Five years of the Apple Watch... on my wrist

In the good old days, when I used to travel a bit, I had to spend an indecisive hour choosing which gadgets to take along. Often the list included one primary phone (Android), one phone to review (Android), the iPad Pro (for work-related activities), a power bank, and the Apple AirPods (which could be used with everything).

I also had to decide whether to take specific chargers and cables or stand by the one-size-fits-all solution. My biggest dilemma, however, usually involved the Apple Watch.

Using the Apple Watch meant carrying the iPhone, a device I keep for specific uses. Eventually I typically gave in and took the whole lot because I discovered I really feel lost without the Apple Watch.

It has now been five years since the Apple Watch was first launched. I realised that it has lived on my wrist for nearly the same amount of time. It means some sacrifices: not being able to wear my sparkly Swarovski watch, letting my nice summery white minimalistic watch go dead, and having to take the trouble to charge up every night, but for better or for worse, I now feel incomplete without it.

The Apple Watch at first was quite a luxury product. Some editions were beyond imagine and even now, some of the fancier straps are really expensive. But it has become such a custodian of my health and fitness that strapping on the watch is the first thing I do in the morning — don’t want to miss out on the ‘standing up and moving around’ not being counted for the day and the ‘stand-circle’ remaining un-closed. It’s probably not a good idea at all, but many times I’ve given up the idea of exercise if it’s not going to be logged by the watch, either due to the low battery levels on the device or something similar.

From the global perspective, the Apple Watch has actually been the most popular watch in the world for three years. Steve Jobs had nothing to do with the Apple Watch but I do believe he would have been severely proud of it because it has been category-defining.

A nudge to better health

From a luxury item, the Watch went on to become an investment in one’s own health and fitness. Gradually, over each iteration, the Apple Watch has added more health-oriented features. The 2019 edition meant that users of the Series 5 watch could even conduct a mini-ECG for themselves. After trying out the feature a few times, I leave it alone because there’s no specific reason to, but it feels more secure knowing that the watch is regularly monitoring and recording the heart stats. The stat that I use a lot is the one that checks my resting heart rate which promptly claims up when I go slow on my exercise for a few days. It comes across as a good warning to get right back on track if one wants to stay healthy. There are other motivational nudges one gets from the watch, including asking you to stop and breathe a while. This may sound silly, but when I get the little tap on the wrist to do so, I often realise how I’m almost holding my breath — needlessly — or breathing very shallow.

I also feel more secure knowing that the watch has got my back if I think of falling. I did so about a year ago when I fell backwards down a flight of stairs and unfortunately was not wearing my watch at the time. Had I been, alerts would have gone out instead of my having to lie there bleeding from the head until I was discovered, quite by chance. Some months later, I dropped to my knees while arranging some floor cushions and needed up triggering the fall detection because I must have particularly moved in a fall-like manner.

2019 also added menstrual cycle tracking and better health records including integration of third party health apps with Apple’s own. The watch also tracks and measures more sports and exercise formats. Unlike other watches, many of which have readily copied Apple Watch features, I really like one important aspect of the fitness tracking approach. You could walk for an hour and the watch won’t register it as the same number of minutes of exercise unless there is actual effort in that exercise. It’s neither about counting steps or about sheer minutes since you tapped the workout icon. The effort has to be adequate. Many don’t like this because walking at a moderate pace is also some form of exercise and certainly better than nothing, but the point is to supplement this with something more vigorous and complete the goals of movement, effort and duration for the day, each day.

In this strange time of the pandemic, with all its anxieties, I can’t help wishing the Apple Watch did a few more things like measuring oxygen saturation (something Samsung phones used to do until a while ago), and maybe have an easy add-on for blood sugar readings. I also wish it could tell the temperature, but I suppose we’re not there yet. There may well be an Apple Watch Series 6 this year, though everything is all but stuck right now, and I’m really hungry for more health features, better battery life, and more affordable sexy watch-bands, specially those that loop twice around the wrist.