A month later, and the time is still ticking.

I’ve had the Apple Watch Series 4 for a month now, and I’ve worn it and loved it every day since I first put it on.  I’ve had the 1st generation Apple Watch, the Series 3, and the Series 4 blows them all out of the water.

But not everything has been smooth sailing.  There have been a few hiccups here and there.  I also question upgrading from a Series 3.  

Style

As I mentioned in my initial impressions of the Apple Watch Series 4 and in my formal review of it I said that the watch sits on the wrist better than any of the other Watches I have tried.  I feel like, after the first month of the Apple Watch Series 3, it felt fine, whereas this one actually feels comfortable.  The Series 3 had a larger heart rate sensor which made the watch sit higher on the wrist. With the increased screen size and height of the watch, they’ve been able to make it sit better on your wrist.

For my last two Apple Watches, I went with the silver aluminum model, both in 42mm.  I thought I’d change it up this year, and I went with the Space Gray 44mm.  I had resisted that color for so long because I thought it didn’t go with anything.  

I’ve been wrong.

I haven’t had any problems pairing it with anything, but I do need to update some of my bands.  I had a silver metal loop band before that doesn’t look too good paired with the space gray body.  

The Space Gray is showing more wear than the silver model though.  I haven’t really babied the watch, but I haven’t bumped it on anything either, and it’s showing signs of wear around the screen.  

You can see on the photo along the bottom of the screen there are some scuffs marks.  I’m not thrilled about it, but they can only be seen at certain angles.  I think I’ll live.  I’m sure there’s also a way to cover them up somehow.

While I wear the black sport band or sports loop most the time, I feel like colors really pop.  I usually change the colors up for the weekend, but keep it subtle at work.  If you’ve ever been scared about how the black will look, I give it my endorsement (if that even means anything)!

New Stuff

Looks aside, I’m sure most of you are wanting to know about the new stuff.

Watch Faces

For the most part, I’m still rocking the Siri Watch face.  I just feel like it is such a versatile face that gives you all the information you need at your fingertips.

I have tried to rock the new Infograph watch faces, but they just don’t stick around for long.  I might use them if I was going to a formal event because they look really nice, but really there is so much going on with them that they might not look too classy.  

I haven’t used any of the other new Watch Faces like Vapor or Fire, but I think those might look better at a formal event than the Siri Watch Face or the Infograph faces.  

Still, the Infograph faces are really nice and provide so much information at a glance.  The biggest problem with the analog face is #1 it is difficult to really get the accurate time without some work, especially when the minute hand is at the top half of the clock.  Along the top, if you have a complication which follows the circular outline of the face, then you can’t even see the minute notches.  

There aren’t too many apps that I use that have been updated to use the complications on this page, even Apple.  You can’t place the messages complication on either of these watch faces.  

I feel like the complications are a bit of a mess right now as well, since some only work on older watches, while some only work on these two new faces. This is true even though Apple changed the way that the lower text wraps around with the watch face on some of the older faces.  

It a bit frustrating, but only if you commit to those watch faces.

Digital Crown

Probably one of my favorite things about the watch is the new digital crown.  It such a delightful little addition that seems to add so much.  While nothing outward facing has changed, the insides have been updated.

There’s not really much to the crown physically.  It still turns like normal, I’d say it still turns a little easier than earlier models, and it’s still an easy input method for the watch.  The dot on the crown is gone, replaced by a ring, but it never really bothered me before on my series 3 LTE.

The Haptic feedback though is so nice.  

It’s not important for the function of the watch, but after having it for a month, I’d miss it if it was gone.  I’ve found myself (rarely) just spinning the wheel through a menu to feel the clicks.  The engineers at Apple really put themselves out making this feel so real.  When you aren’t on a menu and spin the wheel, the wheel spins, but you don’t feel anything.  

I have no idea how they make it feel like it’s clicking when you spin it on a menu though.  

Health Features

Most of the new health features haven’t really been tested by me.

