The “maturity” of a product line is not often talked about, but it’s a very good metric to get a birds-eye on where a class of product is and where it needs to go. Apple has been in the business long enough to introduce and remove multiple lines of products. The first generations of those products are often not great, and the later generations stagnate in growth as they reach maturity. It usually takes a reimagining and different class of product to start that growth back up. In this article, I wanted to discuss a bit of the history of the Apple Watch, and what makes it a compelling device, with buyer’s recommendations at the end.
Everybody remembers the first introduction of the Apple Watch - a truly personal device that you wore on your wrist. Apple’s initial target for the watch was as a fashion accessory. It’s initial sales were good, with estimates placing it around 12 million units after introduction. It was a new product category from Apple, and fans around the world were understandably excited to get their hands on it. I was one of the first people to get my hand on it. It was a phenomenal experience… at first.
The first generation Apple Watch (sometimes referred to as Series 0, or S0) had performance that degraded quickly over its lifetime. It couldn’t handle software past watchOS 4, and interacting with the watch meant long loading periods and annoyance. Apps took many seconds to load, and interactions would be slow and irritating. The watch, for me, ended up being just a watch - the only thing I could use it for, without frustration, was to tell time. Furthermore, the Apple Watch was built around the app experience. To get any information from a third party app, you would have to find and open that app. Unfortunately, browsing a Home Screen on a watch doesn’t make much sense when interactions need to be limited to a few seconds to make it useful, or else I would simply pick up my phone. I ended up not using the watch much - even when running, the watch would refuse to connect to my AirPods and be extremely laggy when doing any level of workout tracking.
What the Apple Watch Series 0 ended up being great at was health tracking. Anytime I wanted to go for a run, I wouldn’t even bring my phone. My watch would be able to play music or podcasts and track my workout, and then finally sync that information over to my phone. When I go skiing, I put my phone deep in my jacket and use the watch app to see that ski tracking was active and get quick statistics on how I was doing.
Apple took the device and added more features to track your health and your workouts. GPS for where you went and how far you went. Altimeter for how far up and down you traveled. Electrocardiogram to check for different heart conditions. LTE to allow separation from the iPhone via notifications, streaming music, and other Internet-powered features when exercising. Further than health and connectivity, Apple’s silicon got better and better as the Apple Watch went up. Apps and complications load quicker, and I don’t have the same frustrating experience when using the app for regular tasks.
One last thing Apple started focusing on with the device is surfacing third-party information and apps from the watch face. Third-party complications were added with watchOS 2, and the Dock replaced access to contacts from the side button. This is likely because people weren’t using the device for social interaction as much as Apple initially thought they would, since most interaction required use of the voice and speaker out-loud.
Where will the watch need to go in the future? Apple isn’t afraid to cannibalize their own product lineup, and it’s possible that the Apple Watch could become more and more of an iPhone alternative/replacement. Cellular features make it not necessary to take the iPhone with you when you go out and about. Many people won’t ever shift away from having a smartphone on them - being able to browse social media or news makes the phone necessary for people. I, for one, am looking forward to more third-party support and better battery life when on cellular to make it unnecessary to take my iPhone with me for short trips. Apple’s recent announcement of Family Setup in watchOS 7 allows for families to purchase an Apple Watch for their kid and get cellular service without a linked iPhone at all, so it’s possible this could be a feature in the future.
But Apple’s current track with the device is to make it the best health companion possible. They’ve added a multitude of sensors and features that make it excellent for tracking health and identifying potentially dangerous conditions in the body - all features that make the device feel more “necessary” to wear every day. I wear it every night to track my sleep now. Why? Because I love having as much information as I can about my own body and well-being. Apple is making the Apple Watch that device.
The Apple Watch is a fairly mature product. The Series 5 introduced an always-on display, building on the new bigger screen sizes from the Series 4. With always-on, it finally acts like an actual watch. Slowness is an issue of the past, and the sensors built in to the Apple Watch Series 6 bring quite a lot of capability. Perhaps the reason Apple introduced the Apple Watch SE late last year alongside the Series 6 was because the Apple Watch is such a mature product at this point. It’s got the speed to take years of software updates, and has the capabilities that makes it a compelling option to replace the iPhone in day-to-day tasks. In my opinion, the always-on display is an important enough feature to consider getting a Series 5 or 6 Apple Watch over the Apple Watch SE. It affects the way you use the device day-to-day and improves the experience. These models truly make the Apple Watch a “mature” product, shedding much of the problems I found with the original Apple Watch.
I’m not sure what the next models will bring, but I’m sure Apple will continue down the track of incremental improvements in both autonomy from the iPhone and more ways for you to collect information about your health. If you’re satisfied with where the watch is at, I highly recommend the most recent generations.
I can’t personally recommend the Apple Watch Series 3, because truthfully, I don’t believe any Apple Watch before the Series 4 can be considered “mature” in the ways I discussed earlier. The S3 processor is slow for basic tasks, and lacks many of the health features that make later generations so compelling. That’s why it is the cheapest Apple Watch currently sold. If you’re willing to take those drawbacks for the baseline “Apple Watch experience”, you can find it for just $199 on Amazon. It won’t be a device to keep for the long-term, but it is still an Apple Watch.
If you want the best of the best, the Apple Watch Series 6 is the best Apple offers and can be found for $409 on Amazon. If you want a mature watch with the always-on display, and are willing to give up a slightly brighter display and Blood Oxygen monitoring, the Apple Watch Series 5 is an excellent choice and can be found for $349 on Amazon.
Finally, if you’re not that concerned about extra health features like ECG or Blood Oxygen monitoring, and the always-on display isn’t as good a deal for you, the Apple Watch SE is a phenomenal pick for $314 on Amazon. If you can find an Apple Watch Series 4 at a similar or better price, it’s practically the same feature set as the Apple Watch SE, and is still a great buy.