EN: Geek tip —Should I buy an Apple Watch?
I love my Apple Watch. I put it on as soon as I wake up, and taking it off is the last thing I do when I get to bed. I’ve had one since the Series 1 came out in 2016, and replaced it in 2018 with the Series 4.
I love it more than I love my iPhone (and if you know me, you know I love my iPhone).
But I don’t think it’s a device for everyone.
So, who is it for?
It really depends on what you’re looking to get from this device. So I’ll lay out the four biggest advantages to wearing an Apple Watch, from my personal experience.
Disclaimer: The Apple Watch has had a controversial history. The only models worth buying are the Series 3 and later. Prior to those, the device was really promising, but sadly underpowered. My current Series 4 is brilliant and lightning fast.
Discrete notifications in the right amount
I still can’t get over the physical feeling of getting a text message on my wrist: the Watch doesn’t vibrate like a phone, instead it does the most discrete pang of start-stop, like someone snapped their fingers next to your wrist and nobody else can tell what happened.
With the Watch, you can check your notifications as they come in on your iPhone, without having to fetch your phone.
But it would be maddening to have your wrist vibrate all the time with every single notification your phone receives. Luckily, you can configure which apps can pop up on your watch.
I turned off notifications for absolutely everything by default, except for:
Text messages,
Incoming calls,
WhatsApp and Signal messages,
Slack messages for work (even though I really should turn these off…)
Reminders and calendar
Everything else can wait on my iPhone: emails, games, whatever.
And replying to notifications on the Watch is better than I would imagine: the Watch OS offers a lot of good preconfigured responses (which you can change) to spare you the typing out, access to emojis, and dictation is reeeeeeaaaaally good and fast.
Recording your physical exercise
One of the biggest deal makers of the Watch for me is the Activity monitoring: you can establish daily goals for physical activity, and compete with friends. All available models have GPS tracking to record your outdoor runs without taking your phone (which is a huge advantage over the vast majority of sports bracelets).
Plus you can download music on the Watch and leave your phone behind entirely. (This only works when using Apple Music, because Spotify refuses to develop a proper app for the Apple Watch and you’ll need your phone nearby to stream music).
Contactless payments
You can leave your wallet behind and just use your Watch (the same way as you use your iPhone) to make contactless payments, and most places support the technology now. If your banking app supports it on your phone, it will support it on your watch.
Siri
There’s a very big chance that I account for 5% of all Siri requests made in Portugal every day. I genuinely think Siri is a great — not perfect, but great — tool to simplify my day.
I use it to:
Send messages,
Make calls,
Check the weather,
Play music and podcasts,
Set alarms and reminders,
Create calendar events,
Set timers when cooking,
Turn my house’s lights on and off,
Add stuff to my grocery list,
Get GPS directions,
Search the web,
Open apps,
The list would go on.
And instead of taking my phone out, or saying “Hey Siri” out loud if it’s already laying around somewhere, I just… raise my wrist and speak. I can do all of this stuff without my phone.
Bonus: Autonomy from your phone
Not all iPhone apps have a Watch equivalent. Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are three good examples: notifications appear on the Watch and you can reply to them directly, but you can’t check your Instagram feed from your watch (and you really wouldn’t want to).
In countries that already have the mobile network infrastructure, there’s a cellular Apple Watch for sale: it has direct connection to the network, to make calls, send texts and use the internet without your iPhone around. You can check available countries here.
Non-cellular models require a bluetooth connection to the iPhone, or being on the same WiFi network — enabling me to leave my phone in my work desk on the first floor of my office and going to the fourth floor to have lunch in the office balcony.
Another bonus: Highly customisable as a fashion accessory
Apple Watch bracelets are like iPhone covers: they personalise your device and you can swap them whenever you like.
Swapping the bracelets that keep your Apple Watch in place takes about five seconds (no joke), and even though the official ones can be pretty expensive (from €50 up), there’s thousands of them online starting from €5 that do the job perfectly and are equally good looking. If you’re gonna wear this on your wrist every day, you’re not stuck with one look forever.
OK, this sounds like me. Which model do I get?
Size: you really should try one in store. There’s always a smaller model and a bigger one, and it comes down to personal comfort. I placed the bigger model on my wrist and was immediately convinced that the smaller one would never be enough.
Finish: Apple has varied the materials the Apple Watch is made of throughout the years, but the cheapest finish is always aluminium, the mid-range model is made of stainless steel, and Apple Watch Edition models have been made of gold, titanium, ceramic… and always cost an absurd amount of money (the first Edition cost USD 10.000. The latest cheapest Series 5 Edition costs USD 1400).
My suggestion: unless you really make a point of getting anything more expensive, go for the aluminium finish.
I’m gonna go to the store right now.
Hold on a second. New Apple Watches are announced every September, and one older model is always kept on sale at a discount with the new ones, as an entry point.
If you wait for a few months, you might just get the latest model for the price you’d pay right now, or today’s model for €100 less.
Conclusion
The Apple Watch does not replace your phone, even with the cellular model, much like having a smartphone didn’t replace the laptop. It complements the phone, simplifying your most meaningful interactions. I take my phone out a lot less (and work out a lot more) since I got the Watch.
It’s my most personal device.
Thank you for taking an interest in this article! I write one or two articles per month. If you’d like to receive them via email, drop me a message ☺️ I’ve got this automated for my Portuguese articles, so let me know!