On top of being a watch, emoji-sender, payment system, and heartbeat-sharing device, the Apple Watch has a main function: a fitness tracker. Apple officials gave us a glimpse at how the watch will track a user’s activity, and many people are saying this could be the best health and fitness accessory to hit the market. The wearable device will have its own heart rate monitor and accelerometer, but needs to be linked to an iPhone to use WiFi or the GPS to track your distance traveled. The heart rate monitor and accelerometer will put the watch on par with other tracking devices like those from Garmin, Fitbit, and Jawbone.
The built-in Activity app has three modes: in the Move display it will show how much you’ve moved during the day, shows how many calories you’ve burned, and provides your countdown to your 30-minute goal. The “Stand” mode reminds to you stop sitting for at least one minute every 12 hours, and the “Exercise” mode will track exercise activities like running and climbing stairs.
The separate Workout app will break your workouts into more specific groups like Cross Training, Cycling, and Running. Your workout history and all of your stats are stored in an app called Fitness, which shows a dashboard of all of your workout sessions. Third-party apps will allowed to see your workout stats as long as they require them for use.
