5 Unique Apple Watch Features That Users Love

The Apple Watch is one of the most interesting devices for iPhone and AirPods users. With this wearable, you can not only wear a smartwatch in style, but also track your workouts, check your notifications at a glance, and get useful information about your vital signs. Whether you’ve just purchased your first Apple Watch, own multiple models, or are considering purchasing one for the first time, it has several unique features that make this device unique and special, like the way it ejects water from the watch, the ability to unlock the Mac, and even offering a live preview of what your iPhone’s camera sees.

What’s more interesting about these features is that they aren’t necessarily tied to a specific software update, meaning users can enjoy these functions on a wide range of Apple Watch models, even those released a few years ago. For almost a decade, Apple’s smartwatch has been my daily companion, and while it has a few issues that annoy me and many other users, it remains the best option.

From tracking my sleep to getting a summary of my day, accompanying me on runs with podcasts or my favorite tunes, the Apple Watch Ultra 2 still has a solid two-day battery, and while it has exclusive perks like the Action Button, all of the unique features mentioned below are available on all options sold by Apple.

All Apple Watch models sold by Apple are water resistant. Although this resistance has improved over the years, one of the coolest features available on Apple’s smartwatch is the Water Lock functionality. When enabled, users can avoid random screen taps while swimming, enjoying a pool, or playing a game at the beach. Basically, the Water Lock blocks the Apple Watch’s display, and while customers can still view current metrics, notifications, etc., it’s not possible to interact with them.

However, once customers press and hold the Digital Crown, they use a sonic ejector with a few tones that can eliminate any water inside the speakers, so they can sound as natural as ever without you having to wait for a long time. More interestingly, customers also automatically activate Water Lock when they start a swimming or scuba diving workout. Once you’re in the water, Apple Watch can also tell you how deep you are and how deep you’ve been underwater.

That said, the Water Lock feature is a nifty way to prevent your screen from going crazy in the water, but also to ensure that you’ll be able to use the Apple Watch speaker as soon as you leave your shower, pool, or beach because it removes all the water inside.

watchOS 10 and later watchOS 11 introduced double-tap and wrist gestures for Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch SE 3, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 or later. With these features, you can control your Apple Watch even if your other hand is busy or you need special accessibility features.

For example, double tapping, which involves pressing your index finger and thumb twice at the same time, allows you to perform everyday actions on Apple Watch. If you receive a notification, double-tap to reply, if it’s a message, or like a post if it’s from a social network. If the app doesn’t give you any custom options, you can simply ignore it. However, if you see the times, in an app or even in the notification center, the watch will scroll down so you can see the Smart Stack, the following lists or even the rest of your notifications.

With a flick of your wrist, you must quickly turn your wrist away from you and turn it around. This is especially useful if you want to ignore a notification, timer, or call. After all, if your hands are full and someone starts messaging you, a timer starts, or you’re getting calls nonstop, having an Apple Watch at that time might seem awful. However, with a quick flick of your wrist, it will almost feel like your Apple Watch never rang.

One of my favorite Apple Watch features is the ability to unlock the Mac with the Apple Watch. This feature has been available for a while, which means that even if you’re using something like macOS Ventura, you can still take advantage of it. By tapping the Apple menu and going to System Settings, you can navigate to Touch ID & Password (or Login Password) and enable the setting to authenticate your Mac with the Apple Watch.

This can be especially useful if your Mac doesn’t have Touch ID, if it does but your fingers are wet, or you just don’t want to reach for the button. Apple says that the first time you sign in after turning on the Mac, restarting it, or logging out, you will still need to enter the password manually. However, since there is no need to turn off your Mac, you can ensure that it is still good to use your Apple Watch to unlock it.

In fact, this other device authentication also works if you want to unlock your Apple Watch when your iPhone is unlocked, and if you’re wearing a mask, you can also change the iPhone settings so that your phone can recognize that you’re wearing a mask and immediately unlock your phone if you have your Apple Watch on your wrist. These unique features significantly improve interoperability between Apple devices and make moving between different products especially easy.

The Apple Watch falls far short of offering all the health metrics available to Garmin users. However, one of the coolest features available to Apple Watch users is the ability to set a pace for your running workouts.

By opening the Workout app on Apple Watch, you can navigate to an indoor or outdoor running workout, tap the upper right corner, and select Pacer. There you can choose how much you want to run in a specific time frame. After you start your workout, Apple Watch will show a bar showing how close (or far) you are to your goal. Apple Watch will display your average pace, your current pace, and the distance you’ve walked so far. It’s a great way to practice sprints, improve your running pace and challenge yourself.

I hope Apple can integrate this feature into Workout Buddy, as it could provide better insight while you run, since this AI-like trainer can mine information from what you’re playing, your health data, and more while training. Once you’ve completed your workout, you can see how well you managed your time, which miles you were faster and slower on, your heart rate rate, and more. Currently, the Apple Health app doesn’t interpret your data, so you still have to rely on a third-party app or AI agents to understand what you’re doing well (or poorly) and how to improve to reach your goal.

Finally, a unique feature of the Apple Watch is to control your iPhone camera from a certain distance using the Apple Watch. You probably realized that once you open your iPhone’s camera, the Apple Watch displays a small camera icon at the bottom of its screen. If you tap here, Apple will start mirroring your iPhone’s camera to the watch.

This feature is very handy if you want to record yourself remotely, take a group photo, and you think it’s not ideal to set a timer on your phone, return to your location and start recording/taking the photo. What’s cool about this integration is that the Apple Watch streams the image live, in a low-latency video preview, right from your wrist. Users can also change a few settings such as using the 3-second timer, switching between front and rear cameras, using the flash, using the Live Photo feature, and even zooming in or out of the photo to make sure everything is framed perfectly.

Personally, I like to use this feature when I need to record a short video for social media or if I’m trying to take a group photo with the iPhone’s main cameras. Another feature that Apple recently added to improve this experience is using the AirPods stem to take photos from the iPhone. These are small but thoughtful features that make the Apple ecosystem more interesting.