That’s a good point, I didn’t think about that. My wife got her Apple Watch SE, because she wanted to have a new battery for her Series 3. Changing the battery was about half of what a new SE would cost, so we did that instead.
Follow on question from this thread; do any smart watches have decent connection to a HRM and power meter and then not only show that info easily to the wearer but also record that data in a way that can then upload to Strava / TR etc?
I’ve never owned a smart watch but if the aforementioned functionality was available then I’d seriously consider one, notwithstanding the other various valid functionality and battery life comparisons already covered here.
Yes, you can do all that with a Fenix. Some people use them as their head unit on the bike. I need a bigger screen than that, but other people do it all the time.
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I also may be part of the minority that likes the look of the ultra…
BUT, 2 questions as I debate an upgrade:
- For Garmin users, how much smart watch functionality do you miss out on by having a Garmin watch that you use with your apple phone? I think you still get messages and such, right? Essentially, what integrations with iPhone get more clumsy?
- I hear the points about how much battery life one needs…but one thing I’ve been excited to try is sleep tracking. I have a version 3 Apple Watch and I charge it at night. With a new watch, I’d want to wear to bed and use for sleep tracking. How useful do you find your watch for this purpose (either Garmin or apple) and then I’d you’re using an Apple Watch with less battery, when do you charge?
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I see both sides of the battery debate but I just want to comment on this one thought. I bought an Apple Watch Series 7 and gave up on it less than a month into using it. (I had prior apple watches so I knew what I was getting into but back in those days, the watch didn’t track sleep.)
The problem I ran into was that I’d charge the watch while in the shower. Wear it all day and use it for smart watchy kinds of things, then sleep with it on. I’m a “workout first thing in the morning” guy and without fail, the watch wouldn’t have enough battery to get through the morning run.
Sure, I could charge while I was having coffee or even throw it on the charger before bed, but my Garmin 955 Solar get’s plugged in every Monday while I’m in the shower. I’ll usually need to leave it plugged in while I walk the dogs, but then I’m good for way more than a week.
For me, it wasn’t so much about the battery life in the Apple Watch is was I couldn’t find a time that I could charge it regularly that would last for the times I really needed it.
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It’s been a few years, so I’m trying to remember. I missed having the bright screen of the AW, the way things are super intuitive and just a click away, using SIRI, auto activity tracking. You can do a lot with the Garmin, but much of it involves more scrolling and clicking. Not having some of the apps I used frequently, for example, the app for my home alarm system. I still do most of those things, but I do them on my phone now instead of my watch. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting.
A big advantage of the Fenix over the AW is that it’s far more rugged. I’m pretty hard on stuff because I’m a mtb’er, hiker, woodsy stuff. I also tend to just accidentally bounce my watch off tables, counters, and walls. I was always scratching or chipping AW’s. I don’t even think about it with the Garmin. This new more rugged AW bezel may fix that though.
I find both the AW and the Garmin to be good sleep and activity trackers. Much better than my Whoop was. YMMV though as this seems to really be down to the individual user. Some people swear by and some people hate all three products for sleep tracking.
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Awesome 
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Just a note for clarity…you need to have the Garmin Connect app on your phone. You pair the watch to the phone after the ride to send the data to Strava, TR, etc.
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I’ve gone from a Fenix6s to a AW7, I use AutoSleep to track my sleep, pretty impressed with it over the Fenix, I tracks get up, go back to bed’s a LOT better, and naps are detected (not on Garmin), I try to have some down time every evening (30 - 60 mins) I charge my AW in this time, if I miss it, it has made it to the next morning np, but I so have to charge it the first hour of starting work, Although auto sleep tracks my waking HRV, I also use HRV4Training and Training Today, nice to have more than one way to look at “metrics” throught the same device, also tracking Garmin Body Battery at the same time (Garmin Device on other wrist) but that always seems a bit low (6 days of the bike 25/100, Training Today = 8.5 (Out of 10) You can push hard, HRV4Training = Proceeed and Planned (wthin normal and trending positive)
I wear in the shower, don’t know who asked that … but just answering
I’m really disappointed that Apple still doesn’t offer Bluetooth connections from power meter to the watch and watch heart rate as an output. Both can be done Bluetooth only to avoid having to add yet another antenna.
It’s so annoying that I need to wear a HRM on my chest when there’s already one on my wrist. Come on!
My guesses as to why are either that they don’t do it because of battery life constraints or it’s just not a priority for them. Hopefully they launch it next year now that they are focusing more on sports use.
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It has to be this.
I swapped from a Fenix to Apple Watch a few years ago and while it clearly lacks a lot of features in comparison to the Fenix, the biggest gaps to me are in cycling due to not being able to connect to the external sensors, principally power.
That said, I find a dedicated cycling computer and I be vastly superior to attempting to use a watch as my head unit so it’s largely nullified that concern. When I wore the Fenix I’d still also have a bike computer.
It still drives me crazy that they don’t support external Bluetooth connections, but it’s more based on the principle rather than actual affect on my day to day use.
Separately, this was said earlier but if they added the emergency satellite communication to the watch it’d be a shut up and take my money situation for me.
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I have never had a Garmin watch but I know people who love and swear by them.
I love my Apple watch but I guess its cause it fits my use case brilliantly. Plus I already have a head unit too so needing it to connect to power isn’t really a thing.
I am definitely going to try on the Ultra since that thing looks massive (and will look weird on my wrists i’m sure of it)
I am not hating… but not for me…
Mostly because I have a real phone (Pixel Phone) and not a toy (iphone)
I kid I kid…
but yeah… cant use the apple watch without an iphone… My wife loves her apple watch…
I moved from an Watch to Garmin Epix2 back in January, and battery life was only part of it. I had gotten into a routine where while showering/dressing, I’d charge the watch.
But Garmin (and to an extent, Whoop) does a better job a body metrics, and that was the killer feature for me.
Just curious, does an apple watch fullt charge that fast? Like in 20-30 minuttes or so?
I feel so, charges a lot quicker than most things … I’ll do a quick test, @ 16:20 min is @ 47% (Charged yesterday @ 18:00), I’ll post again when charged
The newer ones come with a fast charger, I charge mine while I shower and that’s enough to get me through the next day (I’ve never had the battery die on me).
So mine dropped from 100% to 47% in 22 hours (1 run & 30 min yoga recorded), I put it on charge @16:20 and now 16:42 it is fully charged, I’ve been using it all day as well as my Dexcom readings come up on it (reason for changing from Fenix6 to AW, can be done on Fenix but buggy and requires internet connection, not good when you off the grid), so I expect most days it is between 20 & 30 mins charge, which is what I expected as it usually charges in my down time (usually watch a tv show or read)
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Well, improved battery life is great and I kind of dig how it looks. I wonder if the bigger battery will help out to keep it from dying in the cold as that’s really the only scenario where my Watch SE struggles for battery.
That being said, still no powermeter support. For me, this means it’s still a secondary device or a device for recovery days. I’ll wait for the DCRainmaker review to drop before deciding if I want one. I broke my Series 3 earlier this year and picked up a SE to hold me over, but I’m not so sure I want to upgrade from the SE.