Apple Watch 10 Years Later: The Feature That Changed Everything for Me
I wasn’t immediately sold on the Apple Watch. But five years ago, it alerted me to a serious health problem, earning it a permanent spot on my wrist. Ten years after its launch, the Apple Watch still stands apart, even as a flood of other wearables and fitness trackers have hit the market.
It took several years for the Apple Watch to find its footing beyond just being an iPhone companion. Over the past decade, similar health tracking devices from companies like Samsung, Google and Oura have since ramped up competition. A March report from Counterpoint Research revealed a 19% drop in Apple Watch shipments in 2024, due to heightened competition and less frequent upgrades. Despite that, the Apple Watch has held onto its spot as the best-selling smartwatch in the world, with a lineup that now includes the Series 10, Ultra, and SE.
For many people, including me, it’s become a way to make data personal and meaningful. It’s an easy way to keep tabs on loved ones. And, perhaps most importantly, it’s been a literal life changer.
Watch this: The Apple Watch Feature That Keeps Me Coming Back, 10 Years Later
A very memorable ‘one more thing…’
Rumors about the Apple Watch, or “iWatch” as most people called it, had been simmering long before its launch. In 2014, fitness trackers and smartwatches like the Fitbit, Jawbone Up and Samsung Galaxy Gear Watch had already been on sale and were vying for a spot on people’s wrists. I liked testing these early trackers and watches because they got me outside of the office, but sooner or later, the novelty would wear off, and I’d retire them to my desk drawer. I wasn’t much of a watch or bracelet wearer to begin with, and most early smartwatches didn’t offer me enough incentive to keep wearing them.
Tim Cook unveiling the Apple Watch at the iPhone 6 keynote in 2014.
Then, in September 2014, Tim Cook unveiled the Apple Watch during a keynote for the iPhone 6 (it arrived in stores on April 24, 2015). I remember holding the Apple Watch for the first time in the demo room after the announcement and thinking it was the best-looking smartwatch I’d ever seen. But that wasn’t much of a compliment considering most pre-Apple Watch wearables lacked fashion appeal and had a more utilitarian vibe. The Galaxy Gear screamed “nerd gadget” with its bulky camera on the strap and a mic on the clasp. The cult favorite Pebble Watch looked more like a plastic toy than a timeless piece. (Sorry, Pebble fans.)
That first Apple Watch appealed to me on a couple of levels. It was Apple’s first new product category since the 2010 launch of the original iPad. It was also the first major tech event that I covered as a journalist. Ultimately, in my Apple Watch review for CNET en Español, I concluded it was a nice iPhone companion, but I wasn’t sure I needed it.
The turning point: When my heart skipped a beat
By the time the Series 4 rolled around, features like LTE and onboard GPS helped the Apple Watch begin to break free from its dependence on the iPhone. I still wasn’t wearing it every day, but one feature changed that.
“We did have this turning point with the Series 4, where we had a little bit of a leap forward in the sensors. We had the advanced motion sensors that allowed us to offer fall detection, and we had the electrical heart sensor that allowed us to offer the ECG app,” says Deidre Caldbeck, senior director of product marketing for the Apple Watch and Health.
This coincided with the release of other heart features like high and low heart rate alerts, and irregular rhythm notifications, which use the optical sensors in the watch to notify users to possible signs of atrial fibrillation, a potentially life-threatening heart condition.
In December 2018, I was at the UCSF Medical Center with cardiologist Dr. Gregory Marcus, testing the new electrocardiogram feature for a CNET story — comparing it with a full-fledged, medical-grade electrocardiogram at the hospital. The last thing I expected was for the Apple Watch to catch something abnormal about my heart rhythm.
But it did.
The Apple Watch was able to catch an irregular heart rhythm that was showing up on the hospital ECG.
I had 12 leads from the hospital’s EKG monitor attached to my body while I simultaneously took an ECG reading with the Apple Watch, using my index finger on the digital crown. Marcus signaled to something on the machine — a small irregularity disrupting my heart’s otherwise steady, melodic rhythm. I looked down, and the same out-of-place little wave popped up on the Apple Watch’s screen. My heart was literally skipping a beat.
At the time, I freaked out about what all this could possibly mean. But after some research and a follow-up visit, Marcus concluded that my premature ventricular contraction wasn’t serious or permanent. It was likely triggered by sleep deprivation and stress. I was a new mother to a 1-year-old, after all.
My story took on an unexpected personal turn, and I was left feeling completely different about having Apple’s tech strapped to my wrist. If it was powerful enough to surface such a nuanced heart condition, what else could it show me?
By Christmas of that same year, I had bought an Apple Watch for both my parents. They’re in their 70s and live in El Salvador. I figured if I couldn’t be there physically to watch them, I’d at least want them to have an Apple Watch to let them know if something was off.
My 70+ parents use the Apple Watch to track their fitness and keep tabs on their health.
