Apple switches focus with second generation watch
IF you like to exercise then you are going to like the second generation Apple Watch — a faster, water resistant device that’s more on form than it’s predecessor.
SIX weeks ago, after a rare tour of Apple’s Health and Fitness Lab, I sat with Apple’s Head of Fitness Jay Blahnik and told him what was wrong with the Apple Watch.
If it was going to be a proper sports watch, it needed to have it’s own GPS and it needed to be waterproof.
Blahnik admitted it was a message he heard frequently. What he couldn’t say at the time was that Apple had already met my demands.
The launch of the second generation Apple Watch shows how Apple has switched its focus on the first new product line it has released in the post-Steve Jobs era.
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The buzz on the first Apple Watch was the super luxury watches with price tags that would make most of us feel faint.
Today the buzz on the new Apple Watch was more on form than function. The second generation will be much faster, and it needs to be. With the release of WatchOS 3, Apple admitted apps were too slow to load in the first version of the watch.
But it will also be water resistant to 50m and suitable for swimming and have its own GPS.
A device that gives me no information is better than a device that gives me dodgy information, and in one aspect that was the problem with the first version of the Apple Watch.
The first watch connected to the iPhone and used the iPhone’s GPS to track speed and distance. If you wanted to know how fast you ran 5km in, the Watch was great at telling you.
Where it failed was giving you accurate pace information at any one moment. For general runners, running at 5 minutes per kilometre versus running at 5:15 minutes per kilometres may not be vital information.
But if you’re trying to pace yourself accurately in sprint sessions or run at 5:40 so you can break the 2 hour half marathon, then the pace information has to be spot on.
Not being water resistant meant not only could you not wear it swimming, but you could not wear it when you might be getting wet or even swimming later. On days I go to swim class at 6pm, I often leave my Watch off all day so that I don’t have to leave another expensive gadget in my bag by the pool.
And anyone who is inspired by activity trackers will understand the annoyance of strapping on your Apple Watch after you’ve finished a triathlon and being told you haven’t exercised that day. “No, YOU haven’t exercised today,” is my typical response to my current Apple Watch on those occasions.
There are still some significant questions about the Apple Watch as a sports device, and mainly they come down to battery life.
Given the Apple Watch needs charging each day, compared to a typical Garmin sports watch that might need charging once a week even with a few GPS run sessions, what will GPS mean for the Apple Watch battery life?
Only a longer review will answer that.
Apple has a long history or collaborating with Nike, and the Apple Watch Nike+ announced today is just the latest in that history.
This special edition, which I tried out today, has a band with Swiss cheese style holes, which is going to let your wrist breathe better in your workout. And it has special Nike watch faces, which will mainly be of interest to those who already use Nike exercise apps.
Trying on an Apple Watch 2 and the first thing you’ll notice is that there is no noticeable physical difference. Unlike with the iPhone, iPad and iPod, Apple hasn’t felt the need to do a major physical redesign for the second generation of a product.
There are some cool features of running with the Apple Watch Series 2, whether it is the Nike special edition or just another in the Watch range.
One of those is the map you get afterwards of your route which shows you parts of your route where you were faster and slower.
Another simple change with WatchOS 3 which comes on the new watch range is that you can start and stop a watch by pressing the Digital Crown on the side, so you’re no longer trying to use a touchscreen with sweaty fingers.
Making the watch water resistant means that swimmers can now finally count their hours of laps in their calorie burn. Apple hasn’t said but it’s unlikely the heart rate sensor in the Apple Watch will work while you’re swimming, so calorie burn is going to have to be calculated
using the other sensors in the watch.
The new range of Apple Watch has a ceramic model but if you want a $15,000+ gold Apple Watch you will have to buy an Apple Watch series 1 — there is no super luxury gold model this time around.
The new Apple Watch Series 2 might not get the headlines of those luxury gold models that few people could afford. But this is the headline it should get: the Apple Watch 2 is a better watch for anyone who likes to exercise.
The old Watch was missing out. This Apple Watch has filled in the blanks.
Apple Watch Nike+ starts at A$529. Available late October. Preorder from 9 Sept.
Apple Watch Series 2 starts at A$529. Available on 16 Sept. Preorder from 9 Sept.
Apple Watch Series 1 starts at A$399. Available on 16 Sept. Preorder from 9 Sept
Apple Watch Hermes starts at A$1779 and is available in Australia only from 23 Sept.
watchOS 3 ships on 14 Sept
*Rod Chester travelled to San Francisco as a guest of Apple.
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