Apple - Watch Series 1
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Reddit Reviews:
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Based on 1 year's data from Jan 26, 2026 How it works
Liked most:
46
115
"great battery life — around 7 hours on a charge, and up to 35–40 with the case."
"I use them constantly from 7am to 12 midnight (only music but ANC is on and volume is full blast) and I only had to charge once when it was at 20% and it took about 15 to maybe 20 minutes to full charge. ... So safe to say I think 10 hours of listening as advertised is true"
"I use them constantly from 7am to 12 midnight (only music but ANC is on and volume is full blast) and I only had to charge once when it was at 20% and it took about 15 to maybe 20 minutes to full charge. ... So safe to say I think 10 hours of listening as advertised is true ... Battery Life is great, long enough that i only had to put it in the case once while using it from 7am to 12 midnight. Charging only took 15-20 minutes to be 100%"
59
4
"when I went to the hospital I compared the readings on my Apple Watch and the medical grade heart monitor and both of them exactly the same"
"HR was identical average at 93bpm."
"Went to the ER and my Heart Rate and Blood oxygen were almost exactly the same as the hospital equipment."
30
7
"never thought apple would let any 3rd party access the data their devices collect. ... That is a game changer"
"I use it every swim. ... I installed the Swim.com app and it’s great"
"authentication apps ... doorbell camera where you can actually talk through your watch ... various email/chat apps ... todo list software"
253
47
"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."
"I like the apple gives me the actual normal time but gives a score on level of intensity of the work out separately"
"when I went to the hospital I compared the readings on my Apple Watch and the medical grade heart monitor and both of them exactly the same"
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."
Disliked most:
6
242
"Oh and battery life went from charging every two days to every 15 days."
"Battery, obviously. Listening to downloads on LTE burns 20% per half hour for me."
"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"
5
14
"I rolled with all notifications on at one point and it was super annoying."
"I dont get overloaded with notifications like my apple watch"
"The constant notifications on the AW were too distracting, I feel more zen now."
0
22
"The screen slowly died away ... eventually, the entire watch’s system died after a few months of swimming."
"That was a constant issue for me training in the UK, and I once missed the start of a race because I accidentally started recording a walk and couldn’t get my Apple Watch to stop that and start a run in time because the screen was wet."
"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."
1
79
"I tried using my apple watch at an indoor 25 yard pool and it did extremely poorly. It was off by about 100 yards at the 1000 yard mark."
"it’s absolute trash at tracking my laps even with the pool length set properly. ... It consistently tracks less than I do"
"open water was a disaster"
2
45
"one day I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep and I got a 95 sleep score on Apple lol the Garmin was correct in telling me I got shit sleep."
"my sleep was very fragmented which the Apple Watch didn’t pick up. ... The difference is the garmin should a lot of awakenings which is what I really had. This is the effect of alcohol being metabolized."
"Oura and Apple told me that I had a great sleep 10 nights in a row, which was really not the case. ... I do not trust these apps at all."
Born_Bicycle316 1.0I work at home and am not exactly an outdoorsman but I got the UW2 for the large screen and battery life and I love it. I had the Series 1 AW and have used most of them along the way. The Ultra has been my hands down favorite one.
SarcBey 1.0Running. Exercise tracking in general. Quick text replies. Checking the weather. Setting reminders. Music. AirPods are a great addition. Checking calendar. Health tracking. I def use my iPhone a ton. Have had a watch since the series 1. I love tech of all sorts so I just find it nice to wear and have. I def miss the Watch when I wear regular watches. I run without my phone but I almost NEVER don’t have my iphone on me, except for the short time that I run haha
Dogsofa21 0.5Just upgraded to a aws10 and for first time I forget to charge. Still do it once a day but it’s never below 50% so in theory could go more than 24hrs. With my less than 80% s7 I had to charge 2x day. Biggest difference? I went with the largest watch face. So after a loyal Apple customer I now know that as a female (let’s face it 99% of purchasers of the smaller face are women), I have been shafted with a smaller capacity battery for the princely sum of £30 cheaper price tag. Could never understand all the people who said watch battery lasted.
andymc1816 0.2Haha, I did the same thing about 6 months ago. I still had both so I wore the AW for a few days and got frustrated with the battery. It was 90% charged and died on a long 4 hour hike. Went home, formatted the watch, and gave it to my mom so she could replace her 5 year old AW.
