Decline of an Apple Watch Series Four
I have had my Apple Watch Series Four for four or five years now and it has been warn almost every day of those for years. In that time I have exceeded my move goal by 400% six times, by 300 percent 21 times, and by 200% 194 times. I have my longest move streak lasting 76 days, and perfect weeks one hundred times. I have reached my move goal 1602 times over the years. I completed 36 monthly challenges. I had 7-workout weeks 253 times. I also have 27 limited edition challenges badges.
I really enjoyed working on these challenges at one time. Every time I had a monthly challenge I wanted to beat it. Every time my move goal recommendation was increased I would accept. That’s why, in 2020 I walked five and a half million steps. In the end I had to walk three or four hours a day to reach the move goal. I eventually stopped allowing Apple to dictate how much I had to burn, because it took four hours per day, and I became fatigued.
The issue with the watch is that the battery is old. It has been working since the 1st of November 2018 almost noon stop. It has been through charge cycles every day during that time. I need to charge the watch two times a day sometimes. Once during the night, or before I sleep, and a second before I go for a walk, run, or other. it has died during my walks at least twice now.
The cost to replace the battery is 95 CHF and in 8 days it will no longer be possible to have the watch battery replaced. It’s about to become obsolete, according to Apple.
Recently when playing with apps I noticed that Sports Tracker and the apple Watch play very well together and this has revived my interest in the Apple Watch. I have been using the Sports Tracker app for decades, so good integration with my favourite tracker is welcome.
The Apple watch is mediocre compared to Garmin and Suunto when it comes to sports tracking. The battery dies every day if we don’t charge it. It is fragile compared to its two key competitors. I see the Apple Watch as a Sports Tracker, not a smart watch. The smart features are hard to use on a small screen.
I like that it tracks walking asymmetry, walking steadiness and other health trends. It is all this health data that keeps me on the device. If it accepted this data from Suunto or Garmin then I would happily wear just one watch, rather than hesitate between three of them. For as long as I am healthy this data is just out of geeky curiousity, rather than important health information.
To replace the Apple watch will cost at least 249 CHF for the lowest spec version and the highest spec version would cost 1200 CHF. I don’t want to spend 249 CHF, let alone 1200 on another Apple Watch. The issue I have now is that after the Apple watch crashed and rebooted while I was trying to save yesterday’s walk. The result is that I no longer trust it to track my daily activities.
We have two wrists, and wearing two watches is eccentric. If I wear two watches, and one of these watches fails to track an activity then I look eccentric for nothing. In this case it makes sense for me to stop wearing the unreliable watch, and wear the one(s) that is(are) reliable.
When I saw that the Apple Watch was feeding Sports Tracker, and Sports Tracker was feeding the Suunto app it made my decision easier. For now I’m going to continue using a Suunto watch, that syncs with the Suunto App, which syncs with the Sports Tracker app, to keep the legacy going. Sports Tracker has 3419 workouts of mine, from decades of use.
I sent a message to Apple where I said that I want them to provide better access to the Apple Fitness app from Garmin, Suunto and Casio devices. It frustrates me that if I stop using an Apple device I lose the telemetry data that the fitness app processes and displays. I don’t want to be locked in to Garmin, or Suunto, or Apple or Casio. I want all of them to talk to each other seamlessly so that it is easy to slide between the four.
