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Apple Watch 7 First Impressions

Must Read: Apple Watch 7 Review

I recently got my Apple Watch 7, check out the review. I had to double-check the box to make sure I really had ordered a series 7 rather than a Series 6. I had!

As you can guess. They are VERY similar. Even visually.

Apple Watch 7 – A Quick Play

Until recently, I had both a Watch SE and Watch 6 in use, although my partner grabbed the latter for several months. Consequently, I’ve got used to the SE version being on my wrists for the last 6 months, prior to that I wore the Watch 6 for 6 months. The Watch 7 is definitely smoother and slightly quicker to use than the SE, even the screen’s surface feels physically smoother but that just might be because I haven’t scratched it yet or it’s clean! My partner also commented that scrolling seemed smoother and slightly more responsive.

In terms of the visuals, I have to say I’m finding it very hard to spot any difference. Sure I’ve written about the Watch 7 already quite a few times so I know what the differences are, I’m just saying the physical hardware looks very similar indeed.

I’m loving the always-on screen. Jeez the Watch SE was starting to bug me with that 0.1-second delay to fire up the visual goodness! I’m happy about the screen and knew I would be happy, having enjoyed it on the Series 6.

Apple Watch 7 with Modular Duo

We’ve known for months that watchOS 8 supported two full-width horizontal charts per watchface. However, it’s only the Watch 7 that can display them via the Modular Duo watchface. So, I was super keen to get these up and running, mainly because it will enable us sporty types to create a screen to get just that little bit more of our data on display.

I’ve been using Training Today, Whoop, Athlytic, Oura and HRV4Training to keep track of my readiness in recent months. Specifically, I’ve had the Training Today complication on display almost all of the time but noticed that the charts don’t seem quite right, so now I will add Athlytic to the same screen and monitor them assiduously for the next few weeks. I’ve just this second done that and the Athlytic data doesn’t seem to have refreshed yet for the following image…sorry!

I hadn’t noticed this before on other watchfaces (or forgot I had), but when you raise your wrist with the Modular Duo watchface the top bar that shows the time enlarges slightly as you turn your wrist. Cool.

Now all I’m keen for Apple to give us is a watchface with no watch…that’s space for two more of the smaller widgets.

Whoop Widgets

Thanks to @Markus from Wearables for Human Performance for this find.

If you forcibly update your Whoop app on iOS then you will be able to add Whoop’s brand new widgets to your desktop. They look cool too and nicely show you daily strain (load) and recovery! (I like this sort of thing)

I’m a bit concerned about what all my recovery stats are showing right now as I’ve got a race at the weekend and am tapering and have been since last weekend. My HRV is going South for the Winter and a close relation I saw last week has just tested Covid-positive. Oh dear.

I also checked if Whoop had added complications showing the same data on the Watch. I didn’t expect them to have done that and they haven’t. It would require a watchOS app to serve the complications, I believe.

Take Out: I’m excited today, nobody else is 🙂 !