*The Apple Watch celebrates its 10th anniversary, having launched on April 24, 2015.*

Today, the Apple Watch turns 10 years old. What started as a fairly hobbled & niche product has quickly become the #1 selling watch on Earth and part of the third largest revenue category of products Apple currently sells - bigger than the Mac, bigger than the iPad. However, the path to that success hasn't been smooth, requiring the Apple Watch to pivot and remould itself from a fashion and connection device to a health, safety, and convenience device that effortlessly works with Apple's ecosystem.

What follows is me meandering through the past decade of the Apple Watch, covering some of its history, my thoughts, uses, and my impressions on a decade of this unassuming yet increasingly vital product in Apple's lineup.

April 24, 2015

I've owned and worn an Apple Watch since day one & I have the band of untanned wrist skin to prove it. I still remember staying up until 1:00 a.m. on April 10, 2015, trying to secure one as pre-orders went live. True to one rumour at the time, many configurations, especially those with Classic Buckles, Leather Loops, and Link Bracelets, weren't available for launch and were instead slated to ship in late May or June. Luckily, I got my order in within the first few minutes and secured a launch day delivery: a 42mm Stainless Steel Apple Watch with a Milanese Loop.

Fashion First

*Beyoncé posted a photo wearing a never-released gold Link Bracelet ahead of the Apple Watch’s 2015 launch.*

The first Apple Watch launched with a strong focus on fashion. Celebrities wore exclusive gold Link Bracelets promoting the product, the Watch was featured in high-end fashion magazines, and Apple even set up retail spaces in high-end fashion boutiques in cities like Paris, London, and Tokyo to exclusively sell the Apple Watch & attract luxury buyers. The premium 18K gold Apple Watch Edition, priced as high as $17,000, underscored the product's positioning as a luxury accessory rather than merely a tech product.

*Apple $17,000 18K Rose Gold Apple Watch with Modern Buckle. Image Credit: Apple*

This angle never caught on. The pop-up stores began to close just over a year later, and by late 2016, the multi-thousand dollar Gold Apple Watch experiment had ended.

In saying that, Apple has retained its 2016 partnership with Hermès. This French luxury fashion brand still designs premium watch bands on a biannual cycle for the Apple Watch and offers special engraved editions and exclusive watch faces for the Apple Watch. Apple has also experimented with different materials over the years, namely Ceramic & Titanium, reusing the Edition moniker; through these products remained substantially more affordable their their 18K gold predecessors.

A Path Through Fitness

It quickly became evident that the Apple Watch was never destined to be a fashion-first device. Despite the hardware being painfully slow and third-party apps loading off the phone to work, it merited some consideration as a fitness device. Apple introduced a three-ring system for tracking activity, exercise, and stand metrics, which it used to encourage physical activity in the wearers. Apple expanded on this fitness push when it debuted the Apple Watch Series 2 a year later, enhancing its offering by adding GPS & water resistance to the product.

Subsequent generations of the Apple Watch have steadily built on this fitness-focused foundation. In 2017, Apple introduced GymKit, enabling seamless pairing with compatible gym equipment alongside LTE cellular connectivity for greater independence from the iPhone. Over the years, Apple added new workout types, created their Fitness+ service with deep Apple Watch integration, added automatic workout detection, barometric altimeters, running form metrics, and most recently, Effort metrics to measure training and recovery. In 2022, Apple expanded its fitness offerings with the Apple Watch Ultra, a more rugged model marketed for more extreme outdoor use. It featured enhanced GPS accuracy, improved water and dust resistance, extended battery life, and a stronger focus on safety in extreme environments. Whether planned from the start or not, this growing emphasis on fitness ultimately opened the door for Apple to expand its wearables into a new realm: health and safety.

Health & Safety

*From Apple’s September, 2022 event highlighting SOS calling on Apple Watch.*

The only health function the original Apple Watch shipped with was a heart rate monitor, which it marketed more for connection (i.e., texting your heart rate to people) than serving any defined health purpose. However, in 2018, Series 4 introduced an FDA-cleared electrocardiogram (ECG) to the Watch to detect atrial fibrillation and an accelerometer and gyroscope for fall detection. Apple's focus on health & safety resonated with people, with an estimated 4x increase in sales from the original Apple watch released just 4 years earlier. The following year, cycle tracking, monitoring environmental sound levels via the Noise App, and international emergency calling came to the Watch. During this time, Apple began to routinely showcase stories of people whose lives had been saved by having an Apple Watch at the start of their events, a trend that continues to this day.

Then COVID-19 hit, and later that year, in September 2020, Apple serendipitously released a new COVID-19... err... Blood Oxygen (SpO₂) sensor to the Series 6. While Apple never marketed it as a COVID-19 tool, many users saw it as just that. Lower blood oxygen levels were known to be a potential warning sign in some COVID-19 cases, and having a way to monitor this metric on your wrist felt timely, if not essential, during a period when the virus's behaviour was still uncertain. That same year, Apple added sleep tracking & a handwashing timer to enhance its health offerings.

