Up front admission: this is a first-world issue, but still, it’s an annoyance that’s changed how I use my Apple Watch.

Up until the past few days ago I wore my Series 7 Apple Watch nearly 24 hours/day in order to capture as much personal health data as possible. For example, I wore the watch at night to track my sleeping. The Series 7 with the latest WatchOS would track when you were in deep sleep, regular sleep, and REM sleep. It also tracked when you were supposedly awake. The phone also tracked when I was in bed by what time, and for how long, when the iPhone was in its charger.

That worked for nearly a year until late last week when my Apple Watch started to exhibit “optimized charging.” To fully understand why this annoyed me, it was my habit to charge my watch twice/day, once in the morning while eating breakfast, then again in the evening while eating supper. It took about an hour both times to reach 100% charge.

It all worked without a hitch until late last week when I happened to look down on the watch while it was charging one morning and saw the “bent circle” charging indicator showing that it was in optimized charging mode. It didn’t do this in the evening, but in the morning after I’d gotten up and put the watch on the charger. I put up with that for two consecutive mornings, each time tapping the watch’s screen to open up the charging dialog and telling the watch to finish charging now.

But when it happened a third day in a row, that’s when I finally went looking for what was happening. I found out about Apple Watch’s optimized charging on-line, and for once it was up-to-date. According to Apple optimized charging for the Watch has been available since Watch OS 7. For whatever reason it didn’t show up until that point late last week. I still have my Series 3 watch packed away, so I pulled it out, charged it to 100%, and updated the OS on it to version 8.8.2. That last release was a bug-fix release for the Series 3. WatchOS is now up to version 10.1. I purchased the Series 7 back in July 2022 when it was on sale because I felt a perceived  need for a watch that would continue to receive OS updates as well as provide all the latest medical monitoring features that the Series 3 couldn’t provide.

As of today I no longer wear it to bed. I’ve had enough aggravation, and so I’m just parking my watch on its charger and letting it go through the night on its own. If the Series 7 wants to go into optimized charging, it can do so while I’m asleep. I did check the battery life on my Series 7 as well as Series 3, and both are at 100% maximum capacity. That’s remarkable for the Series 3. If I’d not spent the money on the Series 7 I would still be using the Series 3 and just ignored the Watch OS version it was running. The Series 7 is still an enjoyable device to use, but the driving need I felt last year to purchase the Series 7 has dissipated.

At a minimum, I want at least 8 consecutive days, or 192 hours, with the same level of functionality I currently enjoy with my Series 7.

That would allow me to charge my watch once/week every Saturday or Sunday, or any other weekday that fit my schedule. It would allow me to wear my watch uninterrupted for a full seven days, 24 hours per day, to pick up my sleep patterns. These days I wear my Apple Watch Series 7 because I’m tracking as much of my health as possible, sharing that with my doctors. As it is I now have a schedule where I charge my Series 7 twice/day, once in the morning at breakfast for about 30 minutes, and once in the evening after supper, again for 30 minutes, before I head off to bed. That works out here at home, but that’s an untenable schedule while on a camping trip. Fortunately for me I have a ten-year-old Citizen Eco watch that’s solar charged and has been running continuously since the day I took it out of its box and put it on my wrist. In an ideal world I’d have a Citizen watch that had the same sensor suite as the Apple Watch, and that communicated via Bluetooth with my iPhone in place of my Apple Watch.

Before you say anything I’m aware of Citizen’s CZ Smartwatch for $400. The problem with the watch is two-fold: it was released running on the old and busted Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100 processor instead of the 4000 and with Google Wear. If you want long battery life up to a week between charges, then the only function you can have active on the watch is the time, which makes it pointless to own. You might was well actually save a little money and purchase a low-end Apple Watch.

It’s been two months since I replaced my aging Apple Watch Series 3 with an Apple Watch Series 7 on sale from Amazon, and so far I have no regrets. Even on sale what I paid for the Series 7 was still more than I would have liked to pay; it still requires a recharge every other day (and I’ve outlined my charging regimen above) so it certainly can’t meet my ideal charging requirement. The Series 7 is a compromise between high functionality and battery life. While I’m certainly using it around my home, it’s not a device I’d use outside on long travel. I have ways to keep my iPhone recharged away from home, but that’s all I’m willing to support in that way.

Who knows. By the time I’m ready to replace the Series 7, perhaps Apple will produce my watch with my ideal battery life, but at a price much closer to my Series 7 than the Ultra.

