Four Years With The Apple Watch Series Four

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I have spent four years with the Apple Watch Series Four. Although I should feel the opposite I have found that for most of its life I have loved to hate the watch. The first thing I hate about the Apple Watches is that they’re fragile. I had a series three and I broke the screen while climbing indoors. Watches should never break whilst your climbing indoors. There’s nothing for them to smash against.

Cracked screen on the Series 3

I have climbed with a Suunto Ambit 3 for years with no issues and a Suunto Spartan Baro Wrist HR watch after that with no issues, ever. With the Apple watch a few months were enough. With the Series Four I haven’t broken the screen yet, but that’s down either to not climbing much, or luck.

Non Self-Cleaning

The second thing I hate about the Apple Watch Series Four is that the watch eventually starts to stink. With other watches you can wear them every day for months or years without ever worrying about them smelling. I think it’s due to the thick straps that have a tendency to collect rather than get rid of moisture. Usually dropping the watch into a glass of soapy water for an hour or two resolves the problem. I know, a few minutes would be enough, but I give time for the water and soap to do the thing.

Features Trapped Within Apple’s Ecosystem

Another hate I have is that the data isn’t shared between garmin, Suunto and Apple as it could be. If I wanted to get full data for all three I’d have to wear the three watches at once. That is too much, even for me. I really wish we could wear one watch and have all the features combined into one service.

Rare Use of Apps

The apps I used on the Apple watch are the timer, the time of day, the fitness app, and not much else. I found that the watch is slow for audible books and podcasts. It would take hours to transfer data between the two.

Positive: Slim Watch

Another great feature of the Apple watches is that they’re slim enough to slide under shirt sleeves. With the Suunto Spartan Wrist HR and Suunto Ambit 3 the choice had to be made whether to have them before, or after the button. In a work context slim watches are better.

Positive: Reliable battery

Now for the positive. Four years on and I have never had the battery die during a workout where I did not forget to charge the watch at the regular time, and then wear it for the night and the next day. The battery easily lasted four years, despite two hours of tracking almost every day for four years, if not longer workouts.

Conclusion

When the screen on the Series 3 cracked I experienced buyer’s remorse but bought the Four anyway because I was still curious about the possibilities. I feel that, at 479 CHF the Apple Watch Series Four was not a good deal, for a sports tracker style watch. This is the first watch where I had buyer’s remorse, and I love watches.