The launch of the Apple watch is one of the biggest tech events of the year, and one of its major features is to make it an ideal piece of workout tech and a replacement for your fitness band. So what makes the Apple Watch such a great little gadget that you need to add to your arsenal? To be honest, I am not 100% convinced that this is something you need, but if you have room in your budget it certainly seems like a fun addition to your arsenal.
Goals
One of the Apple Watch’s major features is that you can set goals for yourself and it checks off each time you meet the goals. You get to adjust them on your own, and you can monitor your progress as you go. The Apple Watch has a very visually pleasing system with rings that make it easier to see how close you are to your goals and how far you have gone.
Heat Rate Sensor
The watch also has the ability to measure your pulse so that you can track the intensity of your workout. This is a great addition to the fitness band in that you get better quality feedback and you can meet your target calories more accurately.
Accelerometer
This addition helps to monitor the rate of speed and the adjustments to your movement over the day. This means your watch can calculate how long you have spent sitting, standing, walking, running or even biking. This is a great way to monitor all of your activity and a chance to encourage you to stand up a bit more during the day even while working. I can imagine this will pair well with my new desk that can be raised to work comfortably at standing height and sitting height.
Workout summary
Your watch can generate feedback data for individual workouts, for your exercise for the day or overall for the week/month. This is a great way to track your progress so you can see the full benefits. It is easy to synch your charts with phone and computer so you can get printouts, and I imagine Apple will set up a community where you can share your info and compete against others with similar goals.
GPS and WiFi
One of my first running gadgets I invested in was a GPS watch, so it seems important to point out that the Apple Watch has this function as well. Track your runs and map them to trace distance.
