So, it finally happened, I got myself an Apple Watch series 11 (with cellular). My primary motivation is to keep a track on my vitals, but it seems capable of quite a bit more.
For now, I have set it up and been playing around with some neat watch faces. I have also removed a lot of apps that I felt wasn’t needed for me and re-organised the app grid to push a few familiar icons to the top.
Just wanted to hear from other users here – what are the apps and use cases that you find has stuck with you over time, and are there any “must-have apps” that will further enhance the usefulness of this device? Bring on your success stories, please
I would carefully choose which notifications you want to come to your watch, I only let the most important and urgent ones onto my wrist. All others come to the phone.
Do some research on what your current apps on your phone offer from a watch perspective.
Also set up some watch faces to see what you prefer.
+1 on this. I wish I could remove a lot of apps from the list view as I used to use this feature from (I want to say) the side button for my “Dock” but unfortunately Apple took that away.
Very fun! I get a lot of use out of my Apple Watch. I have a Series 9 with Cellular.
Here is a bit of a deluge; maybe you’ll find a few of them to be relevant.
I activate Siri with the Digital Crown and say “Remind me at 5:30pm to email Bob back” or “Remind me to take out the trash when I get home” or “Remind me to replace the air filter when I get to work tomorrow”. This allows me to “forget” about lots of small logistical things and just let my wrist tap and remind me when it’s time. The “Home” and “Work” locations depend on proper configuration in the Maps app, I believe.
I have a shortcut called “Email Work”. I have this added to my Apple Watch Control Center. I open the control center, tap the shortcut button, and then say “Follow up with Bob about… etc etc etc”. This then sends an email from my personal email to my work email, for me to process next time I’m in Work Mode doing email triage. It relies on the Apple Watch Mail app… this shortcut is the only thing I use the Apple Mail app for (I use a different mail client on my phone) . This keeps me from getting distracted when a “work thought” strikes me outside of work.
I pull up the Apple Watch Reminders app when I am in the grocery store, and refer to it as I shop, instead of my phone. This keeps my hands (mostly) free! You can use the Double Tap feature to scroll through the list, though that depends on proper ordering, and does not cross off items for you.
I use Apple Pay to pay for things without needing to pull out my Phone or wallet.
I use it to read texts, and then dictate replies.
I use it to silence incoming calls, by placing my palm over the watch face.
Health wise, beyond Activity and Vitals, I use Waterllama and Mindllama for tracking my water intake and daily breath work. Tracking these types of things always felt techno-centric and overly-quantified to me, but with the watch, the barrier to entry is low enough that it now feels helpful and additive. I also use Simple Scales to log my weight and Slow Eats to help me from eating too quickly.
I use the Music, Podcasts, and Audiobooks apps to keep some things to listen to on my Watch, for my morning runs, and winding down in the evenings.
With all these things together, I am able to put my phone away at 8pm, and leave it plugged in until 8am. That’s the real, overall benefit of the watch for me (beyond vitals tracking): it gives me enough small utilities that I can free my mornings and my evenings from other screens.
Here is my Watch Face:
At social events, I go even simpler:
For at-a-glance information and quick access utilities (timers, etc), I use the Smart Stack.
This is critical. It may take you some time to figure out which ones are useful so I’d suggest starting with anything you think might be useful. Then cull them as you find you don’t want/need them after all.
A couple of times people have commented they can’t understand why I’d have notifications on my watch at all. Here’s why it is really powerful. If I get an email or a text, I raise my wrist, glance at it, and immediately know if I need to actually read it. Much of the time I don’t, and the only interaction was a raising and lowering of my wrist in a second or two. So I’m barely interrupted ever, and yet I instantly see the important stuff.
I do this as well. It not only gets you vitals, but it will show you how well you slept. I make some decisions for my day based on how that looks. Again, people say to me “But you know how long you slept!” Dear reader, the only type of person who would say that is someone who always sleeps well. That’s not me. I have no idea how much sleep I actually got. My watch gives me a clue as to whether, for example, I should go for a hilly walk or just a flat walk.
+2.
I do this for consistent activation unless I don’t have a second hand free, such as sometimes in the kitchen. I can usually “Hey Siri” it, but it’s not 100%. Pressing the crown is.
