I’m reluctant to wear my Apple Watch in bed because it has a Milanese Loop band, and there’s the whole hair-getting-caught issue with my wife’s hair 
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A detail emerged when I was trying to configure my dream Watch Series 6 today (I’ve never had an Apple Watch and I still don’t know if I can afford one); in the web pages describing the detail, one is warned that “Some straps contain magnets and may cause interference with Compass on Apple Watch”! Is this an admission of a design fault? I called the Apple sales team and they told me that the Sports Band contains a magnet - sad, as it seems one of the more secure strap designs. It seems strange that Apple got all the way to the announcement of the device and then had to warn potential purchasers not to buy some of the offered equipment! I’m still wondering whether to buy one. I need the compass, by the way.
According to the Apple site, newer models of the Sports Band don’t contain magnets:
“ The presence of magnets can affect the accuracy of any compass sensor. Apple’s Leather Link, Leather Loop, Milanese Loop, and earlier Sport Loop watch bands use magnets or magnetic material that might interfere with the Apple Watch compass. The compass isn’t affected by Sport Loop bands introduced in September 2019 or later, or any version of the Sport Band.”
It continues to amaze me that Apple’s phone and Store support staff tends to be even increasingly less knowledgeable than they used to be.
Yes, it is amazing. But if the modern versions of the straps can’t affect the compass, why did Apple put the warning in their sales info? Do they think people will used old straps in their new watches - is this even possible? Really I’m just looking for an old-fashioned watch strap with a simple buckle, but sadly Apple only offer one for the vastly more expensive stainless steel versions of the watch. Decisions, decisions…
Yes, watch straps going back to the original Apple Watch still fit and work with the SE and S6.
I have several straps and I know that the small fastener in the sport band I bought last year and the stainless steel Milanese loop bands affect the compass. The Milanese loop makes sense, as it is fastened with a magnet. The new solo loops and the existing sport loop bands are probably best if you need to use the compass. (I do not ever need it myself.)
Thanks - I hadn’t done the right research, but now I see that people can and will choose old straps on new watches. I just realised that there is an enormous market for Apple Watch straps from other manufacturers, invariably cheaper than Apple’s own, and in a bewildering array of styles. Decisions again! I am now further confused by a completely different issue: I’m stuck (well, perhaps that’s too pejorative a word) in the South of France since going back home to England is not a brilliant idea right now - so according to Apple I would have to buy my watch in France. Sadly the prices are much higher here than in the UK using any realistic exchange rate. So more decisions!
Last year, while my Apple Watch 4 was being replaced (bad pixel), I tried an Apple Watch 5 for a week and discovered a fatal weakness of the compass that has nothing to do the electronics. Namely, in order to get a reasonable readout, you must place your arm parallel to your body which I find to be somewhat unnatural. Normally, to read a watch, you don’t really care about the angle. I found it much easier to properly hold the iPhone and read the compass there.
By the way, my favorite band to use with a gold aluminum watch case is a brown sports loop that was sold with the Apple Watch 2. It brings out the brownish aspect of the gold, rather than the pinkish aspect.
It still seems funny to me. I haven’t worked with the Apple Watch, but I’ve worked with magnetometer sensors in embedded electronics (which can, among other things, be used to implement a compass).
The sensor reports raw magnetic field levels on three axes, usually relative to the plane of whatever circuit board it is attached to. Any application should provide a calibration mechanism so the software can tease out magnetic fields caused by the device itself and subtract them from its readings in order to read the environment. Your iPhone does this - that’s why you sometimes are told to rotate the phone in various patterns so it can discover what parts of the field vary with direction and which parts don’t (and are therefore produce by the device).
It seems to me that a magnet in the band should be something that a calibration procedure should be able to discover and filter out. Is there such a procedure for an Apple Watch?
Regarding holding your arm parallel, this also surprises me. These sensors are usually 3-axis sensors. It should be able to compute a 3D bearing on which direction is North and the software should have a good way to present it. Much like how your phone doesn’t have to be horizontal for its compass to work.
It’s not whether my arm is level or whether the watch is lying on top or rolled toward me or away from me, but rather the angle in the horizontal plane is the problem. When I normally look at my watch, my arm is in some intermediate position between pointing in the direction I am facing or exactly orthogonal to the direction I’m facing. Yet, I will get a true numerical bearing only if I hold the watch exactly orthogonal to my current direction. It’s true that I can eyeball an approximate bearing when my arm is in an intermediate position, but it’s much less tiring just to pull out an independent compass and hold it to get the exact bearing.
FYI for anyone thinking about ordering one of the new bands.
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And Apple has now changed this problematic return policy.
Whenever I tried the nylon sport loop for Apple Watch, it didn’t feel so much as scratchy or rough. Wasn’t comfortable for me, as opposed to smooth Sport loop.
I do still wish watch + band were more lightweight. Ordered Solo Loop with series 6; let’s see what happens.
I wonder if it’s worth upgrading my series 1 Watch to SE. Is there really anything substantially new and useful in my case? Does having built-in GPS make any difference if I always have my iPhone with me on walk workout anyway? And if I always have my iPhone with me is cellular really an extra benefit?
Thanks,
doug
The performance increase between the S1 and the SE is very noticeable, and you will continue to get OS updates for quite a while - the S1 is stuck on watchOS 6. Besides the performance of the watch and the items you list, the differences are better water resistance, a larger and brighter display, fall detection (that can call emergency services or contact emergency contacts if the watch detects that you’ve fallen and you don’t respond to the prompt on the watch), a better speaker and microphone, the compass (I have never used mine on the S5), a better Digital Crown, and - I think - the ability to do “Hey Siri” or Siri commands with raise to talk, with the S1 cannot do (you must press and hold the Digital Crown for Siri). There are also additional workout types, the biggest being swimming workouts, though you would have upgraded before now if you needed that.
I was just trying Siri on my Series 1 the way you said, by holding in the Digital Crown. It worked, but there was no voice reply, just a message on the screen. With the SE would it reply by voice?
I may have turned off sound. I don’t remember. I do remember that when I first got it I couldn’t hear all the alerts (e.g. new message) because… the frequency was too high for my ears! Another friend could hear it just fine. So I turned off all sounds. I think I may have answered the phone with it once though when I was in the kitchen and my iPhone was in the office room.
Swimming might be nice again sometime. I guess I shouldn’t limit myself to walking.
Well, I’ll think about it. First world problem. 
Thanks,
douig
The SE (and all watches since Series 3) can have Siri spoken responses if you want them (there is a setting - always on, headphones only, control with silent mode.)
Yes, it is. 
It will be even better than I experienced going from a Series 2 to a Series 5.
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You devil you. Now I’m leaning towards the upgrade.
I wonder if it’s worth having cellular though. It’s just an extra $3.50/month with my carrier. But I can’t think of when I’ve gone out without my iPhone in my shirt pocket.
doug
Yeah, I like the idea of the Apple Watch having cellular access, but I’m not willing to pay anything for it, since the times when I’d use it are so few and far between.
Tempting. From your article, I think the two main things (besides the fact that my series 1 can no longer be updated) are (1) You said the size difference between 40 mm and 38 mm was actually quite noticeable, in a good way. That might be nice. (2) Faster response. Sometimes the series 1 can have pauses between actions.
Being able to say Hey Siri might turn out to be useful.
For the extra $3.50 a month I’m pondering whether the cellular is worth it or not…
Oh, and I might start going swimming. I used to do that a lot. Not sure of the pool status these days. But I do record all my exercise for calorie syncing.
Fun to think about anyway!