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Category: Guides

  • First Apple Watch? Here’s what to do first

    First Apple Watch? Here’s what to do first

    This guide covers:

    Start here:

    Start by making sure your iPhone is running the very latest and greatest software (Settings -> General -> Software update). 

    While it’s updating, watch this video:

    Then follow Apple’s guide on setting up a new Apple Watch, my own guide will take over after the steps in this one is completed.

    Video version of the same above guide:

    Understand the Digital Crown

    The Digital Crown is the top right button and wheel on your watch, as per above photo. It does a lot of things:

    Understand the Side Button

    The side button is sitting below the Digital Crown and does the following:

    • Press it to show or hide Control Center.
    • Press it and hold to use Emergency SOS.
    • Double-click it to use Apple Pay.
    • Press and hold it to turn your watch on or off.

    Learn the Gestures

    You can use gestures to interact with your Apple Watch. Your watch performs different functions when you tap its screen or press it for a longer time.

    • Tap the screen to select a button or item. A tap also brings the screen to full brightness when the watch is in Always-on mode
    • Tap and hold – tap the screen and keep your finger in place to change the watch face, see options in an app, and more.
    • Drag your finger across the screen to scroll or adjust a 
    • Swipe up, down, left

    Make sure your iPhone can unlock your Apple Watch

    Go to the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, tap My Watch, tap Passcode, then turn on Unlock with iPhone.

    Your iPhone must be within normal Bluetooth range (about 33 feet or 10 meters) of your Apple Watch to unlock it. If Bluetooth is off on Apple Watch, enter the passcode on your watch to unlock it.

    This means every time your iPhone gets unlocked, by Face ID or otherwise, if your Apple Watch is on your wrist, it unlocks as well. No passcode entering needed.

    Create your own watch face(s)

    Start by exploring all the faces that are available which is best done in the Watch-app on your iPhone, go to the tab “Watch Gallery”. Also explore Apple’s online guide to all the faces that explain their features.

    You do not need to pick only one face. It is easy to switch between a few favorites, and you can also link specific Focus modes to specific watch faces.

    Track daily activity

    Your Apple Watch keeps track of your movement throughout the day and encourages you to meet your fitness goals. It tracks how often you stand, how much you move, and how many minutes of exercise you do – automatically in the background and no need to start workouts for this.

    Three rings in different colors summarize your progress. The goal is to sit less, move more, and get some exercise by completing each ring every day.

    The Fitness app on your iPhone keeps a record of your activity. If you’ve tracked at least six months of activity, it displays daily trend data for active calories, exercise minutes, stand hours, stand minutes, walk distance, cardio fitness, walking pace, and more. In the Fitness app on iPhone, tap Summary, then scroll to Trends to see how you’re doing compared to your average activity.

    Read on in the below article how this all works and how to set it up to work best for you. To get accurate measurements, make sure you have followed the steps in the last article here.

    Start using health features

    Your Apple Watch can help you meet your sleep goals, track important information related to your heart, track your nightly sleep body temperature, identify sleep apnea, keep a log of your emotions and mood, log your medications and track your menstrual cycle – and much more.

    Sleeping with your Apple Watch is an essential part of the experience, as only then can many of the measurements accurately happen. So just get into the habit. See the tip below on how to always fast-charge your Apple Watch – and you will only need to drop it on the charger while in the shower or a similar quick 15-20 minute activity – and you will never run out of charge. If you forgot to charge, 8 minutes on a fast charger is enough to sleep track a whole night.

    Understand safety features

    One of the main benefits of the Apple Watch is its many life-saving safety features. The above video showcases only real people and their real stories of how the Apple Watch has helped them.

    It’s good to understand what these features are and how they work.

    Have a look through the most important ones below (how to contact emergency services, set up your Medical ID, and understand how to use Check In):

    Go for your first workout

    Your Apple Watch can accurately track and give you insights for all kinds of workouts – from basics like running, cycling and swimming – to more advanced like pilates, dance, stair stepper and so on.

    Check out the below links for how to start a workout and what workout types are supported and how they differ from each other:

    Set up Apple Pay

    Stop paying with plastic cards, and stop paying with your iPhone! The Apple Pay experience is its best with Apple Watch. Besides adding your credit cards (which you should do first), you can also add many loyalty cards such as self-scanning for many grocery chains and some cars even support Apple CarKey which exists then in the Apple Wallet app.

    Ping your iPhone

    You can use your watch to find your iPhone nearby by pinging it (and your iPhone can similarly ping your Apple Watch).

    1. Press the side button to open Control Center on Apple Watch.
    2. Tap the icon that looks like a shaking/vibrating iPhone

    Your iPhone plays a sound, and if Apple Watch is within range and you have a newer iPhone, the screen also displays a general heading and distance to your iPhone—50 feet, for example.

    If your iPhone isn’t in range of Apple Watch, try using Find My from iCloud.com.

    TIP: If it’s dark, press and hold the ping iPhone-icon and it will also make the flashlight go off on the iPhone to make finding it easier.

