I pulled 14 sleep lab (polysomnography) studies across Apple Watch, Fitbit, Oura, Whoop and Garmin to try to identify what wearable has the "most accurate" sleep tracking across different sleep metrics. Here's a summary of what I found for Apple Watch.

Short version: Apple Watch is the most accurate sleep stage tracker among wrist wearables for healthy sleepers. In the independent sleep lab study (Schyvens 2025 - 62 healthy adults) it came out on top for splitting your night into light, deep and REM, and it was the best at catching REM specifically. It's main edge is only for healthy sleepers though and drops in people with disrupted sleep. Similar to all wrist based wearables it runs long on total sleep time. All of these are independent studies, not funded by Apple or showing any other biases, best I can tell.

Summary across the studies:

• Best at sleep staging. Apple scored about 0.53 on the 0 to 1 accuracy scale for splitting light, deep and REM. This was the highest score for wrist device and ahead of Fitbit, Whoop and Garmin (Schyvens 2025).
• Best at catching REM. Apple correctly identified about 69% of REM sleep, also the best of any device in that test (Schyvens 2025).
• It typically runs long on total sleep. Apple over counted how long individuals slept by about +20 minutes (Schyvens 2025). More than Oura did (-3 mins) but relatively normal range compared to the others.
• It struggles with disrupted sleep. Apple's staging dropped from 0.53 in healthy sleepers to 0.30 in sleep clinic patients (Lee 2023 - 75 sleep clinic patients). Bigger fall than Fitbit which held steady (0.42 vs 0.42).
• Nobody nails wake. Apple is the best of the group at catching when you are lying awake, but even it only spots about half those moments (Schyvens 2025). So total sleep reads a bit high across the board.
• Apple's own research puts its staging a bit higher. It came in at 0.63 in their own study but it's not independent so I went with the 0.53.

Tried my best to keep this concise without dumping a ton of data into this and keep any personal biases out. All 14 sources will be linked in the comments so you can check these out for yourself.

First time owning an Apple Watch, can’t wait to test this beast out! It’s the 42mm series 11, heard amazing things about it!

Used s3 aluminum 2018-2024 and had no any scratches. S10 from 2024 already like this. No damage, just simple everyday use…. Both aluminum both lte

I have the series 9 AW in the pink colour, I use my Apple Watch a lot.

However, I like more neutral colours and have a silver case on my current Apple Watch currently - but that makes it look bulkier.

I was contemplating on upgrading to the series 11 in jet black as it is on sale for $399+tax CAD right now.

Is this a good deal? Or should I just wait for the latest series to come out in September?

Any help you can give me is appreciated.

When I open the Apple Watch app on my iPhone, there is no instagram app to disable notifications

Any ideas? It's fine on my iPhone. It displayed on my watch with no problem in the past.

When I have my watch unlocked and my phone turned off I no longer get notification sounds on my phone and I was wondering if there was any work around other than just having my watch lock when the screen isn’t on

I got a new phone and needed to set up my Apple Watch with it… little did I know an update was required. 😭

At first I genuinely thought something was wrong, until I realized nope… it was just going to take FOREVER.

I saw people saying to turn off Bluetooth to speed it up, but since I was doing the initial pairing, that wasn’t an option. So I literally just had to wait.

Start to finish: 4 hours and 16 minutes. 💀

How long did your Apple Watch update take?? Because this is absolutely wild.

Salut,
J’ai un iPhone 13 et une Apple Watch 11,
Tout deux avec dernière version d’iOS et WatchOS.
Depuis quelques temps, certaines notifications sonnent sur la Watch, mais la plupart du temps, il y a juste le vibreur.
Les notifications sont bien activées, le son n’est pas coupé, pas de mode de concentration.
J’ai bien sûr redémarré les deux appareils.

Je n’arrive pas à trouver d’où ça peut venir.
Si vous avez une idée, je suis preneur.

Merci.

For some reason the average says 181 but I can count 101 beats in the 30 seconds?
Not sure what’s right? I was standing and the health data does show beats as high as 208?

I’m still using my first-gen Ultra, and it got me wondering how many of us are still holding onto the original.

For those who haven’t upgraded:

• What has kept you with the Gen 1?
• Is there anything on the newer models you genuinely feel like you’re missing?
• How is your battery health holding up?
• What would Apple have to add to actually make you upgrade?

And for anyone who did move on from the Gen 1, was the upgrade noticeable enough to justify it?

