iWatch Series 2

[Rosscow]

OK, so this latest revision seems to have some actual useful technology - built in GPS and completely waterproof for swimming down to 50m.

Anyone interested?

I could see myself using it quite a lot, but it's still a minimum £399 spend for me (42mm Aluminium sport Series 2). The one I'd really want (42mm S/Steel tan leather series 2) is a whopping £699!

I probably won't bother.

[Rosscow]

Watch the Keynote, it's quite impressive.

http://www.apple.com/uk/apple-events/september-201...

Starts 23 or so minutes in.

[Rosscow]

CrouchingWayne said:

I think it's a much more appealing prospect but at £600 it seems a bit expensive for what it brings.

It can be £200 less than that for the 42mm Series 2.

And a 38mm Series 1 for £269.

Having recently joined a gym, and playing a lot of golf, I'm quite tempted.

[Rosscow]

The more I look into this, the more I like it. Especially paired with those new fancy wireless Airpods.

Music at the gym, no phone, no wires, no iPod, just your watch. Which is doing its fitness thing at the same time.

Am I missing something?

How far from my iPhone can I expect to be able to be before losing connection?

[Rosscow]

Durzel said:

Rosscow said:

The more I look into this, the more I like it. Especially paired with those new fancy wireless Airpods.

Music at the gym, no phone, no wires, no iPod, just your watch. Which is doing its fitness thing at the same time.

Am I missing something?

How far from my iPhone can I expect to be able to be before losing connection?

How long do you expect those AirPods to stay in your ear whilst exercising?

Well I presume they will stay in just as well as the usual Apple earphones?

You'd have thought something without the weight of a cable attached to the bottom would be better than those with, no?

[Rosscow]

Zoon said:

Rosscow said:

The more I look into this, the more I like it. Especially paired with those new fancy wireless Airpods.

Music at the gym, no phone, no wires, no iPod, just your watch. Which is doing its fitness thing at the same time.

Am I missing something?

How far from my iPhone can I expect to be able to be before losing connection?

You don't need the phone, music can be stored on the watch.

OK, that's good!

[Rosscow]

ZesPak said:

Rosscow said:

How far from my iPhone can I expect to be able to be before losing connection?

Expect no more than 10m.

Hmmmm.... Ok. That's not great.

Edit - just read the bit about wifi. That's good!

So in theory you'd still get notifications and everything that being connected to your phone offers if you're on a wifi network.

[Rosscow]

clonmult said:

Rosscow said:

The more I look into this, the more I like it. Especially paired with those new fancy wireless Airpods.

Music at the gym, no phone, no wires, no iPod, just your watch. Which is doing its fitness thing at the same time.

Am I missing something?

How far from my iPhone can I expect to be able to be before losing connection?

Yes, you are missing something. Unless you're only doing running at the gym, the Apple Watch is close to useless for measuring heart rate whilst doing weights, cycling, rowing - virtually everything else at the gym.

Unless you buy a bluetooth chest strap HRM and use that - in which case, fine. But otherwise the optical HRM in the Apple Watch is nothing more than a useless flickering light.

OK, I get it. So don't expect anything great on the fitness side of things.

Still an attractive buy - will have to look and see what the golf GPS app is like as that's the deal breaker.

[Rosscow]

Craikeybaby said:

Thanks for clearing that up.

If you buy the watch in the Apple Store can you choose straps etc, or are the only ones available to combinations shown online?

This is the thing that annoys me - I think you can only buy the combinations offered?

So you then have to pay extra for any different straps you want.

Unless someone knows different?

[Rosscow]

Still annoying that you can't choose yourself when ordering.

[Rosscow]

Kev_Mk3 said:

I really really want a Apple watch but really cant see that it will be life changing / worth the money. I do do alot of walking and with work it maybe better to read messages than get my phone out etc all the time.

Anyone know if its compatible with harrys laptimer?

Why does something have to be life changing? It's not like we're talking thousands of pounds.

£399 for the top spec. Anything over that and you're just paying for material differences.

