The gold Apple Watch definitely sets you apart from the crowd, whether you have the aluminum or stainless-steel version. However, choosing from among the best Apple Watch bands to find ones that go with the gold color can be tricky. Fortunately, we've rounded up some of the best gold Apple Watch bands for you.

Looking for bling? These are the best bands for the gold Apple Watch

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How to choose the best bands for your gold Apple Watch

Whether you have the Apple Watch Series 7 or other newer model, it's a bit harder to find the best Apple Watch bands out there, but we think these are some pretty good options worth considering. You can't go wrong with Apple's simple Sport Band. You can wear it anywhere, and it holds up beautifully over time, even through sweaty gym workouts and swimming in the pool or ocean.

The Wearlizer Rhinestone X-Link Apple Watch Band is a gorgeous band with a reasonable price point. I wear it when I want a more delicate look with a little bling. I love that it ties my whole jewelry look together, as I'm often mixing silver and gold tones.

Clockwork Synergy is my go-to website for a large selection of reasonably priced, high-quality bands that you can personalize with the hardware color of your choice. If you don't love the crocodile leather look shown above, explore the site for tons of other options.

If you want something that looks even classier and don't mind splurging a bit, we also recommend the Apple Milanese Loop. The official Apple one is high quality. The magnet does not snag on your long sleeves, which seems to be a characteristic of the market's cheaper alternatives. While the gold option matches nicely with the gold Apple Watch, we like the Space Gray Milanese Loop, too, as it provides an excellent, stark contrast with the gold casing. The Milanese Loop look is often copied because it's fantastic. The elegant style elevates your wardrobe and works with anything from athleisure wear to black-tie formal. Though it's metal, the mesh makes it breathable, lightweight, and ultra-comfortable.

What you need to know

• Apple is improving the maximum battery capacity estimate for the Apple Watch.
• The feature showed up with the second developer beta of watchOS 9.
• It specifically applies to the Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5.

If you have an Apple Watch Series 4 or Apple Watch Series 5, Apple has good news for your battery life.

In the release notes for the second developer beta of watchOS 9, the company has announced that it is improving the estimation of the maximum battery capacity for the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5. According to the release, updating to watchOS 9 will recalibrate its battery capacity estimation automatically.

This is great news for any owner of an Apple Watch Series 4 or Series 5 that have felt their battery capacity estimation is off based on their battery life experience. Since the update seems to focus in on those two particular models, Apple must feel confident in its calculations for the Apple Watch Series 6 and Series 7, its most recent model.

watchOS 9 is still only available as a developer beta with the public beta expected in July. The new software will be available to all Apple Watch owners (well, at least the Apple Watch Series 4 and later) in the fall.

If you want to get a jump on the best deals on an Apple Watch now, check out our list of the Best Apple Watch deals for Prime Day 2022.

Those looking to score a great Apple Watch deal might be best served by going for a previous-generation model if you want the best savings. While Apple has a few options for you with the all-new Apple Watch Series 6 and Apple Watch SE, as well as the previous-gen Series 3 that has remained in the lineup, one of the best value options available right now is the Apple Watch Series 4.

It balances modern features that the Series 3 lacks while remaining more affordable than the 2020 releases, especially with deals like Woot's one-day sale offering refurbished Apple Watch Series 4 models from as little as $180.

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Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

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Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

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Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

While Apple no longer sells the Series 4, these deals save you over $100 versus the cost of going for the latest Series 6 models, even considering their current discounts at Amazon and elsewhere.

It's also cheaper than the designed-to-be-affordable Apple Watch SE. Considering the two are very similar and the Series 4 has the added ability to take an ECG, the older model might be better for what you want a smartwatch for.

Though the models on sale at Woot are not new and may have some minor cosmetic blemishes, they will work like new and come with a 90-day warranty in case of any issues.

In our Apple Watch Series 4 review from September 2018, we rated it with five out of five stars and remarked that while it may not be able to replace having your phone around just yet, it's practically an essential accessory for any iPhone user looking to stay connected at a glance. Apple Watch Series 4 features an edge-to-edge screen, boosted speed and battery life versus the Series 3, advanced health features like a built-in ECG and fall detection, plus a bunch of customizable watch faces.

Shipping is free at Woot if you log in with your Amazon Prime account. If you're not yet set up with Prime, you can start your 30-day free trial to save on shipping today and get in on all of the other benefits Amazon Prime has to offer.

If you're not sure which model is right for you, check out our guide to the best Apple Watch and then peruse the best Apple Watch deals to find the lowest price on the one you want.

Those looking to score a great Apple Watch deal might be best served by going for a previous-generation model. If you can snag a refurbished Apple Watch, you can often get an even better deal. Today only, Woot has refurb stainless steel Series 4 models on sale for just $234.99 giving you the chance to save big.

Brand new, you'd still pay as much as $749 for these 44mm devices. Even refurbished you'd pay at least $100 more for anything in good condition. The Woot models on sale today are offered 'Grade A refurbished' meaning they will work like new and bear only minimal cosmetic imperfections. A 90-day warranty is also included.

$899.99 $1299.00 Save $399 1623157769

Having now been replaced by the 24-inch M1 iMac, Apple's 21.5-inch iMac has been discontinued. That means big savings at third-party retailers including at Amazon where it's discounted by $399.

Prices Vary 1622214797

This sale includes iPhone models, the Apple Watch, iMac and iPad devices, Beats headphones, Apple services, and more. The deals vary by product, so be sure to check them all out now.

$103.99 $129.99 Save $26 1621604395

Change how you use your iPad with the Apple Pencil. This stylus lets you use your iPad as a notepad, a canvas, or a drawing board for all of your ideas. Today's deal saves you 20% instantly at Verizon.

$599.99 $699.00 Save $99 1621519150

Updated in late 2020, the Mac Mini has Apple's M1 chip that combines CPU, GPU, and machine learning for faster performance, better graphics, and an all around streamlined device. This version has 8GB RAM and a 256GB solid state drive.

From $329 1621244196

Apple Watch Series 6 models are available for some of their best prices ever right now. The lowest price is on the red 40mm version which is $70 off with 44mm and cellular models seeing discounts of up to $91.

While Series 4 of the Apple Watch has since been surpassed by the Series 5 and Series 6, it's still one of the world's best smartwatches. In our review from September 2018, we rated it with five out of five stars and remarked that while it may not be able to replace having your phone around just yet, it's practically an essential accessory for any iPhone user looking to stay connected at a glance.

Apple Watch Series 4 brought the edge-to-edge screen to the wrist-worn wearable for the first time, as well as boosts to speed and battery life. On top of that, it features advanced health features like a built-in EKG and fall detection plus a bunch of customizable watch faces. Being cellular-enabled, you can also use your Apple Watch to make calls and send an iMessage even when you're away from your phone.

One big difference between the Series 4 watch and the Series 5 watch is the latter's always-on display, though there's not a huge difference in specs otherwise. You can learn more about how they match up with this Series 4 vs. Series 5 guide.

Shipping is free at Woot if you log in with your Amazon Prime account. If you're not yet set up with Prime, you can start your 30-day free trial to save on shipping today and get in on all of the other benefits Amazon Prime has to offer.

If you have an older Apple Watch Series 0, 1, 2, or 3 Apple Watch, your bands should be for either the 38mm or 42mm case. However, even though the Apple Watch Series 4, 5, and the new Apple Watch Series 6 come in the slightly different case sizes — 40mm or 44mm —,your older bands from Series 3 and earlier will still fit.

This is because when Apple slightly increased the size of the Apple Watch case, they kept the strap sizes the same. So if you had a 38mm Apple Watch, your straps for that will fit the 40mm Apple Watch Series 6. And, if you had a 42mm, they'll work with the 44mm Watch.

Apple Watch Series 4, Series 5, and Series 6 come in the 40mm and 44mm case sizes, so they are the same. As long as you get the same size for the new Apple Watch, then the existing bands you have should fit without issue.

While the Apple Watch has been around for many years now, Apple has kept the same lug design every year. This makes it possible to use even original bands with the latest Apple Watch, so if you have a favorite strap from way back when that has been discontinued, you can still use it with your Apple Watch Series 6.

Until Apple makes a huge design change with the Apple Watch, any band you have that works with the square shape will work. If you want some new Apple Watch bands, check out some of the best ones available right now.

What you need to know

• It appears Apple Watch's ECG feature will be coming to Japan soon.
• Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5 have been given medical approval in the country.
• The feature has the potential to save lives and has already done so in other countries.

Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5 have both seen their ECG feature receive medical approval in Japan, according to reports. That opens the door to Apple enabling the feature on Apple Watches that are already being used as well as all those that will be sold in the future.

