A collection of questions about the Apple Watch (First Apple Watch)

[JippaLippa]

Hello!

I'm thinking of getting my first apple watch, however I'm not in the financial position to spend that amount of money lightly.
If you don't mind, I have a few questions about the device's general use to help me make an informed decision.

First I'll quickly describe the sort of user I'd be.
I'm not interested in wearing the device all the time as an actual watch; I personally think it looks hideous.
I plan to use it exclusively for fitness use, and only when doing workouts.

I have always been very active.
I walk about 8km each day, every week, every month, and I eat quite healthy.
For this purpose only, the stock iPhone app is more than fine.

What I'd like to do, though, is to make my fitness routine more varied, reducing the amount of walking a little and introduce other types of excercises; for that I need sometjing that'd be able to track my fitness routine a little more precisely.

Consider I'm also planning to get a fitness+ subscription.

I'm not interested in the blood oxygen, sleep quality measurements, trekking functions and whatnot.

So, I'll just drop a few questions.
Thank you:

1- Can the watch track how much you walk without using location services? I know it's just a placebo effect, but I don't like using location services/gps.

2- can I split my daily calories target between different types of excercises? (like 300Kcal walking, 50kCal aerobic, 100kcal weightlifting and so on)?

3- Can the watch track excercises performed while static (like using an excercise bike or a treadmill) well?

4- Can I disable sleep tracking? (knowing my personality I'd easily get into sleep anxiety, therefore sleeping even worse). Mind you, I won't even wear the thing while sleeping.

5- Can I authenticate payments/logins on mac with an SE?

6- Will the watch integrate with my current progress and trends in the fitness app?

7- Is the watch more precise than just the iPhone's tracking? Sometimes it clearly shows less calories/distance than I have covered, and the update speed for the values is very slow.

8- Can the watch be configured to start a workout as soon as I wear it?

9- Is the iPhone+Apple watch Fitness+ experience any good? Most of the time I see it demoed is with an iPad or Apple TV.

Thank you very much!

 

[mfram]

I don't use my AW to track fitness at all so I can't answer those questions. I let my phone do that. If that's your primary use-case then wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a device actually designed primarily for fitness tracking? The AW does so much more, so it seems to me you'd be paying for features you wouldn't be using. If the phone already tracks your fitness, what, specifically, do you think the watch adds?

If you aren't wearing the watch at night then it (obviously) wouldn't be doing sleep tracking.

 

[jz0309]

With all your "don't want this and that" - Get a Fitbit

 

[MisterSavage]

Hello!

I'm thinking of getting my first apple watch, however I'm not in the financial position to spend that amount of money lightly.
If you don't mind, I have a few questions about the device's general use to help me make an informed decision.

First I'll quickly describe the sort of user I'd be.
I'm not interested in wearing the device all the time as an actual watch; I personally think it looks hideous.
I plan to use it exclusively for fitness use, and only when doing workouts.

I have always been very active.
I walk about 8km each day, every week, every month, and I eat quite healthy.
For this purpose only, the stock iPhone app is more than fine.

What I'd like to do, though, is to make my fitness routine more varied, reducing the amount of walking a little and introduce other types of excercises; for that I need sometjing that'd be able to track my fitness routine a little more precisely.

Consider I'm also planning to get a fitness+ subscription.

I'm not interested in the blood oxygen, sleep quality measurements, trekking functions and whatnot.

So, I'll just drop a few questions.
Thank you:

1- Can the watch track how much you walk without using location services? I know it's just a placebo effect, but I don't like using location services/gps.

2- can I split my daily calories target between different types of excercises? (like 300Kcal walking, 50kCal aerobic, 100kcal weightlifting and so on)?

3- Can the watch track excercises performed while static (like using an excercise bike or a treadmill) well?

4- Can I disable sleep tracking? (knowing my personality I'd easily get into sleep anxiety, therefore sleeping even worse). Mind you, I won't even wear the thing while sleeping.