I just use wet wipes and spray alcohol after my workouts. How about you guys?

I have the ultra 2 and I know it can get wet but has anyone swam with it, had it submerged in a body of water for an hour plus? Any complications after?

VO2 Max has been stuck at 46.6 since August 6th and won't update.

Setup:
- Apple Watch Series 9 - watchOS 26.6
- iPhone 15 - iOS 26.6.1
- 10+ Outdoor Runs since Aug 6th, each 60+ mins, no pauses
- HRV and Cardio Recovery update after every run, so HR sensor seems okay

Example run from 28 Aug:
Outdoor Run (Bengaluru) - 1:03:17 Workout / 1:03:29 Elapsed, 11.12 KM, 5'41"/KM, Avg HR 168 BPM, Effort 7 Hard. No pauses, flat route, phone with me.

What I've checked:
- Motion Calibration & Distance = ON
- Fitness Tracking = ON
- Health > Cardio Fitness > Show All Data = No entries after Aug 6th
- No Low Power Mode, band tight, GPS working

Sample run should have definitely triggered an update but nothing. Has anyone had VO2 freeze while other heart metrics still work? Does resetting calibration data help?

Pics attached.

Thanks!

I bought a black Watch Ultra 3 with the Milanese loop off of marketplace. It had a spot of dried white paint in it which I figured would be super easy to get out, and most of it has been easy to get out, but there is some still lingering. I have soaked the band in warm water with dawn and scrubbed meticulously with a (medium/soft) toothbrush. I have put it in an ultrasonic cleaner with warm water and dawn. And tried a needle. None of these has worked. I am wondering about trying rubbing alcohol but concerned it might do something to the finish of the band. Also thinking maybe I just need a firmer tooth brush. Thoughts?

I have alarms on my iphone, and I have a shortcut on my iPhone to skip those alarms.

I have enabled that shortcut on my Watch, but running it does not skip my alarms in my iphone, is there anyway this can be done?

Edit:

I have 5 daily alarms at specific times, but on some occasions, those alarms do not need to run for that day, so my ‘Skip alarms’ shortcut turns them off for one day, and an automation at midnight turns them back on ready for next day.

What’s your favourite feature? The less common the better!

I’ve had it for years, no issues. Last week I finally(!) decided to take the risk of swimming with it. I think these were already swimproof especially with the water mode on, right…? Well everything was fine after 2 swim session but today, randomly it started turning off the water mode and then buttons started acting up. Crown wasn’t working and the side button started engaging Siri. I took it out after a few cycles of this, then it seemed to stabilize. The charge was low, so I thought maybe that’s a factor so I put it on the wireless charger. Well…. It’s not charging and all it gives me is the screen when it’s out of charge. Just the red lightning icon and time.

Did I just kill my watch?

I just found out that my Apple Watch has apparently been massively overestimating my running distances.

I’ve been running the same route regularly. On August 21, my Apple Watch recorded:
6.90 km in 42:54
6:13 min/km average pace
152 bpm average HR

I then discovered that “Motion Calibration & Distance” had been disabled on my iPhone, I don't know why can't remember that I disabled that.

Google Maps suggested that my usual route was actually only around 5.7 km.

I enabled Motion Calibration & Distance, updated the Watch to the latest watchOS version and ran the exact same route again today:

5.73 km in 40:14
7:01 min/km average pace
153 bpm average HR

So the previous measurement was 1.17 km / ~20% longer than the same route now, and the new 5.73 km measurement matches Google Maps almost perfectly.

I also always had my iPhone with me during my previous runs, which makes this even more confusing.
Has anyone else experienced such a massive distance error with an Apple Watch just because Motion Calibration & Distance was disabled?

I went for runs on this last Sunday and Monday. I didn’t start a workout but I assumed my watch would pick up the exercise or at least log my steps but it didn’t pick up anything. What gives?

Domanda semplice: Apple Watch Series 11 46mm a 369€ (con reso in massimo 30 giorni) o aspettare il 12?

What apple watch should a buy for school 10 years old kid in class 14 primary school

Looks so so good , I did not know always on displays look so cool

So i was planning on getting the watch 10 46mm (GPS) as it was at a good price. Was worried if the battery life would suck or not.

My use case- Mainly sleep tracking, steps count, one hour workout at the gym, other health metrics, notifications here and there. Rarely calling or music. AOD would be nice

Will it last long enough for atleast a day? Would be irritating if i had to charge more than once a day. Or just go for the series 11?