The approval by the Japanese Association for the Advancement of Medical Equipment came last week and was spotted by Japanese site iPhone Mania and MacRumors today.

In fact, the approval has already seen the Ochanomizu Department of Cardiology begin working towards a new Apple Watch Outpatient program. That will see patients use Apple Watches to record heart issues and then provide them to medical professionals for assessment.

The ECG feature is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and Apple Watch Series 5 devices and allows the wearable to detect whether a user might suffer from atrial fibrillation (AFib). It's also been proven to save countless lives and its arrival in more countries is great news.

What you need to know

• An Apple Watch alerted emergency services of an incident involving an unconscious driver.
• Apple Watch's fall detection called and provided exact GPS data.
• Fall detection is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and newer.

Apple Watch has already proven more than capable when it comes to saving lives and it's been at it again. This time alerting emergency services when a driver was knocked unconscious during a traffic incident.

The incident happened in Surrey, UK, with the local police force tweeting that they were able to attend because an Apple Watch called the emergency services after it detected a fall. Presumably the force of the impact was enough to trigger the alert.

Once the emergency services were alerted the Apple Watch was also able to provide a GPS location, taking responders straight to the person involved. No further information was provided as to how the incident happened or how the person involved fared.

When Apple Watch detects what it believes to be a fall it taps the wearer on the wrist and sounds an alarm. If no action is taken after 60 seconds it automatically calls the emergency services, as happened in this instance.

Fall detection is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and newer and is absolutely well worth taking the time to enable. It's a feature that has already saved lives.

What you need to know

• Apple today released watchOS 5.3.2 for the Apple Watch Series 4.
• The update is meant for users on older iPhones that don't support iOS 13.
• It lets users of older iPhones and Apple Watch Series 4 use their devices without having the latest software updates.

Today Apple released watchOS 5.3.2 for the Apple Watch Series 4. The update is meant for users of the Apple Watch Series 4 using devices like the iPhone 6 that don't support iOS 13, which means they subsequently can't update to watchOS 6.

There is a small number of users, but apparently it's big enough to warrant attention because Apple released a special update for them. The affected iPhone models include the iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S.

This decision is not a problem in a vacuum, but with users on devices like the iPhone 6 using a newer Apple Watch Series 4, this presented a conundrum.

The watchOS 5.3.2 update—and the iOS 12.4.2 that is available to the iPhones—lets the older iPhone devices and Apple Watch Series 4 function without having the latest versions of their respective operating systems. Coincidentally, the update also fixes a few other security flaws.

If you are an Apple Watch Series 4 users with a non-iOS 13 iPhone, the watchOS 5.3.2 update is now available.

What you need to know

• UK man's Apple Watch alerted him of an irregular heartbeat.
• Doctors said it was "unlikely" to be the case.
• He was diagnosed with two faulty heart valves.

We've heard plenty of stories where an Apple Watch has saved lives and Apple even made a big deal of the fact during its recent Apple Watch Series 5 announcement. And now another life has potentially been saved, this time in the UK.

Tabloid newspaper The Sun reports that fitness fan Chris Mint, 30, was wearing his Apple Watch when it reported that he potentially had atrial fibrillation. That's a feature that's available on Apple Watch Series 1 and later, but Mint apparently had no idea it existed. So he did what the watch suggested and sought the opinion of medical professional.

When he did, they said that it was "unlikely" that the watch was correct, but thankfully they conducted a full examination and confirmed the diagnosis. After seeing a specialist Mint was told he had "two leaking heart valves". Doctors went on to tell him that if his Apple Watch hadn't notified him of the issue he could have gone on to have a heart attack or stroke.

When emailed about the story by the man's wife, Apple CEO Tim Cook responded saying "I'm glad your husband sought treatment and is fine now. Thanks for sharing his story — it inspires us to keep pushing forward."

Apple executives recently said that the health benefits came about by accident. We imagine Chris Mint and his family would call that a very happy accident indeed.

What you need to know

• A Reddit user tested out the Apple Watch's noise detection feature.
• He tested it against the Extech sound meter, a professional device to determine noise levels.
• The results were strikingly similar.

One of the new features arriving to the Apple Watch via the watchOS 6 update is the noise detection feature that can measure the decimal level of noise around you. While the feature very useful, it was fair to wonder how accurate the feature could be.

The answer is that it's surprisingly accurate.

First spotted by 9to5Mac, a Reddit user decided to test the accuracy of the Apple Watch against a calibrated sound meter from his job and the results were surprising to say the least. With a lot of noise in the background, the Apple Watch detected 88 dB of noise. The Extech sound meter, meanwhile, detected 88.9dB of noise.

The accuracy level is quite impressive. Technology has advanced at such a rapid pace, but even so, it's still impressive to see the Apple Watch produce noise level detection results at the same level of a device created to do just that.

The noise detection feature is now available for the Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5 with watchOS 6.

What you need to know

• The Apple Watch alerted emergency services after a mother of three fell while home alone.
• Kate Donald bought the device for this very situation.
• The Apple Watch Series 4 offers fall detection and emergency SOS features.

Tragedy nearly struck a mother of three in Australia after she suffered a seizure while home alone. But the Apple Watch's fall detection and emergency SOS features sprung into action to help save her life.

According to News Corp Australia, Kate Donald, who suffers from epilepsy, was feeling unwell one afternoon when a seizure suddenly struck. Nobody was home with Kate at the time, but thanks to the Apple Watch, her husband and emergency services were alerted that something had happened.

Thanks to the combination of an accelerometer and gyroscope, the Apple Watch Series 4 is capable of detecting when a user has fallen. Apple explains how its fall detection works:

Kate said she became interested in purchasing the latest version of the Apple Watch because she needed a device to alert family and emergency services in case she fell.

"We were like, 'What can we do?' Do we get a panic alarm like old people have, but you need to be conscious and press the button and I'm not," Kate said.

With features such as fall detection, emergency SOS, and electrical sensors to track unusual heart activity, the Apple Watch Series 4 has become an incredible health tool. The incident Kate experience is just another example of what Apple's wearable is capable of.

How to set up fall detection on Apple Watch Series 4

What you need to know

• Elago's new W6 Stand turns your Apple Watch into an iPod Classic.
• It is available in two unique colors, the classic white and the iconic "U2 Edition" black.
• The stand will work with any model of the Apple Watch.

Elago is known for making cutesy little stands for the Apple Watch that transform it into nostalgia-fueled products and its latest one is probably its best yet. The new Elago W6 Stand for the Apple Watch turns it into none other than the iPhone Classic.

The case is made out of scratch-free silicone to keep the Apple Watch protected. It works similarly to previous Elago cases. You just slide in the watch from the top and while in Nightstand Mode, it will serve as the display for the iPod. Too bad you can add a watchface with the original iPod display. The charger puck fits into the backside that instantly begins charging the watch once it slides in.

Elago is selling two colors of the W6 Stand, black and white. The white one mimics the classic iPod design but the red one takes the iconic "U2 Edition" with the black front and red click wheel.

Every model of the Apple Watch will working with Elago's new stand. The W6 Stand is now available for purchase if you feel like going back to simpler times.

What you need to know

• Previous Apple patents suggest it is still considering the idea of adding a camera to the Apple Watch.
• It submitted the idea for a camera integreated into the band back in September 2016.
• Though the idea is intriguing, Apple has seemingly opted not to include it into the Apple Watch so far.

Apple is still considering putting a camera on the Apple Watch according to some of its patents. The patents, first spotted by AppleInsider, suggest that Apple has toyed around with the idea of placing the camera at the end of a flexible band.

The patent, which was filed to the US Patent and Trademark Office back in September 2016, show that Apple is not done with the idea of placing an "optical sensor," as it calls it in the patent, on the Apple Watch through the best way possible. Here's exactly how Apple describes the patent:

By now it is pretty clear that placing a camera on the watch itself isn't really feasible as it's not adjustable. The Apple Watch is strapped on to your wrist, which means adjustability is limited right away to just rotating the wrist and that's neither useful nor comfortable. But a flexible band provides much more customizability, or so goes Apple's thinking.

Judging by the illustrations, Apple considered multiple options including using an extended loop band and just placing it at the end of a standard band. It doesn't seem neither idea worked relatively well as it has been nearly three years since Apple submitted the patent but the idea has not yet been incorporated into the Apple Watch

For now, it seems customers don't really care about a camera on the Apple Watch. In fact, Apple Watch proved to be as popular as ever with shipments increasing in 2018.

What you need to know

• The Apple Watch continues to be the most popular wearable.
• It saw shipments rise 22% in 2018 thanks to the popularity of the Series 4.
• Apple still claims the largest market share for wearables.