5- Can I authenticate payments/logins on mac with an SE?

6- Will the watch integrate with my current progress and trends in the fitness app?

7- Is the watch more precise than just the iPhone's tracking? Sometimes it clearly shows less calories/distance than I have covered, and the update speed for the values is very slow.

8- Can the watch be configured to start a workout as soon as I wear it?

9- Is the iPhone+Apple watch Fitness+ experience any good? Most of the time I see it demoed is with an iPad or Apple TV.

Thank you very much!

1. sure. I don't have a cellular watch. I took a walk without my phone last night. The watch had no idea where it was but tracked distance no problem.
4. I've never used it for sleep tracking. I sometimes wear it while asleep but it never shows me data about that.
5. Logins definitely. I do it all the time.
6. Yes

 

[Mackilroy]

1. Yes
2. You can, but you'll be doing it manually. Inside of the Workout app you can set calorie goals for any type of exercise you do. It won't specify aerobic or anaerobic or anything like that though.
3. Yes.
4. If you're not going to be wearing it, it's not going to track sleep. You can turn off sleep tracking anyway in the Watch app for the iPhone.
5. Yes
6. Yes
7. Depends on if it has single-band or dual-band GPS, only the Ultra has dual-band. If you're in an activity your watch will update continuously.
8. No, but you can set up a complication and be in an exercise in two taps.
9. The Fitness+ app on the phone and the tablet aren't the same. The former doesn't just show you possible workouts, it also shows you your activity and a history of all your exercises.

 

[JippaLippa]

With all your "don't want this and that" - Get a Fitbit

Does it integrate with the fitness app or does it need its own app?

 

[JippaLippa]

Thank you all for the detailed answers!

 

[xraydoc]

Does it integrate with the fitness app or does it need its own app?

The FitBit will require its own app, but when you open that app, it will sync with Apple's Health app if that's where you'd like your info stored.
It will not work with Apple's subscription Fitness+ service for on-screen HR, distance and calorie tracking. That's an Apple Watch exclusive.

 

[xraydoc]

1- Can the watch track how much you walk without using location services? I know it's just a placebo effect, but I don't like using location services/gps.

It can track steps and approximate distance based on you telling it your height (if you've got that stored in Apple Health) and it guesstimating your stride length (stride length x number of steps = distance travelled).

If you want a more accurate distance, you'll need to allow it to use location services, either to at least learn your actual stride length (it'll ask you to go on a 20+ minute outdoor walk and/or run), or to use GPS to track your actual travelled distance.

 

[Howard2k]

1- Can the watch track how much you walk without using location services? I know it's just a placebo effect, but I don't like using location services/gps.

4- Can I disable sleep tracking? (knowing my personality I'd easily get into sleep anxiety, therefore sleeping even worse). Mind you, I won't even wear the thing while sleeping.

I don't think the watch is for you. It's going to use location information, it's going to track health data, it has wifi and bluetooth radios. Yes you can obviously take it off while sleeping and it will not track your sleep.

 

[Howard2k]

1. sure. I don't have a cellular watch. I took a walk without my phone last night. The watch had no idea where it was but tracked distance no problem.

Which watch do you have? GPS was introduced in Series 2, the watch should know where it is.

 

[MisterSavage]

Which watch do you have? GPS was introduced in Series 2, the watch should know where it is.

Oh duh, you're right. I always think of my watch as having no connectivity when it's away from my iPhone and WiFi. That's why I mistakenly said that.

 

[JippaLippa]

It can track steps and approximate distance based on you telling it your height (if you've got that stored in Apple Health) and it guesstimating your stride length (stride length x number of steps = distance travelled).

If you want a more accurate distance, you'll need to allow it to use location services, either to at least learn your actual stride length (it'll ask you to go on a 20+ minute outdoor walk and/or run), or to use GPS to track your actual travelled distance.

I don't mind if the walk tracking is not perfect.