Riding time is my time and don’t really want to be bothered, but with a young kid I have to admit I do need to be a bit more reachable. Normally I keep my phone in bag for duration of ride, but thought about an Apple Watch for checking and ignoring texts/calls as appropriate. Would be looking to use Strava on it as well for ride tracking.

How long does the battery last if using GPS and Bluetooth connected to phone? Prefer not to use phone for Strava in case I need to use it.

Appreciate there are other brands available but other devices are Apple which helps with easy connectivity.

Prefer not to use phone for Strava in case I need to use it.

It can just run in the background, so you can still use it. Shouldn’t kill the battery that much.

If it connected to your phone, it uses the phones GPS anyway. You can’t disable this behaviour unless you turn Bluetooth off.

My slow ass marathon running (3hrs:50min) barely gets it (Watch 6 40mm) below 60% listening to audio books the whole time. That’s in cinema mode which is how I tend to use it anyway.

General run time is about 2 days with an hours exercise+audiobook on each of those days. It’ll be on it’s last legs by then.

Mine (series 3, 40mm) does 2 days, with about 1-2 hours of exercise tracking per day. If I did a long ride (9+ hours or something), I might just be able to kill it in a day.

I suspect the wifi+cellular models have worse battery life if they’re connecting to 3G, though.

If it connected to your phone, it uses the phones GPS anyway. You can’t disable this behaviour unless you turn Bluetooth off.

Is that definitely correct? I am slightly dubious because using GPS does destroy the watch battery.

It can just run in the background, so you can still use it. Shouldn’t kill the battery that much.

It really does.

42mm series 3 here. Usually charge it every other night. Usually has an hour of exercise per day (using GPS). I don’t use it for music or audiobooks though.

As an alternative* my (relatively) cheap ass Garmin bike GPS (Edge 25) flashes up text messages on it when I receive them (via Bluetooth linked to iPhone). It also imports rides to Strava automatically.

Also would say people get awfully het up about Apple Watch battery life, but unless you want to use it for sleep tracking, it’s kind of irrelevant. You just bung it on the charger when you take it off at night and never worry about battery life ever.

*not trying to put you off. I also have (and love) an Apple Watch.

Is that definitely correct? I am slightly dubious because using GPS does destroy the watch battery.

yes.

Superficial
Free Member
Mine (series 3, 40mm) does 2 days,

That’s surprising battery life for a Watch3. My old 3 wouldn’t make the day with more than 10% remaining and my Watch4 wouldn’t manage more than 6 hours activity recording before dying. These were comparable to what Apple stated they would be, so it wasn’t a surprise.

Series 3 42mm managed a bit over 6 hours of Strava recording (inc HR, phone in my bag) before dying and I had to do the last bit on my phone. Haven’t been out that long on my series 5 one yet but it seems to do a bit better on battery.

Normal day to day use (including 2-3 hour rides) no problem at all, I charge it while I sleep. If I’m away overnight it’ll get through the next day OK.

My Polar Vantage lasts a week between charges running 24/7, can upload to Strava (via your phone) and can display txts / emails etc.

My Apple 3 is 36 hours really, to include a decent couple of hours on the GPS for a walk. A bit disappointing but it’s been on my wrist for the past two years.

I normally go a couple of days with my Series 3 without charging, but then I rarely use the GPS. Yeah it would be great if the battery lasts a week, but it’s no biggie really especially if you’ve got a charging stand set up on your bedside table or whatever. It’s so much better than anything else, especially if you’ve bought into the whole Apple ecosystem, that the frequent charging is totally worth it IMO.

My series 3 would last about 24hrs so I used to charge it every night. Replaced it with a series 6 and I can get 2 days usually.

I have a 3. Like above comments, you can get comfortably to the end of a day having done an activity like a bike ride after work without worrying about battery. If you just use it as a watch (no GPS/work outs) you can probably get 36 hours of use on your wrist but that’s no fun. Keep in mind that if you ran Strava on the watch it could save your phone battery instead.

As an extreme opposite example, I ran it on a road epic last year. I put strava on at 6am and it ran out of go around 4 in the afternoon.

So for a typical day, I’d say battery is fine, but you’ll be leaving the charger somewhere convenient just like you do a phone charger. The SE is probably better too.

Takes no time to charge anyway