Buying an Apple Watch ?

[toucana]

I recently bought an Apple Watch Series 9, and thought it might be interesting to share some of the issues I have encountered so far. My main motive in purchasing a smart watch was to carry out enhanced health & activity monitoring, and to keep track of medication schedules and medical appointments.

Why pick an Apple Watch - rather than a Google Pixel Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 or a Garmin Vivomove Trend ? Well, all my other devices happen to be Apple  (iMac, iPad, iPhone) and are already linked up to each other via iCloud. If you happen to be an Android or Samsung phone user, or if you are training for the Olympics - then you would probably make different choices.

iOS 17 -->

Practically the first thing you need to know is that the Apple Series 9 smart watches have to be paired with an iPhone that is running iOS 17 at the very minimum. This unfortunately means that you cannot pair a Series 9 Apple Watch to an iPhone 8, as the latter only supports up to  iOS 16.7 - this was the first gottacha as my existing iPhone happened to be an iPhone 8 - strike #1. Having bought a new Apple Watch Series 9, I then had to buy a new iPhone as well to make any constructive use of the new watch. As it happened, my iPhone 8 needed to be replaced as it had developed a crack in the screen (which also meant it had zero trade-in value). The entry level phone on sale at Apple Stores in our area nowadays is an iPhone 13, which more than doubled the intended outlay for the watch.

Magnetic Link Band -->

A wide variety of wrist band styles are available for the watch and I selected a fine weave Textile Magnetic Link Band. These are relatively new. Apple originally offered Magnetic Link Bands in leather, but then withdrew these from sale for ecological reasons, and replaced them with Textile Bands made from recycled materials. These new Magnetic Link Bands have attracted some criticism from users complaining that they slip. I initially had some problems with this too, until I realised that these magnet straps have a preferred rotational orientation to each other. When correctly fitted the bands should snap together with an audible clunk - like a magnet toy. If they don’t, then you need to disengage one strap and refit it the other way up. The straps come in 3 colours, Pacific Blue, Dark Olive, and Taupe. The latter has a lighter tone on one side than the other which makes it easier to orientate them correctly.