Apple - Watch SE (1st generation)
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Jan 28, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
94
27
"It’s well known that Apple has the best optical hr in the business and has since the series 4."
"have a ridiculously good optical HR sensor (it parallels my chest HR belt even during weight lifting HR spikes.. it's *that* good!)"
"The later AW is best in class for non chest straps. ... For daily fitness, Apple Watch is just better IMO. ... It being the most accurate heart rate tracker not a chest strap makes it the best fitness tracker to me. ... Maybe I should say it's the best workout recorder because it records the most accurate heart rate data. ... I just really like the AW for every day fitness more so than what Coros or Garmin can provide. ... Executing a training plan I've set out for myself and recording the results. Results being the duration and heart rate data during the planned workouts. I then upload that data to Training Peaks and use Training Peaks to keep up with my training load over time. So the every day fitness part is executing and recording my workouts. ... Apple Watch is data recording. Together they are tracking my fitness."
100
61
"It’s also pretty well established that AW has the best motion tracking which shows up when you use the swim feature for distance. ... In swimming, it’s not even close. 100% of garmins worn during our pool swims are incorrect, regardless of swimmer level. ... Every single Garmin incorrectly reported swim distance vs manual counting. Freestyle 4000m in 25m pool."
"even detected kickboard sets, where on a Coros or Garmin those don’t register at all."
"I had an Apple Watch, replaced it with a garmin forerunner for 1 month it was the worst! So inaccurate and when I’d swim in pools it would so often double count my lengths… I went back to Apple Watch"
129
9
"the fact that they integrate to the Apple Watch simply cannot be understated for me, I couldn’t go back to Garmin now, it is just so much part of my life now. ... Tracking weightlifting workouts, nutrition and other stuff, analysis of the data, send messages to HomePod, changing NC automatically, sending emails …."
"the Apple Watch cellular model lets you leave your phone behind. ... Perfect for activities like running."
"I unlock my computer and phone with it."
79
7
"my AW alerted me to heart irregularities that sent me to the ER and findings of a small heart attack and a secondary artery in my heart with 99% blockage. I am AW for life now."
"have a ridiculously good optical HR sensor (it parallels my chest HR belt even during weight lifting HR spikes.. it's *that* good!)"
"I’m one of those people the Apple Watch sent to the doctors 6 years ago and I had heart surgery in August! So it technically saved my life!"
32
3
"the activity tracker and goals has made a big difference in my weight loss goals."
"pairing with iOS. ... If you like to complete your circles, get awards etc then yea the AW integration with Health and Fitness is unbeatable"
"the watch is the far superior activity tracker."
Disliked most:
8
234
"after having it die on a couple seven mile/1.5 hour runs WITH the battery freshly charged and battery saving options on"
"The battery life is a literal joke. ... Do an activity? There goes 75% of your battery."
"Mine kept dieing one me mid run ... after two years of using it twice hours was about all an aw had battery for when using music and gps! By the 2:15 mark it would be dead. ... When I started running for longer than 2 hrs my battery would die mid run"
0
26
"If you are in long sleeves in the rain, you need to lock the touchscreen to prevent accidental touches. But that prevents you from using the touchscreen without holding to unlock for a few seconds. So if you are doing intervals, it can be hard to end the interval quickly."
"the Apple interface being badly interfered with by water/and clothing contact in heavy rain. ... I lost a trail marathon stats and mapping etc mid run. ... It was frankly infuriating"
"I already got sick and tired of touch screens with my Apple Watch ... Dripping sweat, rain and sleeves really screw with touch screens ... where I live we have like 6 months worth of snow so needing to take off my gloves and disable a screen lock before being able to pause my workout is an annoying PITA."
36
109
"sleep is a disaster ... I was watching TV and I was already asleep ... when I go to the bathroom in the evening, the venu didn't even notice that I was sleeping, or didn't even recognize that I went to the bathroom."
"Sleep tracking is great if you are an amazing sleeper who doesn’t have interrupted sleep or gets up in the night. I get up to pray and when I go back it doesn’t pick up that sleep again. It is an issue because sleep tracking was a major reason for me buying a fitness tracker."