[Rosscow]

I had to go to Cornwall visit family over the weekend, and was going to pop in to the Plymouth Apple Store to have a look/buy one.

Unfortunately, they didn't have any. In fact, according to the Apple website, no shop had any - not even the flagship London stores. All came up as zero stock.

[Rosscow]

troc said:

Gone one delivered on Friday and have been wearing it all weekend (I didn't buy an original) and I'm pretty impressed. Once I'd deleted or changed the notification settings in the apps I didn't care about (by default the iPhone and watch set themselves up with full notifications for everything which makes your phone very very hot and drains the battery in a few hours as the bluetooth goes mad), I had decent battery life - less than 50% drain a day so I am pretty certain I could wear it for two days, just charging every other night, or whilst showering or something.

Went for a 10k run yesterday to check out the hear rate accuracy and things. I usually run with a Suunto Ambit GPS watch and HR chest strap, both of which I left at home. I used the Strava app which means I had to use the iPhone's GPS. The result was pretty good. The Iphone GPS track was similar to what I get from my Suunto with no glaring differences and the average heart rate was what I would expect for that pace and distance. However the HR trace was wild with 20 bpm jumps here and there showing inconsistent measurement (as usual with optical I believe). I will happily use the apple watch for the most part and keep the suunto for longer runs and races and all-day stuff like ski-touring etc. My next test will be to pair the watch with my chest strap and see what the HR data looks like.

I also tried a brief pool swim and it kept track of my laps nicely.

Happy so far

How did you get one delivered so quickly?

I've been looking at them since the keynote speech and the Apple website has always said collection from certain stores on the 16th or 3-5 weeks delivery.

Sounds promising though, think I'll go for one eventually!

[Rosscow]

OK, so annoyingly most of the Apple Stores are now showing the 42mm Series 2 Aluminium with black sport band as in stock!

So why can't they bloody send me one? I've either got a 3 hour round trip to an Apple store, or I have to wait 3 to 5 weeks for delivery.

Very frustrating.

[Rosscow]

onlynik said:

Just ordered one to pick up tomorrow.

Nice - what did you go for?

My brother is going into London tomorrow so I'm going to ask him to grab me one.

[Rosscow]

onlynik said:

Rosscow said:

Nice - what did you go for?

My brother is going into London tomorrow so I'm going to ask him to grab me one.

Just the cheap one, aluminium space grey with a sports strap.

Same here, I've gone for a Series 2 42mm space grey with black strap. Brother picking it up for me tomorrow from Covent Garden.

[Rosscow]

onlynik said:

Just ordered one to pick up tomorrow.

Report back when you have yours!

[Rosscow]

Well, finally got mine last night. Quite pleased with it!



Still working out stuff that it can do, but I think it will be a worthy purchase.

[Rosscow]

ZesPak said:

No offence, but round watchfaces just look plain wrong on square smartwatches imho .

None taken!

I quite like it!

[Rosscow]

Update!

I'm actually really enjoying having the Apple Watch on my wrist!

I'm using it for more and more 'stuff' everyday, and the phone is being left in my pocket more and more.

It's great for text messages.

I love that when Im at work and I go down into the factory I keep getting notifications despite my phone being upstairs in the office on my desk emails, etc. Very handy.

It's amazing to see how far I walk a day - I walked 19km on Sunday - I never thought I walked so much!

I like using it whilst driving - the temptation to pick up my phone has gone. A quick flick of the wrist and I can see a message and reply using my voice. Excellent.

The battery life is very good indeed. Yesterday I put it on at 6.15am before walking the dog, wore it all day including an hour and a half of gym use before taking it off when I got home at 9pm. It had 53% battery remaining. Quite impressive.

Using it for controlling the camera on your phone is of course a gimmick - but has come in surprisingly useful already.

Used it for golf on Sunday morning using the Golf Shot app - once I figured out all of the controls (on about the 4th hole!) it was really very good indeed and I didn't miss my Garmin watch.

Im looking forward to finding more great uses for it!