It’s Day 2 of my new life with the Apple Watch and I already know that I keep this thing. I have never been into quantified self, but the Apple Watch makes measuring what I do incredibly easy.
The Apple Watch is still the most talked about gadget in the tech world. The Apple Watch is controversial. Opinions are ranging from totally useless to life changing. It is interesting how for instance the accuracy of the heart rate monitor is splitting opinions. There are reviewers that say the heart rate function is not working at all or by far not matching the accuracy of a Pulsar chest band sensor. Others say it is as accurate and others say the Apple Watch heart rate monitor is almost matching a chest strap sensor.
For me it just works so far good enough as I have never been into measuring my heart rate during workouts. Now I do, because the Apple Watch just does it. Moreover it measures everything I do in a way that I don’t have to fiddle with anything. I have a couple of friends that track their workouts with Garmin or other gadgets. They always spend a lot of time before and after our mountain bike tours fiddling with the devices or trying to get the data onto a Laptop.
The Apple Watch requires no fiddling with anything. I just tap start workout and off I am. At the end I press stop workout on the Apple Watch and the data is stored on the Apple Watch and in the Health app on the iPhone. It makes quantified self a casual experience for me and now I am doing it. It is nice to know how long my bike ride was yesterday with my kids. Would I have bought a Garmin to find out? No.
One thing I find ridiculous are the achievement awards in the Activity App. Yesterday I met all my goals and then you get an animated award displayed on the watch. Who needs these awards? If it would be for kids, I would understand. The Apple Watch is though not a gadget for kids.
The Apple Watch does a lot of other things and I have not even scratched the surface yet. Next up for me is to find some apps for the Apple Watch that I could use on my wrist.
See also my first Apple Watch experience report discussing wearing the Apple Watch with a Tag Heuer Monaco.