The years since have seen Apple build an expanding Fitness+ offering that pairs with the Watch, add temperature sensors marketed for retrospective ovulation estimates based on biphasic shifts in basal body temperature, crash detection in the Series 8 paired with automatic emergency calling, Sleep Apnea monitoring with watchOS 11, and a new Vitals app to consolidate and simplify all this data into an at-a-glance interface.

A decade on, the Apple Watch has evolved into a powerful health and safety tool, expanding far beyond its original fitness-tracking roots. Rumours continue to circulate about Apple working to add more health sensors to the Apple Watch, potentially some form of glucose and blood pressure monitoring in future models. Ten years ago, I never would have imagined this level of health tracking on a watch, and it's hard to fathom where the Apple Watch might take us in the next decade.

What I love about the Apple Watch from a fitness, health, and safety standpoint is that it's the perfect watch for most. So many features on the Watch invisibly monitor my day-to-day life, offering a reassuring sense of mind, knowing they're always there if I need them. These include emergency calling, fall and crash detection, and heart monitoring. I've also pleaded with my family, who are older and live alone, to consider the Apple Watch for these reasons, given several accidents and medical events in recent years (no luck yet, but I keep trying).

Other features regularly benefit my day to day. I routinely review my sleep tracking to understand what might be impacting me, and I love the gamification of fitness metrics when competing with my spouse about closing our rings and keeping my streak alive. The data and trends help me recognize patterns in my fitness and motivate me (at times) to work harder. And the Fitness+ service, an absolute godsend during COVID-19, continues to be a quick and convenient companion to help break up my day and give me a quick 5-10-20 minute workout when I really don't feel like hauling my ass to the gym.

Design

Although the Apple Watch has seen feature and performance improvements, the body's design has remained largely unchanged over the past decade. It's the same rounded rectangle from a decade ago; now it's just a slightly bigger, more polished, thinner rounded rectangle than it was a decade ago. But that's not a bad thing, and I've routinely been a proponent of keeping the shape intact instead of going to a circular interface aesthetic.

Materially, I am pleased Apple still offers a slightly more premium Apple Watch in Stainless Steel, and new for the 2024/25 season, Titanium. Material options let users choose a preferred look or upgrade to a more durable sapphire display, while the aluminum model, formerly known as the Apple Watch Sport, remains the lighter, more affordable choice. What's unique about the Apple Watch is that it's the first Apple product I can recall where materials, not features, are the primary differentiator; the aluminum models have always offered the same features as their stainless steel, Titanium, ceramic, and 18K gold kin.

*The ceramic Apple Watch Edition - Series 5.*

This is also where I should take a small sidebar and fawn over the Ceramic Apple Watch Edition. First introduced in 2016 alongside the Series 2, and updated alongside the Series 3 & 5, the Ceramic Apple Watch Edition came a pearly white high-gloss zirconia ceramic finish that was incredibly durable and scratch-resistant. With a price of $1,249 (Series 2; Series 3 & 5 starting at $1,299), the Ceramic Apple watch cost nearly 3.5x more than an Apple Watch Sport.

Fortunately, I got my hands on a Series 5 Apple Watch Edition and wore it for five years before retiring it this past fall. Remarkably, it never showed its age and still looks as pristine as the day I unboxed it. It has peak Apple vibes, the pearlescent white finish evoking the charm of early iBooks and iPods. Sadly, Apple has shown no interest beyond its Hermès collaboration in continuing to produce higher-end variations of the Apple Watch. However, in its brief 3-year existence, the ceramic remains one of the most beautiful versions of the Apple watch released in its 10-year history.

The Band Goes On

*According to Bandbreite, Apple has released 846 bands across the past decade.*

New band colours continue to debut twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. At launch, the Apple Watch offered six styles: the Milanese Loop, Link Bracelet, Sport Band, Modern Buckle, Leather Loop, and Classic Buckle. Since then, Apple has both introduced and retired numerous styles. While the Milanese Loop, Link Bracelet, Modern Buckle, and Sport Band remain available, others have come and gone, including the Sport Loop, Woven Nylon, Solo Loop, Braided Solo Loop, Leather Link (now Magnetic Link, following the shift to FineWoven), and four distinct bands for Apple Watch Ultra: the Ocean Band, Alpine Loop, Trail Loop, and a larger Milanese Loop. And that’s not even counting the hundreds of distinctive Hermès bands released over the years.

I'm also thankful that Apple has retained the same clasping mechanism for bands; it's allowed me to continue enjoying ones I bought over a decade ago. That continuity might seem like a small thing, but for someone who’s collected bands over the years, it carries real meaning. I've bought bands for their colour or style, but many carry a sentimental value tied to the purpose and places where I picked them up. I have the band I bought for my wedding day; my Cosmos Blue Classic Buckle reminds me of my 2018 trip to NYC, and my Midnight Sport Band harkens back to my 2021 trip to Amsterdam. I have bands my wife has bought me and bands I purchased to celebrate milestones in life. While I’ve upgraded through several generations of Apple Watch, it’s the bands that have become a wearable archive of memories from the past decade.

