I’ve been a tech journalist and reviewer for about eight years, and during that time I’ve had most Apple Watch models on my wrist at one point or another. I’ve always loved the look of Apple’s wearables and how they’re an extension of the iPhone in every important way, making it easier to sort through notifications, check the weather, control your music, and more.
It’s also the perfect fitness companion since I started using it with the Series 0 back in 2015, but while my current Apple Watch Series 11 is a fantastic device, I’ve been testing alternatives – and there’s one thing many of them do that the Apple Watch doesn’t… until now.
Apple Watch finally has the feature I’d buy a Fitbit for
In case you missed it, Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 will introduce a new Ready feature to watchOS.
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If this sounds familiar, it’s because Google, Fitbit, Garmin, Whoop, and others have been offering a similar feature for years. Google’s Daily Readiness Score acts as a kind of fulcrum between all the metrics it collects, including heart rate, sleep, exercise, rest, and more. It takes all that data and turns it into one, easy-to-analyze number that tells you how prepared your body is for the day ahead.
The idea is that if you had a bad night’s sleep, experienced a lot of stress, or just haven’t moved much, you’ll get a lower score, which suggests you’ll probably want to relax.
On the other hand, if you are well rested and exercise with plenty of energy, you will get a higher score, which will encourage you to keep going.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve begged the Apple Watch, on this very site and elsewhere, to take a leaf out of Fitbit’s book. The best Apple Watch excels at making fitness tracking easy and accessible for everyone, and that seemed like the biggest missing piece of the puzzle after years of very welcome improvements.
How does this work?
Apple has been at pains to highlight that the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 offer the most accurate heart rate detection among wearables (which presumably includes the best smart rings). A big part of this is an update to the core sensor technology that Apple Watch uses: the new hardware checks heart rate readings 60 times more frequently than last year’s models, as well as 24 times more nighttime HRV readings.
With so much more data to work with, Apple’s algorithms and the S11 chip are able to more accurately determine your readiness score. It also links to the Vitals app that comes with watchOS11, making it easier for you to spot patterns and trends in your health data and understand how your body responds to exercise and daily life.
So, do I put my money where my mouth is? It’s hard to say. I upgraded from the original Apple Watch Ultra to the Apple Watch Series 11 last year, and I absolutely love my current wearable. This makes it hard to justify the upgrade, even though I’ve been clamoring for this feature for almost a decade. Perhaps next year…
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