Apple Watch Series 5 Space Black Stainless Steel Unboxing

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IMG_7367Look! A power brick!

IMG_7369The microfibre watch cover is way better than the paper one in the Series 6.

IMG_7370 The shiny!

IMG_7374Not intending to use the Milanese Loop as it is known to leave permanent scratches on the SBSS DLC coating.

Yes I know. Why will I buy a Series 5 watch when the Series 6 exists?

The End of the Line for the SBSS

The Space Black Stainless Steel(SBSS) Apple Watch is (almost) no more. With Series 6 Apple retired the SBSS from the normal line (only a variant remain for the Hermès Apple Watch) and introduced the Graphite in its place. Personally I much prefer the look of the Graphite, as it shows off the shininess of the stainless steel much better than the SBSS ever could.

Weaker DLC Coating?

There have however been concerns that the Graphite’s Diamond-like Coating (DLC) is not as strong as that of the SBSS. The dlc process coatings carbon on top of the stainless steel to make it resistant against scratches, and it is the carbon that gives the SBSS and the Graphite their black color. The Graphite’s lighter color implies that less carbon has been used in its coating process, and thus the weaker resistant against scratches. Therefore the SBSS is still the choice if you want the strongest protection against scratches.

Is the weaker DLC Coating for the Graphite an Issue?

I do not think it matters. When you buy a Gold or Graphite (or SBSS) stainless steel Apple Watch. if you managed to scratch hard enough the silver underneath will show through the Graphite or Gold coatings, and there is absolutely nothing you can do to fix it. If you have the bare stainless steel you can always polish away the scratches with metal polish. The PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) and DLC (which is a kind of PVD) coatings on the Gold and Graphite (and SBSS) Apple Watches do provide a protection layer against scratches, with the DLC being the better of the two. Nevertheless if you are worried you should either buy the bare stainless steel model, or one of the aluminum ones (so your heart does not bleed everytime you get a scratch unfortunately).

The Stainless Steel Apple Watches are the Ones to Get

That said, since the SBSS may become rare going forward, I decided to purchase one for my collection (at an amazing discount from a land far away, where the sun wakes the earliest) with the help of a great friend. Looking at the watch close makes me appreciate the subtle shininess that is only obvious when you are near to it. The stainless steel Apple watches have always been the better experience, with the added weight on your wrist and the shinier look of the sapphire-infused cover glass. You feel like you are wearing a piece of jewelry and not a cheap tech toy.

Conclusion

I love the SBSS. And all my other Apple Watches. I noticed that the ECG app is on the SBSS. That is not the correct behaviour for a watch originating from Japan. Therefore it will be a mystery for me to solve in a different post. Edit:Solved. iOS 14.2 activated the ECG app in Japan.

Have a Series 0, 1 or 2 Apple Watch and wondering if you can use it on iOS 14? Find out here.

Two months with the Apple Watch

When the watch was first announced to launch in only several countries that excluded Singapore, I was slightly upset but for the first time in many years, I did not feel an absolute need to get the Watch on launch day.

I have owned a Pebble since when they were on Kickstarter, and thanks to the bad customer service and the cheap looking watch body, and the constant need to recharge the watch, I gave up wearing it after a few weeks. I did not know if the Apple Watch will be any different, and the biggest features that was announced like the health related stuff really was not what an obese guy like me wanted in life.

I resigned to my fate and decided to wait for a Singapore launch.

Then somehow I got a chance to purchase some Apple Watches for launch day, and bought a Space Grey Sport and a Apple Watch (Stainless Steel) with Black Sports Band. The Sport I gave to my brother, the nicer one I kept for myself.

And I started wearing the Watch.

At first I would only wear it when I go out of the house, and try to keep the Watch safe if I was going to be in a situation where I would be rough doing work. It was, after all, the first time I own a 800-dollar watch. Then I started wearing it more and more. Even on days when I don’t leave the house. Even when I enter the shower. Sometimes even when I sleep. It just felt natural because the Black Sport Band is so comfortable when you put it on that it hardly feels like a watch on your arm.

It was convenient after all, I could take calls anywhere in the house even when I was away from my iPhone (it works over wifi), I could text friends through dictation, see my emails and decide if they were important or urgent enoguh that I need to get up from the sofa and walk into my room to reply, send my friends stickers over Line, run some Automator-ish workflows from Workflow, and even add reminders to my phone as and when I remember something in any part of my house.

One function that I did not anticipate using much was the heart rate sensor function/Glance. It informed me that I have a high resting heart rate, and I started monitoring my heart rate measurements using the Health app on my iPhone, as the watch will automatically record the measurements and send them to your phone. The Activity Glance, which I did not anticipate that I will even use, turned out to effective enough at forcing me to clear some of the easiest goals set by the app on default, daily.

Notifications. Need I even explain how this can literally be why anyone will purchase a Apple Watch? Fine tuning the kind of notifications you receive on your watch is absolutely necessary, right from the get on. You should only set to receive notifications from important apps and turn off stupid notifications like say, from games or other spammish apps you have on your phone. And it never fails to tap you on your wrist everytime a notification comes in, even if your phone is in your bag, or if you can’t feel the vibration of the phone in your jeans’ pocket.

When you receive a notification, if you mute the watch, no one else will know that a notification came in except for you yourself, for the screen will NOT light up, unless you lift your arm to read the message. Which means that it is not going to affect you in your important meeting when some idiotic friends of yours suddenly started spam messaging you to sob about their sad sad love story. You’ll feel her sadness on your wrist, but no one else will realise that (so long you do not keep lifting your arm to read the messages).

Charging is so simple, you literally just plug in another cable (to a usb charger) next to your iPhone, and when you charge your phone for the night you just charge the watch next to it as well. Battery life does last way more than an average day but unlike the Pebble, there are so many things that you want to do with your watch everyday that charging it daily is not a chore. Not to mention how the shitty charging cable Pebble has keeps falling off the magnetic contacts everytime you lightly touch it – the Apple Watch’s magnetic charging cable fits snugly but does not require much torch to separate it from the watch in the morning.

There are so many things more I can say about this lovely “device” that I put on my wrist everyday – how much easier it is to put on compared to a normal watch band after you get the hang of it, how inconspicuous it is (despite wearing it around for 2 months only three people noticed the watch, and that was because I was playing with it) if you select one with a band that is not the Pink, Blue or Green sport band, so it works well for professional work places as well, etc, etc, etc.

I Will be getting more bands for my Apple watch. Probably the Pink Sport Band since the Sport Bands are so comfortable.

I love my Apple Watch.

Rumored pricing for Apple Watch in Singapore

Apple Watch Sports

38mm – S$478
42mm – S$548

Apple Watch (Stainless Steel)

i. Stainless Steel Case with White/Black Sport Band

38mm – S$758
42mm – S$828

ii. Stainless Steel Case with Milanese Loop/Classic Buckle/Leather Loop (42mm only)

38mm – S$898
42mm – S$968

iii. Stainless Steel Case with Modern Buckle (38mm only)

38mm – S$1038

Update: The rumored prices are off by a margin of around 40SGD.

Apple Watch locally will be available from S$518 for the cheapest 38mm Sport model to S$1,528 for the Apple Watch Space Black Link Bracelet.