I’ve had my Apple Watch since the day it launched on April 24th and have been wearing it everyday since. This was probably the longest I’ve had a wearable without having any hardware issues. Then my speaker blew out first thing randomly one morning…
Yes, I did all the trouble shooting steps one should do before officially being upset and frustrated: checking the volume under settings, turning the iPhone and Apple Watch off and on, and even erasing the Apple Watch setting it back to factory settings and setting it up as a new Apple Watch, even though I had a backup. After testing the sound by using timers, and trying to make phone calls from my watch, none of that worked. This meant I had a few days to really see how going without the Apple Watch would actually impact me.
So I made a trip to my local Apple Store, and was quickly seen by a technician who verified my issue. I was informed for the watches, they cannot do in-warranty replacements without sending it out to engineering, because they need to verify that I do indeed have a real genuine Apple Watch, and then it can be replaced, and the whole process would take five to ten business days.
However, the replacement watch cannot be sent directly to me, so I would have to make another trip to the Apple Store due to the fact that the replacement watch is in the back where the technicians keep all replacement parts. After figuring out when five to ten replacement days was, well after Black Friday and during the first real week of holiday shopping, the last place I want to be in is a crowded Apple Store.
Going through AppleCare meant I could get my Apple Watch serviced and replaced from the comforts of my home (except for the drive to the local FedEx) and get shipped back to me. Going through Apple’s support page, made it rather simple to request a replacement, with prompts helping me guide and select my issue.
Under Repairs & Physical Damage, one of the choices was “Activity sensor or heart rate monitor not working as expected.” Jeremy wrote about how it was able to detect a rare heart condition in his wife and shared the Health heart rate data with the doctors. After reading that, I wish I was able to look at the Health heart rate data but it would get stuck trying to load all the data, and when I measured my heart rate and looked at the heart rate glance they didn’t match up. I agree with him that the heart rate sensor needs to be improved, but I thought the horrible performance I was experiencing was something that I had to put up with. Doing plyos, such as kettlebell swings, jump squats, and other exercises that are known to elevate your heart rate, my Apple Watch always averaged around 50, whereas my Fitbit Charge HR, and Wahoo TICKR X were very accurate of each other and manually checking my heart rate was extremely close. I made a note of that as well in the case history, figuring the more complaints the better so I could get a replacement and not my original watch fixed.
I was told that Apple would ship me a box so I can ship my watch back to them and expected to arrive in two business days. Delightfully, it arrived in one business day. In order to send the watch in, I needed to unpair the Apple Watch and remove Activation Lock, which will reset it back to factory settings.
The instructions clearly state do not send any of the watch bands back as it would not be returned. I packed it in the box and onto FedEx to drop it off.
During this watchless period, I wanted to see if I would miss it, and how badly I might have relied on it for my life. This experiment lasted for 5 days, which is the longest I’ve ever gone without my Apple Watch since its release this year.
Awful Apple Watch tan line
Day One: In the morning I made the drive to the local FedEx, as well as some other errands. During the drive was when I missed it the most: for using Maps and text messages. I was running around, doing a bunch of errands and wasn’t sure of the quickest, most efficient route. I missed using Maps because quickly glancing at the watch to know when and where to turn was easier and more convenient than having to lower the music playing in my car so I could hear Siri state the directions, and when I couldn’t hear Siri having to pick up the phone to take a look at them. While I was driving I was receiving a lot of text messages and I missed the convenience of being able to glance at the watch to quickly read the message, talk into the watch to reply, and with a total of three taps respond back quickly. Instead, I had to wait until I got to my destination to look at the phone to see if they were important and respond.
Day Two: I am a gym rat, constantly at the gym working out doing cardio, weight lifting, plyos, logging everything and testing the latest fitness trackers. One of the things I like about the Jawbones and now recently the Fitbits, they can automatically detect the fact that you are actively engaging your body, having an elevated heart rate and that you are exercising. After you sync them, in the app it knows you were exercising for whatever period and you can quickly and easily label the activity. Not so with the Apple Watch. It was frustrating and time consuming trying to use Siri, or navigate to the Exercise app, scroll down to choose the exercise, then customize how you want your display to appear while working out, press the go button, stop the exercise by either Force Touching the display or swiping all the way across, and then finally saving it. Yes, I know while I work out I can swipe across the screen to see the different stats while I work out: Elapsed Time, Current Pace, Distance, Active Calories, Total Calories and Heart Rate. I prefer to set the display before I do the exercise because I find the watch unresponsive while I work out and don’t trust myself to change the screen and run at the same time without tripping over myself, falling and breaking my neck. While I worked out I enjoyed not having to wait for the Apple Watch to respond before I workout and was able to go from one activity to the other very seamlessly.