All. The. Time.
I use Water Minder the same way. There are lots of good health apps for the watch.
I use my Ultra 2 much like others. I too keep notifications to a minimum: Calendar events, Reminders, severe weather, and low heart rate (I do a lot of treadmill work and push-ups so my resting heart rate hovers between 42-44), so I get alerted if it falls to 40 or below. That has happened twice in a year.
My uses include:
Notifications per above
Setting and monitoring workouts (I’ve started using Workout Buddy) and my rings
Setting timers and alarms
Walking directions (when out of town for a conference)
Turning volume up and down for podcasts and music (very handy on a plane)
Turning DND on (which syncs to my other devices)
Answering calls when I step out of the office and leave the phone in my office
As others have said, minimize notifications.
I use the Modular face showing complications for heart rate, weather, activity rings, sound levels, and battery.
Since I wear the watch at night for sleep tracking, I have it switch to Numerals Duo at night.
I’m mainly concerned with health and safety tracking features, that basically just run in the background, like fall detection (I’m 77 years old). I always have my iPhone with me, so the watch is a secondary, rarely used device for things like messages. And since getting a bunch of Amazon Echos spread around the house I don’t use the watch for timers or Siri questions but use Alexa instead.
Another use I forgot to mention. Your watch has GPS. It’s perfect for tracking walks, runs, cycles, etc. In my experience, at least since Series 5, it doesn’t noticeably kill the battery.
I have just this year started using it to track all my walks and will be using it to navigate trails soon with AllTrails. I also use the free GPX Tracker to record my track when I go out with my camera. I can then load that into Lightroom and auto-locate all my photos.
I just got the Series 11 non cellular specifically for the heart monitor stuff. I scoffed at the idea of a smartwatch for a long time, but this Apple walled garden is certainly at the end of a slippery slope. So now I’ve got a new thing to waste err, spend my time using. Impressive battery management - I didn’t charge it for almost 2 days, it was still at 17% and it took about 45 min to charge to 100%. I just need to remember to put it on “Do not disturb” when I’m in bed. My BIL in Taiwan was nice enough to wake me up around 2 this morning.
But I finally understand @MacSparky 's long running complaints about the watch faces. Ay carramba!
Thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to add your experiences, great info!
I will go through your comments in detail and use that as a starting point for my settings. One thing I really need to get into is using Siri / Dictation features for quick input. I’ve had a few too many bad experiences with that, but will give it another go with the Watch.
One thing I will miss are my beautiful mechanical watches. None of them ever needs to be charged
I keep trying to find the right face, I keep going back to Utility, from the G1 Apple Watch. Part of the problem is that my reading vision is pretty bd without glasses, so lots of details on a watch face reallly isn’t that useful to me.
The health benefits are serious though. Good luck @Drewski.
I got the Exactograph face as my default, and I really like that one for a information-heavy option.
The Metropolitan with no complications reminds me of a Nomos watch. Both Solar Analouge and Reflections are beautiful dress-watch options. I would have like to be able to edit the cities available on World Time though, no option is available for India which is +4:30h from my zone.
I do agree that even with the larger s11 screen, it’s pretty darn tiny in many cases…
My top uses beyond a traditional watch are tracking workouts and sleep; viewing weather, messages, and calendar notifications; and setting timers and reminders.
Not having worn a watch for over fifty years, I can’t imagine myself wearing a watch in bed! I’m obviously not in the market for an Apple Watch, but it’s certainly interesting reading about how people use them.
My vision is OK when it comes to reading complications, though not stellar. But… I’m going to suggest you try what I landed on a couple of years ago.
After spending way too long trying out different faces in different configurations, I tried the Photos face. Prior to watchOS 11 it was not a great experience. With watchOS 11 and more so with watchOS 26, they look great! I have a bunch of my own favourite photos that cycle through each time the screen lights up. I love it. I think the 2 or so years since I discovered it is the longest I’ve had a single watch face. Occasionally, I will add new photos into the rotation and remove some to make space if needed.
The screenshots below are from watchOS 11. ’26 tweaks things slightly including offering a new font option. As you can see I have the date at the top and, just because, Activity at the bottom.
. This keeps me from getting distracted when a “work thought” strikes me outside of work.
