I find it to be convenient, but ultimately I could live without it and I probably would not buy it for the full-price (I was fortunate enough to be able to buy one at a significantly reduced rate, and it was an essential purchase for me at the time).
The main things I use it for are fitness tracking, listening to music, notifications, and setting quick (and relatively discreet) timers. I swim very often (daily, or five times a week) and I find it to be very accurate in tracking my lengths, timing, strokes, and heart rate. I can't comment on the accuracy of the calories burnt indicator, but the others are very accurate in my experience. The 'auto-set' feature is particularly convenient, and I find it always picks up the stroke correctly. One thing I don't like is that I find the health app doesn't make it very easy to track or compare the progress of my swims, but in the activity tracker you can at least get a break-down of times and strokes per length as well as the heart rate for individual workouts. This isn't so much an issue with the Watch itself as it is the health app.
For music, I find it is pretty handy to be able to select tracks from the watch or play music directly from the watch if I don't have my phone nearby (e.g. if I have it charging elsewhere in my home, I'll generally have headphones and my watch on me so I can just play directly from that and let my phone charge). I do have headphones with the W1 chip, so I can't speak for the connection quality on other bluetooth headphones. For me, this is handiest in a situation where my phone's not very accessible, but these occasions are rare enough that it's not really a major 'plus' for me; I carry my phone around often enough (and use wired earphones just because they're cheaper and easier to replace) that its generally just the convenience of being able to select songs or lower the volume from my wrist that gets the most usage.
The feature I use most is, as with others in the thread, the ability to get notifications immediately and quickly check them. While this can be nice, I find that it is also quite distracting. When I'm not using the watch, I don't check for notifications that regularly and it allows me to check them 'in my time' and I feel it puts a bit more distance between social media and myself. When I'm wearing the watch, knowing I've a notification makes me more likely to check what it is (even if that's just glancing at my wrist) and makes me more frequently take away focus from what I'm doing. Obviously it's convenient when the notification is about something important, but I find that's much rarer than a notification that isn't as time-sensitive. This can also be so easily replaced just by the fact that you have a phone which also gets notifications that even though it adds a little convenience I really don't find it that beneficial or that drastic of a change.
Overall, if you'll use the workout features often (if not, I personally would say not to buy it, only because getting notifications immediately generally isn't that big of a deal), and you think you'll really benefit from the convenience of being aware that you have notifications immediately, it might be worth a purchase, but I wouldn't let other features really sway you too much (as nothing else will get used nearly as often as the notifications or fitness tracker) and if you wouldn't use or benefit from either, I would not recommend it for the price.
The main things I use it for are fitness tracking, listening to music, notifications, and setting quick (and relatively discreet) timers. I swim very often (daily, or five times a week) and I find it to be very accurate in tracking my lengths, timing, strokes, and heart rate. I can't comment on the accuracy of the calories burnt indicator, but the others are very accurate in my experience. The 'auto-set' feature is particularly convenient, and I find it always picks up the stroke correctly. One thing I don't like is that I find the health app doesn't make it very easy to track or compare the progress of my swims, but in the activity tracker you can at least get a break-down of times and strokes per length as well as the heart rate for individual workouts. This isn't so much an issue with the Watch itself as it is the health app.
For music, I find it is pretty handy to be able to select tracks from the watch or play music directly from the watch if I don't have my phone nearby (e.g. if I have it charging elsewhere in my home, I'll generally have headphones and my watch on me so I can just play directly from that and let my phone charge). I do have headphones with the W1 chip, so I can't speak for the connection quality on other bluetooth headphones. For me, this is handiest in a situation where my phone's not very accessible, but these occasions are rare enough that it's not really a major 'plus' for me; I carry my phone around often enough (and use wired earphones just because they're cheaper and easier to replace) that its generally just the convenience of being able to select songs or lower the volume from my wrist that gets the most usage.
The feature I use most is, as with others in the thread, the ability to get notifications immediately and quickly check them. While this can be nice, I find that it is also quite distracting. When I'm not using the watch, I don't check for notifications that regularly and it allows me to check them 'in my time' and I feel it puts a bit more distance between social media and myself. When I'm wearing the watch, knowing I've a notification makes me more likely to check what it is (even if that's just glancing at my wrist) and makes me more frequently take away focus from what I'm doing. Obviously it's convenient when the notification is about something important, but I find that's much rarer than a notification that isn't as time-sensitive. This can also be so easily replaced just by the fact that you have a phone which also gets notifications that even though it adds a little convenience I really don't find it that beneficial or that drastic of a change.
Overall, if you'll use the workout features often (if not, I personally would say not to buy it, only because getting notifications immediately generally isn't that big of a deal), and you think you'll really benefit from the convenience of being aware that you have notifications immediately, it might be worth a purchase, but I wouldn't let other features really sway you too much (as nothing else will get used nearly as often as the notifications or fitness tracker) and if you wouldn't use or benefit from either, I would not recommend it for the price.
