The New Apple Watch Makes Me Not Hate Smartwatches Quite As Much

Nothing makes me feel more alone in this world than when I’m mid-conversation with a person looking down at their Apple Watch while nodding to indicate they’re still listening. Presumably they’re just “taking a glance” at their daily step goal progress or a nonurgent text. But a glance can feel like a goddamn eternity when whatever is happening on someone’s wrist is infinitely more interesting than you.

All this is to say that I was largely in the camp that smartwatches of any kind — not just Apple Watches — turn the people I love into insufferable assholes. Fitness trackers are uglier and dumber, but are less annoying somehow. It’s not like anyone’s trying to read the news on their Fitbit.

But this new Apple Watch might have changed my mind about all that.

It’s .9 mm thicker than the original, but I haven’t noticed it at all — and this time around, my experience was generally more enjoyable. That was thanks to three *crucial* under-the-hood tweaks that made this version feel more useful, and more like an actual watch.

* “Raise to wake” works much better now (perhaps thanks to a 50% faster processor) so you can actually tell the time when you raise your arm (fancy that) — something that wasn’t always true in the previous version.

* The screen is brighter, so you can actually SEE the time when you’re outside.

* Finally, it’s water-resistant, so you don’t have to worry about taking this precious little computer off every time you want to take a quick shower or give your dogs a bath.

Plus, Series 2 has more features that stand on their own and don’t require connecting to your screen jail — I mean, smartphone. I didn’t constantly feel like I needed to pull out the iPhone from my backpack.

The swim tracking feature couldn’t have come at a better time for me. I’m training for a triathlon and have tried many swimproof trackers, including the Misfit Speedo Shine and Garmin’s Vivoactive, but quickly became frustrated by their clunky interface or utter lack of one.

Do you know how boring long-distance swimming is? SO BORING. It means logging a lot of time in the pool, with only whatever terrible song is stuck in your head to accompany you, trying to keep track of laps.

When initiated, the watch goes into “water mode,” which locks the screen (because it might otherwise respond to water drops). Once you begin swimming, the watch app can detect your stroke (different strokes burn different calorie amounts), average pace, distance, and number of laps. I alternated between flip turns and touch-and-go’s — and the watch counted laps correctly for both transitions.

Lap counting and distance are a BLESSING and, if you are constantly trying to do pool math, you know it. Exercise makes math hard.

The app also measures split times for every 100 yards and average heart rate, though I doubt it’s as accurate as an above-water reading.

But the beauty of all this information was that I could view it incredibly clearly, while I was swimming, on an exceptionally bright display. I’m often swimming so long that I completely check out, and being able to see how far I have left to go tells me to either pace myself or push it.

Unlike GPS watches like Fitbit’s Surge, I didn’t have to wait for satellites to find my position before starting a workout. The watch uses local data, plus GPS and Wi-Fi, to detect where I am. I was able to initiate my runs and morning commutes fairly easily.

I really enjoyed using the Workout app, but one of my favorite Strava features is being to use a previous ride to guide a new route and I can’t sync the GPS data from the Workout app back to Strava. Even if Strava wanted to implement this, it couldn’t (it’s not allowed by the API). So now I feel like my activity is spread across two different apps and that makes me very sad. Hopefully Strava will decide to update its app to take advantage of the watch's built-in GPS.

This feature isn't new, but many users may not realize they can load tunes onto the watch and listen via Bluetooth headphones like Apple's own $159 wireless AirPods earbuds (my first impressions of them here). This could be a game changer for joggers and gym rats, who can now truly leave their phones behind.

But there are a lot of issues with Apple Watch's music app. First of all, you need to have actual music files stored on your iPhone (the watch will automatically download recently purchased music). But plenty of customers Apple is trying to reach rely on streaming services to access music. Second of all, Spotify, the dominant music streaming service, does not have an app that allows you to sync music marked for offline listening to your Apple Watch. So if you want Spotify tunes, you’ll still need to take your phone with you.