My Series 5 started not lasting for my day a few updates back. So 9.x knocked the wind out of its sails. It was too sudden to just be regular battery degradation. It’s part of the reason I ordered a Series 9. Best new feature… a new battery.
That one threw me for a while. I have several simple watch faces set up to match my different band colours, which I would swipe across as soon as I changed my band. I used to set up multiple Modular faces with different widget sets, but ended up just using the one set all the time. So yeah, a bit of a pain, but also I used to sometimes look down at my watch and find I was on a different face than expected, so there’s that.
It’s a great bit of fun but I never know what time it is!
For me, watchOS 10 has highlighted something quite significant. Because I have the widget area (including room for 3 complications which… complicates that whole area when setting it up) which is enough to place my frequently used data/controls, it frees me to have a watch face just be a timepiece. And the point this highlights is there are very few watch faces I actually like!
I’ve settled for now on the new Solar Analogue with a matching colour for my latest watch band. I do quite like California, but I cannot put the right colour on the face in the way I want. I want the background to be green, but you can’t just pick any colour for California like you can for Solar Analogue. These arbitrary restrictions seem so… well… arbitrary.
I had this very problem on a run today. Tried to turn on water lock when it started raining and managed instead to pause my workout and turn off my music before finally finding where they had hidden it. It really, really should be where it was in the workout app.
I also got a big battery hit with the watchOS upgrade on my Series 4 watch. And I see lots of slowness. But, I, too, have a Series 9 on order, which should arrive in 2 days.
Not a fan of the new OS…Control Center is probably my most used area of the watch. I don’t care for smart stack or widgets.
I am going to miss switching between my 2 watch-faces as easily as I used to. My Exercise One (Activity Digital) and my daily go-to (Modular)
Is is possible to assign the crown something else? It’s seems wasteful that swiping up and the crown are the same action.
I always wonder how does Apple make a decision on changing something like this…I’ve never seen a survey or feedback or anything asking about my experience LOOOOL
AW owner since the first version. Currently wearing Ultra V1. I am enjoying the new changes. As others have mentioned, gone are the accidental face changes. The new method is simple. I’m enjoying the move of control center. For me, much more reliable activation.
I still need to explore widgets more thoroughly. In all, very pleased with the changes.
Thanks, I will consider it. I normally don’t use focus modes, and enjoy switching among several faces depending on my mood and context. Focus modes have many other aspects, and I don’t know if I want to set them up just to change faces.
I have found in the last year or two my battery at the end of the day is highly variable for reasons I cannot attribute. Certainly a work from home day sees a much higher end of day level than a commute day, but some WFH days it’s inexplicably low and some commute days it is pleasingly high. I can never think of any reason for it when I notice an outlier.
This was my experience yesterday. My watch died on me at around 7:30pm. I have a S4 running Watch 10. I’m hoping that in a day or so this will improve. Otherwise, I will be forced to upgrade. I was contemplating waiting for a S10 to see if the rumors of major new designs were true, but I’m not sure I can hold out another year. We’ll see.
Another option would be an extra charging cable for your desk, or somewhere else you spend time. Who knows, Apple may actually make significant changes to next year’s AW?
I cannot upgrade my S6 to watchOS 10 until my iPhone 15 arrives, since I’m upgrading from an iPhone X. But from the preview I’ve seen online, a lot of the changes make sense to me:
It’s ok to make changing faces a bit less accessible because my primary reason for changing faces (complications) is mitigated by the new smart stack. For band changes, I tend to change the color of my existing face, not the face itself.
Water Lock and other Control Center features are now more accessible, and can be reached inside any app.
Fundamentally, the distinction between the role of hardware buttons and software taps seems to be made clearer. Digital Crown and Side Button are tasked with switching OS views/menus (App Library, Dock, Control Center), and software taps are for controlling features within apps.
I’m also disappointed in the edge-to-edge app colors. The marketing of “more room to show things” hasn’t really been borne out in the implementation.
One other thing: my top issue since the introduction of focus modes is that it takes four actions to turn on Do Not Disturb:
Open control center
Tap Do Not Disturb icon (which is a focus selector)
Tap “Do Not Disturb”
Tap “On”
It’s long been my dream that watchOS adds the option for a simple long press of the focus selector toggles Do No Disturb, without going through the other two taps. Does anyone know if watchOS 10 happened to address this? At the very least: I won’t have to take the additional first step of going from my app back to the watch face before opening control center!
I will wait another day or 2 of ‘regular use’ to see if things gets better. I typically do lots of sleep tracking with my watch. This past year, my routine has been going to sleep, waking up, taking off my watch, wash up and shower, and come back to a watch that is 90%. By the time I make my coffee and get settled to start the day, I am back at 100%.
This morning…slept with my watch… (it was at a 100% as I got into bed - checked and verified). For the sake of numbers, I slept at 2:30am last night and woke up today at 7am. (all sleep judgements aside) Battery was at 39% when I woke up. Put it on the charger, I was able to get to 60%. I am currently sitting watchless until it hits a 100%
I’ve discovered that at least one of my third-party apps (Insight Timer) doesn’t show up on the list of widget choices. Should all apps show up by default, or is this a feature that requires the developer to add the capability?
