I too bought and kept the Series 2 only because of the Nike Band and Watch Faces. I had a series 0 that worked just fine, but something about this band I just love. Even the knockoffs didnt really do it for me.
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Why have Nike + Watch?
- Thread starter 10smom
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Nearly the same thing to me. Apple Watch ⌚️ made do more sports again. Nike made me running. Nike band is very good for sports. Better than normal band. The watchfaces are also great. But you can use apples own app also for running
[doublepost=1485889893][/doublepost]... and yeah I like it that not every one has the Nike model.
Sorry for that ;-)
So, any new thoughts on the topic after few months?
Here are my thoughts. First a little background on myself. I'm active: I coach at a local college (track, cross country, and strength & conditioning...i started by coaching the throwing events), I've been running pretty much daily for the past 5 years (including interval workouts, long sustained efforts, long runs, and road races of difference distances), and weight train. My watch company of choice was/is Garmin and I've been using the Garmin 630 for the past two years.
That said, I'm a tech nerd, I love gadgets, and I have been wanting to test out the Apple Watch since it added the GPS functionality. I've had the Nike + AW 2 (42mm) for a few days and here are some of my thoughts.
Feel: it is the most comfortable running/smart watch I've ever worn. Now, granted, I've been using the Garmin watches which are know more for function than comfort (though they have made an effort over the past three years), but this thing feels great on the wrist. The strap feels nice on the wrist and the size/shape of the device itself feels good and doesn't feel awkward on the wrist bone...which is something that usually annoyed me about the other GPS watches that I've owned.
Screen: It's bright and easy to see at a glance, which is important to me. Love the main Nike + watch face just for simplicity...although some of my contract work on the side requires me to be able to see hrs:min:sec, but luckily one of the easy-to-swipe-to watch faces gives me that option.
Apps: for most parts of my job, the apps that link up with my iPhone do help a lot and make certain things easier.
running functions:
As I said, I have a Garmin 630 and during my runs I used both watches to compare because I'm not 100% sure I will want to stick with the AW2. Sadly, the "workout" functions is where it goes to crap...and i do mean crap. First, the meaning of workout in the running community GENERALLY means some sort of interval or hard sustained effort.
- NRC APP - In the late 2000's Nike came out with a TomTom GPS watch that gave the runner the ability to select when his/her "lap" was completed allowing for interval tracking. How have they not put that into their NRC app...especially when they have guys like Mo Farah(back to back gold Medalist in the 10k and 5k at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games) as part of their advertising(below)?
Next the issue with pacing: there should be an option to view "average lap pace" and not current pace since current pace usually is pretty erratic due to the computing that goes into the GPS systems. The last piece is kind of just a Nike + phone app issue. The watch appears to be collecting data on your heart rate during your run, your average heart rate gets stored in the Activities App on your phone, so why not allow that data to be pulled in to the app so that you can see the HR graph in the NRC app? Final gripe with the NRC app is that the metics that they show are pretty decent, but the viewing is odd. There are a lot of people who choose to train based on heart rate and they choose to put your HR in red in tiny font in the upper left hand corner. If you're going to keep it tiny with a black background, make it orange or something easily visible.
- WORKOUT APP - I've seen a lot of people report on the stock workout app that comes with the Apple Watch 2 and, just like the NRC app, it serves the purpose of logging a run and doing sustained efforts, but once you start doing interval work and would like to track effort/recovery times, it loses functionality.
There are other apps out there that basically offer the same functionality, so I'm not going to touch on them. HOWEVER, there is an app out there called RunMeter that looks like it COULD be legit for the "slightly more serious runner" where you are able to manage your own lap for interval training and view graphs afterwards, but it isn't a standalone app that uses the AW2's GPS function yet, so the runner has to have his/her iPhone with them.
The last thing on running I will say is that when the watch is on snug, the HR displayed was within 1 bpm of the chest strap I was wearing with my Garmin, so that's pretty reasonable and something that I was the most skeptical of.
So in closing, depending on the "Target Audience" the watch is decent and I don't think it would be that hard for it to really give Garmin, TomTom, and all of the other GPS enabled running watches a run for their money.
1) slight mod to the functions in their NRC app on the phone
2) slight mod to the UI in NRC and/or Workout AW app
3) it would be nice to easily be able to load podcasts onto the watch without needing to go to a computer...but that's isn't necessary for a running watch.
1 & 2 are the most important to address promptly to expand in the market. If they address all three, they would break the market right open.
I have found lookalike Nike edition bands on Ali Express. It didn't take long to copy those for £5 with postage. How do they do it?!
I find with the milanese loop that I have to re-adjust the band/magnet as it loosens up on my work outs.
