The Apple Watch has you by the heart

Apple is clear that its watch is not a medical or diagnostic device. Using it doesn’t mean you’re working on curing an ailment. But with each iteration it certainly is evolving into an aid to better, healthier living; including for people with diseases like diabetes and heart issues.

Being an Apple Watch user right from when the first one was launched, it’s been my go-to fitness device. And recently it revealed a problem that needs some attention. I had what felt like skipped heartbeats, which is exactly what they turned out to be. Harmless, but worrying until you know what it is. Caffeine can cause them, for example. In the process of finding out what my heart was up to, I also wanted to know why my heart rate is so very fast, according to the watch. I was duly fitted with a 24-hour halter monitor that confirmed the ectopic heart beats, but to my amazement, showed the exact average heart rate the Apple Watch did. It is too fast and I need to step up cardio exercise to bring that average down. Now that’s where the Apple Watch can really help.

With Series 3, the Apple Watch is now able to support a lot more activities that have to do with general fitness. The watch doesn’t look very different from the Series 2, especially as we don’t have the LTE version here in India. That has a red knob (the famous crown) and is a little thicker. But having worn the non-LTE version, I don’t find it looking any different on my wrist.

On the inside there are a lot of differences, though some of those come from the upgrade to WatchOS 4, which goes out to the previous watch as well, bringing a lot of features and interface changes. So, an upgrade from the Series 2 to Series 3 is not really necessary, but an upgrade from the first series to the Series 3 is highly recommended if you’re a committed Apple Watch user.

What’s different about the Series 3, discounting the LTE and ability to use the watch while leaving the phone at home, is that it has a more powerful chipset, works much faster, has somewhat better battery life (though that depends on what you do with it) and allows Siri to talk back to you. Because it has a speaker, you can also take and make phone calls on it.

Getting a call on the watch isn’t as awkward as one might think. If you’re in a position to switch to the phone, picking it up will switch the call to it, silencing the watch and putting a halt to everyone turning around to look at you curiously.

The new Apple Watch is now more context sensitive and has a special Siri watch face to show timely information when you need it. However, this isn’t to the level of Google Now on Android Wear watches.

But by far the biggest thing on Series 3 plus Watch OS4 is all the fitness activity tracking. Heart rate tracking is now much more detailed and continuous. If you think you might have a heart problem or if you exercise a lot, keeping tabs on your heart rate isn’t a bad idea. You’ll be able to see the average resting rate for each day, variability in beats, walking average, and recovery rate. You can also set it to give you an alert when your heart rate goes over a specified count when you’re not doing anything special like cardio to take it up. The Apple Watch doesn’t present the user with the usual raw minutes and step counts that most trackers do. Instead it lets you work with a Move goal and minutes of exercise that will notch up depending on whether you’re exerting yourself beyond just strolling around. There’s also the Stand goal that requires you to not just stand up but move around for a certain time before you go back to inactivity. With the Series 3 this is now tracked by learning what the user does and adjusting accordingly. You also get motivational or coaching tips to keep you on track or even to get you to the next achievement.

More than mere daily counts, the Series 3 watch with WatchOS4 now ties in with a lot of gym and sports equipment as many third party developers start to work with these. The watch can also now measure swimming activity rather impressively. Not only will it be able to tell a swimmer the speed and distance but will detect the kind of stroke used and the style of turn. In this way, the number of activities the watch can now measure has gone up and they can be tracked to a deeper level. An altimeter on the watch can now tell you the number of flights of stairs you climbed — also important exercise — or track you as you ski and as you hike up a mountain. It also can now do multi-workout tracking so you can move from say, cardio to weight training to stretches and have it all measured. All of the data coming from any apps that track such activities flows right into the overall HealthKit so that your data is not fragmented and scattered but includes everything that is measurable in one place.

At the end of each day, I’m left with about 30 per cent battery with my not-too-heavy usage. In the future the Apple Watch might well evolve into a serious healthcare device. Apple has a committed interest in this area and has made many medical tech acquisitions that show it’s a business the company is taking seriously.

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