The Apple Watch Series 3 is going to be dropped in September from Watch OS 9 updates and beyond. That wouldn’t have concerned me except that Watch OS 9 is supposed to have the added ability to track my medications. I don’t take all that many but they are important, and I’ve had mornings where things got hectic around my house and as a consequence I didn’t take that day’s dosage. Nothing horrible happened, but there’s a reason you take your meds on a daily basis. I’ve now decided I want to have a personal device that will help me track when I need to take my meds and remind me. Most of the time it won’t matter, but for those odd times I will need that gentle (or perhaps not so gentle) reminder.

The other reason for purchasing this new watch has been its surprising new medical measurement features which aren’t available for the Series 3. For example I’m now tracking my blood oxygen levels.

A bigger help is the newer, bigger battery in the Series 7. The Series 3 battery is showing its age, to the point I can’t wear it at night while I sleep. The Series 7 lasts longer and charges much faster than the Series 3. Instead of leaving the Apple Watch on the charger all night, I can top up the battery to 100% in 15 minutes on the charger, usually while I’m eating supper. When I put the Series 7 back on again I have more than enough charge to last through the night and into the morning. In the morning, I top up the watch again during breakfast, so that I have it for the rest of the day. With all that time wearing the Series 7 I have a much more complete view into my health, especially heart rate and mobility. For the past two months I’ve been walking the dogs twice/day, once before sunup and again right after sunset. The individual walks are shorter, but the combined distance and exercise are longer due to the two walks. And both dogs certainly love it, especially my 14-year-old Ruby.

I must admit the Series 7 is quite the upgrade from the Series 3, and the sales price for the Series 7 was significantly low. However, it was still several hundreds of dollars, and I’m very conscious of saving money on a fixed income. I’m pretty certain my doctors are going to be happy I have the Series 7 over the Series 3. I suppose that a device that can help me monitor and maintain my health is a device I should have, except I have the nagging feeling I’m trying to justify purchasing a new expensive geegaw.

I have also picked a new watch face.

I like this face because I can track sunrise and sunset, and I just like the face design. i did turn off the always-on watch face feature in order to increase battery life, and it’s noticeable. The watch shows its face faster when I raise my wrist, so I don’t miss the always-on feature.

And yes, it’s hot here in Florida. As you can see it was 8:38 pm and the outside temperature was 86°.

Do I feel the purchase was justified? Technically, absolutely. There is a major difference in operation and features between the older Series 3 and the current Series 7. My hesitation is due to how much it cost, even on sale.

You’re looking at my mechanical Citizen Eco-Drive WR 100 Titanium wrist watch, given to me by my wife some twenty years ago. I’d kept it in a drawer along with other nearly forgotten items from my past. Six days ago I pulled it out, put it out into the light, and let the internal battery recharge. Almost immediately the second sweep hand started to move across the face. It was skipping every other second, which indicated it wasn’t completely charged. After the third day the sweep hand was moving from second mark to second mark. I then set the time and date, and started to wear it in place of my Apple Watch 3.

Why would I switch to an old mechanical watch and stop wearing my Apple Watch? I suppose because I got tired of having that “wearable tech” on my wrist that required I take it off and place it on its charger, or it would stop working. I also like that the Citizen is much lighter than the Apple Watch.

I appreciate the simplicity of the Citizen. It just keeps time, and does it accurately enough for me.The only quirk is that I have to change the date to the first of a month, if the prior month has less than 31 days. Small price to pay for a watch that doesn’t need winding or charging. It doesn’t have WiFi or Bluetooth, which in this day of exploits I consider a blessing. It doesn’t take my pulse or count my steps, it just keeps accurate time. I don’t have to lift my wrist to turn on the display and check the time. Nor do I have to spend at least US$350 minimum to get an Apple Watch 6 so I can have a “wearable tech” watch that can always display the time. This Citizen, and every watch like it, does that for free as it were. It’s water resistant down to 100 meters. I can swim with it or get caught in the Florida rain, and not have to worry about that aspect of life.

And it looks so nice, like a classic watch.

I’m amazed it started right back up. I knew that Citizen has a reputation for great watches, and this is an example of that. Furthermore the watch was manufactured completely in Japan. Today’s Citizen watches are probably manufactured in China.

I know that Apple is ready to release a new generation Apple Watch. I don’t care. I won’t buy another in the foreseeable future. Nor do I see myself purchasing a competitive product in that category. I’m done with that aspect of wearable tech, especially from Apple.

Today, Gruber wrote ‘What Time Is It in London?’ ( https://daringfireball.net/2020/05/what_time_is_it_in_london ) in which he took Apple to task because Siri, when asked the question, supposedly took too long and then answered with the time in London, Canada.

