The Apple Watch made it’s long awaited début last Friday and unsurprisingly sales are already booming. On launch day an estimated 957,000 Apple Watches were sold, which is almost a third more watches than Android Wear sold in the whole of 2014!
Something else unsurprising about the Apple Watch launch were the day 1 Apple Watch faults which are almost synonymous with new Apple releases. Let’s have a look through some of the issues linked to the most popular smartwatch of all time.
An Apple Watch For Everyone*
*Apart From Those With Tattoos
Apple proudly state that there is an Apple Watch for everyone, unfortunately on day one a few people found that the Apple Watch they’d purchased… wasn’t the Apple Watch for them!
Some people noticed that a few features weren’t working very well, specifically people who had tattoo’s on their wrists. The watch would lock as soon as it was placed on the tattooed skin, didn’t vibrate to signify messages and the heart rate monitor gave strange readings on tattooed skin.
Apple’s website support page states the watch uses green LED lights paired with photodiodes which detect the amount of blood flowing through the wrists to calculate the frequency of heart beats. Apple say that tattoos may block light from the sensor, which is why the watches are returning weird heart rate readings from tattooed wrists. Apple haven’t commented on any of the other issues.
At the minute Apple have no fix for the issue.. other than putting it on a wrist which isn’t tattooed.
If both are tattooed then you might just have to hang on until you get your hands on an Apple Watch… or an Apple Watch on your wrist.
Scratching The Surface
So you’ve splashed out on your new, top of the range Apple Watch. You wear it for a day and absolutely love using it, as you take it off you notice something… scratch after scratch after scratch on the side of the watch.
That’s been the experience of many people who have brought an Apple Watch so far, unfortunately the stainless steel used in the watch isn’t as strong as you would expect. Thankfully, a fix has already been found! All you need is to buy Mag & Aluminium Polish, pop some onto a cloth and rub the cloth over the scratches which will quickly disappear.
Taptic Engine is Amazing… For Some
One feature which was widely praised in early reviews was the taptic engine, which produces the sensation of being tapped on the wrist, and early users have certainly enjoyed using it. Unfortunately, reports state that some of the taptic engines produced so far are faulty and Apple have had to scrap some completed watches as a result of the faults.
Some people have already reported receiving faulty units although Apple have stated there won’t be a recall, as they believe they haven’t shipped any faulty units.
Conclusion
Finding faults on launch day have become as much of a part of Apple launches as queuing for the device itself. In the past we have had all sorts of fun and funky Apple iPhone faults. But, even for Apple, tattoo-related-faults are something unheard of!
Hopefully your watch will avoid the day 1 Apple Watch faults. But if you do find any faults with your new Apple Watch make sure you get in touch with Apple customer support as soon as possible to make sure that it is covered under the warranty.
Images: Shinya Suzuki