Day Three: I totally forgot about the fact that I did not have the Apple Watch on, until I decided to see what time it was since I left my phone on the couch and was in the middle of cleaning.
Day Four: Was a busy exciting day for me, as I took the train down to the city to meet up with my parents and go to my uncle’s wedding reception. While on the train I did miss the convenience of glancing at the watch when I received text messages from my parents to go over and coordinate where we were meeting. Instead I would hear the notification on the phone, go find it buried inside of my purse and then have to respond to it. The times that I have seen some of my family after my sixty-five pound weight loss, I’ve had many conversations about workouts and discussions about the features, functionality, favorites and differences between the fitness trackers and Apple Watch. At this reception, I haven’t seen this side of the family since I lost my weight, so I was expecting to have to go through the normal conversations about exercise, fitness trackers, and weight loss. However, to my surprise and delight, family members commented on all of my running photos I posted on Facebook, and not a single one of them asked any questions about fitness trackers, the Apple Watch or their iPhone.
Day Five: Enjoyed another beautiful day working out hard at the gym, and not having to deal with the Exercise app. That evening I went to the weekly trivia game that I enjoy with my boyfriend and his friends at the local bar. One of the rules is no cell phones out when the questions are asked, so that way we can’t cheat by looking up the answers. I always oblige, and my phone is in my pocket. The majority of my teammates don’t mind it when I glance at my watch when I receive a text message, and quickly dictate a response back. However, one of them seriously objects every time I do that, because he thinks I’m cheating and can look up the answers. In reality using Siri on the watch, you can’t do that because whenever you ask Siri a trivia question she tells you she can’t look it up for you and to use handoff on the phone. That night, I did enjoy not having the discussion about how the watch can’t look up trivia answers, but missed the watch whenever I received a text message and having to wait for the break to respond.
To my surprise it came back earlier than expected, set it up and have been continuing to use it everyday.
Conclusions: I still like the Apple Watch, but am not in love with it. The Apple Watch hasn’t changed my life in any earth shattering way, which was rather disappointing considering I had high hopes for it. I wanted to be able to control my Philips Hue, and Belkin WeMo switches with it, but the watch took forever to do so and my phone and even the iPad 2 (yes 2 not iPad Air 2), were faster than the watch. I did enjoy controlling the third generation Apple TV with my watch, but now with the fourth generation Apple TV that functionality no longer exists. I was hoping the Apple Watch was going to be the best fitness tracker out there, but this year the Fitbit Charge HR is my absolute favorite. I don’t regret buying the Apple Watch, but during this experiment I realized I rarely use it other than for Maps and texting. Apple Watch prevented me from getting lost and made me get spoiled when it came to the immediate receiving of texts and responding.
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Unlike Macrumors or Appleinsider web/blog sites, it seems lately “9to5Mac have articles pretend to like Apple products but indirectly poking to influence someone not to buy because of this and that issues. Conclusion on expanding problem something probably never happened. Many troll who never own device but reading on internet bits and pieces and than comments like they have used and experience the product with issues. It’s psychological game, I like but……I like but….
What you’re seeing is called “seeing things in shades of gray” or “not being completely polar.” It’s not “pretend,” it’s actual people who like or love Apple products discussing their real-world experiences, positive and negative.
There’s no psychological game, unless your personal psychology requires everything to be black and white, great or terrible. But it does require the reader to exercise his or her own judgment as to whether a product’s issues personally matter, rather than being told “everything is perfect, everyone should buy this.”
How silly. You see someone not give the conclusion you created and therefore these people are trolling or lying or playing mind games?
How about maybe a product, especially one made by today’s Apple, is not close to being perfect and consumers are simply expressing their REAL opinions.
People like you are what makes the Apple community look psychotic. Constantly looking for fights and defending the mothership but not ever considering that opinions can differ even among ourselves.
To be honest though, that is the type of people the internet has bred – people who firmly believe that THEIR opinion is the only one which matters, and everyone else’s opinion doesn’t count/is garbage/is from the mouth of a troll.
