I wear one watch (AW9) during the day and another (AW6) at night. The Apple Watch app on my phone is set to auto switch between them as the active watch when they’re on my wrist.
This means that neither watch will update itself overnight.
The night watch won’t update at night because it’s on my wrist (i.e. not on charge) and during rhe day Apple only focuses on upgrades overnight, the phone’s not near it during the day, plus it’s not the active watch.
The day watch won’t upgrade at night because it’s not the active watch.
I have one watch but the same issue because I wear it all the time (it gets charged in two half hour slots in evening and morning). It would be good if we could set a time for automatic updates, because then I could set a time when I know the watch will be charging, and I’m guessing you could too.
This thread reminded me that I had a message to say my watch couldn’t update a few days ago, so I’m just updating it now! This is the other issue - usually when I see the message that an update couldn’t occur, I’m not in a position to do it right then, and then I forget about it.
I gave up on digital watches…loved my AW but it became “one more thing to charge”. So retired it and went analog again! Am relishing the distraction free uni-function device, which i never need to charge.
This thread title reminded me of a “nerd” I used to know as a kid (the type with an always present pen holder in their shirt pocket), who always had more than one watch on at a time. I remember them, one day, coming to school with a calculator watch and “Nightrider” watch on one arm and both a Casio digital and a diving watch on the other.
I’m glad when I read it that it’s referring to tracking sleep, as I couldn’t imagine a grown person walking around with several watches on their wrists!
I actually had a friend who is a master leather worker make for me a strap to clip to my belt to be able to have my apple watch in my pocket (cellular using it as a minimalist device) and wear a “real” watch on my wrist. I am anxiously awaiting the day that an Apple Watch can interface with a mac or iPad so I can cut the phone.
I wear a Swiss analogue on one wrist and my apple watch on my other if I’m at home all day or on my bicep if out - your imagination is failing you I feel
I’m still wearing the AW9 during the day and AW6 at night. This means that I don’t get the sleep apnea data, but with my lifestyle there’s no way to wear the AW6 during the day for a while to allow charging of the AW9.
From before I bought the AW9 my level of stress about charging and battery life has disappeared, it’s never a concern.
I’m also still hoping that using 2 watches will allow me to extend the life of the AW9.
If Apple come out with an all new AW Ultra in black next year, that will seriously tempt me to upgrade and relegate the AW9 to sleep watch and retire the AW6
All the fitness tech guys do the same (DC Rainmaker, DesFit, etc). Buzz Aldrin always wears 3 watches as well.
For the last year I have worn a Garmin/Apple Watch and a Whoop. Not that Whoop is a watch, but it looks like one. No longer using the Whoop, but I would love to wear an AW and a Garmin since I like both. That would be completely overkill, so I don’t. (Now that I run a lot less, I went with AW full time, but I often miss the Garmin.)
I used to love normal watches, but there doesn’t seem to be a good reason for me to wear one anymore besides fashion. As I get older, that has become far less important.
I got the Series 10 today, as it was a solid deal, but mostly because I was pretty frustrated by my Series 8’s abysmal battery life (battery health went down to 78% in less than two years of owning it – in 22 months to be precise – so the watch could barely make it to mid-afternoon without a top-up). This is by far the worst experience with battery life for me on any Apple device, ever. My Series 3, which I kept for five years before getting the Series 8, had way better battery life than this S8, which was quite disappointing in the end. I had not planned on upgrading to the Series 10 this year at all.
So, I’m also contemplating trying the multi-watch lifestyle for a few days/weeks, as I do not usually sleep with a watch (otherwise, I’ll trade the Series 8 for something before trade-in values approach zero as I have no one to hand it down to). I was surprised by how quick the Series 10 was to restore from the S8 backup, and switching between watches seems to work pretty well automatically – leaving the overnight automatic updates the only problem Apple has not solved yet in this scenario.
So, if you have two watches, and one is being charged, the iPhone immediately switches the active watch to the one that is not charging (even when left on a desk), despite the ‘Auto Switch’ setting in the Watch app saying that a switch will occur when unlocked on a wrist. The watch being charged stops being an active watch the second it is put on the charger.
I find this behaviour strange (and not in line with what the ‘Auto Switch’ setting says about how this will work) – and this is clearly an obstacle to backups and automatic updates, but also to photos and music syncing if you own two watches as the one being charged will never get a chance to do any of this as it’s no longer the active watch.
I just turn the non-charging/not wearing watch off.
But to your point, yes, I gave up on syncing/updating the non active watch. It’s never allowed you to do this, but personally I didn’t find it to be a problem, just annoying.
It always drives me nuts when I put on the other watch and I immediately get all the notifications from the day because it hasn’t synced at all before it starts shooting out notifications.
Back to using two watches. Weekdays -AWUltra, weekends - decorative Swiss…