"I also found the sleep tracking on the GW6 to be much more reliable. ... I have small kids so I wake up every now and then during the night and on the Garmin - it's so frustrating to be told in the morning that I had a great night of sleep with only 10 mins of time awake when I spent 40 mins trying to get my 2yo to fall back asleep."
3
135
"It misses key info and HR was clearly elevated compared to baseline even on the Ultra, but it doesn't count that. So a night of drinking and shit sleep, still give you a 95 score! ... But the vitals aren’t accounted by the sleep score as far as I can tell and my HR was higher though not abnormally high by Apple Watch standard but this could be because of sampling it does compared to the Garmin ... both HR and RR were elevated but not enough for Apple to flag but the sleep score doesn’t include those metrics, which I really think they should. ... The sleep scores doesn’t take into account vitals."
"Rep Counting, Diagram and Videos of Workouts, Lactate Threshold (even if not super accurate), and GPS Heatmaps for Team Sports are all super great and simply not present on AW."
"its actually pretty wild how much apple watch will overstate your calories burned, even after a clean on the sensor ... some workouts where the whoop tells me i burned 600 calories, watch tells me i did 900 calories. ... That is a significant difference, especially when you are trying to plan out nutrition goals/fitness goals. ... sometimes when i'm doing a light lift, apple watch will tell me i'm burning 300 - 400 calories, and I'm barley breaking a sweat, but then whoop will say i only burned around 120-150 calories during that session ... to me something just seems suspiciously off with how apple calculates BMR. ... In general if you are looking to lose weight/build fitness, a more conservative approach to what whoop is offering me probably makes more sense."
5
14
"It shows my calorie burn insanely high (I am talking several hundred calories high each day)."
"if ur looking for one that can track the calories u burned the best then i can tell you its a waste of time. None of them are accurate."
"the AW being wrong on calories is obvious pretty quickly, there seem to be pretty simple calculations running, it‘s amazing how often I get the same amount of calories for the same set of exercise at wildly different intensities or durations."
9999cw 1.0I liked my gen 1 SE, but when I actually got into slightly regular running I realised its limitations (hopeless battery and GPS, would sometimes miss tracking 10% of a Parkrun to the point of thinking that I’d levitated across a lake), switched to a Garmin and never looked back. I’m not entirely sure what the target customer for the AW is at this point.
The SE’s GPS is worthless. It would sometimes miss tracking 10% of a Parkrun to the point of thinking that I’d levitated across a lake. I completely lost trust in it being able to track accurately even in open fields. I switched to a Garmin and it actually does the basic job it’s supposed to do.
alexgduarte 1.0AWU2 here from last year and same. This watch will probably last me at least 3 more years, likely between 3-5. I had a SE from 2021 until 2024 (only upgraded because battery, not because I needed the new features) so will upgrade from this watch when battery becomes unusable or Apple brings really changing tech like actual hypertension readers/glucose monitors
Ancient_Section_75 1.0I use an apple watch and garmin. Short review Apple is a kickass smart watch and a good Fitness watch Garmin is a kickass fitness watch but a dumb smart watch (I am in the apple ecosystem) My apple watch is 3 or 4 years old now. SE first gen battery %67. While doing my half marathon, I was anxious the whole time I will run out of battery before I finish the race. If you do swimming, Garmin is your choice - with apple over one year the corners get hit and that will allow water to get in. Garmin 265 is one year old and yet to face such issues. Plus the physical buttons make it convenient to operate. And the battery life is amazing. I charge the garmin once a week vs apple watch currently at twice a day.