The Apple Watch remains as popular as ever with shipments of Apple's wearable growing 22% in 2018. That number comes from Counterpoint Research data, which tracked how Apple Watch sales progressed over the year.

The impressive performance in 2018 was in large part due to the instant success of the Series 4. Apple introduced a new, bigger display and health-related features that offered something tangibly new with the product for the first time since the Series 1, and thus customers jumped at the opportunity to purchase one.

With everything taken into account, the Series 4 remained Apple's most popular model of the Apple Watch along with being the most popular wearable. It was closely followed by the Apple Watch Series 3, Fit Versa, Imoo Z3 and Apple Watch Series 2.

Apple still holds on to best wearable market share at 37%, though it did shrink a little as more competition continues to challenge it. Regardless, Apple still remains the wearable king and with the innovations offered in watchOS 6, look for that to remain the case for a while.

Best Apple Watch in 2019

The Apple Watch app seems to be exclusive to iPhones only. So even if you have an iPod touch 7, you won't be able to connect it to an Apple Watch, because the app that pairs an Apple Watch to an iOS device is not present on the iPod touch.

That's correct. The only way to connect an Apple Watch (even a cellular model) is to have an iPhone. The Apple Watch app is not available on iPod touch or iPad devices, and it cannot pair with Android devices at all either.

If you have an Apple Watch and plan on using it, then yes, because an iPhone is required to get it set up, even if you have the cellular version.

There are also plenty of other benefits of using an iPhone over an iPod touch. The iPhone XS has a 5.8-inch Super Retina HD OLED Display (XS Max has 6.5-inches of screen), which is much more vibrant and has a higher resolution than the 4-inch Retina display of the iPod touch 7. There are also better cameras (dual 12MP versus 8MP for rear, 7MP versus 1.2MP for front) with Portrait Mode and Lighting. The iPhone XR even has a 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display, which is also better than the iPod touch 7.

Plus, with an iPhone, you'll be able to stay connected wherever you are due to a cellular data plan, versus the iPod touch that can only connect via Wi-Fi. The iPhone XS and XS Max also go up to 512GB in storage, meaning you'll be able to have a lot more music and media with you compared to the iPod touch 7, which only goes up to 256GB.

However, if you just want a device for listening to music only, view some videos and photos, and even play some games, then the iPod touch 7 is a good device. Keep in mind that it won't connect to an Apple Watch and only goes up to 256GB in capacity.

The Withings Move and Apple Watch Series 4 are ultimately two very different products. The Move is an analog watch with activity tracking features. The Apple Watch is a smartwatch that tracks your activity, allows you to use apps, and more. The Move is great if you like analog watches (and saving money), and want one that offers some activity and sleep tracking. However, if you want a smartwatch, the Apple Watch is the better bet.

What really sets the Withings Move and Apple Watch apart

As I've noted, the Withings Move and Apple Watch Series 4 are very different products, but there are some similarities. For instance, at their core, both products are watches, and tell the time. The Move is generally going to be the winner here, as it's an analog watch that doesn't have an OLED display that you have to wait for -- you just look at the time. The only exception is going to be when you're without a source of light. The Apple Watch's display, which lights up on its own, will be quite handy.

They also both track your general activity, such as steps taken. Both feature automatic activity tracking for walking, running, swimming, and more. The Move will also track sleeping, but you can also achieve this on the Apple Watch with third-party apps.

That being said, there's a lot that sets these two devices apart. The Withings Move is an analog watch with some fitness tracking capabilities that shows your status on a special dial on its face. The Apple Watch is a smartwatch; a dynamic device on which you can track fitness, use apps, communicate with both voice and text, and more. The Apple Watch Series 4 is also the more advanced fitness tracker of the two. It features both a heart rate monitor and an ECG, which the standard version of the Move lacks. You can also use the watch to record your workout data into your favorite third-party fitness app. And of course, the Apple Watch integrates seamlessly with your iPhone and various Apple devices.

Of course, for all that functionality in the Apple Watch, you pay a premium. Even at its lowest prices right now, the Apple Watch is priced at over $300 more than the Withings Move, which makes sense. The Move's functionality is fairly basic. If you're just getting into fitness and activity tracking, then check out the Move. Additionally, the Move's battery life is going to be a lot longer than the Apple Watch. At around 18 months, you'll only need to worry about the battery every so often. Plus, that battery is a replaceable, standard coin-type cell, and as such, you also don't have to charge the Move as you do the Apple Watch.

Despite some surface similarities, these devices are very different. The only thing the Move does better than the Apple Watch is tell time, and that's only because it takes any amount of time at all for the Apple Watch's display to turn on. It doesn't track your activity as well, and it doesn't have the versatility of the Apple Watch.

But...the Withings Move is more than $300 cheaper than the Apple Watch Series 4. If all you want is a watch that will track some activity, a timepiece that'll do a bit more, and you don't care about any of the other features of the Apple Watch or don't have the money for an Apple Watch, this is easy: get the Move and save your money. Also, you have a lot of default color combination options, and if you buy through the Withings site, you can customize everything from the watch face to the activity tracking dial. Also, if you don't own an iPhone, you're not going to be able to set up your Apple Watch, so that'll make your decision for you, too.

But if you have an iPhone and can afford the Apple Watch, get the Apple Watch. It's more capable overall, and does most of what the Move does, only better. Get the Apple Watch. Yes, you have to charge it. Yes, you have to wait half a second for the display to come on so you can tell time. It's just a much more capable device in every capacity. It goes well beyond fitness. It works with third-party apps, lets you store music, podcasts, and other audio, and connects to headphones! So, you can go workout and listen to music using only your watch and leave your iPhone behind.

Sure, maybe you don't actually want a device that's constant vibrating your wrist with notifications, but at least you have an option for them, and can turn them off as you'd like.

Nike is one of the two big brands Apple has partnered with for the Watch, the other being Hermes. Yeah, talk about your opposite ends of the spectrum. I'll have a fashionable Hermes stainless steel and leather review up for you soon but right now I want to get some fitness on with the aluminum and polyelastomer Nike+.

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See at Apple

Apple Watch Series 4 builds on everything Apple's been engineering since the original in 2015. This review focuses on the new. For everything else, please see the previous reviews:

• Apple Watch Series 4 (2018) Review
• Apple Watch Series 4 (2018) Review: Two weeks later

Design

Apple Watch Nike+ has always been a variant of what Apple used to call the Sport and now simply classifies as the aluminum watch. It comes in silver or space gray — because ain't no Nike+ got time for new gold! — with ion-exchange glass on the front and the new sapphire and black ceramic back.

But under that Ion-X glass is the new 40mm or 44mm edge-to-curved-edge display. It's one of the biggest new features of the Series 4 and Nike+ carries it off with volt-green style.

Or, if that isn't your thing, you can customize the color to white, white volt, celestial teal, smokey mauve, olive flak, cargo khaki, obsidian indigo, anthracite gray, wolf gray, light silver, particle beige, light bone, terra blush, total orange, bright crimson, barely rose, light violate, violet dust, indigo, blue orbit, or aurora green.

Analog has 12 dots, 4 numbers and 8 dots, 6 numbers and 6 dots, 4 big numbers, or 4 big numbers inverted. If you go for inverted, though — aka full screen — you don't get the additional top corner and bottom row complications.

Digital has filled, half-filled, half-outline, and all outline, and you get two side and one bottom complication for all of them.

Both have a permanent Nike Run Club complication, no extra charge… but also no change.

Like all the Series 4, it's slightly bigger but thinner and flatter, so it sits better on the wrist, even and especially during workouts when you want those now-clustered-in-the-middle optical heart rate sensors to maintain the best contact possible.

And because aluminum is still lighter than steel, the Nike+ goes from being less noticeable to barely there.

You can get it paired with a Nike Sport band in pure platinum/black or Anthracite/Black, or with new Nike Black or Summer White Sport Loops that are reflective to help you stand out when you're walking, running, or otherwise be more visible for those between sunset and sunrise street sessions.

In other words — far fewer words — it looks like it works: absolutely badass.

Workouts

watchOS 5 is watchOS 5 and runs on every Apple Watch from Series 1 to Series 4. Only the original Series 0 is left out. RIP. But since I haven't really covered all the new fitness features, I'm going to do it here and now, with the new Nike+.

Now, I've always liked the coaching aspect of Apple Watch — the part that tells you to stand up, get out, and get moving. To close your rings. And it just keeps learning and getting smarter. But I've always been more extrinsically motivated than intrinsically. That's why I liked activity sharing in the past and why I love activity competitions now.

