen protector on it despite the fact I'm pretty clumsy. Are the Ultra screens much better in terms of scratch resistance, have the regular series improved, or do I just need to get a protector on regardless of what I upgrade to?

The standard glass not sapphire. The Ultra is.

 

[Brando]

I love mine, and it saved my life.

With two young kids and a job I enjoy, I was waking at 4 am to get everything done. On the assumption that going to bed at 10 pm I was getting a solid 6 hours sleep. However, upgrading from a series 5 to 8 enabled me to wear it overnight and track my sleep. Tracking revealed I was only getting 3-4 hours of sleep a night!

Sobering to see and have the stats. The Watch then let me experiment and improve that!

Similarly, the heart rate monitor and exercise tracker also clue me in on how I am doing, when I am run down/not run down. It sounds obvious but it's helped me learn more about how I function and experiment and see how things improve/worsen.

Add in find-my-iPhone/iDevice and the ability to pay for things (including travel/train tickets) and an Apple Watch has become an essential item for me.

 

[tangey]

I've a 40mm watch 5/6 (can't remember). The battery is a bit of a thing, but if I put it on charge around 10pm or so I can get it fully charged before bed so it can track data at night. Good if you do some work outs, great metrics, the integration with iphone is really good.

 

[Junglist]

I'm always conflicted with these questions. I've been using Apple Watches since the 2nd generation. first one died on holiday after having a fight with a wall. Replaced with a Gen 3 and now using a G7.

I've never been able to outright recommend the Apple Watch. I was super excited to get my first one. Then when I got it and after setting it up, which took about 10 minutes, I quickly realised it's not another gadget to play with, it's just a watch. Yes, it's nice to track your activities, use applepay and a less rude way of checking notifications but really, that's about it?

If you want a smart watch you can't go wrong with them but as long as you know the device is more or less just a watch with a few extra features.

I say all that to say this - I can't go a day without wearing mine and if mine died today I'd absolutely replace it tomorrow.

 

[CuriousTomCat]

My grandmother bought a nice watch once and he was still wearing it 50 years later. Watches used to be a worthwhile investment.

These days, they last until Apple decide to stop supporting it and then it no longer syncs and becomes useless. I hate spending hundreds of pounds on anything that the manufacturer is able to disable.

 

[Reuben klang]

My grandmother bought a nice watch once and he was still wearing it 50 years later. Watches used to be a worthwhile investment.

These days, they last until Apple decide to stop supporting it and then it no longer syncs and becomes useless. I hate spending hundreds of pounds on anything that the manufacturer is able to disable.

Calm down. Watches can still be an investment. You’re comparing apples to oranges. No one buying an apple watch is buying it to use it in 10 years, that’s not how technology works. Buy a patek if you want to keep it for life*

*and your kids

 

[9 Stone Elvis]

My grandmother bought a nice watch once and he was still wearing it 50 years later. Watches used to be a worthwhile investment.

These days, they last until Apple decide to stop supporting it and then it no longer syncs and becomes useless. I hate spending hundreds of pounds on anything that the manufacturer is able to disable.

I have a Tag and an Apple Watch, its horses for courses and I don't think anyone is suggesting you can't have both

 

[ChrisD.]

My grandmother bought a nice watch once and he was still wearing it 50 years later. Watches used to be a worthwhile investment.

These days, they last until Apple decide to stop supporting it and then it no longer syncs and becomes useless. I hate spending hundreds of pounds on anything that the manufacturer is able to disable.

You okay mate?

 

[matt1]

I used to have a Samsung smartwatch for running mainly for listening to music without carrying my phone, but they stopped supporting it so quickly so jumped ship to the Apple Watch and changed to iPhone beforehand. I find it brilliant for running and am finding it more useful for day to day stuff the more I get familiar with it.

 

[Ghuraba]

I’ve bought the misses a new one each year but from now on I’m going to buy her a watch that doesn’t become obsolete or lose its value in 2 years.

 

[Feek]

I managed to scrape my arm against a garage wall last week and scraped the skin a little bit under my watch strap which meant it was really uncomfortable to wear my watch so I've not had it on for over a week.

I really missed it. Not just for the convenience of notifications but for basic stuff like knowing what the time is. I'm really pleased to have it back on today.

 

[Barry Smalley]

I started with the AW3 cellular and thought it was excellent. I mainly used it for fitness tracking, Apple Pay and iMessage. I can’t really carry a phone round with me in my line of work and I have quite an industrious job which means it needs to be protected 24/7 and has to be water resistant.
The battery started going after about three years and I bought a mint SE form CeX for £145 which still had 9 months AppleCare. This has been going for about 2 years and I use it for exactly the same things as before and it lives in a Spigen case/strap. The protection really just stops it from getting smashed, as the case rubs and the screen is scratched.
I’m just treating them as disposables, just like a mobile. I’ll buy another mint SE when the time comes which will probably be in another six months as the battery on my current watch is starting to need charging twice daily. Spending X amount on an Ultra is utterly ridiculous IMO if you are not going to use the features and just want it for sitting pretty on your large wrist.

 

[Stu999]

I don't like the way the Apple watch looks on my wrist. It's way too massive, even the smaller one.

Post pix plz.

 

[smogsy]

Just want to get the thoughts from owners as to whether they feel the Apple watch is worth having? I have an iPhone and and Macbook though always wondered if the watch was just another gadget I didn't really need as I ended up feeling that way about my iPad and sold it. I have an old cheapo smart Band which I regularly wear daily but have never tried an Apple Watch.

Debating whether to buy myself one (Apple Watch SE) as an Xmas present? Is it worth it?

So I bought one (Series 9)

I bought it purely for the interest of seeing if it would be useful. I only had an iPhone at the time. at the time I just started trying to be more healthy.

Findings:

• Exercise has turned into a game to complete my rings
  • outcome ive lost 10Kgs in 3 months
• Seeing updates from iMessage/Whatapp bad social environments & knowing if they are urgent or not
• My water intake has improved as my watch now dings to drink
• It opens the MacBook, silly but so useful
• I use Press record to record conversations were I feel I might not be able to pay attention fully. Then let it transribe it later to see iii missed anything important OR add something to calendar
• More likely to complete my todolist

My wife just moved to iPhone & had a Amazfit & had many issues with connectivity so much so I got fed up being a tech person for this and bought her one, she loves it too

So its not a must have but certainly a "nice to have"

 

[R0B75]

Had an Apple Watch Ultra 2 for a few weeks now and I like lots of features it has, but its far from great. I've had Garmin watches for years for tracking running, swimming and cycling etc and my Forerunner 945 still does those things better the Apple Watch, but I expected that. The bigger problem is that if you have tattoos on your arms (I have both forearms fully covered) the watch just doesn't work properly.
With Wrist detection turned on notifications are hit and miss (more often miss), workouts pause randomly or just stop altogether and the watch just constantly locks itself even whilst using the screen (with passcode on, which is needed for Apple Pay). I've had this confirmed by Apple Support and of course from reading a lot of opinions on the internet. Yes, you can turn off wrist detection, which allows some things to work correctly, but doing this disables also a lot of features of the watch. Sleep tracking, Apple Pay (from the watch), some health features and gestures like double tap. Apparently this has been an issue for a long time, which I wish I'd known before buying it, but would never have thought to research this beforehand. So in short, buying an Apple Watch if you have tattoos on your forearms will likely affect the functionality of the watch. I'll probably get a Garmin Epix Pro instead once ECG is activated in the UK, which currently it isn't.