Apple Watch Turns 6
Released on April 24, 2015, today the Apple Watch turns six!
Today the Apple Watch turns 6! In a year upended by a pandemic, my relationship with the watch itself has changed in a few notable ways.
Sleep Tracking
Sleep is beyond a doubt the most critical area of my life that I try to keep constant. I'm at an age where even minor disruptions in sleep have devastating effects on my focus, energy, & mood, so sleep something I absolutely can't gamble with. While it may have been more tempting than before to have routine slip away, keeping my sleep constant has been a non-negotiable. Since Apple introduced native sleep tracking in watchOS 14, I have begun wearing my watch to bed nightly and tracking sleep through the Health App.
Over the past few months, results have shown a more consistent sleep pattern, with a sleep duration of between 7-hours, 15-minutes & 7-hours, 35-minutes on a nightly basis. My goal is to continue to stabilize this at 7.5 hours per night, at least 5x per week, and have no more than one night per week when I'm getting less than 6.5 hours.
Nothing Fancy
Previous to the pandemic, I would routinely make a point of dressing up my watch with one of the premium bands from my collection when going out. Maybe even making sure I coordinated the band it to my outfit because I was fancy like that.
But not since March 2020. Since then, I found myself turning to more comfortable bands that withstood the wear and tear of being exposed to more soap, water, and hand sanitizer. Leather Loops were swapped for Sport Loops, and Classic Buckles were exchanged for Sport Bands. This was by no means a necessary change, but something that became easier to do as the months of staying closer to home compounded. The Link Bracelet doesn't have the same je ne sais quoi when you're wearing sweats all day.
Hand Washing
By reviewing the hand-washing timer on watchOS 7, I instantly learned that I'm an lousy judge of time. What I considered to be 20-seconds turned out to be closer to 14. While irritating to some, I have found the handwashing timer was rarely triggered inappropriately and has served to be a helpful aid towards trying to get me to improve this habit.
Better Workouts
Since the launch of Fitness+, I have noticed that the amount of time I spend exercising has decreased while other vitals like my Move Ring and VO2 levels have substantially increased. I'd attribute this inverse change to improving the quality of my fitness activities. Sloppy and lazy home workouts have turned into high-pace and challenging 20-minute strength sessions with Sam, Gregg, Kyle, or Amir; and 40-minutes of mindlessly pedalling on the bike have shifted to becoming 20-minute high-intensity spin sessions. Fitness+ and more mindfully tracking my Move and V02 stats have unquestionably reinvigorated what were becoming stale and half-hearted fitness efforts.
These changes have been so significant that I've found myself in better shape than I was before the pandemic, while the increased workout efficiency & not needing to travel to the gym are regularly freeing up nearly 30-40 extra minutes in my day.
Stand Reminders
As annoying as ever.
No Touchy
Apple Watch made it incredibly easy to send a text, talk to Siri, see a message, view a reminder, or make a payment without needing to pull out and manipulate my iPhone. This was particularly welcomed in the early days of the pandemic when I was incredibly cautious of touching any surface while out in public.
Apple Pay
Being able to use the Apple Watch to make payments over the past year has been a godsend for convenience! No wrestling with passcodes & no more waiting for FaceID to fail twice before I could make a payment while wearing a mask!
Complications
New complications have pushed out previous longstanding favourites. For example, timers and delivery trackers have crowded out complications for weather like wind & snow conditions. Previously these were used to size up the driving conditions but have become less relevant with work and lockdowns keeping me closer to home.
Overall
Apple Watch remains one of my favourite Apple devices. The pandemic has resulted in shifts in my day-to-day use, with a much greater emphasis on sleep, fitness efficiency, and hygiene. The convenience of the Apple Watch as a payment method and its largely handsfree operation also made it a welcome tool at a year of great uncertainty and anxiety.
