I have been using the original Apple Watch now for nearly 2 1/2 years and I still love it. I wear it every day and I am diligently closing the circles every day.
I skipped the Series 1 and Series 2 because I did not see the need to upgrade – the original Apple Watch does all the key things I need very well: alerting me of notifications and being my fitness tracker.
There are some hiccups, however, which I hope the new version will fix: battery life has been reliable overall, but I had a few occasions where out of nowhere, the battery was suddenly at 10% in the afternoon, which should not be the case (I am normally at the 30% to 50% mark at the end of day). Certain features like voice commands and scribbling messages are also a bit sluggish. And: I really wanted to have the water resistance, so I do not need to worry about killing the watch when going into the pool.
Series 3 is running a much more powerful processor and battery life is supposed to be way better. I was wondering whether I should wait another year, though. While Series 3 has LTE options in other countries, it does not at lauch in Singapore. That by itself is not a big issue: I do not really think I need LTE and it active, it depletes the battery much faster. Also, the LTE versions have an unforgivable red dot on the crown, a design choice I honestly do not understand and seemingly more befitting for a company like Samsung. But then again, only the LTE versions come in the stainless steel casing, which is my preferred material for a watch (if only to use it with the beautiful steel link bracelet which simply wont go with an aluminum casing).
In the end I decided that I would swallow the non-steel execution and trust that Apple will not change the wrist band connection in the next few generations, so I will be able to use the link bracelet with a future watch upgrade (besides being able to still use it with my original Apple Watch). Given the rather poor watch selection to pick from in Singapore, I’ve opted for a Nike+ version which comes in the space gray aluminum casing and with one of the Emmentaler cheese wrist bands I do not own, yet.
I’ve paired and installed the watch tonight and the speed of this process, including a much more refined and fun installation process, bears well for what to expect from the device. The general snappiness of the user interface and the apps also blow me away and once you’ve had that it’s hard to imagine you’ve ever put up with slower watches.
I think I’ve made the right choice.
