If you’re familiar with Apple Watch, there’s a good chance you might know Apple has been celebrating its 10-year anniversary recently. The company kicked off those celebrations with the launch of its latest best Apple Watches – Apple Watch Series 10 and the titanium black Apple Watch Ultra 2 – at Apple’s Glowtime event on 9 September 2024, which was exactly 10 years to the day of the smartwatch’s first reveal on stage in 2014.
It wasn’t until six months later – 24 April 2015 if you’re wondering – that Apple Watch officially made it onto user’s wrists, however. So like those friends who celebrate their birthday for the entire month rather than just one day, Apple Watch is still celebrating its decade-long tenure.
In those 10 years, several design changes have been implemented, the sizes of Apple Watch have increased without engulfing too much extra wrist space, features have evolved and the technology has advanced. But what have been the most influential changes and what are the features you might not be using that you really should be?
I spoke to Apple’s Vice President of Fitness Technologies, Jay Blahnik, to find out what his favorite Apple Watch features are, what he thinks the defining elements of Apple Watch have been in the last decade, and what three features you should definitely be using.
“Different things motivate different people”
It’s possible to argue that when Apple Watch first launched, there was a focus on fashion and that’s still the case – we’ve had Hermés models for the last 10 years alongside the standard models. But there was always a nod to fitness too, with the three Activity Rings defining the Apple Watch for years, and continuing to do so to this day.
It’s a different approach to fitness than the Garmins or Polars of the smartwatch world though, with Apple Watch taking what could be considered a more accessible route, appealing to the masses (as long as they are iPhone users of course), rather than only athletes or runners.
“Early on, we used to say, we hope that one of the many things that Apple Watch can do is help people live a better day by being more active,” Blahnik told me.
“The two apps that have really driven that are the Activity app and the Workout app. The Activity app was designed to help everybody sit less, move more, and get some exercise, whether they actually worked out or not. And the Workout app was designed to bring measurement as motivation during those session-based activities. They have remained among the most popular apps on Apple Watch, no surprise there”, Blahnik said.
But he also added: “While we may have thought that Activity Rings were for people that maybe don’t want to work out and are less sporty and the Workout app would be for people that are more sporty, what we’ve really seen is both of those apps have transcended both groups. Our athletes that get up every morning before 8 AM and work out, also find themselves really motivated by moving every hour and getting up and closing their Activity Rings.
“And vice versa, a lot of people who maybe have never seen themselves as a workout person, they’ve started to see they can measure their dog walk, they can see how far they’ve gone with the Workout app and they’ve started to memorialize workouts in a different way. Maybe they’re not going to the gym, but they’re still measuring the things they do and they find it really delightful to see if they can stay consistent and follow their trend. We’ve just loved the broadness of it. Activity can be ever-present and really important. It can also be something that’s more subtle. And the Watch sort of meets you where you’re at.”
Blahnik also told me: “What we’ve learned over the years is, as we develop new features, again, no surprise, different things motivate different people. And so we find that, for every person that loves awards and celebrations and sharing activity, there’s someone else that says, well, I really want none of that. I want vertical oscillation and ground contact time and stride length in my run. And so we continue to build features that are more general and also ones that are more for our pro users.”
Could the best Apple Watch feature be one that’s been there all along?
With that, there are of course a whole host of features on Apple Watch, from newer ones like Training Load to classics like Apple Pay. Like me, Blahnik is a fan of Apple Pay – it’s incredibly underrated in my opinion – but his favorite features of Apple Watch are some of the newer ones, as well as a couple of golden oldies.
Blahnik said: “I’ve been really in love with the personalization of the Activity Rings and how that’s really impacted so many of our users that have been with Apple Watch since the beginning, allowing it to be even more customizable than ever before.
“Training Load’s been amazing,” he added. Blahnik explained how that was one of the features that could appeal to all users, not just athletes. “It was designed for athletes on a training program. What’s been awesome is we built it like we do all of our features. We try to make them as available to everyone as possible. And one of the things that we’ve really loved hearing is how many people have turned on the little notification for rating your workout. So you could do it in the background or you can actually have it come up at the end of every workout. What’s been nice is that even people that are not training are saying, ‘at the end of my workout, either taking a moment to adjust the rating you gave me or entering my own, has really had me be a little more connected to what I’ve done'”.
Blahnik is also a fan of a feature that’s been around a while though (since 2016) – and that’s activity sharing. “I think one of the reasons why it [activity sharing] has been so powerful is that when you share with somebody that has an Apple Watch, you really can go about doing what you normally do and you get little fun nudges from them automatically, and then you get fun feedback you can send back to them,” Blahnik explained.
“It’s nice because it doesn’t involve another ecosystem. You don’t have to go into another social environment. It’s on the same text thread that you probably message them anyway. And I find it fun because, you know, someone else might do a workout that morning and perhaps I was thinking of going a little easier and I see what they do and it kind of makes me want to push because I know they’re going to see mine.”
The top three features you should use on Apple Watch
Apple Pay would sit firmly at the top of my best Apple Watch feature list, especially for transit, and Blahnik has Apple Pay up there too, telling me: “I’m just always astounded the same device that gets me on time to my next meeting is also the one that can help me train for the next 10K that I do. And the device that can also keep me safe if I crash on my bike – which has happened before – is also one that as you said, can do Apple Pay.”
His top three features to make sure you using are something else though.
1. Effort rating notification
“The first one I would say is the notification for the effort rating. If you like to work out, you can of course change it at the end in the summary or in the phone. But we also have this feature where the first thing you’ll see before it ends is a quick chance to rate the workout,” Blahnik said.
“I think it’s been really great for me and watching so many people say, ‘I’m not even training for anything, but taking one quick beat to just memorialize how I feel can really change your connection to workouts’.”
“And that’s one of those that because it’s an optional thing – you always get the rating if you want it – but having that notification can really change the way you think about the end of a workout. Instead of just walking away, you take a moment to think about it.”
2. Share your activity
“If you’re not sharing activity, I would say find a friend because it really can fundamentally transform. And I know it’s been out for a while, but I still think there are lots of folks that don’t realize the power of just seeing what someone else can do and sharing with them,” Blahnik said.
“I’m up every day at 5 AM and I’m always doing my workout first thing, but I have someone I share with that is just so much fitter than me. They are an elite runner. They did a 2:30 marathon. I mean, they’re you know, not even in the same league and I still send them smack talk like I’m beating them every day, which I find really fun.”
“I find activity sharing just to be a really low barrier to entry but a really high return because it has that accountability and just knowing that someone else is out there doing it and being motivated by what you do is pretty awesome,” Blahnik told me.
3. Personalise the Fitness app (and your Apple Watch)
Last but definitely not least, Blahnik suggested: “Take a moment to personalize the Fitness app and even take a moment to personalize your rings because once you’re seeing the things that are most powerful to you and most motivational to you, it allows you to hone in on it.
“Those focuses can change. They might be different in January than they will be in the summer. But I think taking a beat, just like with Apple Watch and a Watch Face, taking a moment every now and again to personalize a new Watch face that speaks to you and what you’re really focused on can be really powerful because it’s customized.”
And one last tip…
Try Molly’s first-ever yoga episode on Fitness+. Why? Because Blahnik has done it 176 times (at the time of my interview) and well, it must be worth giving it a try right?
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brittaoboyle@icloud.com (Britta O'Boyle)