*I’ve often picked up a band when travelling abroad as a souvenir of the places I visit. In 2021 while visiting Amsterdam, I picked up the Midnight Sport Band.*

Liberated by Limitation

For me, there was never a clear moment when the Apple Watch shifted from a nice-to-have to a must-have. But if I suddenly couldn't use it, I would strongly miss it. While it remains tethered to the iPhone, the Apple Watch, in many ways, frees me from it. One of the first things I noticed after wearing it was just how much less I reached for my phone. Tasks like setting a timer, checking a message, crossing off a reminder, or, because I’m Canadian, checking the weather, no longer pulled me into a black hole of distractions. Thanks to its limited screen and functionality, the Apple Watch offers a quick, focused, in-and-out interaction. And that’s the beauty of it. It acts as a filter, surfacing only what truly needs my attention and allowing me to stay more present, more mindful, and less consumed by the constant pull of my other devices.

A Day in the Life

If you’re curious, here’s how my Apple Watch fits into a typical day.

Morning:

The Taptic Engine on the Apple Watch wakes me up each morning. I find it to be a much gentler way of getting me out of sleep compared to the jarring jolt a blaring alarm can create.
I check the Sleep & Vitals app to compare how I feel with what the Watch recorded, then dock it to charge while I get ready.
Choosing a band is part of the morning ritual. After a decade of collecting, I enjoy rotating through my collection a few times a week. My wardrobe is pretty neutral, so the band is often where I inject a bit of color or personality.
Hopping into the car, I get a notification on the watch about the estimated commute time. If something feels off (30+ commute), I check to see if an accident has occurred that might be impacting my drive to work and make alternate arrangements.
At work, the Watch doubles as both a timepiece and my schedule. I get a tap 15 minutes before each meeting, and again 15 minutes before it’s time to wrap up. Between appointments, I use the Watch to control music.
I've also gotten into the habit of mood tracking through the Mindfulness App and trying to record my mood at least three times per day on the watch (both when prompted by the watch and randomly).
Some notifications break through, including messages from my wife or if we get delivery at home. Otherwise, I limit all notifications with a custom "Macrodata Refinement" (aka work) focus mode.

Afternoon:

At the gym, I used the Workout app at the gym and try to get a 35-minute workout in before rushing back to the office.
In anticipation of my commute home, I often check the weather to see if there are any severe weather alerts I need to be aware of. We've had several pretty significant weather events in the past number of years, so checking to ensure I won't get caught in a hailstorm has saved my ass in the past. The Weather app also tells me if it'll be warm enough to walk the dog when I get home.
If I stop for gas or to run errands, I use Apple Pay on my Watch nearly every time. At -30°C, taking off gloves to fumble with a phone isn’t happening.
And if I'm stopping to get groceries, the missus and I have a shared list in the Reminders app to know exactly what to pick up.

Evening:

Another workout (a walk with the dog if it's summertime). Even though I have cellular on my Apple Watch, I'm not likely to leave my phone behind and don't tend to load up many music or podcasts on my watch. I rarely go phoneless, but the Watch’s double-tap gesture is handy for one-handed controls when I’m wrangling our four-legged maniac. I also use the Watch to unlock our HomeKit-enabled door on the way out.
A quick glance at the UV index via the Weather widget helps me decide whether sunscreen is necessary.
While prepping supper, the watch now comes into play for setting timers as different things cook.
It's NHL playoff time right now, and I keep Live Activities on for a number of the games to get updates on the scores.
If we're going to an event - a concert or sporting event - all that information is also stored on the watch in the Wallet app.
Finally, as I move through the house, I'll use the Home app to adjust and operate the lights.

Other:

Anytime I'm travelling, having my flight pass in the Wallet app and tracking my flight (or a friend's flight) via Flighty is a must. Flighty gives me all the arrival/departure, layover, baggage, and gate information on my wrist without needing to dig for my iPhone.
In the Wintertime, having my car remote start from the Apple Watch has also been handy.
I am a package tracking fiend, and I have all my packages tracked via Parcel, which I check far too compulsively than I care to admit.
More recently, I've formed the habit of collecting songs while out and about using the Shazam app on the watch. I find I gather a lot more music this way over remembering to pull out my phone and access Shazam that way.
Lastly, at least once per week, I use the Find My iPhone function to figure out where I place my device around the house.

in Sum

*First time putting the Apple Watch on - April 24, 2015.*

10 years later, the Apple Watch is especially interesting because it was the first major new product line launched after Steve Jobs' passing. It represented Apple stepping into uncharted territory without its founder. Initially met with skepticism and awkward marketing as a luxury device, the Apple Watch ultimately found its footing not through opulence but through utility. Its focus on wellness, convenience, and thoughtful integration into the Apple ecosystem reshaped how we interact with technology, and for me, often in quieter, more mindful ways. It's exciting to imagine how this unassuming little device on our wrists will continue to shape how we live, stay healthy, and stay connected in the next decade to come.

Apple Watch Turns 10