I’ve noticed Jeremy has responded to a couple of different posts calling out people like that, and rightly so.
I have to give props to all the beta testers. Sacrificing your lives for other.
May God bless you.
“but now with the fourth generation Apple TV that functionality no longer exists”
You may have missed it since you were without a Watch for the last few days… but Apple just remedied that situation in the newest Watch update. The Remote App works now with Apple TV 4.
“I wanted to be able to control my Philips Hue, and Belkin WeMo switches with it, but the watch took forever to do so and my phone and even the iPad 2 (yes 2 not iPad Air 2), were faster than the watch.”
Get the new Hue Hub… it works with Siri and (again) with the new Watch update Siri is MUCH faster and smoother… so I have now started to use my Watch to control my Hue lights instead of pulling out my phone (for the same reasons you cited).
In general: the Watch is getting better. Thew newest update that just came out last week has made the Watch must faster and smoother… especially for native third party apps. It’s still a new device so there is always going to be some niggling issues… but I think the Watch is a great 1.0 product.
To be clear the watch does recognise hr data and automatically fill in your activity exercise ring. But, as you say, doesn’t give you taggable option for proper analysis.
It would be great if you had an activity update in the evening that asked “what were you doing at 5:02-6:30 today, your average hr was 85bpm”, the you select from some options. Sounds like Fitbit have done a better job with this.
Hey there, “everyday” is an adjective. In the author’s use case, the adverb “every day” is appropriate.
“While I was driving I was receiving a lot of text messages and I missed the convenience of being able to glance at the watch to quickly read the message, talk into the watch to reply, and with a total of three taps respond back quickly.”
Are you serious? You use your watch to check text messages while driving? Are your text messages so important? There are so many stats (Virginia Tech has some scary ones) about reading texts while driving, and reading them on your watch is no different to reading them on a phone that’s in a mount. When you’re in command of a ton of metal traveling at 40 mph, you should really pay attention to what’s around you.
I know a family whose child was killed by a driver who was momentarily distracted. Their life has been ruined. The driver’s life has been ruined. Please, really imagine someone you love deeply being killed by a careless driver. How would you feel? Now imagine being that driver, and having to face the grieving family. Imagine apologizing the parents of a three year old that you killed because you were reading a text message. Do you think that’s something you could ever get over? I don’t think so. No text message is that important.
I’ll second the criticism of texting, both reading and responding while driving. Seriously, I hope you make a positive change and move to the brighter side of the gene pool. Seriously, anything but looking at the time is all ought to be done with an Apple watch and you don’t need to do that as most autos have clocks. Shame on you for even placing this in a story. If you’re going to be doing ignorant actions, at least don’t encourage others to do the same thing by publishing your negligent behavior.
This was an interesting article….and was in line with a lot of my suspicions I had. People tend to shape their lives around new devices to fill voids that may not have actually existed. Then after time it just is used out of habit/routine and in turn feels natural and necessary.
Not sure if this was written earlier and just posted now, but, the Apple Watch and Remote app for iOS work with the new Apple TV. Sure it’s no Siri remote, but it gets the job done when you’re feeding a newborn and can’t get to the remote. ;)
[quote]I still like the Apple Watch, but am not in love with it. The Apple Watch hasn’t changed my life in any earth shattering way, which was rather disappointing considering I had high hopes for it. [/quote]
And that’s why I’m passing on the AppleWatch for the time being. It’s an interesting concept. It has possibilities. I can see where it could eventually become a must have item for me. (Unlike GoogleGlass which, when I first saw it and its promo video elicited a strident ” **** no.) But for the moment, possibly for as long as another as five years, the AppleWatch just isn’t good enough. Eventually I might get one. But not for a while.
Hmmm. Apparently HTML tags don’t work here.
Even more annoying is the inability to edit a comment after it’s posted.
I was among first in line (online) to order the Apple Watch. I used it for three months before selling it.
While it offered some great features, I didn’t feel comfortable giving up my regular nice watch for an electronic gadget on my wrist. It’s this either/or scenario that led me to abandon the Apple Watch, rather than any specific limitations in the Watch itself.
My hope now is that at some point in the future Apple expands their line of wearables to include some sort of band that doesn’t compete with my mechanical watch for a place on my wrist. An Apple Watch Nano, if you will.