ErzaScralet 1.0Just had two walks with Pokemon Go, and I used my AGING Apple watch SE (2020) I think, and the Pixel Watch 3, mostly to see if this year I upgrade to an Apple Watch SE 3, or switch to a Pixel Watch 4 since I pre ordered the Pixel 10 Pro and want a new watch-- even setting a timer on my Apple watch 2020 SE is SLOWWWW now. After the first walk, I laughed at how OFF the Pixel Watch was on distance and calories burned. Now I'm only going off the past 5 years of my Apple Watch SE, but the Pixel watch 3 clocked a mile 0.71 miles EARLIER than the Apple Watch SE, which if that's the baseline and assuming is correct, is laughably bad. Final metrics were: Distance walked: 1.10 miles (AW); 1.22 miles (PW) Calories: 104 active, 142 total (AW); 193 (PW) Average HR: 105 (AW); 104 (PW) Steps: Apple doesn't say; 2,535 (PW) Average Pace: 18:49/mi (AW); 17:16/mi (PW) Save for a couple seconds if I paused or ended the walk... Wayyyyyy OFF on calories and distance. Must be terrible GPS and overestimation on calories, I would NOT trust Fitbit/Google if you're using them to be in a deficit for weight loss. Just did a 0.56 mile shorter walk (AW), and the Pixel said I did 0.62. 56 active and 76 total calories (AW), Pixel says 114 calories. Average Pace of 19:36/mi (AW) and Pixel says 17:46. Just two short sessions with it on a simple outdoor walk, and I'm returning this Pixel Watch 3 immediately and just waiting for the Apple Watch SE 3rd generation next month or October. 3 generations, with a 4th dropping early October and Google/Fitbit can't get the hardware right??? No shot I can ever main a Pixel again, as bad as I want to. For the record, I LOVE Pixel and have owned EVERY Pixel except for the Pixel 7 series, and have the Pixel 10 Pro pre ordered after trading in 8 Pro, sold my 9 Pro month or so ago knowing the August 20th event will plummet value for resale. For cameras, it's NO CONTEST, Pixel is better. I have an iPhone 15 Pro Max, and for telephoto, no contest. It's taking rumors that the 17 Pro Max will FINALLY match all lenses to be 48MP range to maybe give them a shot to compete. So I can equally dunk on Pixel for having terrible sensors on their watch, and Apple for up until maybe this year having terrible sensors on cameras on their "pro" line.
formerlyabird3 1.0Came over from Garmin Forerunner 255, but was on an original SE before that. I’m a serious (I like to think!) runner and the action button and battery life are tremendous upgrades from the old SE. I just got it yesterday so I really have barely scratched the surface but I love the watch face options, the health features, and the sleep tracking so far!
Frezburg2 1.0I upgraded to the ultra 3, gave my wife my series 10. S 10 is about 99% battery health after one year. My wife had a se series one 40mm. The 10 is lighter but have to charge each morning, from about 70 %. Could go to about 30% not charging till late afternoon. The ultra battery lasts way longer but watch is heavier on wrist. I think watch battery life is good for about 4 years. I upgraded to series 10 from ultra 1. Before the ultra 1 I had the series 7.
Funny_Budgie 1.0Would you recommend upgrading from a SE1 to a SE3 when it comes out? I’ve had my SE for almost 5 years now and it’s done good. Unfortunately it’s no longer receiving updates and the battery life is horrible. The screen also has a small crack in the corner. The new features with the SE3 are making me really want it but wondering if I should stick it out longer, money isn’t an issue but I don’t want an expensive model
govnorsy 1.0Unfortunate that you aren’t able to get it to cooperate. I only lap swim every so often but my watch tracks each lap accurately, since I set the pool length. I use a gen 1 SE.
httpkookie 1.0Hi! I’ve been wearing the SE1 for almost 5 years now. I still love it but the battery is currently at 76% health. I have no issue charging it twice a day now but I’m considering getting a new one before the battery completely gives up. New software updates would also be great as I’m still on watchOS 10! I can get the SE3 for about €285. The SE3 seems great for my use case which is: running, walking, gym workouts and sleeping (I love using it as my alarm). Through the Apple Refurbished store I can also get the S10 for about €350. I’m wondering if the Apple refurbished S10 is worth the extra €65 over the SE3? Both can do the same stuff my SE1 does, they get new software updates and they support fast charging. I don’t know if the additional sensors are beneficial for me as I’ve never had them on my current watch. On the Apple compare site I noticed the S10, S11, and SE3 all have the same chip. Does that mean they will all be supported for the same watchOS versions or will the S10 fall of the support list before the SE3 does?
Impressive-Method276 1.0If I record with WorkOutDoors, it automatically gets added to my fitness app and contributes to rings etc. No need to record with fitness as well, and data from WorkOutDoors automatically transfers without any double writing.
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