On Oct 13, 2015, I bought this Martian Watches Notifier Smartwatch – White from Amazon ($50). Note this is just a notification watch, and it can send the text message from phone to my watch. The reason I wanted it is because at that time, I was worried I could miss the text message over night during sleep, when I was doing on-call duty (a part of the job). Btw, I just noticed I talked about the experience of on-call and notifications here. So I mainly wear this watch before I went to bed. You may wonder I can just make the iPhone louder and that way it will be harder for me to miss the text messages in the night: the reason I didn’t want to do that is I don’t want to wake up my young kids and my wife. A vibration type of notification, or a nudge on my wrist is much better.
Looking back, I think I probably should have bought the Apple Watch instead, to avoid all the troubles. But note Apple Watch was released on April 24, 2015, and in general I don’t like to be a guinea pig of “version 1” product, that includes the Apple iPhone too.
I used Fitbit for a while too (blog post 1, blog post 2), before eventually switching to Apple watch in Jan 2017. I vaguely recall I didn’t like the FitBit charger feel on my wrist. Apple Watch feels more natural. Interestingly enough, recently I sold a charging cable for FitBit on eBay. On the other hand, I recall FitBit has longer battery life and also can records sleep (Apple Watch could not do that in its early days, also the battery life was not ideal). Before Fitbit I used Jawbone UP band briefly (see my blog post here). My recollection is Jawbone UP band had some quality issue.
I am happy with Apple watch since then. Recently I bought the series 9, which is my 3rd Apple Watch. My 1st Apple Watch is Apple Watch Series 2 Nike version (42mm). That one had some issues and eventually I was able to go to the Apple store and receive a replacement (it was still under warranty, under a year). Note all the Apple Watch warranty is honored by Apple, even the Nike version (I bought it from Nike.com online store then).
My 2nd Apple Watch is series 5 and this time I got a smaller version which is 40 mm and it fits my wrist better.
For my new series 9 I intend to use its cellular feature so that I don’t need to carry the phone all the time. Recently I realized being parent is 24×7 on call duty too: especially when we talk about 14 year old. But it will take another 6 month or so for me to get a cellular plan for my watch because right now I am MintMobile, and they don’t support the Apple Watch Cellular yet. I plan to switch over to the Visible mobile after my current contract with MintMobile is up.
One thing I noticed is the series 9 got some new watch faces, including the UVI (UV indicator). This is probably useful metric. Also, I am using the grey color modular face for now, this may (or may not) save some battery. (Confirmed 06-03-24) from last week’s usage I would say that watch face, plus the new watch (battery) helped – the old series 5 needs to be charged every day, now series 9 can last at least 36 hours (likely more).
Btw, the price of the Apple Watch seems fluctuates, I just noticed this Midnight Aluminum Case with Midnight Sport Loop is cheaper than the product red I got (by about $70; product red was $399). But the product red version I got has more character 🙂
Also, I don’t recommend getting series 8 at this time, as we expect Apple releases series 10 later this year. Apple usually does annual release of new watch. Series 9 was released last Sept.
I just sold my series 5 on eBay for $85 (was $299 bought new at Walmart about 4 years ago), btw. Similar watch is selling at about $150 at Amazon Renewed Store (more on Amazon Renewed Store). This is a little like the Plato’s Closet used clothes store that my 14 year old recently got interested (or obsessed), in terms of concept and less guilty on consumerism (YT video 1, YT video 2).
I vaguely recall I sold my series 2 on eBay in year 2019 too.
FAQs
Why I switched to Apple Watch, or bought Apple Watch?
Besides it has a better watch band (a more natural fit on the wrist), I found out from my coworker at Mastercard, that using Apple Pay via watch is much easier than using the iPhone.
Do I take phone calls on Apple Watch?
Yes: I do. I recall I do that when I was holding my baby (Sophia), and when I was driving. Fun but relevant and I strongly recommend you don’t do it: on the days I worked for Mastercard, on some days and during the commute, I texted coworker on the Skype Business on the work iPhone.
How long does Apple Watch last?
Per CreativeBloq: There will always be exceptions, but on balance, based on the experience of our own reviewers and the comments we’ve seen from users online, I would say that an Apple Watch provide five to six years of good performance.