Funny you would say that. My wife has a square iPod Nano in a slick watch band. It works well, does everything she needs, (plays music and shows the time), and IMO looks better than the AppleWatch.
Opinion: Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’m not looking for a watch to change my life. Its a watch. Everything it can do my phone can do also. Its a companion device and it looks pretty cool. I love it for directions, text messages in meetings, weather checks, controlling my music while on the treadmill or while playing in the house via bluetooth, extra apple tv remote, and this week…an extra go pro screen. I can do all those things some other way, a watch won’t change my life so I don’t judge products like that. But because i was already wearing a watch, why not use one that does all those things?
Great post, J. Johnson! That sums up my experience with my Apple Watch as well. I really like getting my iMessages & e-mails on it – I don’t have to do anything besides rais me wrist to view the messages. I also like being able to glance at the watch and see the temperature outside.
Change my life – hardly – but none of my numerous watches changed my life. They just simplified some of the daily tasks by centralizing information on my wrist. The Apple Watch centralized much more of that data in a most convenient location.
I have no complaints, just a list of features that I hope future generations will address.
Same here, I can’t go back now.. Download fantastical app for an Apple Watch complication that shows reminders and events I can’t live without this now. It actually make reminders useful :)
Day 3 was a big struggle :)
I tried to read this, but I couldn’t get past the whining about having the watch go defective. Maybe next time, you should just explain (quickly) that you had to go without your Apple Watch while it was in the process of being replaced.
You buried the lead: Apple has a major counterfeiting problem with the Apple Watch. There must be fake Apple Watches out there that run Watch OS and are so realistic that an Apple Genius cannot detect it in the store. That is the only reason they would need to send back your watch to have it opened and verified at the factory. The only other explanation is that Apple made a dumb one size fits all replacement policy so that a bricked fake Apple Watch is not replaced with a real one in the store. Either way that’s a much more interesting story than what it is like to live without some bit of new tech for a few days.
I think that’s a conjecture … Not a lede. There are conflicting findings on how Apple handles the returns.
I would be very surprised if the reviewers watch was indeed counterfeit and running watchOS.
Conjecture? Yes, but the watch has a data port. There would likely be a data reader in the store. Seems a lame excuse to have to send the watch somewhere when the technology should be in the store.
I’m surprised by the fitness problems, but I do agree that they should fit more stats on a single screen: heart rate, distance, time.
It hasn’t changed my life either, but I wasn’t expecting it to do so. It’s a watch that does other things. I like the Maps and notifications the most.
Another not be very useful article…let me help you…No-one NEEDS anything beyond food, clothing, shelter and health. If this is your requirement for having anything (including the AW) you will not be happy.
Microsoft Band 2
Exactly. It is a fantastic device that has excellent fitness tracking. I wish it dismissed notifications on the phone when you look at it on the band, but I think that is more of an issue with Apple preventing access and less about the Band.
“I was informed for the watches, they cannot do in-warranty replacements without sending it out to engineering, because they need to verify that I do indeed have a real genuine Apple Watch”
I am not sure if this is an absolute rule. Recently the crown on my Apple Watch Steel failed and I took it to my local Apple store for trouble shooting. They right away offered to replace it immediately. I asked the rep to replace it with a space black model since I couldn’t buy that particular model on launch day as it was very much in demand and was sold out for the next few weeks if not months. To my surprise they agreed to replace my troubled steel model with a space black model provided I bring all the original packaging. I went back the next day with the original box and returned with a space black model that I highly coveted.
Give it some time. Apple will eventually fine tune the bugs out of them.
Apple had plenty of time. Before the Apple Watch became official the rumors were flying for over a year.
I wonder if the reviewer was using the Milanese loop … I have one and my watch simply did not record heart rate accurately (though I think the loop is easier to wear). Once I started wearing the sports band I bought separately it was much more accurate.