You can challenge a friend from the Activity app or right from a notification, and then you have a week to beat them. And by beat them I mean either persevere to exceed their attainments in the most sport-like manner possible… crush them, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of their rings.

You know, whatever motivates you best.

And, pro tip, instead of just sending burger and fry emoji reactions to their fitness achievements, like I've been doing for years, you can now trash talk live using Walkie Talking.

Just tap the button and say "Keeping up old man, or did I lose you?"

You can also set yourself to unavailable during a workout to prevent just such interruptions.

And it'll have the added benefit of turning off that bright yellow notification you get every time you turn your wrist — you know, the one that's meant to remind you when you are available for Walkie Talkie and can be interrupted.

Yeah, that one.

One of the things that'll help you win is automatic workout detection. I've mentioned it before so I'll keep this brief. Basically, if you start running without starting a workout, your watch will prompt you to start it and give you credit for what you've racked up so far.

Likewise, if you hit the Gatorade before you hit the stop button, it'll prompt you to stop so you don't trash your stats with your stationaries.

There are also new hiking and yoga workouts. Nothing for Taiji or Qigong yet, so more downward dog, less swimming dragon.

If you're a runner, you can now choose a target pace and get an alert if you get ahead of or fall behind yourself. There's also a rolling mile or click, so you can tell just how fast you ran the last stretch, and cadence, so you can glance at your current steps per minute.

And, of course, there's an updated Nike Run Club app and all-new Nike Training Club app, If you use and like them, you can now get a new audio guided run every week, a new custom cheer, and the much wider variety of 180 free workouts, including strength, endurance, mobility, and flexibility.

If you're working out because you're worried about your heart, there's still low heart rate warmings and new high heart rate warnings, and coming soon, irregular heart rate warnings and even an ECG-app for a single-pad equivalent electrocardiogram, right on your wrist.

There's also fall detection, which is only on by default for people who've entered an age over 65 in the health app, but which anyone can toggle on.

And I've taken enough dumb spills and falls off bikes and while hiking to fear and appreciate the dangers of being injured and alone. Getting an alert to call emergency services and notify your emergency contact, and having it done automatically if you don't get up and start moving after a minute could literally be a life-saver.

It's why I've already bought almost everyone in my family a series 4 and not even bothered to wait for the holidays.

Conclusion

I've been wearing one for almost a month now and, yeah, sure, it's still not perfect. Even the cellular version still can't roam internationally, and those terrific new reflective Sport Loops aren't sold separately. At least not yet. And, yeah, Messages and Mail complications, always on watch faces, sleep tracking, and everything else I've complained about over the course of the last few videos. All of that and more.

But, year after year, Apple Watch in general and Nike+ in particular and feeling better rounded out but also more focused.

Series 4 as a leap forward in terms of design and performance -rumor has it you have full-blown Apple efficiency cores in them now — and the Nike+ version really brings that to bear on perhaps the most popular aspect of the watch: It's health and fitness features.

A month later and I'm still sticking to my original opinion: If you don't have an Apple Watch you should get one because it's the only real device on the market that saves lives, now in more ways than ever before.

But if you're interested not just in that you live, but how you live, and fitness is a key part of that for you, then you should get the Apple Watch Nike+ Series 4.

I like to listen to podcasts while I hike, so I'm super happy Apple Podcasts is finally on the watch, as is a watch OS 5-powered Overcast, and hopefully more to come.

My point is, because Nike+ is an Apple Watch, it can do everything an Apple Watch can do as well, including all the notifications, remote control, Apple Pay, and even the just-launched Student ID cards which, I hope, will eventually let all of us buzz ourselves into everywhere.

That's why I think, if you want an Apple Watch Series 4, want aluminum but not Gold, you might as well go for the Nike+. It has everything the base model has, just with some extra cool extra watch faces, bands, and Nike apps.

See at Apple

While testing the Apple Watch Series 3 GPS + Cellular last night, I floated a crazy idea past iMore editor-at-large Rene Ritchie: What happens if you set up the Apple Watch on an iPhone, then swap that iPhone's SIM card over into an Android phone? Would the watch recognize that its paired iPhone SIM was no longer in an iPhone and stop working? Would it still work over a carrier's LTE connection? And more importantly: If it worked, what could it do?

Well, because we embrace insanity here at iMore, we tried it. And, barring a bit of hacky behavior, it works.

I'm going to preface this write-up by saying that I personally think this is a terrible way to use the Apple Watch. Your battery life will most certainly be nonexistent because the watch solely relies on an LTE connection. You won't be able to get any fitness data on your Android smartphone. And you likely won't be able to access certain features like calling internationally or sending and receive SMS messages from your watch.

How we did it

I used my iPhone 8 Plus on AT&T and an LTE Apple Watch Series 3, along with a loaner Galaxy S8 Active from Michael Fisher (of Mr. Mobile fame).

After setting the Apple Watch up, we swapped my iPhone 8 Plus's SIM card into the Galaxy S8 Active and isolated the iPhone 8 Plus in Airplane mode so that there was no possible way for the Apple Watch to connect to the iPhone or remembered Wi-Fi networks.

I accidentally crashed the Galaxy S8 Active the first time I held it because I apparently have that talent with Android phones; after that initial amusement, it took the Android device a few minutes to reboot and connect to AT&T. During that time, my watch showed a depressed "Disconnected," though it did attempt to connect to the (limited) cellular network inside our hotel in NYC.

Once the S8 Active was connected, I went outside (to find a stronger cellular signal) with only my watch. To kickstart it, I swapped the watch into Airplane mode, then back out of it. Then I asked Siri to call my mother. It took Siri a few seconds longer than it has over past Series 3 queries, but Apple's assistant delivered — and a few minutes later, I was talking to my very-confused mum about technology testing.

We didn't stop there, however. Fisher and I then went up to our hotel's rooftop terrace and placed another call (to him), asked Siri a few queries, and checked for directions on the watch. We also sent an iMessage (!) to Rene, which delivered successfully even through cellular; it appears the watch has its own iMessage handshake protocol separate from iPhone when on cellular — even if your original phone SIM is living in an Android device.

I also had Fisher place an inbound call to me from his iPhone 7. The call displayed on both the Apple Watch and the Galaxy S8 Active; I then picked it up on the watch and we proceeded to talk for a short period of time.

Wacky.

Who might actually want to use this

If I had to recommend this workaround to anyone, it would be families who have both an iPhone and an Android device — those who prefer Android in their pocket but want an Apple Watch on their wrist, and they have a family member with an accessible iPhone where they can still sync fitness data, iCloud calendars, and change settings.

Yes, you could use some random friend's iPhone to set up your watch, but it's a terrible idea from a security standpoint. Honestly, it's just a terrible idea, period. Don't do this.

Even if you do have a multi-device household, it's far from an ideal solution: Your watch's battery life is going to be awful from it needing to constantly try and look for LTE, and you'll be missing out on a lot of key features available to watch and iPhone users. Also worth considering: This "option" might disappear at any time with a software update or a carrier settings change.

What you need

If you are absolutely sure you want to do this, here's what you need to get started.

• An unlocked iPhone 6 or later
• A factory-default Apple Watch Series 3 GPS + Cellular watch or newer
• An unlocked Android smartphone with a microSIM card slot
• A cellular network that supports Apple Watch Series 3 GPS + Cellular or newer models
• A SIM removal tool

How to make your Apple Watch work with an Android smartphone

1. Remove the SIM card from both your iPhone and your Android phone.
2. Insert your Android phone's SIM card into the iPhone.
3. Once your data connection enables, open the Watch app on the iPhone.
4. Set up your watch, and add it to your carrier's cellular network.
5. Finish setting up the Apple Watch.
6. Switch the SIM card from the iPhone to your Android phone.
7. Toggle Airplane mode on and off on the Apple Watch to make sure it connects to its cellular network.

8. Use your Apple Watch alongside your Android smartphone.

If you want to change your settings or sync your Apple Watch, you'll have to repeat steps 1-3 then adjust accordingly from the Watch app.

What do you think?

Would you try this insanity to get a little slice of Apple on your wrist even without an iPhone in your pocket? Let us know in the comments.

Originally written September 2017. Serenity Caldwell contributed to an earlier version of this guide.

I've now been wearing and using Apple Watch Series 4 for about 2 weeks, since just after the September 12 event at the Steve Jobs theater. I did my initial, deep dive review after a week of fairly frenzied testing. I'm revisiting it now after a second week of somewhat more typical usage — travel, transactions, tracking workouts and tasks, keeping up to speed with my life and staying connected.

So, let's take a second look.

