My AppleCare informed me that my Apple Watch’s coverage is running out. Yep, turns out it’s been two years since I got it. I’ve been wearing it every day pretty much since, so I thought I’d write up a follow-up to my initial post and see how it lives up to the hype.

Since I got the Apple Watch, I stopped using TrainWell (which at the time was called Co-Pilot, until Microsoft came knocking on their door). Overall, I think leaving Trainwell was a good choice, even though it’s a good app. If you’re curious, I expanded on this previously. The Apple Watch is still good for exercise, and I use it often for walking, running, and strength training. Of all of those, I think it really shines for jogging. I can use it without my phone (so I don’t run with a slab in a pouch or around my arm), and it syncs automatically when I’m back. It gives me a map of my route and my speeds in various colors, so I know where I stopped to take a breath and how long the entire thing was, along with a bunch of other metrics for average speed, elevation, etc.

Strength training is… OK. It doesn’t do much besides measuring how long I’ve been training. There’s some useful data, like my heart rate or calories burned, but I’m not generally concerned with those. What I am missing is a way for it to track the exercises and sets I’m doing (TrainWell did this nicely), and maybe resume automatically after each set, but I can live without it. I currently track my exercises in Apple Notes because I can see them on the watch (took Apple long enough): this way I can take a quick look and see what I need to do without looking at my phone, which can be distracting.

Meditation is treated like other exercises on the watch, under “mind and body.” That’s too little in my opinion, and shouldn’t be included as an exercise cateogry, but I guess that’s why there are dedicated meditation apps. When I time my meditation with the watch this way, the slight vibration works as a way to tell me how far along I am, but even that can be too distracting, and I’m considering just using a soft audible chime from my phone, using a regular countdown. I recently started using a new meditation app, Waking Up, after a friend recommended it. It’s too early to expand on it here, but so far, it’s pretty good - no Apple watch app though. Actually, there is an App, I didn’t realize. I’m not sure it does more than just measuring how long I meditate, though. I shall explore.

My sleeping issues… Oh man. What sleep.
The Apple Watch doesn’t help me with sleep as much as it reinforces what I already know: I don’t sleep enough. The new sleep grade from Apple makes sense, and it’s explained well enough, but it’s like being reminded constantly that I suck at math all over again, as was the case for me during my school and college years. I know I have a problem, and constantly looking at graphs and charts and bad grades visualizing this to me every day is not helpful, though I’m aware it’s up to me to do something else with the information or just turn it off completely. The positive side of it is that it helps me to justify naps during the day, as I do need them.

As for the gimmicks, like taking selfies with the watch or the double-tap to open and dismiss certain apps - I don’t use those. The watch face is too small, and the interface is often too minimal to do much with. Every now and then I use it to respond to a message in WhatsApp, which I use with the family, but when I do, I just tap the microphone to say something quick. Otherwise I reach for my phone, which I have on me all the time anyway.

I got rid of Teams on the watch long ago, even though I thought it would be useful for work. The number of messages I get on this app is impossible to manage, and I find that I mute conversations constantly. The last thing I need is another vibration on my wrist to remind me that two people are talking to each other in yet another 20-plus person chat which happens to include me.

There is one gimmicky feature I use all the time though, and that’s the reminders. Having the watch on my wrist is the quickest and easiest way for me to remind myself to do something later. Even if I mess up the dictation, which happens often enough, I have it written down and it’s easy to go back and edit later on my phone or Mac.

Overall, looking at what I wrote two years ago, the hype died down for sure. I still find that I don’t like how the Apple watch looks. It’s a generic square slab, and I miss how my Casio G-Shock looked on my wrist. Still, it’s a piece of technology I use every day, mostly for MFA for work when I sign into various apps, and when I pay for stuff (being able to pay for the subway this way, even through the sleeve of my coat in the winter, is very nice). One feature I didn’t think much about when I got it was how well it works with Apple Maps: when I walk, it vibrats e a certain way for a right turn than it does for a left turn, and it’s really nice to be able to keep my hands in my pocket (again, this comes in handy in the winter).

I’m probably going to buy a new one soon, though I feel like if I wait another year or so it’s not a big deal.