Over all I like my Apple Watch Ultra. I started with Apple Watches in the 3rd generation but the Ultra has been my favorite.
I’ve got a first generation Ultra and it’s been pretty darn good. There’ve been some bumps in the road but nothing too severe.
The battery is still holding up, although I’m starting to notice some age related degradation. Well within normal parameters for a battery that’s coming up on four years old.
The case and screen are still in good shape and I’ll swap bands from time to time just to give it a “New” feel.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere I’m hanging onto this one because of the O2 sensor. I really wish Massimo and Apple would bury the hatchet so the new watches could have the feature back. That’s another story.
There are some things I’ve learned over time.
Apple rings are generally a nice feature. There’s a down side though.
All of the rings are somewhat iffy depending on circumstances. This leads to frustration if you’re the least bit competitive trying to get the monthly challenges or maintain a move streak.
I completely blew the March challenge off this year, because it was simply too unrealistic. If you’re injured, and competitive, fighting to “win” the monthly challenges can lead to further injury.
The Move Ring is sometimes wildly inaccurate. Why for example on some days does the move ring rack up move points walking around the house and other days literally running around in the house barely moves the ring at all?
I haven’t figure that one out yet.
The Exercise Ring is significantly affected by temperature. It’s not the sensors, or the watch itself. It’s the way the human body reacts to heat or cold.
In Winter it takes a lot more effort to get the exercise ring to move. This appears to be due to my body trying to prevent heat loss.
The Exercise Ring and sensors are tied to heart rate, and in Winter or even a cool fall day, my body reduces the blood flow to my arms and hands. So the heart rate sensor can’t read my heart rate properly or consistently. This results in the exercise ring being harder to close. Tightening the band helps some, but it’s possible to have the band too tight as well.
In Summer the reverse happens. In an effort to cool down, my body pumps more blood to my extremities which results in having to adjust the fit about mid walk or hike. There’s an almost imperceptible swelling in my arms. This swelling makes the watch too tight and at some point if I don’t adjust the fit, heart rate data isn’t collected properly because the sensors can’t detect my pulse.
The Stand Ring is also interesting and inconsistent. I’ve had it misread, simply because I reached down to pet the dog from a seated position.
All of these issues can lead to frustration closing rings, keeping up with a monthly competition, or competing with someone head to head.
Which is to say don’t take any of this too seriously. The Apple Watch and rings should be a guide, I’d say even the monthly challenges shouldn’t be much of a focus. They appear to be designed as motivations, but sometimes it’s too easy to get focused on winning the challenge instead of using common sense.
The same goes for Wrist Temperature. Primarily, wrist temperature seems to be linked to menstrual cycle tracking. Since I’m a guy, that’s not really a valid concern. I’m not likely to have that kind of cycle.
The watch knows I’m a male, so that measurement is more like a guide to my general health. If I’m ill for example, wrist temperature can lead me to breaking out a thermometer to check if I’m really running a fever.
I’d like to see more out of this sensor that catered more to male physiology.
For example, guys are notorious for “walking it off” it might be useful if the watch, knowing I was Male (genetically so), threw a notification if my wrist temperature was substantially higher than normal. Maybe something like “Hey, your wrist temp is a lot higher than normal, are you feeling okay? Perhaps you should take your temperature just to check.“
We might tell our spouses, “Yeah I’m FINE!” But our watch nudging us to take a moment of self care, we might not dismiss so out of hand.
We’re likely to recognize that the machine is just bringing something to our attention like a check engine light. That being said, Summer / Winter variations appear here as well. Heavy blankets on the bed at night during Winter, or sleeping with nothing on us on a hot Summer night, change the base temperature average slightly.
I don’t think wrist temperature can be accurate in the moment. Monitoring significant deviations over a day or two might be useful. Especially for those of us that live alone.
Sleep tracking is also one of those areas I think could be better. I had an actual sleep sensor in my bed for a while. It died and when I went for a replacement, the company was gone. I think Apple bought them and don’t know what happened after that.
The sensor was super useful and I didn’t have to wear my watch to bed. The sleep part of Apple Watch is kind of misleading. Unlike the actual sensor that was on when my weight was on it. The Apple Watch version is dependent on alarms and schedules. If I’m late going to bed, often the Watch starts recording that I’m “Sleeping” when in fact I’m not, so the data is skewed. Likewise if I silence the morning alarm and decide to sleep an hour or so later on a Saturday or Sunday morning, the sleep data is wrong. Don’t even get me started on what the readings look like if the watch thinks I’m sleeping but in fact I’m having sex.
The bed sleep sensor wasn’t affected too much by normal human activities.
I’m thinking that another in / under mattress sensor is in my future. I like knowing that I’m feeling tired because I thrashed around all night instead of wondering why I feel like I went ten rounds with a bear. The watch sleep sensor just doesn’t capture things the way they are.
The Cardio Fitness score is affected by when you stop a workout. If you stop a workout when you actually are done, the cardio fitness score will be higher than if you stop a workout after you’ve gotten water, wandered around the gym to the locker room, or as in my case, gotten in the door, unleashed the dog, opened the back deck, gotten fresh water for the dog, unslung a backpack, and poured a glass of iced tea.
The watch is doing a calculation about how your heart rate changes from working out to resting. The greater the change in the minutes after ending a workout, the higher the inferred cardio fitness. So screwing up telling the watch the workout is over can result in a lower score.
This can be confusing if you’ve inadvertently changed your routine and suddenly your fitness score is declining, but you’ve got no good idea why.
Since I don’t have a gym membership I’ve not played with the Apple Watch connecting to Gym equipment. I’ll have a gym membership in a month or two as part of a new insurance policy. So I may update this post once that happens.
There’s a claim, that new versions of the Apple Watch this year may have some kind of blood pressure monitoring. In theory it’s not supposed to provide systolic/diastolic numbers but instead is supposed to provide warnings like “Your BP is high,” inducing the wearer to check actual numbers with a blood pressure cuff.
This is similar to the atrial fibrillation warning the watch can give the wearer now. Given what I’ve observed with the heart rate sensors I’m not sure how accurate or useful this coming feature will be.
I’m curious and looking forward to this year’s Apple Ultra. But I’m not sure I’ll buy one. I might just keep using my old faithful for another year or two.
Reading wasn’t working. I kept reading the same page over and over. I’d managed to walk the pup but it was not an easy walk. I’m still proud I put my big boy pants on and did it. But when we were done, I was hurting.
I digress!
Not a big deal, just a pain in the ass.
I’ve been debating not bothering, but I like being able to have the house at some kind of reasonable temperature when I get home and at the same time not cooling or heating the house needlessly. Simple Scheduling works fine, IF you’ve got regular hours like leaving for work and returning at some predetermined time.
It’s going to be a hot one here.