1. Gold is the new ceramic

I spent most of the last two weeks on a 44mm space gray Apple Watch Series 4. I've used the Sport, as they were previously known, and the Nike+, off an on since Series 0 and I've always liked them. They've always had the best price and the best taptic performance.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoPwsx4AYDF/?taken-by=reneritchie

But I also love watches and that means loving materials so I've spent as much time, if not more, on the stainless steels and, more recently, the ceramic editions. But this year, absent editions, it's all about the new gold.

Now, this gold isn't the same as the aJust from everything I need to clean it now so maybe I'll do that afteroriginal gold. That was 18K yellow or rose. I never got into those. I get why Apple made them — it got them into fashion and watch-world conversations, and gained the mind-share no aluminum or steel casing ever would have. But they were ultimately so expensive and so niche that I also get why they almost immediately stopped. Impact, achieved.

When I first saw the new gold, I wasn't sure it'd be for me. I liked it but I wasn't sure I could pull it off. Now, after wearing it for a few days, I love it, and I think almost anyone could pull it off.

It's not yellow, it's not rose. It's deeper, with a finish that varies between blush and bronze depending on the light. The gold Milanese band is absolutely terrific, just as you'd expect. But it also looks great with various white, off-white, black, and off-black bands as well.

I also agree with John Gruber: The taptics on the steel this year feel better than ever, maybe even on par with the previously best-in-class aluminum.

If you really want to push steel into the more traditional edition price range, you can pair it with some of the Hermes bands. Yeah, the lugs are going the clash, just as they have since launch, but if that doesn't make your eyes bleed, a lot of the combos look terrific, especially the deep blues and blacks. Though, yeah, I'm waiting to try it with the new Indigo and Orange.

But here's the thing: You don't have to spend anywhere nearly that much. The gold steel looks phenomenal all on its own. And, yeah, if you don't care about sapphire screens and PVD protection, you can get the gold aluminum and it looks every bit as terrific this year.

2. When you move it moves

It took me a little while to figure this out but Apple has been tweaking the algorithm it uses to detect and credit you for the Move Ring.

See, here's the thing: I'm a fidgeter. I'm a fidget her. Whether I'm standing or sitting, I'm never static. At my standing desk, or just standing around, I'm constantly shifting weight and position, and even when I'm sitting it's the opposite of still. It got me in a lot of trouble in school but now it's getting me credit where credit's due for Activity.

You can't fidget your way into filling the Move Ring, of course, but it does help round out your results. So, if you, like me, have been noticing a little more red a lit more quickly, that's the reason why.

Also terrific is the auto-start and stop workouts. Previously, I'd forget to start or stop them all the damn time, and that meant I missed out on credit or got credit for such minimal amounts of activity my friends would see the sharing alert, shake their heads, and immediately send me back trash talk, sleepy head emoji, a pizza slice… you know, punishment for my lack of attention.

But now, when I head out without starting a workout, I get a tap and a gentle reminder to start the clock. confirm it, and it back-fills the credit to pretty much when I started. Same when I get back and head for water before I close out the workout. Gentle reminder to stop the clock.

I've needed to use it more than I'm comfortable to admit — luckily no brain gym tracking yet or I'd be nowhere near getting that award! — and it's made a huge difference.

Speaking of awards, there's a bug in the current version of watchOS that's causing a few of the special occasion awards not to show up. Apple's aware of it and working on a fix. So don't worry, they're not gone for good.

Overall, I both love and hate that my watch is now smarter than me.

3. It's complicated

When I first saw the new Infograph watch face I wasn't sure if it would be super-complicated in the best way or just over complicated in the worst. Turns out, I really like it. It's become a digital dash board for my day. I prefer the amount of complications on the analog Infograph but the glanceablity of the modular infograph, so I bounce between them a lot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BoFRebMAd5P/?taken-by=reneritchie

I really wish there was an option for seconds on the modular like there is on the Activity Face. Sometimes I just really need precise time. I also wish Apple hadn't eradicated Time Travel from every face that isn't Solar. It renders the digital crown kind of useless on the default screen when, in a perfect world, spinning it would march the Calendar complication, if present, backwards or forwards through your day, so you could access your digitally assisted memory without having to tap through. I know it's tricky to figure out what should time travel and confusing for people who hit it by accident, but the off-by-default-there-if-you-want-it settings in watchOS 4 really felt like the best of all worlds.

I also miss not having the Messages or Mail complications available on Infograph. I get that they're still the old, simple versions and not the fancy new informationally dense hotness, but seeing if you had messages without having to pull down Notification Center, and being able to go to them in a tap, was super convenient.

I'm currently using a work-around in the form of a frequent contact Infograph face, which solves the easy access part if not the glanceable new messages part. So, here's hoping Apple has some hot, informationally dense, new versions of Messages and Mail coming to Infograph in the near future.

4. Connections are hard

You know the old joke about a couple or family sitting in the same room but, instead of talking to each other, they're using the World of Warcraft or whatever in-game chat to communicate? Well, the new walkie-talkie feature in watchOS 5 is the opposite of that.

First, because you'll get wicked feedback if you try to use it while lounging on the same sofa, but more importantly, because it brings voice back to IM and in a way that's much more immediate than volleying pre-recordings back and forth.

Yeah, it's push to talk like your grandparents NexTel, but it's also a great way to send a quick but important message to a friend or family member without having to shout across rooms, up or down flights of stairs, or, impossibly, out windows, down streets, and across towns.

That's the only thing restraining my use right now. It can take some time to connect if you haven't used it very recently, and if it doesn't connect, it's impossible to tell why. Network error? Do not disturb or not online on the other end? Being able to yell out someone's watch is a lot of power to have as well, so I'm also kinda cautious about using and potentially abusing it.

When Walkie Talkie works, though, it's magic. And I kinda want to try it out at the Magic Kingdom…

Same with raise-to-siri. It ignores me just often enough that I've gone back to saying Heeeeeeey, which feels so watchOS 4.

To be continued...

While it still can't replace my iPhone, increasingly Apple Watch is replacing more and more of the brief, repetitive, but important tasks that were previously the exclusive domain of my iPhone. Checking the time, glancing at my next appointment or reminder, bossing around HomeKit or tapping to pay pretty much everywhere.

iPhone is still the most critical device in my life but Apple Watch is the one I now feel the deepest personal connection to. It's the one I feel naked when I'm not wearing, and the one I hesitate the most to trusting with the new betas every summer.

Apple Watch Series 4 has been likened to iPhone 4 in terms of the revelation of its redesign. Interestingly, that was also the last tethered version of the iPhone before iOS 5 took it to the iCloud. watchOS 5 is still further away, but looking at everything it can do, I can start to see that future.

It's already the closest thing we have to external cybernetics. A connected little artificially intelligent module on our wrist that securely, privately, learns all it can about us so it can help us be and become the best us.

I'll update again after a month or so. Meanwhile, let me know — how's Apple Watch Series 4 working for you?

Apple Watch is the most important product Apple has ever made. That's not hyperbole. It's certainly not fan-service. And you'd have to be literally the worst, burned-out, buzzed-up back-pager with an XS Max-sized stick up the apps to even consider calling it bull$#!+.

Because Apple Watch saves lives. And it does it over and over again.

By staying connected to you and keeping you connected, even in times of crisis and emergency; by encouraging you to stay active, regularly, reliably, quantifiable; and by alerting you to potentially life-threatening conditions and situations before they threaten your life, Apple Watch has been consistently, repeatedly, legitimately saving lives.

Now, sure, phones save lives. Tablets. PCs. Helicopters. Ultrasounds. A lot of technology, old and new, medical and general saves live. Absolutely. But Apple Watch is uniquely positioned, literally, to do so in dedicated and persistent ways.

And, with Series 4, Apple isn't just doubling down — it's tripling up, improving connectivity, activity, and longevity.

There's also a new, bigger, edge-to-edge design as well because, lets face it, if you're going to live longer and healthier, you're going to want to look good and have fun doing it.

Is Apple Watch Series 4 perfect? No, of course not. It's still missing core features like always-on time, sleep tracking, and a way for me to make a damn Super-Man Photo face with enough complications to actually be useful. It also starts at $399 — or $499 if you want it with cellular networking — which is still a good chunk of change for what for most people remains a tertiary computing device at best.

But, is Apple Watch Series good enough that you should seriously consider upgrading or getting in on this whole wrist computer thing for the first time? That's the question that matters, and the one I've spent the last week with a 44mm space gray model figuring out.

Here's the answer.