The headline feature of the Electrocardiogram hasn’t been released yet, even in the beta (or so I’ve heard, I haven’t put the beta on my watch).  When it does get released, I’ll give it a look and report back.

The second headlining health feature was fall detection, and I have it turned off.  The watch will only turn is on by default if you are over the age of 65.  It recommends to not turn it on if you live an active lifestyle too, so I have left it off.  I don’t want to be calling the emergency response people if I don’t have to.

Finally, the heart rate sensor and more accurate gyroscopes have improved in accuracy so much.  Before, I’d take a walk with my dog, only filling minutes of the green activity ring while tracking.  I’d even get my heart rate up and still nothing.  Now though, our walks are being tracked better.  At least I feel like it is.  I don’t have anything to really tell me if that’s true or not, haha.

But lifting, running, and playing tennis seems to be very accurate.

I’m also loving/killing myself over the workout competitions.  If you haven’t tried this out, invite a competitive friend to do one, and you will start to see a change in yourself.  The first week of competitions, I thought I’d be fine with all that I already do on a normal day and win.  

I lost to two different people.

Now, with bragging rights out of my hand, I have pushed myself to go just a little further.  One friend keeps doing exercises after I’ve done some just to make sure that she wins.  The second week came to a close end, but I barely won. Every hour and every exercise though was done to push each other.  I think if you are competitive, this is one of the best-added features.

Battery

A month in and I don’t really have much to say about the battery.  It’s lasting all day.  Today for example, I put my watch on at 5:30 AM, tracked 132 minutes of workouts, and it is currently 6:40 PM my battery is still 59%. 

9to5Mac wrote today about the battery is so good you could use it for sleep tracking if you so wanted too.

watchOS 5

I wrote early about how I feel about watchOS 5.  Not much has changed here.  All the tweaks are great.

I really love the notification dot on the top of the screen getting more features now like a now playing dot, or a map dot.  It just makes things so much easier.  

I also like how the now playing screen can show you what you are listening to and control things on your AppleTV and HomePod.  I wish they would add iPad and Mac to it somehow, but the HomePod and AppleTV do already connect to your iPhone, so I’m not sure how they would work that.  

I also really love the rounded corners on everything in the Series 4 interface.  It’s such a little touch, but just adds that much character to it, just like the Digital Crown feedback. 

I also really love that you can get to notification center and control center from anywhere on the watch just by holding your finger on the edge of the screen on the top or bottom.  

Issues

I have had some issues though with watchOS 5.  

It seems like at least once a day, I’m getting a notification that will make my watch pop up the Apple logo as if it were rebooting.  I’m wondering if a restore would fix this, but I don’t want to lose all the data it’s work on me so far.  

Has anyone else had this problem, or is it just me?  

I also haven’t ever gotten the automatic workout detection to work for me.  I’m not sure how far you have to run, but I’ve gone a few minutes of running and nothing happens.  Luckily, I don’t usually start running without starting a workout.

GPS or LTE and GPS

I mentioned in my impressions that I was worried about going from the LTE Series 3 watch to just the GPS Series 4.  

A month in, and I’m perfectly fine without the LTE.  

I plan to write an article next week about why you would want LTE that I hope will help people choose.  For me, I’m not away from my phone enough to justify all the extra costs.  The only time I’m ever far from it is when I’m running.  Yes, it would be nice to stream music on my run, but loading music onto the watch isn’t a bad option either. 

Wrap up

I still feel like this year it was a big change to the Apple Watch.  

I also think this is my favorite Apple Watch yet.  

I’m extremely happy with my purchase, and I hope those of you that have gotten one are happy with your purchase as well.  

I don’t think if you have a Series 3 it’s a major upgrade, but it has many nice little perks.  If you can find a good trade-in or sale price and you want to check it out, I’d say go for it.  

Are you enjoying your Apple Watch Series 4?  Are you planning to upgrade?  Let me know in the comments.

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