Heading into its second year, the Apple Watch finds its focus

One of my favorite pieces of Apple writing from the last couple years is Ben Thompson’s discussion of the Apple Watch’s introduction and how it compared to past Apple product introductions. I’m not just referring to standard Apple product events, but the events at which Apple introduces an entirely new product line to the press and its customers for the first time.

The iPod, iPhone, and iPad introductions, Thompson writes, all went to great lengths to communicate Apple’s goals for the product. And often, that part of the presentation would go on for as long as 10 or 15 minutes before the product itself was even announced or shown. Even if you didn’t necessarily agree with Apple’s stated vision, you came away with clear knowledge of what that vision was.

Contrast that with the introduction for the Apple Watch, which began with a general statement about Apple’s product philosophy and moved on to a pre-recorded video (relatively rare during Jobs’ era, but a frustrating hallmark of Cook-era presentations). That was followed by a rundown of the watch’s UI and multiple app demos, some of which landed better than others. It was sort of a phone substitute sometimes, it sort of did some fitness things, it sort of ran limited versions of apps, it was sort of a wrist-bound communicator and personal assistant, and it was sort of a status symbol aimed at the luxury watch market. Plenty of possibilities, but no clearly communicated vision.

Part of that, as Thompson notes, is just a difference in style between CEOs—Jobs dominated the stage at most Apple keynotes, while Cook acts more as an emcee passing the mic from presenter to presenter (to video). But the reason I like this piece so much is that it really captured the way I felt walking out of the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in September 2014. The watch seemed like it could do some cool things, but Apple had done little to convey why it was a necessary product, and the messaging that was there was muddled. And this was compounded at launch by software (and a developer SDK) that didn’t quite feel finished until version 2.0 was released a few months later.

With both the Apple Watch Series 2 and watchOS 3, Apple is bringing a needed layer of polish and focus to both the hardware and software, streamlining the watch’s sales pitch without even dramatically rethinking what the product can do. The Apple Watch is settling into a groove as a fitness gadget for casual-to-moderate exercisers that also happens to do some other smartwatch-y things. That’s clear from the hardware that was added in Series 2, the additions to watchOS 3, and extensive focus on a Nike partnership and Nike-exclusive version of the watch announced during the presentation.

We’ve already given the Series 2 hardware a good thorough look with particular focus on its fitness features, but I also wanted to revisit the observations I made a few months ago about my first year with the Apple Watch—what problems has Apple addressed? Where is the lineup headed? Which one should you buy, and if you already own the original hardware, should you upgrade? And where do we go from here?

Series 2: Hardware refined

The Apple Watch Series 2’s biggest improvements are its new internal GPS and the Apple S2 board. The former makes it a much more versatile, capable fitness tracker, and is the first step down a long road that eventually leads to a watch that can operate independently of your phone. I don’t think the watch is ever going to become a computing platform in its own right as the iPhone did after its first few years as an accessory tethered to your computer and to iTunes. But with a few more software improvements and LTE you could easily leave home for a couple of hours without needing your phone at all.

The S2 (along with watchOS 3) solves most of my gripes about the Apple Watch’s heretofore inconsistent performance—you’ll still run into a small hitch or delay every now and then, but most of the time when I want to use the watch for something, I can do so without having to wait for the hardware itself or for communication between the watch and the phone.

The increased water resistance and brighter display are nice additions, too—the screen in particular makes it so that the Apple Watch’s screen always looks just about the same regardless of whether you’re inside or out in direct sunlight—and the kick from the larger Taptic Engine makes it easier to tell a real notification buzz from a "phantom" one. But there’s one other tweak that Apple has made that hasn’t talked about as much.

Over the course of a year and a half, my original Apple Watch picked up a worn-out spot on the bottom where the heart rate sensor lives. This series of small scratches, developed not through any particular abuse but just by sliding it into and out of its charging cradle night after night, hasn’t impaired the heart rate sensor at all (so far). But it does look bad and another year or two of wear might lead to more serious problems.

In the Apple Watch Series 2, Apple is using some ceramic material (not unlike the ceramic blend it’s using in the new Apple Watch Edition) on the back of the watch to make it more scratch-resistant, which should hopefully help keep those little scratches from becoming a problem.

Series 1 vs. Series 2 vs. the original Apple Watch

The Apple Watch Series 1—not the original model, but a version of the original with the new faster CPU and GPU from the Series 2—is a unique product from Apple. It’s common practice to keep selling older models at lower prices to lower prices and broaden the possible market for Apple’s stuff, but it’s not common for Apple to actually change the internal hardware in any meaningful way (storage capacities aside).

The Apple Watch Series 2 is powered by the S2 system-in-package (SiP), and the original Apple Watch is powered by the S1. The Series 1 uses an in-between SiP called the S1P, which is identical to the S1 but swaps out the original CPU and GPU for the new dual-core CPU and GPU. This is pretty cool, since it tells us that the new CPU and GPU are physically about the same size as the original; this is what new manufacturing processes can enable!

This actually makes your purchasing decision pretty easy if you’re trying to choose between a Series 1 and Series 2 watch. If you don’t care about the GPS, the brighter screen, or the improved water resistance and swim tracking features, you can save yourself $100 while still benefitting from the speed improvements. The Apple Watch isn’t a must-buy accessory even at $269, but that price is more in line with the Apple Watch’s actual capabilities relative to the iPhone and other gadgets.

Finally, the existence of “Series 1” may imply bad things for the original Apple Watch’s software support. I don’t think Apple is going to go ahead and drop it any time soon, and I think it’s a shoo-in for watchOS 4 and possibly even watchOS 5. But by taking the slower hardware off the market, Apple is quietly saying “we don’t want to have to optimize for this old, slow hardware for longer than we have to.” Like the original iPad, the first-generation Apple Watch may end up with a relatively abbreviated support cycle.