With a new software release we usually lose a few models and with watchOS 7 we lose support for the series 2. watchOS 7 supports the 3, 4 and 5 models only.

Expect lots of updates on iOS 12 and watchOS 5 this week on the blog. I’ve just started to test apps that use the Siri watch face so I’ll be reporting in on how they are performing and some of my favourites.

I’ll be upgrading my 2 year old Apple Watch this year I think. Aside from overall slowness I needed to restart it a few times over the last week due to weather complication issues. Note, this is on watchOS 5 so odds are there will be debug code running that will contribute to the slowness.

How’s your startup time?

I’ve been having several issues on watchOS 4, the most annoying being weather not displaying and losing connectivity to my iPhone. It’s gone to Apple for servicing once already so I thought what the heck I’ll install the dev beta.

My initial impressions are good. It hasn’t lost sync and the weather app is working well so far.

I’m noticing a few little tweaks that I’m enjoying in watchOS 5. Timers now rememberers your last few so that you can simply tap on them rather than set a new custom time. Another welcome change is a more detailed weather app. Inheriting some of the changes from iOS in that it now shows wind and air quality.

Performance on my series 2 also feels improved. It’s great to see the same iOS performance ethos coming over to the watch.

I’ve been asking for third party watch faces on watchOS for the last few years and have come to the conclusion we won’t get them - ever.

Apple work closely with brands such as Nike and Disney to create new ones but hasn’t as of yet opened it up wider. Based on this and the lack of focus on allowing developers to build their own I’m sticking my neck out and stating we won’t ever get them.

Apple are very precious about their brand values, I just don’t see them allowing any developer to create something that could potentially tarnish the Apple Watch brand.

The only way I see this happening is with strict controls on reviewing everything. I just don’t see Apple having the staff to do this on top of the already difficult to manage App Store.

I might be being pessimistic here but as with a refresh of Reminders on iOS Apple have disappointed me too much when it comes to my hopes for each WWDC announcement.

I hope I’m proven to be wrong.