Apple Watch thoughts?

[FighttheGoodFight]

Even the Apple Watch 1 is very improved with watchOS3. I grabbed one from Best Buy for 150 when they had the sale. Pretty nice so far.

[Thomas Vu]

Any users of the second incarnation of the Apple Watch?

Penn Square Apple Store finally has the Apple Watch v. 2 that I am wanting so I put in my order and I'm supposed to pick it up today.

Wondering if any users have any initial thoughts? I had v. 1 for 13 days and then took it back. It looks like most of my concerns were addressed between the latest OS and v. 2.

What I haven't read is if the heart rate monitor is improved any. When I initially compared it to my Polar chest strap is was way too off to even be useful.

Aren't those chest straps usually the most accurate?

[BBatesokc]

Aren't those chest straps usually the most accurate?

Absolutely - especially if they interface with software that actually has you enter pertinent information (gender, age, weight, etc.) and has you regularly record your resting heart rate and your heart rate under different types of cardio stress (walking vs. running) - a basic VO2 Max score.

Doesn't really matter if the pulse rate comes from a chest strap or your wrist - as long as its a real reading and not some version of a best guess.

My hope is that Apple has gotten the wrist reading down so that its at least comparable to a chest strap reading and will interface with something like Polar's software.

[BBatesokc]

Haven't had version 2 for very long, but the first thing i'm noticing is the better battery life. With version 1 my battery was dead by the time I went to bed - so, not only did I have to remember to recharge it nightly, but on a really busy day, the single charge would not get me through the whole day.

With this Apple Watch 2, my battery is typically at 40% when I go to recharge it.

Most of the other things I like are updated software related and apply to version 1 also.

[Thomas Vu]

How about the heart rate accuracy? I've been told their usually comparable to fitbit (first or second gen), but I'm not sure how good that is.

[BBatesokc]

How about the heart rate accuracy? I've been told their usually comparable to fitbit (first or second gen), but I'm not sure how good that is.

I just finished using it in a cardio class at Mercy.

I sync the Apple Watch 2 pulse rate to my Pear app. Seems to be very comparable to what I get with my Polar chest strap.

Said in 48 minutes I burned 467 calories, average heart rate was 104 and highest was 140. Those are all usual numbers for me when I use my Polar strap.

I haven't done Pear's 20-minute zone test yet. Once I've done that the reading should be even more reliable.

Best part, after wearing it since 4:30am (6 hours now) and doing a workout that was constantly reading my HB, my battery was still at 92%.

You have to get the strap fitted correctly to get the most reliable reading - snug, but not too tight.

I'm happy so far and think it was definitely worth the wait.

[FighttheGoodFight]

Second generation Apple products are always light years ahead. Good to see the series 2 is worth it. Might pick that up for myself and hand the old one off to family.

[BBatesokc]

One thing that made it an easier decision for me was that some time ago I went ahead and signed up for the Barclay credit card with Apple. They offer zero interest deferred payments on Apple products - which is nice on bigger purchases (bought a couple of loaded iMacs, MacBook Pro and some tablets). They also give points with all purchases and better points on Apple purchases. I get $25 and $50 Apple gift cards from them pretty regularly. In fact, I paid for the watch with those gift cards - made it a Christmas gift for myself. You have to be good about paying your balance off monthly or making the deferred interest payments though, because their interest rate is higher than most other cards otherwise.