This is a very timely episode for me! I am wearing my AW Ultra 1 again after switching to Garmin for my fitness watch (and my mechanical watches the rest of the time). Some of that was trying to dial back tech in my life (and I can’t wear an Apple Watch or Garmin at work anyway).
But somewhat counterintuitively, I’m experimenting with the AW again (cellular on) as a way to leave my phone at home when I want to be more present in the activities I’m doing while still remaining contactable for emergencies (mostly by family). That’s also allowed me to bring along my new pocket camera in the space my phone used to be in…again, in a quest to be more present.
This setup isn’t an “all the time” thing for me, but more of an occasional way to disengage a bit.
Anyway, I look forward to listening to this episode very much!
Always a good topic! The watch generally works out for me. The biggest limitation at the moment is Signal only letting me message from notifications instead of having a watch app. From trying to fork and make my own, the cryptography in conjunction with the limited background processing is challenging. Hoping it’ll be more prioritized now that WhatsApp has an app.
I have a long list of apps, products and watchfaces to check out after listening to this episode.
Ah, watchbands! I was pleasantly surprised that Spidel was still in business and makes a Twistoflex for the Apple watch. I wore one through the 70’s and 80’s. This will happily be my last watchband.
(The price in the blurb is wrong for the version I bought which was a Apple-like $80.)
The cellular option is a nice way to “disconnect” from the phone for sure, let us know how that goes!
Glad we could mention some new ones!
Orange is a nice touch!
Woah that brings back memories of watches my Dad used to wear. Didn’t know they came for Apple Watch!
I consider myself lucky to have happenstanced upon it! Easier to deal with than snaps or buckles and the Milanese Loop Apple band I had been using loosens up by itself all the time. The Twistoflex just drops onto my wrist like a rubber band and stays put.
$99 is a lot to pay for a watchband. On the other hand, hopefully it will last a long, long time, through generations of Apple Watches.
My father had a twist-o-flex watch band on his watch. And I’ve now been wearing the watch on special occasions for 48 years.
Well the Apple Milanese Loop band I had been wearing was $99, the Twistoflex is 20% less. And the first Twistoflex I wore for about 20 years, stopping only when I no longer wore a watch. It’s basically a lifetime purchase. They don’t wear out.
I bought a Speidel Twist-O-Flex band in large part because of your enthusiasm for it. When ordering, Speidel provides a sizing chart, and I chose the size that appeared appropriate for my wrist. Unfortunately, it turned out to be slightly too loose for use with an Apple Watch Ultra.
The Ultra is relatively heavy, and the watch needs to maintain good skin contact for features like heart-rate monitoring. During active movement, the band would shift around enough that the watch occasionally lost wrist contact, forcing me to re-enter my password.
I eventually went to a local jeweler to have links removed. The jeweler did the work, but somewhat reluctantly. He said he was the only person in the shop who knew how to adjust this type of band and described it as a fiddly and unpleasant task. He removed three links. In retrospect, two links might have been ideal, but after the adjustment the band now works properly.
He said he would not charge me if I promised not to tell anyone he had agreed to do the job.
After all this drama, I do like the band. It is convenient, comfortable, and noticeably more stylish than the more utilitarian bands I normally wear.
My advice for anyone buying one for an Apple Watch Ultra is this:
Err on the side of ordering a slightly smaller size rather than a larger one.
Yep. Good point. Mine is a standard Apple watch, and it fit perfectly. I was worried about this as the instructions they give (and the You Tube videos) look like more than my 77 year old hands could deal with!
Glad you are happy with it!
I’ve always been curious why Apple haven’t added a solar-powered option to the Apple Watch like Casio’s G-Shock watches? Any thoughts on that?
Can a solar panel small enough to fit on an Apple Watch produce enough power to charge the watch while in use? Even if we’re generous and assume the whole watch face can be used as a solar panel?
I hope this math is right…
- Solar panels currently top out at 300W / m^2 (source).
- The Apple Watch Ultra 3 screen is 1245 mm^2, which is 0.1% of a 1 square meter panel.
- Assuming the 300W panel, that’s 0.03W (under ideal conditions) produced by a solar panel the size of an AW Ultra 3’s face.
0.03W is probably below what’s needed to maintain charge for a running watch (I don’t have power numbers on the processor itself, unfortunately).
You could estimate based on the Wh of the batteries and the estimated battery life. .03W is .72Wh per day. An Ultra 3 gets two days’ battery life and the battery size is 2.3 Wh so a solar face with that efficiency, constantly in sunlight, would provide about 60% of the needed power.