Apple Watch Series 5 First Impressions

A look back at my early smartwatch journey—from the Pebble Steel that started it all to my first impressions of the Apple Watch Series 5 and its transformative Always-On display.

Before I begin, I’d like to mention that this is my first blog post, so I’m probably rough around the edges but…we’ll get there. Anyway, here we go. I’ve been an avid smartwatch fan for years. When I first interned at Eligo Energy, my boss happened to be an investor in a company called Pebble Technology Corporation that developed and popularized the first smartwatches (they initially launched on Kickstarter). At the end of my summer, he gifted me a Pebble Steel. It was the very first smartwatch I ever owned, and I was hooked! I no longer had “phantom pocket vibration syndrome” (knew exactly if and when notifications arrived on my phone) and could innocuously check them with a simple raise of a wrist. My high school teachers were totally oblivious.

Fast-forward four years and after many questions about whether the Pebble on my wrist was an Apple Watch, I made the switch to a Series 3. Activity tracking was great. But the real difference was that notifications were more integrated than ever before. I could respond to texts, answer calls, etc on the watch. At this point, Apple Watch was iconic. And with that, there definitely arose that awkward moment when I would be sitting in the front row and just out of curiosity of time, attempt to sneak a peak at the watch only to have the professor glaring at me as if I had just pulled out my phone.

Apple just launched their new Series 5 watch two days ago. Let me just say that the Always-On Display is amazing. With a quick glance, I can glean the time, temperature, etc. I can definitely see it come in handy in meetings and functions that don’t allow for blatantly raising your wrist to look at the time. But other than this, I don’t notice anything extra that the Series 5 does over the Series 3. Sure, there’s the new compass and ECG (which is also a Series 4 features), but I definitely haven’t used them and probably don’t see myself using them anytime soon.

Verdict: I’m loving my Series 5, but if you’ve got the Series 4, you definitely should stick with that. Unless, maybe you work in Sales and you absolutely have to sneak in a glance without your customer noticing. For any watch Series 3 and below, this new one is a nice upgrade!