    Understand Control Center

    Control Center is what opens when you press the Side Button (see first tip). This is an important part of the Apple Watch and you should know how to use it, what its features are and how to customize it:

    Understand and use the Smart Stack

    The Smart Stack is one of the best more recent additions to the watchOS operating system. You get to it by scrolling upwards on the Digital Crown. This stack of widgets dynamically change and update throughout the day, and can show you many things: Playback Controls if something is playing nearby, sleep tracking if you just awoke, song recognition if it hears a song playing, weather, your activity rings, Live Activities from your iPhone such as good delivery, Uber pickup status, and so on. 

    It uses information such as the time, your location, and your activity to automatically display the most relevant widgets at the appropriate time in your day. You can also add and remove your own preferred widgets to this stack, but I recommend letting it be dynamic.

    Check out the video and the article below to fully understand this feature.

    Unlock your Mac with Apple Watch

    If you have a Mac that is newer than 2013 (so they can be pretty old!) it is possible to unlock your Mac automatically when sitting down in front of it, just by wearing your Apple Watch. This means you can set a secure password and require it after screensaver (which is a best practice) and not be bothered often to enter it because your Apple Watch will take care of it.

    Set up is easy, just follow:

    Use Siri

    Siri on Apple Watch is one of my most-used features. If you did not change the default settings, you just clearly raise your wrist toward you and start talking about Siri will be triggered automatically. You can also trigger Siri press and holding the Digital Crown until you see the listening indicator, and start talking. 

    Use Double Tap

    You can use the double tap gesture to answer a call, reply to a message, see and scroll through your Smart Stack, scroll through supported apps, and more.

    Tap your index finger and thumb together twice, using just the hand that wears the Apple Watch, and magic happens: 

    Understand sounds and notifications

    First of all: use your Apple Watch basically always and only in Silent Mode, is my recommendation. The haptic taps it provides is enough. Silent Mode is nice to have off during longer workouts though, but other than that no need.

    Learn how to do that below, as well as how to customize notifications. But don’t turn off notifications – that’s like the top feature of the Apple Watch. Use Focus modes instead:

    Organize your apps

    Make sure you are moving your most frequently used apps to the top of the app grid view, so you can quickly access them (remember, one press on the Digital Crown opens the Home view which shows all apps). It is very easy to do this, just follow:

    See and respond to notifications

    Use your Apple Watch without your iPhone nearby

    If you bought your Apple Watch with cellular and have an active cellular plan, there are no limits to what you can do with your Apple Watch even if your iPhone is not nearby. If however, you did not buy an Apple Watch with cellular, there are still things you can do without your iPhone, read on for details: 

    Set up cellular service

    Make sure you’ve setup cellular service in case you bought your Apple Watch with cellular, which I recommend:

    Use a fast charger

    Make sure you are charging your Apple Watch in fast-charge mode – that gives 0-80% battery in around 30 minutes. You should always charge this way, and it means you only need to drop it on a charger for 10-20 minutes every day and you can wear it 24/7.

    To achieve fast charging for Apple Watch, make sure you use the included charging cable with either a:

    • Apple 18W, 20W, 29W, 30W, 35W, 61W, 87W, or 96W USB-C Power Adapter, or:
    • A comparable third-party USB-C power adapter that supports USB Power Delivery (USB-PD) of 5W or greater

    More below:

    Watch these videos

    Here’s a small collection of additional short videos I recommend watching to learn more features of your Apple Watch.

    Remember, this is just the beginning

    There is so much more to explore with the Apple Watch beyond what has been listed here. The Apple Watch is an entire computer on your wrist, with a full dedicated operating system on it – and it is way more powerful than a “smart activity band” as well as other smart watches. 

    The below list is just examples of more things to explore at some point, but it is far, far from exhaustive.

    And all this is still before we get into 3rd party apps. On the Apple Watch App Store there are literally tens of thousands of Apple Watch apps made by developers other than Apple which enable even more cool things and expand what your Apple Watch can do.

  • Apple Watch – The ultimate guide to all the options when buying

    Apple Watch – The ultimate guide to all the options when buying

    In this article, I am going to give my recommendations and reasoning for the various choices that you will be faced when having decided to buy an Apple Watch (which is a fantastic decision, by the way. You will not regret it). In summary, you have these choices to make: overall model, case material, case color, case size, with or without cellular, and finally watch band – which is the least consequential choice since they are very easily replace – that is part of the appeal of the watch, to have many bands you switch between. 

    1) Model

    When it comes to choosing the overall model, there is a lot of thought you will need to put into it: but honestly, only between picking between Series 10 and Ultra 2. You can safely ignore the other models.

    1.1 Apple Watch Series 10

    Should be the default choice for most users. It’s the canonical Apple Watch for a reason. This is the primary line of watch and has the newest features.

    1.2 Apple Watch Ultra 2

    My choice, and the right choice for more buyers than you would first assume. In 2024 specifically, it might not be the best choice as there is not yet an Ultra 3, and Ultra 2 came out in 2023. So the Series 10 is in some ways better than the Ultra 2.

