Apple has said that its watchOS 2 for the Apple Watch will be available for every Watch owner from the 16 September 2016. Announced at its September special event, along with the iPhone 6S and the iPad Pro, the new watchOS 2 is designed to make more out of the Watch and makes it more customisable.
First, and in my opinion, most useful feature, is the addition of third-party complications. Complications are the little bits of information that you see on the watch face, such as upcoming calendar appointments. With the original OS, you could only view information from pre-set Apple apps, but watchOS 2 improves things so that you can pull in information from different apps, including news and upcoming flight information. This makes a lot of sense. As useful as the watch face was, the entire point of this kind of product is to make it customisable so that it can show the information that you want to see.
Next, comes another feature that I’m quite excited about: time travel. With the original release of watchOS, you could only view current information, such as the weather now or your next appointment. Now, by twirling the Digital Crown, you can move your Watch backwards and forwards through time, seeing information at different points, such as what the weather will be like later in the day. It means that you don't have to open up other apps to find out information quickly.
There was a relatively limited range of watch faces, but watchOS 2 adds in additional ones, including some that use stunning timelapse photography of big cities, including London, Hong Kong and New York. You can also personalise your Watch further by setting one of your photos (or an album) as a watch face.
Performance has been improved, too, with many apps now running natively on the Watch. It means that they’ll load faster and will be more responsive, rather than having to pull information and load via your iPhone.
One complaint that I had about the Watch was that the Email app was really limited, just letting you view information but not really being able to do anything with it; it was the opposite of the Messages app, where you could respond. With WatchOS 2 that has been fixed and you can now reply to messages, dictating replies via voice. I’ll bring you a full update to my existing Watch review once the update is available.
New Watch models
As well as the new OS, Apple has announced some new models. Rather than updated hardware, the new models give add colour choices into the mix with old and Rose Gold anodised aluminium models joining the existing line-up. New coloured Sports straps give even more choice for colour combinations while the new Hermes tie-in will create two special editions of the Watch with leather bands. The models are available now from the Apple Store.
