Five years on it’s still going pretty strong: It has a 90% battery capacity (although Apple are very generous with their percentages). I can, however, get up at 6-7am and either do a couple of runs (one for me and one with A) and have just enough battery to make it to bed time at 11pm ish, or I don’t do any GPS activity and I easily make it to bedtime with around half my battery left.

Since I don’t have an iPhone anymore I am literally just using it as a running/exercise watch as opposed to a smart watch (well, I do use timers for cooking - WorkOutDoors and the timer app are the two things I have in the “dock”) so that probably helps with battery life. In the day it’s connected to the house WiFi - I could turn that off I guess, but no real need.

I had thought that I’d need to replace it last year but I guess I might get another year out of it before the battery is completely knackered. Perhaps if I was doing longer runs I’d notice it, but it’s fine for what I’m doing currently. There are rare occasions where I’d like to have a watch that has days long battery life (so not even a new Apple Watch) for tracking runs and steps, but I don’t need it.

Some follow-ups since the initial review:

  • I’ve realised wrist based heart measurements are just what they are. They are very person dependent, etc. WorkOutDoors having Precision Start where it starts measuring heart rate before starting a run helps a bit. So I use it, but it’s hit and miss: sometimes records perfectly during runs, other times gets maybe a couple of readings.
  • I used Siri via my watch once to phone little M whilst out in some bad snow and there was no way I could have unlocked my phone. Worked a treat, but that was the only time.
  • I stopped using the Strava app for WorkOutDoors and use audio sparingly for sprint intervals. I e. I could completely cope without a speaker on a watch.
  • Display-wise, when running I just have average pace and time nowadays which really helps with readability.
  • I stopped using Teuxdeux (sadly), but could still use the Shortcuts app for Taskwarrior. I do miss this specific smart watch functionality, but can cope without it (obviously).

In general I really can’t fault it and I’ve loved it as a bit of technology. If you have an iPhone, getting a Watch SE is a far better value purchase than whatever iPhone you have. It is Apple’s best product in my opinion, especially when combined with WorkOutDoors for the mapping, etc.

I am not unaffected by consumerism - I’ve window shopped hard for a new watch over the last year from the most realistic option (a forerunner 55) to dream level stuff (like a Suunto Race S or Polar Vantage M3). I’d love to buy something, but know there is no real point yet. Anything in my price range isn’t really going to be better it will just have more battery life. It’s not going to make any difference to my exercise routine.