It turns out that stories like mine helped Apple see beyond the Apple Watch’s innovative tech and drive the company in a direction steeped in health, wellness and early detection.
“What really inspired and motivated us to do more and to continue to pull on those threads and push the boundaries of what this device could do,” Caldbeck said, “[was] hearing stories from users about learning something about their health that they wouldn’t have otherwise learned because they’re wearing this device throughout the day.”
The Apple Watch as a diagnostic tool
Recently, I caught up with Marcus, nearly seven years after my original story, and talked with him about how he now uses ECGs from devices like the Apple Watch to help diagnose heart conditions in his patients.
“When a consumer or user obtains an EKG, it’ll get some sort of read — possible atrial fibrillation, normal, etc. That is not sufficient,” Marcus said. “Those recordings can be saved, usually as a PDF, and sent to a health care professional. The health care professional can make a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation using those EKGs.”
Doctors can use ECG readings from devices like the Apple Watch (exported as PDFs) to help diagnose heart conditions in patients.
Marcus’s praise also came with a warning. Sometimes, having all this information, especially for heart rate alerts, can cause patients to worry unnecessarily, even if they are otherwise healthy and show no other symptoms.
“If you’re going to screen a huge population, almost by definition you’re going to have some number of false positive results,” Marcus said. “False positive results are going to lead to unnecessary anxiety, unnecessary testing, maybe unnecessary treatment.”
A jumping off point into other vitals
ECG and heart rate notifications were just the beginning. Now, the Apple Watch can flag signs of sleep apnea, overall mobility, hearing health, menstrual cycles changes and cardiovascular trends to name a few.
The Apple Watch added sleep tracking to its list of metrics and can now track sleep stages.
For years, I’ve tracked workouts with the Apple Watch and relied on the Move rings to hold me accountable for how much (or how little) activity I had throughout the day. Over time, Apple added more advanced metrics like VO2 Max, Cardio Fitness, Heart Rate Zones and Training Load, which allowed me to get more out of my workouts and stay focused on long-term health goals. The Training Load feature helps me decide when to exercise. Heart Rate Zones and notifications push me during the workout. And VO2 Max and Cardio Fitness scores give me a benchmark to work toward. As a mom of three who’s hard-pressed to carve out even 30 minutes for myself, that kind of focus the Apple Watch brings has been key to making my workouts more impactful.
I may have had a few choice words for the Apple Watch when it alerted me that my Fitness Score dipped days after birthing a human. But it was the push I needed to get back into post-baby shape after my pregnancies. I’m happy to report I’ve reclaimed my “high” score that I still wear with pride.
These features aren’t exclusive to the Apple Watch. In fact, Apple isn’t always the first to roll them out. But I appreciate how the Watch translates them into something relevant, so they don’t get lost in the endless sea of data.
The evolution of the Apple Watch over the past 10 years has seen features like ECG, menstrual cycle tracking, sleep tracking and vitals tracking.
Turning a chore into something seamless
The Apple Watch has affected my life in other ways too. I used tech to track my menstrual cycle well before it debuted on the Apple Watch in 2019. For my first baby, I used a smart thermometer to share basal body temperature readings (an indicator of ovulation and fertility) to my iPhone. It wasn’t seamless, since it required me to remember to do it before getting out of bed, but it beat the old-school pen and paper method.
Once the Apple Watch introduced cycle tracking, I ditched the thermometer and started logging everything on my wrist. Initially, it may not have been as accurate since it didn’t track temperature changes. But the convenience of having the tracking on my watch helped me stay consistent and accurately pinpoint my fertility window.
Apple added two sensors to the Watch Series 8 (and newer), which allow them to track subtle changes in body temperature. The combination of cycle tracking and recording these subtle temperature shifts helped me better confirm ovulation, and it may have played a hand in welcoming baby No. 3.
What really keeps me coming back
The Series 10 currently on my wrist still feels (and looks) a lot like that original Apple Watch smartwatch I reviewed back in 2015. It’s kept the core features that make my life easier — like pinging my phone (which I use an embarrassing number of times), and that spares me from having to dig through my Mary Poppins purse for my phone or wallet at the checkout counter. And the battery life continues to be a pain point 10 years later, though at least I can now squeeze in a full night’s sleep before having to top it off.
Menstrual cycle tracking in the Health app.
Features like cycle tracking and cardio fitness resonate with me the most, but I know that my preferences will continue to evolve alongside the watch. Maybe once my kids are older and I start getting more consistent sleep, I’ll lean more into sleep tracking features or whatever new tool Apple has in store for the watch that year.
The Apple Watch’s real evolution over the past 10 years happened under the hood and isn’t about a single feature. What keeps me (and my family) coming back to the Apple Watch is the personal way in which it tracks the metrics that are relevant to me and steps in when it matters, whether with a nudge to get moving, a health alert or a literal call for help in an emergency.