as an apple fan… not a fanboy but a fan, I’m really just not blown away by mine! i think i may have been a little to geeked up, crunk or turnt for this item. i only planned on really using it for health and running. an its still questionable for both! whenever i get ready to run i ave to go through a checklist to make sure its ready to go. since watchos2 arrive the nike+ app doesn’t work as well. perhaps the new applewatch will be better but i won’t run out to get one until i hear what others are saying! as a heads up. I’m a watch wearer so i didn’t have to adjust to flipping my wrist. just my experience…
Apple Watch today is very similar to the the first iPhone. That didn’t have an App Store therefore no third party apps but at the same time it was first of its kind so the novelty took some time to wear off(before the next model came out). With the the watch there are some third party native apps(I mean truly useful third party apps that run on the phone) but the expectations are high due to the predecessor product. The iPhone too was written off my most competitors and critics mostly because no one knew how people would adopt the product. Apple kept on adding features and people kept adopting, to top it with developers extending the product in every which direction it was customized for everyone. Apple needs to figure out how it can put the watch on that trajectory. Siri needs to do much much better. Thrid party developers will develop when there is critical mass. And most important people have to adapt to and adopt the device they are users to the modern day smart phone but a watch with new way of interacting with it is different. We have already come to 140 character tweet from full page articles of images, this is another big step. Most of us have our heads down in the phone all the time and the watch almost drives the opposite behavior. Remember how people reacted when Microsoft removed the start button? The watch needs to be as good as Amazon echo when it comes to voice interactivity and not keep sendin me to the phone via hand off. If we come to that then anything visual will be a bonus and I would have become more productive. If I can tell Siri “close my garage door” and she does it and we can extending to other things in my life that’s when it will become a blow out product. I know the capability exist but it’s not straight forward u need to integrate with home kit etc. also I expect FaceTime video cameras in one of the next versions, why waste a screen and a natural user action of looking at the wrist. When it comes to the price, in the past we spent on phones, now with a lot of installment plans the cost of the phone is becoming part of the monthly bill creating pace for people to spend on a gadget. The Apple Watch just needs to last a cycle or 2 to become a more mainstream product.
I haven’t worn a watch at all for my whole life (I’m 33), so wearing one would be quite a big change for me. First of all, for every day use, I would want a thinner design that’s a bit less showy (I hope future generations will be like that). I also guess I haven’t progressed enough in my mind for so much gadget on my wrist. E.g. seeing someone talking to a watch reminds me of a secret agent :) But that’s probably a matter of me getting adapted to new technology.
I really like the usability though (my mum in law has one), There are definitely instances where I wished I didn’t need to reach into my pocket for my phone, like quick navigation in the car, or looking at messages or notifications. I guess once you get used to this, it probably feels like a step back if you need to take your phone again. So provided that future generations are thinner and more subtle, combined with me getting used to the idea, one day I see myself wearing one.
For me it’s all about price for what I think it’s worth. With the recent $100 discounts at Best Buy I still don’t think the first gen is worth it. But if Apple can add more useful features and increase the battery life I may be interested in getting a gen 2. I would only buy the first gen if the price hits $150 which I can see in March/April.
This article is in line with what I would expect to hear. After playing with the Apple Watch, I was surprised by the lack of quality in design. It seemed like something that would come from a Kickstarter more so than from the self-proclaimed leaders in technology design. The UX was frustrating and the UI was sub par to some SasS startups. In terms of mechanical design, the Apple watch is a glitzed up box strapped to your arm. The Crown is disproportionate to the face, and about 25% of the face is sacrificed to the black edge.
Rather than solving problems, using the watch appears to create more problems. Instead of saving time, it appears to increase it. Instead of unburdening us from unnecessary tech, it tethers us to a peripheral iPhone device.
What surprises me is that I don’t hear more people writing about similar experiences. I couldn’t last 5 hours with my watch because it became clear to me early on that it was costing me more in time than it was saving me. So what am I missing here? Why are people so devoted to this deeply flawed device? Is this a matter of Post-purchase rationalization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-purchase_rationalization)? Does the Apple Watch solve a problem that other devices don’t, or does it solve it in a better way? Or is it just a shiny leash strapped to our arms?
As an Apple fan, I like it, but not love it. I also had the issue of the screen being unresponsive when running and use my Nike+ GPS watch for that activity instead. Mainly I use it for emails and messages, but will occasionally be bothered by the repeated interruptions. I own many Apple products, but the watch is in no way ‘life changing’ for me.
My Apple Watch recently had to be sent in for repairs (The screen adhesive came off), and I miss it far more than I expected. I realized I actually prefer my watch to my phone at this point. Every time I looked to my wrist and found nothing frustrated me. It’s when I realized that I was 90% likely to buy Apple Watch 2. Mileage obviously varies but I think if you have an active life and move around a lot the Apple Watch is pure joy. Side note: The remote for the Apple Watch does work for the new Apple TV.