See at Apple

Apple Watch Series 4 builds on everything Apple's been engineering since the original in 2015. This review focuses on the new. For everything else, please see the previous reviews:

• Apple Watch Series 3 (2017) Review
• Apple Watch Series 2 (2016) Review
• Apple Watch Series 1 (2016) Review
• Apple Watch (2015) Review

Apple Watch Series 4: In Brief

• Bigger screen
• Faster performance
• Built-in EKG (ECG)
• Fall detection
• Longer battery life for workouts

• Android compatibility
• Always-on time
• Custom watch faces
• Week-long battery life

If you don't have an Apple Watch yet, you should get one. And probably this one. Yes, it may seem expensive and extraneous if your already have an iPhone and maybe an iPad and laptop or whatever, but here's the thing: It can save your life in a way none of that other stuff can.

If you already have an Apple Watch, you'll need to consider how useful things like the new display are for your productivity and convenience, and how critical the new ECG and fall detection may prove for your health and welfare. I'd argue for Series 0 and Series 1, it's a no brainer at this point. For Series 2, it's compelling. For Series 3, you have to really want the new capabilities, never mind the new design. (And I do.)

Apple Watch Series 4 Display

Apple likes to talk about closing all the rings but, for the last 4 years, there's been one big, black ring even Apple couldn't close: the bezel around the Apple Watch display.

We've always been at war with bezels — the thick, flat mattes that frame the artwork of the display. They helped house all the vital, internal components but contributed nothing informational to the user. And, for that, they had to die.

Killing them took time and technology. Apple got iPhone X there first, cramming the Plus-sized display into the regular-sized casing. Now, it's doing the same thing with Watch, cramming the 42mm-sized display into the 38mm-sized casing, and an even bigger display into the 42mm-sized casing. 35% and 32% bigger respectively. (A new technology called low-temperature polycrystalline oxide, or LTPO, helps improve power efficiency by letting the refresh rate ramp down for static content like photos.)

It's an end not just to bezels but to compromise. If your eyes previously lusted after the 42mm screen but your wrist demanded the 38mm case, now you can get the new 40mm Watch and have the best of both. If you were good with the old 42mm, now you can be even better with the new 44mm Watch.

Like with iPhone X — sense a pattern here? — Apple is putting all that new display space to good use. The built-in apps and interfaces have been taken edge-to-edge. Text is bigger and easier to read. Buttons are larger and easier to tap.

There are new watch faces to show it off as well, including Fire & Water (not Fire & Ice, sorry), Vapor, and, get this, Liquid Metal. They're sourced from real-world material photography and animated to dance under the display and along its edges. They can go full screen, but then can't hold any complications and so are only really good for tuning out or tech-demo'ing up. They can also be constrained into circles, which don't look as impressive but free up space for a few complications — basically eyes and a smile.

The Breathe face, which comes in classic, calm, or focus flavors, lets you center yourself and restore a state of mindfulness with at the turn of your wrist. The instant accessibility comes at the expense of the full, guided app experience — more of a sip than a savor. But, you can tap on the face to bring up the app whenever you want to go deeper. As far as complications go, you can keep it clean or add the same smiley face layout as the materials faces.

There are still no custom watch faces and the Photos face still lacks enough complications to make it an even a halfway decent workaround. Worse, there's still no always-on time so there's still no way to subtly, considerately check just when exactly it is without twisting your wrist, tapping the display, or otherwise signaling to absolutely anyone and everyone around you that, "You exhaust me, I'm counting the seconds until I can get away from you."

I get that battery budget is still as limited as housing in South Bay, but we're four versions in and, painfully, poetically, Apple Watch's eponymous feature is still the biggest one missing. My kingdom for a screen-saver that's also an ultra low-power time saver.

Where the watch teams hit it out the [Apple] Park is with the new Infographic (analog) and Infographic Modular faces, and their "super-complications". Forget eye-candy, these show what the new edge-to-edge displays can really enable.

I'm calling them "super-complications" because, one, I like the play on watch words, but two, they're not just bigger than the standard complications — they're informational escalations that manage to be denser without sacrificing legibility. Edward Tuft would be so proud.

On Infographic (analog), in addition to the hour, minute, and second hands, you also have room for four wedges in the corners and four circles in the middle. On Infographic Modular, in addition to the hour and minute — frustratingly, there's still no digital second face other than the not-ideal-for-all-occaisions Activity face — you can also fit a small rectangle up top, four circles on the left and along the bottom, and a giant rectangle in the center.

You can fill them with communications apps and contacts, if you're running around playing secret agent. You can fill them with world clocks and trackers if you're traveling. You can fill them with fitness features if you're off to a workout. Or you can mix and match to best suit your average activities.

And they're so informationally rich. For example. in addition to the classic day and date, Calendar curves your next appointment around the top of the dial. Timer shows how much has elapsed and how much remains along the total duration. Weather shows not only the current temperature but where it is relative to the day's high and low. Its not just the position along a curve either — even the color provides additional data, like relative coolness or hotness.

Developers can plug into all the new "super complications" through updates to ClockKit. And that's where the real fun will begin. (Bring it on, CARROT.)

Apple Watch Series 4 Casing

The new design language is, not surprisingly, all curves and iPhone X as well. The result is an Apple Watch casing that's thinner but more spacious, bigger in surface but smaller in volume — you know, that trick Apple's industrial design team just keeps on pulling.

I can't tell if it really feels lighter and flatter on my wrist or if that's just a sensory illusion. The human brain has a nasty habit of obliterating objective measures like millimeters and milligrams for subjective feels like newness and shininess. My cuffs say it doesn't really fit any better under them than the previous models did, but we're getting there.

It comes at a price, though. For everything Apple's giving us with this new design, it's taking something away from the finishes and materials.

First is rose gold. Apple ditched it entirely from iPhone X last year and effectively from iPhone 8 by merging it with the old champagne color to create a new, blushing hybrid. This year, Apple's doing the same thing with Watch. (Pssst: rose gold on the MacBook — you need to run for your anodized life.)

This new, unified gold, to my eyes, is just a shade deeper than blush. It continues Apple's tradition of providing something that looks opulent, even over-the-top, but not chintzy or gaudy. You can get it on the aluminum model, alongside silver and space gray.

Entirely new for this year, you can also get gold on the stainless steel model now as well. It matches the new, steel gold of the new iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, if you want to get your coordination on. You can't anodize steel like you can aluminum, so Apple is using a physical vapor deposition (PVD) process to achieve the gold look. It's similar to what Apple's done with the Space Black Watch since launch. That model uses a diamond-like carbon (DLC) type of PVD, which makes for an incredibly hard, scratch resistant finish. Not all PVD is DLC, but this one is supposed to be just about as tough. And, If PVD isn't your thing, you can also still get the steel watch with its polished silver finish.

The new steel gold comes at a cost as well: Apple made room for it by deleting the ceramics as though they were bezels. That's right: Apple Watch Edition, 2015-2018. RIP.

After launching the original Watch with a 18K yellow and rose gold Editions, Apple right-marketed that down to a single white ceramic Edition for Series 2, then expanded back to a white and a gray ceramic Edition for Series 3. Ceramic is a staple of higher-end watches and I liked it enough to buy it both years it was offered. I'll mourn its loss. Especially because gold is less my thing. Apple knows its numbers best, though, so I imagine steel will have a long reign on top of the materials and price chart.

Hopefully, it'll be successful enough that Apple can afford to start offering or including more than just polished silver lugs in the high-end band boxes...

With Series 3, LTE models were identifiable by a thirsty red punch to the Digital Crown cap. While the look wasn't unheard of in the watch world, it often clashed to the point of being unsightly and was always something you could just never unsee.

On Series 4, the dot is replaced by a slightly less thirsty red ring. LTE iPads seem to survive just fine without red power buttons, so I'm not sure why watch feels the need to be so noisy here. The non-LTE models, by contrast, sport a much classier black ring.

The inside of the Digital Crown has been redesigned as well. Apple increased the number of components inside the mechanism by 21% but decreased the overall size by 30%. That's nerdy information that'll only appeal to people interested in how Apple keeps pumping more battery filling into the casing cake. What'll appeal to everyone is the new haptics. Same as Force Touch and 3D Touch, it uses the fact that our senses are a lie and our fingers are proprioceptive liars to emit vibrations that feel, for all intents and purposes, like precise, incremental clicks.

The is intended to let you scroll the interface without your chubby human finger blocking out the display. Since I'm more of an iPhone person than a Watch person, I've stayed stuck to tapping with my chubby human fingers anyway, except in cases where a list refuses to scroll by any mechanism other than the crown. Then I remember it's there.

The new clicking absolutely feels more precise and more fun to use. It's catchy, if not quite AirPods lid flipping catchy. I'm not sure it's enough to break me of my bad habits just yet, but I'm a huge believer in the future of tactile interface and I very much like where Apple is going here.