Nilay Patel asked this of Siri on his Apple Watch. After too long of a wait, he got the correct answer — for London Canada. I tried on my iPhone and got the same result. Stupid and slow is heck of a combination.

So one of Gruber’s Twitter buddies tweets his experience asking the question, and Gruber gives it a try and finds the same issue. That’s fine as it goes. Except it gets much worse. In the next paragraph Gruber writes:

You can argue that giving the time in London Ontario isn’t wrong per se, but that’s nonsense. The right answer is the common sense answer. If you had a human assistant and asked them “What’s the time in London?” and they honestly thought the best way to answer that question was to give you the time for the nearest London, which happened to be in Ontario or Kentucky, you’d fire that assistant. You wouldn’t fire them for getting that one answer wrong, you’d fire them because that one wrong answer is emblematic of a serious cognitive deficiency that permeates everything they try to do. You’d never have hired them in the first place, really, because there’s no way a person this lacking in common sense would get through a job interview. You don’t have to be particularly smart or knowledgeable to assume that “London” means “London England”, you just have to not be stupid. (emphasis mine)

The stench of arrogance and entitlement that runs through this paragraph is so strong as to be unbelievable. It’s a good thing I never worked for John Gruber, because if I had and I’d done something, anything, that he deemed to be stupid and “emblematic of a serious cognitive deficiency” I’d have turned around and left far faster than he could have fire me. I would have, in effect, fired him as a boss. Who really wants to work for such a toxic individual?

If I’d run across this type of “problem”, I would have stopped and asked why that kind of result to the question. For software systems, that means letting someone know this is an issue and helping to resolve it. If it’s a person I stop and understand why they delivered that kind of answer. Who knows why? Taking something like this completely out of context and then rage-blogging about it only shows how immature the author (in this case one John Gruber) is. When it especially comes to people, I don’t believe in disposable people. I’m retired now, but I really have tried to be a mentor to those who’ve worked for me, not some bastard boss from hell.

I read that article early this morning while in my doctor’s office (many of us old retirees have Medical Issues that need looking into from time to time). I couldn’t try this in the waiting room, since a doctor’s waiting room, even during COVID-19, should be quiet. But when I got home around noon I tried it, and I got the “correct” answer. Later in the day I tried it again, and then this evening, before I wrote this post, I tried again and grabbed screen shots off my Apple Watch and iPhone. My hardware, in case you’re interested, is a Series 3 Apple Watch and an iPhone 11 Pro Max, both running the latest software that dropped yesterday.

Thanks, John, for helping me to cut my screen time down further. I now have more time to devote to what’s really important, helping others.

You’re looking at the first generation Apple Watch I received for Christmas. This was a very big surprise from my wife. I spent part of Christmas day pairing the watch with my iPhone, and then watching it download Watch OS 2.1; that’s what the photo is about above.

So far I haven’t had any major quirks with the watch except for one, where I couldn’t modify the application layout with the Apple Watch app on my iPhone (see below).

Every time I went into App Layout I got a continuous busy spinning “fan”. I fixed that problem by going into General | Reset | Reset Home Screen Layout. Once that was done I then re-arranged some of the apps, which is the layout you see above.

If there’s an issue I have with the Watch it’s that it’s loaded with apps I don’t care about. That’s the same situation as with the iPhone itself. But on the iPhone I can at least drag unwanted apps into a folder which is labeled “Extras” on my iPhone (in fact, that folder was already there). There is no equivalent on the watch. Perhaps in some future Watch OS release you can at least turn off the unwanted apps. I doubt we’ll be able to remove them, just like you can’t remove those “Extra” apps.

Overall I’m satisfied with the watch, or at least, very enticed. I was going to avoid this version and wait for Apple Watch 2, or whatever the next version will be named. But the software has already gone through a number of upgrades, now at version 2.1, which is a lot considering how recently it was released. My first Apple gadget was an iPod Touch version 2 back in 2008, and considering where the Touch was at that point in time compared to the Watch, I’d have to say the Watch has more polish. Besides, it has the cachet of being the original, which I suppose makes it something of a collector’s item over time.

The latest Xcode has support for writing Watch apps, so I’m going to give that a whirl. Perhaps after 30 days or so I’ll write up a more detailed user’s review. I do know one thing, I will never call it a wearable. That is such a lame category. The first pocket watch, the first clock to be worn on the body, appeared in Europe in the 16th century. Eye glasses are another type of “wearable” technology, which appeared in Italy around the 13th century. This was the use of optics to help humans see better. These are two types of wearable technology that go back centuries. Modern tech is a refinement of these very early inventions, following the same physical conventions.