Ten years ago, Apple Watch blinked into existence. Initially envisioned in part as a luxury bauble for the rich, it quickly focused on being a passive-aggressive fitness aid. Turns out, not everyone wanted to spend ten grand on a smart watch that couldn’t get through a day without being charged.
Since then, things have improved. Battery life is better. Apple Watch is more powerful. Which probably explains why Apple’s reportedly shipped over a quarter billion of the things. If you’d given 2015 sceptical me those numbers, I’d have been shocked.
Here are 10 other ways in which Apple’s wearable has surprised me over the years.
1. Babies love it – too much
Babies love shiny objects. But in 2015, my then one-year-old treated my Apple Watch like the One Ring. Her life’s mission: yank up my sleeve and spin and click that Digital Crown like her existence depended on it. I should have hired her out to Apple’s durability test labs.
2. Wrist-based gaming can work
I once interviewed a bunch of game devs convinced Apple Watch gaming would be the next big thing. It wasn’t. But some gems slipped through: texty space drama Lifeline… and fab tribute to ’80s LCD tat Star Duster. But no Call of Duty: Wrists of Steel. Tsk.
3. Waving my arm = standing up
Too often, I’d be using my standing desk and my watch would order me to stand. I’d then wave my arm around like a lunatic, angrily grumping I AM STANDING UP. Still happens. Which should be fun the day Apple Intelligence lets Apple Watch answer back.
4. I got way too into streaks
Apple gamified movement. Close your rings! Hit those streaks! I once lost a year-long one despite working out on the day. And then, in a massive huff, I stopped exercising. There’s a moral to this story and I’m not sure I or Apple come out of it well.
5. I rarely use Apple Watch apps
I’ve written about apps for years. My iPhone currently has 541 installed. (Don’t @ me.) On my Apple Watch, though, I only regularly use a handful of third-party apps and not even many of Apple’s. Which is… fine? I was expecting it to take more of the iPhone’s load, though.
6. It’s the best Pomodoro timer
An exception to the apps thing: Bear Focus Timer. I love it on iPhone, but it’s even better on Apple Watch, lightly tapping my wrist to tell me when to work or take a break. Why, yes, I am easily distracted. Why do you— OH LOOK A PIGEON!
7. It briefly inferred I was dead
I’ve been all in with Apple turning its watch into a health and wellbeing aid. Less so when, during the pandemic, it gave me blood oxygen readings suggesting I’d expired. I hadn’t. I didn’t even have covid. Maybe this was sweet revenge for the exercise thing.
8. Fall detection really works
On a trip to Spain and an ill-advised amble on to slippery rocks, I hit the ground. Hard. On recovering from the initial shock, I spotted my watch counting down to alert the emergency services. Nice to know it did actually care. Less nice: I had to test this with actual pain.
9. Original Apple Watch bands still fit
A cynic might suggest Apple loves making devices 1.2mm bigger/smaller/angrier each year to fuel accessories sales. Which makes it surprising Apple Watch bands from a decade ago remain compatible. The day that changes, the screams of anguish will be so loud every Apple Watch noise warning will go off at once.
10. I’m still using one after ten years
I hadn’t worn a watch in years before the Apple Watch arrived. I never saw the need. But as a tech writer, I bought Apple’s gadget out of duty. A decade later, one’s still on my wrist. That might be the biggest surprise of them all.