The Side button is flush now but still a real button. It doesn't make Series 4 any more water-resistant or "swim-proof" than Series 3 was. That's still the same. But it does make it a little harder to find with just your finger, which might be an accessibility issue. If you're not used to Apple Watch conventions, you'll still be able to tell something is there, it might just take some experimentation or explicit information to help you figure out what it is. If you're at all used to Apple Watch, though, you won't even notice what you're not noticing — you'll just press the side and it'll work, same as ever.

Between the Crown and the Side button is the relocated microphone. Apple says it was moved to reduce echo. Now, I never had a problem with echo on the Series 3, but the Series 4 also has a redesigned speaker system that's much louder than before. And I'm guessing if the mic wasn't moved, yeah, there'd be echo. Because everything from Siri to calls now boom. Like, BOOM.

It does still sound "roomy" on the other end, and it's still clearer next to your mouth than at arms length but, if everything else is quiet, I can make out conversation from a good dozen feet away, and from a device smaller than your average S'more. Which is pretty damn amazing.

On the bottom is the new sensor array. It's all black ceramic and sapphire now, even on the aluminum models. There's a newly unified optical heart sensor array in the middle. It still uses four separate elements, they're just clustered together in the center now instead of being strung around. That spot's been given to the entirely new electrical heart sensor. More on that in a minute.

There's no notch like on iPhone X because there's no front-facing camera module like on iPhone X. (Should there be one? I don't know. Anything but the briefest of FaceTime video calls wouldn't just be power-hungry, it would be tiring.) But the end result is the same: The most impressive hardware package Apple has ever shipped. Again.

Apple Watch Series 4 Sensors

The black ceramic and sapphire crystal back plate on Apple Watch Series 4 doesn't just look better in a Tony Stark Arc Reactor kind of a way, though it certainly does that. It works better as well. Apple added the original, optical heart sensor to the original Watch simply to get accurate calorie counts. It quickly proved to be much more capable than that. Most recently, Apple began using it to detect spikes in heart rate and alert you so you could see your primary care physician for follow up. That saved lives.

With watchOS 5, in addition to elevated heart rates, Apple Watch will also be looking out for slow heart rates as well. You can set your own threshold and, if it registers for more than 10 minutes, you'll be alerted. It's not just the highs and lows, though. watchOS 5 will be paying attention to any irregular rhythm. Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is hard to catch, and Apple Watch won't be able to catch every instance of AFib. But, when and if it does, it'll notify you so you can get to your doctor and get it looked at, stat. It's important enough and novel enough that the United States Food & Drug Administration has granted it "De Novo" — fancy latin for "new" — status. It'll be available to everyone with an Apple Watch Series 1 or later in the U.S., in the Health app, later this year, and hopefully in many other places once other national health regulators approve it.

How Apple unintentionally began a Healthcare revolution

Likewise the new ECG app. ECG and EKG are interchangeable acronyms for electrocardiogram. Unique to Apple Watch Series 4 and it's new electrical heart rate sensor that's split between a ring around the optical sensor on the back and the top of the Digital Crown on the side, it tests and records the timing and strength of your heart beat. Yeah, pure sci-fi.

It's a single pa equivalent test, where most medicals use twelve pads, so the data is limited. It also requires you to have the watch on your wrist and the finger of your other hand on the Digital Crown, completing the circuit, for a full 30 seconds to take a reading. Even then, it'll only generate a PDF report that you can send to your cardiologist.

In other words, it's still extremely limited. But, it can tell if your heart is in sinus rhythm or atrial fibrillation, and can provide critical, long term data as part of your overall medical plan. And again, save lives.

So can the new fall detection, which uses the new accelerometer and gyroscope to determine when you've taken a fall and may require emergency assistance.

The new motion sensors have twice the dynamic range, sample eight times faster, and can measure up to 32 g-forces. That lets them identify the physical characteristics of a fall, slip, or trip, including your arm movement and acceleration and (rapid) deceleration. When you hit the ground, you can immediately tap to call emergency services and alert your emergency contacts. And, critically, if you don't start moving again and get up within a minute, your Apple Watch will make the call for you.

Apple didn't specifically test falls as a result of seizures or violent attacks, which could have very different patterns from slips or trips, but if Apple Watch does detect the fall and, small or isolated movements aside, if you don't get up again, it should still autodial after a minute.

As someone who's had loved-ones lives shattered and even, ultimately, ended all tracing back to a series of falls, I can't tell you how important this single feature is to me. Whether it's for older family members who might take a bone-breaking tumble or friends who insist on mountain biking alone, it's enough to make me want every single one of them to get and wear an Apple Watch Series 4. And enough to make me already order one myself for several of them.

Deepest thanks to everyone on the team who made this feature, version 1.0 as it may still be, a reality.

Apple Watch Series 4 Internals

Every great wrist computer needs, well, a great computer. Apple's been making ultra-small, ultra-efficient systems-in-package (SiP) since the original Watch and this year it's gone to 4. S4. In a year when Qualcomm took the old, already rehashed phone chip it previously shipped for wearables and re-rehashed it again with some new co-processor frosting, Apple pushed its industry-leading silicon another generation forward — again. A year older and two times faster.

(Lest you think that's a good thing for Apple or for us, it's not. Selling silicon is a tough business, but the market needs more and better competition.)

You notice the performance when you do even simple things like swiping between the more-complex-than-ever watch faces, calling up Siri, or blasting through the improved and new communications, health, and fitness features.

Also incremented this year is Apple's W-series wireless chipset. W1 is inside the AirPods. W2, the Apple Watch Series 3. Now, W3 has come to the Apple Watch Series 4. Yeah, it's a lot of not-quite-lined-up numbers, but the important part is this: Bluetooth 5.0 support. It makes everything from setup to sync to transfer faster and more power efficient.

The new black ceramic and sapphire sensor panel on the back is also newly RF-transparent. So, the cellular signal can pass not just through the top, around the display, but through the bottom... at least out of the edges not blocked by our fleshy, water-logged wrists. That makes cellular better, stronger, and more power efficient as well.

Otherwise, the LTE is the same, as is the 802.11b/g/n 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. That's to be expected given the constraints of something the size of Apple Watch. But, I still want more. No, not Android compatibility. That'd just be a short-lived stop-gap for the few people who want the watch but not the phone. Unlike iTunes on Windows, Apple Watch doesn't need to look elsewhere to increase its market. It is the market. It just needs to grow. And that doesn't take more dependences. It takes independence.

iPhone and iPad broke free from the PC and went all-in on iCloud with IOS 5. It'll take Apple Watch a little longer than watchOS 5 to break similarly free from iPhone but, once it does, it won't need anything else. Anything but your login, that is.

Apple Watch Series 4 Bands

Put the hack-saw and glue-gun down and back away from the crafts table: Apple Watch bands remain 100% backwards and forwards compatible. That means, if you already have bands from an older, "smaller" Apple Watch, they'll fit perfectly on the new, "bigger" Apple Watch Series 4, and vice versa. 38mm and 40mm models use the exact same lugs, grooves, and rapid switch systems, as do 42mm and 44mm models.

Good thing too, or I'd still be crumpled up into a little ball on the steps of the Steve Jobs Theater, sobbing into my over-stuffed band box. Especially good, because it looks like some bands have gone the way of the bezel, and the ceramics... and the rose gold. No, not Modern Buckle. That's been given a reprieve, at least as sold separately. Woven nylon and classic buckles, though, are gone. I love the loops — they're like sweat pants for your wrist — but the buckles classed things up so I hope it's not the last we've seen of them.

Unlike previous years, Apple hasn't added any new band styles either. Maybe that's because all the remaining fruit is higher hanging? We'll have to wait and see.

What's left, pre-packaged, are the sport bands and sport loops, in white/seashell, black, or pink sand, and Nike sport bands and Nike sport loops in black/anthracite and summit white/pure platinum, and Milanese, now in silver, space black, and gold. Additional colors, including Nectarine, Hibiscus, Storm, Indigo, Forest, Cape Cod, and Peony, as well as the modern buckle and leather loop are also available post-purchase.

The most interesting are also the most expensive: Hermès single and double tours, rallye and deployment. There are new colors but there are also new multi-colors. And Apple's made those carry through to new Hermès watch faces as well.

All the new Apple Watch bands for Fall 2018

Apple Watch Series 4 ships with watchOS 5. A free software update for Apple Watch, it adds new bits to old atoms going back to the Series 1. That includes auto-start and stop for workouts, pace targets and rolling miles for runners, activity competitions, walkie-talkie, richer notifications, Podcasts support, and more.