    But with the Ultra, you get a bigger display and massively longer battery life which to me alone make the model worth it. You get more than that though. I see it every day on more and more wrists, and have yet to see it on one where it looks anything close to too big – including short/small/petite women. Instead of looking at this as the ”extreme sports” version, you should look at it as simply what it is – it’s the best Apple Watch. Best in terms of features and materials. But of course, more expensive. And larger. 

    But again, in 2024 the Series 10 is probably the best choice for the majority still.

    1.3 Apple Watch SE

    Should be picked by very few. If buying to a young kid or elderly parent, maybe. But the lack of some of the health and safety features make me hesitant to recommend it even then. If you are seriously still considering this, it’s almost always a better choice to buy an older Apple Watch Series, so like a Series 6 or 7 or 8. 

    1.4 Apple Watch Nike

    Isn’t different in any way to Series 9, just comes with some unique watch faces at the same price. I don‘t see any real reason to pick it. 

    1.5 Apple Watch Hermés

    Shouldn’t be bought by anybody. No technical difference to Series 9, but again some unique Hermés designed watch faces plus the absurdly expensive watch bands.

    2) Material

    This is a matter of budget, personal preference and taste, but I find the aluminium watches too “gadget-y” in their look. The titanium ones on the other hand look beautiful and like true works of art – especially now after the reduction in thickness. The difference in person is striking and cannot be accurately reflected in photos online. It really upgrades the look of an Apple Watch to an accessory. 

    As an additional (massive) benefit, all titanium models always comes with GPS + Cellular so you are not paying extra for that, plus they come with a much more crack and scratch resistant display (sapphire crystal vs glass). 

    3) Size

    Go bigger than you first think. This has nothing to do if you are male or female or if you have big or small wrists. Really. It ain’t related. The watch also doesn’t look anywhere near as big on your wrist as it looks when you look at your own wrist. Look at other people instead. See if you think theirs look big. You won’t. 

    Honestly, I think everybody should go with the larger size. You get a larger display and better battery life – two primary features of the Apple Watch. The bigger the display, the more you will enjoy using it – and more battery life doesn’t need explanation. 

    But in the end, if you really want to go small – go small. Just really consider this first, and try them out. Don’t just auto-jump to small because of any of the above reasons.

    4) Color

    Pick something that you like and preferably also a color that goes with a lot of different clothes and bands. I don’t really have an opinion here. If I am picking only for myself, and I had to buy an aluminum watch, I would go with Jet Black for sure. On titanium versions both Natural and Slate are beautiful finishes, and Gold is cool too but not for me.

    5) GPS or GPS+Cellular

    The additional cost for GPS+Cellular is highly worth it, in my opinion. Part of the appeal of an Apple Watch is that it can act as a very standalone device. It is powerful enough and capable enough to replace much of what an iPhone does. So you are already paying for hardware to enable a lot of this (in the processor), so why not pay to also be able to use it without your iPhone present? 

    Don’t get me wrong, you can of course use an Apple Watch without your iPhone present. But it’s more limited, if it doesn’t have its own cellular connection. When it does have that, you can just leave home and you will keep getting notifications, calls and text messages as if you were carrying your iPhone (they share the same phone number). You can also make calls, send messages, stream music and podcasts – and just do anything that requires data or a cellular connection. It’s awesome! It’s also a massive safety feature, since you will more often wear than watch than not, it can make 911 calls internationally and anywhere you are.

    6) Bands

    This is very personal, but I can give some overall guidance.

    • Stay away from 3rd party bands. They are not worth the trouble (and their short lifespan)
    • Don’t cheap out. The band is a huge part of the look and feel of the overall Apple Watch experience, and it will impact how you feel about using it. Remember, the goal is to get you to wear it as close as possible to 24/7 in order for it to provide you everything it can offer. Then you want it to look good. That said, if your budget is having you forced to choose between cellular and not cellular, vs a cheap vs more expensive band – go with Cellular before you pick the fancier band. The band can be upgraded, the hardware functions cannot. 
    • Don’t fret too much about band choice. Of course your first Apple Watch band should be something you think looks and feels good, but part of the fun with owning an Apple Watch is the interchangeability of the bands. You will buy others in the future anyways.
    • The Braided Solo Loops are awesome. They do require careful measuring of your wrist, but easy enough to do with a printer or if you go to an Apple Store. Functionally the regular Solo Loops are just as good, but the Braided ones are just nicer.
    • The Milanese Loop is by far the classiest one. It looks great. And the quality is more than 10x the Amazon copies you can find. Apple does not joke around when it comes to materials:

    “Woven on specialized Italian machines, the smooth stainless steel mesh wraps fluidly around your wrist. And because it’s fully magnetic, the Milanese Loop is infinitely adjustable, ensuring a perfect fit. An additional physical vapor deposition layer gives the gold stainless steel its distinctive finish.”

    7) AppleCare+

    Always get AppleCare+, but get the monthly version so you don’t have to pick it at time of purchase. Just remember to activate it shortly after you made the purchase (you can do it from your iPhone).