2 Apple Watches

Good Morning - I have the option to keep my Apple Watch after I updated to the series 8 …. Any value to having 2 watches ? And best practices or pitfalls …? It’s an aluminum 8 and SS 7

Thanks

Day and Night (sleep tracking) watch?

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When the S4 came out, I kept my S3 for a while afterward for sleep tracking while my S4 remained as my “day watch”. It was nice to always have two devices that were synced that I could swap out depending on what I was doing.

I’m actually considering keeping my S6 for this very reason whenever I decide to get an Ultra or S8 this year (want to see individual reviews of the Ultra).

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I’ve kept my S3 when I got my S7. Value I got is that I’m still wearing a watch while my 7 still charges. I like keeping track of my heart rate. I can also wear my S3 on activities that may scratch my 7 further. My S3 is quiet weathered and scratched after 5 years of active use. Perfect for gardening and doing household chores.

Left and right? :slightly_smiling_face:

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For me, gardening/yard work is a full-contact sport. Lot’s of dust, dirt, mud, and chances for scratching the watch face, etc. I would like to have one old watch for this activity and a new watch for normal use. My question is: does the health-related data that I do while gardening get counted/synched automatically?

I use both a Series 5 and a Series 4. The Series 4 is mostly for sleep tracking, though as the battery in the Series 5 degrades it’s sometimes getting put on earlier and earlier in the evening. I also use the Series 4 for tracking swimming workouts, since it has the Solo Loop on it, which seems better in the pool than the link bracelet on the Series 5.

You can pair multiple watches with an iPhone and they have an auto-switching feature which will automatically make whichever watch you put on the active one. As @anon20961960 mentioned, it can take a bit for activity ring progress to sync. I often put on my Series 4 and immediately get the “you can still do it” message, despite having blown through my rings earlier in the day. Give it a bit and everything twill transfer over. Really, the biggest pain is WatchOS updates. Because the watch on the charger is never the active one, I have to disable the auto-switching, manually select the watch I’m not wearing in the Watch app, and trigger an OS update.

Thanks all - amazing replies :slight_smile: Good ideas here

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As always, a great explanation @ChrisUpchurch. Thank you.

Health data will still be monitored but it will take a few minutes before your data and activities get synched. @ChrisUpchurch explained it well even with the “turn off the auto-switching when updating WatchOS”.

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I use an old Series 3 as sleep tracker. Uninstalled almost every app, disabled notifications, using sleep focus and theatre mode. Wear it with a loop band. No syn issues as sleep info and health rings sync seemlessly

My day watch (now series 4, soon a series 8) charges overnight. Depending how the 8 performs, I might get rid of the 3 and use the 4 as night watch (though it might need a battery replacement)

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I have a similar issue with my Apple 6 and my (gasp) Fitbit Sense… quite frankly, I find the Fitbit to be a better health tracker than the Apple since most of the features of the Fitbit I can only get for the Apple by buying a subscription or third party app… but for the ecosystem, I use the Apple…

I would definitely do this, since Apple Watch Series 4 can run watchOS 9, with support for different sleep phases (deep, core, REM, awake), while Series 3 cannot.

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When my Series 8 arrived, I considered using the Series 5 for my sleep tracking so the Series 8 could charge at night, but I scrapped that idea upon seeing how quickly the Series 8 charges. It’s at 100% when I leave the house for the day, after charging the previous evening while showering after my workout, and charging again in the morning while finishing getting ready. I’ll probably keep the Series 5 around, and revise the idea when the battery on the Series 8 starts to degrade.