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Comment by BiasRegularizer | Hacker News Reader

Apple Watch has so many health features, but the main hinderance for me is its relatively short battery life - I often forget to put it back on after charging it.

Has anyone tried having two apple watches so one can be worn while the other charges?

[edit] Charging it at night is kind of missing the point, as I would like to track both my daily activities and my sleep

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> Has anyone tried having two apple watches so one can be worn while the other charges?

It's terrible that it's come to this IMO. The Apple watch has some great features and can't directly compare, but I can't help compare it to Pebble watches almost 10 years ago - weeks worth of battery life. Even when it "died" it would work for days longer as a watch.

I know the Apple watch has different features, constant heart rate and accelerometer monitoring, etc - but how are we supposed to use it for sleep monitoring (my usecase) if we need to charge it at night anyway? I find it's really, really good at it and I want to use it so badly.

Surely this is a stupidly huge flaw if the battery life is so low that people are considering a second watch just for monitoring the second half of their day (sleeping)?

(I still own an apple watch, and I know there's still a large community supporting them but I wish they were still manufactured)

This may be true for older Apple Watches, but it's not true for the latest Apple Watch. I get 3 days of battery life on regular usage, and a full charge only takes about an hour. Throwing it on the charger while I take a shower or wash dishes is enough to keep it topped off.

Admittedly mine is a bit older and I haven't kept _super_ up to date with people's experiences.

Which model do you have? I'm pretty sure the real expensive one (ultra?) has pretty good battery life, I'm not sure about the others

Here is an article that compares charging times on the newest vs somewhat old apple watches: https://www.androidauthority.com/how-long-does-apple-watch-t...

Also Apple introduced a "Low Power Mode" on WatchOS 9 that allows you to potentially get 60 hrs on the Apple watch ultra. This link discussed what is disabled in this mode. Seems like it would work for your use case or at the very least you run low power mode during the day and turn it off at night for better sleep monitoring: https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/enable-low-power-mode-apple...

I have a series 5 and it easily last 24 hours, with the screen on the entire time. It charges pretty fast. Haven't measured it but I never have to think about battery life.

Even older ones are decent. I have a 4 and it's probably got about 2 days of battery life. I put it on the charger for an hour every morning as part of my routine.

The first thing I did was turn-off the always on display, which save a lot of energy.

I also turned off the background processing of most apps, which saves battery. Same thing with location if the app doesn’t require it to function properly.

My friends with the newer watches/chargers say that they throw it on the charger when they get up to hit the shower in the morning and its mostly charged by the time they're ready to head out to work.

I've done that have two apple watches I used to have a series 7 and a se charge. But I've gotten an Ultra and I only have to charge it for a couple minutes to get a whole night worth of tracking.

I usually charge my watch while sleeping and grab it in the morning along with my phone, but I'd assume a second watch would work? It's an expensive route with the watch, but it's a solution in many other spaces. My wireless headset, for example, has a replaceable, rechargeable battery.

For best results, you'd want to use a single charger, and to always put the alternate on immediately.

That said, the watch can notify when charged, which might be a better first step. The settings for that live in the sleep settings, of all places, but might be worth a shot?

It now reminds you to charge before bed. My watch tells me about 8pm.

Once you get in the habit of charging it then and always sleeping with it, easy to form a habit.

I just got the Apple Watch 8, it's my first Apple Watch. The battery life is excellent. Lasts for 3 days from a full charge. Throwing it on the charger for a few minutes every day while I wash dishes is enough to keep it charged indefinitely.

I get a notification on my phone when my watch is fully charged. This is my reminder to put the watch back on.

charge during shower gets me through whole day no issues... and random charging when i'm sitting down working when i noticed it went too low ( < 20% )

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