I’ve had my Apple Watch for getting near a year now.
Time flies I guess.
I started out using the basic Utility face, with the round clock and simple notifications along the edges. The more I used it, the more I realized I needed different faces for different days. That’s something the Watch lets me do with surprising ease.
The Workday
What I need to know the most is ‘what do I have scheduled next?’ Meetings of course, but I also put appointments and I schedule ‘to do’ slots in there. I need a half day to fix some code? I’ll do block that out.
The complications are the date in the upper left, the calendar in the center, and the bottom row are the weather, my activity, and MacID. The last one is a premium app which lets me lock and unlock my laptop from my watch. Since I leave my laptop open on my desk all the time, I find this helpful for security. Pop off the bathroom, lock the laptop. Come back, tap the watch, unlock.
If you don’t have a watch, they have an iOS app that works too. In fact, the Watch uses the phone app.
The Weekend
I like an analog watch face. It’s my default. This one shows me the time and date with the day, the corners are battery and activity. The bottom is weather in detail. If I tap on the date, I go to my calendar, but most weekends I don’t need to worry about it.
The Traveller
When I travel, I don’t actually need my calendar so much. It’s weird, but since I mostly go to WordCamps or similar conventions, I don’t tend to schedule things past ‘event – 8am to 5pm’ followed by ‘After Party – 6pm to 9pm’ and so on.
That means what I need for my watch is the weather (I’m often in places for the first time). The bottom row is the time at home (so I don’t call my wife at one in the morning), activity, and my flight status. I almost always fly American these days, so I put that complication in.
The Apps
I mentioned MacID already. It’s $3.99 and worth it. I also use Wunderground for my weather, since it has the right kind of alerts. I can see the clouds and the rain and that’s all I want. I use the free version. American Airlines has a free app, and it’s surprisingly good about alerts for gate changes and rescheduled flights. I’m constantly getting updates before gate agents. I also use TripCase since I can track my hotel and event information in it. The bonus there is my wife can check and know where I’m supposed to be, in case she needs to get a hold of me.
What Else
I actually have other faces I use. I have a photo I took in Japan that I like to use with the time, and nothing more, when I have a non-stress, non-fuss day. I have a red-text time only face for when I’m in theaters (red light is less ‘glaring’ than others if I should happen to check the time). But the three I listed above are my regular watch faces. All on one watch.
