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Apple Watch battery life mystery

• Egon Kilin
• September 11th, 2014

Apple has introduced the Apple Watch a couple of days ago, but failed to mention even the smallest detail about battery life, which remains a mystery to this day. Tim Cook has mentioned that one could wear the watch all day, but he didn’t say anything about whether it would be working or not by the end of that wonderful day.

Apple has also displayed the elegant wireless charger of the Apple Watch, but hasn’t said a word about how long it will take to charge the watch and how long that charge will actually last. Battery life on a device that doesn’t work without an expensive iPhone paired to it is one of the most important information I would like to receive if I were to buy the Apple Watch. The lack of comment on the part of Apple on this issue is almost disrespectful.

We’ve heard some people close to the company saying that the Apple Watch battery lasts “about a day”, but how can that be considered a valid answer to such an important question as battery life of a wearable device that is meant to work on battery? While the Apple event turned out to be quite appealing and fun and the Apple Watch does seem like an interesting wearable device, most people were left with a sour taste in their mouths because of the battery issue and it’s understandable.

There is an explanation for why Apple is silent about the issue. Other smartwatches like the Moto 360, LG G Watch R, Asus ZenWatch, Galaxy Gear S, Sony SmartWatch 3 and Sony SmartBand Talk, had their battery types leaked before their launch. Nonetheless, there has been an error on the Moto 360 which revealed a smaller battery than advertised. The Gear S and Gear 2 supposedly last two full days, while the Moto 360 leaves you hanging at the end of the day. Competition. And Android Wear. Those might be the explanation.

Since the Apple Watch runs its own OS, that must require a lot of power since it’s probably an experimental build of the OS. Since it isn’t a big watch, it won’t use a massive amount of power, but to implement Apple Pay, even though you already have it on your iPhone that you still have to carry around for the Apple Watch to work, a sturdy battery is needed since people won’t want to be left unable to pay because their watch has no battery. That’s just a scenario, though, because you still have your phone with you. And your wallet probably.

Apple has probably set the release date to 2015 because there is work to be done on the Apple Watch. It has be able to compete with Android Wear when it comes to OS and it will have to compete with watches that are brilliantly designed and perform just as well. They will also have to impress with battery life, because there are watches out there that last you a full week (Pebble, anyone?). In any case, the Apple Watch still needs FCC authorization and after it receives that, we will probably know more about the technology behind the Apple Watch, battery included.