Aware-Speech-2903 0.2Yes BUT I am a woman and switched because the smallest Apple Watch size looks like a phone on my wrist. I hate how the activity counter is not accurate. I hate the subscription fee. I hate how there’s really no customization options like engraving or anything compared to an Apple Watch band.
NextSuggestion7200 0.1I bought the aw1 till aw7 because I startet running I bought the forerunner 165, the battery life was cool, the body battery and hfv was very interesting so I upgraded to forerunner 570 this year… but the point is, statics like body battery etc is more or less just a rough calculation and drives me crazy sometimes :D so I think I will go back to aw some days
TheBuenasTardes 0.1Had AW 1 thru 7. Switched to Epix Gen 2 for a few years then Fenix 8. And did try the AW Ultra and Ultra 2 but sent those back. Garmin has been SO much better for battery, fitness tracking (running, cycling, etc) and not worrying about the battery while doing so. Super durable. And the flashlight on the 51mm. Chef’s kiss. I do miss *some* of the Apple integration but won’t be going back soon.
seemstress2 0.1I use AutoSleep because it has blood oxygen info and respiration rate graphs that I find very helpful. I also look at the built-in Apple Sleep app for comparison. They do not agree across the board, but the AutoSleep app is more accurate when it comes to whether or not I feel refreshed throughout the day. I do use AutoSleep's "Lights Off" function on my watch, because my sleep time does change as much as a half hour in either direction. That seems to make it more accurate than Apple's app.
Iluvgr8tdeals 0.0If you are coming from Garmin and their amazing battery life, get the Apple Ultra or the Ultra 2. It gives you 2 days (plus or minus a few hours depending on the activity) and it will give you sufficient battery life for your hiking unless you are doing multi-day hiking expeditions in places where you can’t charge your watch. I ‘upgraded’ from an Apple Watch Series 8 after my winter cycling proved too much for the Series 8 and the battery life was simply insufficient for a 6 hour plus ride especially in the brutal cold. An Apple Watch (not the SE, the SE has sketchy battery life) is enough for most activities that last several hours. If you are doing activities that are going the 24 hour mark, get the Apple Ultra watch. For multi days, you can use your Ultra watch if you are going to be charging it at the end of the day. If you are unable or unwilling to charge the watch after the end of a day or two, stay with a Garmin. Of course, you can place your Apple Watch on low power modes and switch off notifications to preserve battery life. I straddle both ecosystems. I have a Garmin bike computer, light, radar, cadence and speed sensors and the heart rate monitor. I have Apple for the watch and everything else…
Sundae-Soggy 0.0Hi! I'm on the Series 6 Titanium (Natural) in 44 and absolutely love the material and color (and the size). Now, as the battery is slowly but surely getting old (78%), I'm struggling to decide on where to go next. I'm wondering what y'all have upgraded to, if at all? The Ultra (with the lovely natural titanium) is too large and bulky for my wrist. I could upgrade to a 7 Titanium (45), knowing that there is no Titanium successor in a similar size, basically postponing the decision-making. Also, feature-wise not many compelling improvements compared to my 6. I have tried the Aluminum Starlight and Silver colors, the Starlight ist too rosé-ish for me. The silver is okay-ish but definitely does not feel as premium as titanium and most of my straps (natural titanium) do not quite fit color-wise. So the 9 (45) and the 10 (42) in aluminum are an option, but again, do not feel as premium and require new straps, especially the new 42 size (as the 46 is too large for my wrist). Then there's the 10 (42) natural titanium polished, it could be an option but would need to try first to see if I like it. However, too expensive for now.
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