I'll do a deeper dive on it once the release version has percolated for a spell and I can try out all the new features with a variety of different people in real world situations. In the meantime, you can check out my former partner in-crimes original preview based on the first beta version back in June.

watchOS 5 preview

Apple Watch **Ecosystem*

Apple products are often called expensive. But Apple's formula is no big mystery: The company sells products at roundly 30% margins, sometimes higher if it can manage it, sometimes lower if it wants to really drive adoption. So, the question becomes, what value do you get for your money?

There's the hardware, software, and services, of course. The hardware remains the best in the business. The software has had some ups and downs but is currently on a strong upward curve. Some of the services are excellent, like Apple News, Apple Music, Messages, and more. Others, like Siri, are still very much a work in progress.

But there's more to it than that. There's Apple Retail, which offers free classes on a wide range of subjects, mostly focused on how you can get more from the products you've bought. There's also AppleCare, which can extend your warranty to three years and provide not just in-store service but online and telephone service as well.

Then there's how Apple Watch works with Apple everything else: How it can unlock your Mac, control your Apple TV, find your iPhone, open and close your HomeKit accessories, and so on. And there's an incredibly wide range of apps and accessories that support Apple Watch, because Apple Watch has provided a consistent, stable platform and target for them to support.

Last Apple earnings call, Tim Cook said he'd seen cases where Apple Watch had driven sales of iPhone. In other words, people wanted Apple Watch so much they were willing to get an iPhone just to make it possible. I believe it.

None of that might make Apple Watch worth it to you, but all of it should be factored into any comparisons with other watches, smart and daft, any decision you ultimately make.

Apple Watch Series 4 Conclusion

If you have an iPhone, you should have an Apple Watch. And you should probably have a Series 4. If you don't have one at all, don't give me any crap about not wanting or needing a watch or a wearable computer. That's what people of a certain age used to say about always connected pocket computers — "phones", whatever — and now we take them totally for granted.

Apple Watch can't replace your iPhone. Not yet. But it can save your life and in ways I desperately hope will soon be taken just as totally for granted.

It lets you have fun. Sure. It keeps you connected. Great. It motivates you to stay active. And you need to. But all the while it's also lying there in wait, ready to spring into action the moment you need it to.

If you're swimming or jogging and don't have your phone but need help or if you're in an accident and your phone was thrown out of reach, Apple Watch can still make the call. If your heart rate is elevated, or slow, or — coming soon — has an irregular rhythm, your Apple Watch can alert you and keep gathering data so you can check with your doctor and make sure they have what they need to get you the help you might need. If you're climbing the stairs or hiking the trail and you fall or slip or trip and literally cannot get back up, Apple Watch can call in your back up.

If that last part isn't as critical to you, you can save some money and get a freshly discounted Apple Watch Series 3 starting at $279 or $379 for cellular. If it is critical, and I'd argue it you should seriously consider it as such, you can get Apple Watch Series 4 starting at $399 or $499 for cellular.

Yes, that may be expensive if you already have a connected computer in your pocket or hand, on your desk and/or on your lap. Even though it has a cool new design, gorgeous edge-to-edge display, and terrific new super-complications. And, yes, becasue it's still missing always-on time and sleep tracking, and the equivalent of an iPhone Upgrade Program.

If you have an older Apple Watch and are thinking about upgrading, consider whether or not LTE, for older models, or the new design and new sensors make it worthwhile to you. I'd argue for Series 0 and Series 1, it's a no brainer at this point. For Series 2, it's compelling. For Series 3, you have to really want that new display, ECG, and fall detection. (And I do.)

If you don't have an Apple Watch yet, you should get one. Not because wearable connected computing is increasingly capable and ultimately inevitable, though it is and it soon will be. But for the reason I stated at the very beginning, and for one that applies right now, today:

It can save your life.

See at Apple

Sitting in the audience at Apple's September 12 event, it became abundantly clear to me Apple Watch Series 4 was the true star of the show. Of course, the new iPhones are stellar too—particularly the colorful XR—but the announcement that most resonated with me was the new Watch.

The fact that I was most excited about a significantly upgraded Apple Watch coming into the event isn't surprising. I have been a diehard fan of the device since its inception in 2015, and have worn one nearly every day since it launched. From getting notifications to paying for coffee and groceries with Apple Pay to tracking my health and fitness, the computer I wear on my wrist every day has made my life better. Obtaining information is more convenient and accessible than ever.

In terms of accessibility, the Series 4 model has incredible potential to enrich the lives of disabled people even further.

The larger screen

The most obvious change to this next generation Apple Watch is its dramatically larger display. I've used the 42mm model since the beginning solely for the bigger screen. Apple says both new sizes, 40mm and 44mm, are 30 percent bigger than their predecessors. After the presentation, I made a beeline in the hands-on area to the Apple Watch table and can confirm the bigger screens are the real deal. The 40mm is close in size to my 42mm Series 3, but the 44mm is what my heart wants. The difference between the two is relatively substantial, and I believe many visually impaired users will love the 44mm.

I plan to upgrade and can't wait to use the bigger screen.

For accessibility, the benefit of a larger display is obvious: it's easier to see content on a larger canvas. For people with low vision, this is especially true. But bigger screens benefit everyone, regardless of their visual acuity—more screen is precisely why the iPhone Plus (now Max) models have proven so immensely popular the last few years. As the adage goes, bigger is better.

One potential downside to the larger display is the increased information density. Apple showed off several new watch faces that are heavy on complications, which isn't bad in and of itself, but there is some cause for concern. For many visually impaired users, too much information on screen can be jarring on the eyes because the interface can feel "cluttered"—that is to say, pinpointing a piece of information like, say, the current temperature can be difficult if there is a multitude of other elements on screen at once. The same principle applies to too much color. For some, too much color can make the screen feel like one washed out rainbow. I have yet to confirm this with Apple, but my assumption is users will be able to customize just how dense they want their face. Maybe there will be a setting to use a monochrome color scheme as well.

Granted, no one is forced to use these info-dense watch faces if they don't care for them, but the point is nonetheless valid. Here's hoping for some level of customization there.

The haptic Digital Crown

The addition of haptic feedback to the Apple Watch's Digital Crown makes a ton of sense. The accessibility gains of haptic are not trivial, and I'm glad to see Apple add it to the crown on the Watch. (Let's hope the Touch Bar on the MacBook Pro is next.) The benefit of haptic feedback in the Digital Crown is simple: Each time you turn it, you feel a subtle "tick" as you move. This is important for a reason.

Haptic feedback on Apple Watch (or any other product, for that matter) is important because it enhances the user experience, quite literally. Having bimodal sensory input, whereby you use multiple senses in manipulating an object, is key for accessibility because of the way it augments a task. In this context, you're no longer just spinning the crown and watching the interface move accordingly. Many people lack the hand-eye coordination necessary to spin the crown until you reach the desired point and stop. With haptic feedback, you can see and feel your way through a menu; that click you feel can act as an additional marker that you're moving and you've reached your endpoint—for example, a particular app in the app switcher.

The point I'm making here is nuanced, but ultimately what I'm saying is haptic feedback enhances user interfaces in such a way that aids many disabled people in navigating their devices. Apple Watch already has an underlying "Taptic Engine," but extending the technology to the primary input mechanism is no small detail. In my brief time with a Series 4 in the hands-on area, I was delighted by the lubriciousness of the crown and especially of the haptic feedback I got with every turn.

The Fall Detection feature

Apple COO Jeff Williams said during the event "we hope you never need to use" Apple Watch's new Fall Detection feature, but the truth is, falls are a reality for many people. I tweeted during the event this feature could be game-changing for many people for whom falling is cause for serious harm—the elderly and even someone who can be unsteady on their feet (like me) immediately came to mind when it was revealed.

Another group of people for whom Fall Detection can be lifesaving are epileptics. My girlfriend's mother has epilepsy, as did my own mother. When my girlfriend's mom found out about Fall Detection, she was over the moon with excitement. She wants a Series 4 as soon as possible, as she thinks having this functionality—along with everything else Apple Watch does—makes more sense for her than a dedicated lifeline device. The fact that watchOS will use the SOS feature to call 911 after a minute of inactivity and notify one's emergency contacts means the Watch is accessible in an entirely different way. No longer do you need a standalone button to get help; it's built into the same watch that you wear every day to tell time and whatnot.

Accessibly for everyone

I always say accessibility touches everything, even the slides at Apple events and to the marketing copy on the company's product pages. Fall Detection for, say, the elderly or someone like my girlfriend's mom takes that idea even further. It really is a de-facto accessibility feature in a very similar vein to how Apple has pitched mainstream iOS 12 features such as Group FaceTime and Siri Shortcuts as having relevance to accessibility. Accessibility truly is for anyone and everyone.