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Will you buy the first version of the Apple Watch?

  • Yes

    Votes: 15 20.8%

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    Votes: 57 79.2%
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    72
From the Q&A Support on Apple Watch Series 3 (GPS + LTE):
Apple Support Q&A said:

mactheman
Level 1 (8 points)
Apple Watch
Q:Apple watch series 3 incoming calls on LTE?

I am seeing that when both my Series 3 and iPhone are on LTE (no WiFi or BT) and someone calls me, only my iPhone rings. If I put my iPhone on airplane mode, then the Apple Watch rings. Never both.

Is this the way it is supposed to work?

Everything else is working perfectly. Outgoing calls, messages, email, etc...

Just incoming calls do not go to both devices when both are connected to LTE.

Posted on Oct 4, 2017 9:23 AM
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MoonJ.Oct 5, 2017 12:57 PM in response to mactheman
ph-userappleemployee.png
Community Specialists
Oct 5, 2017 12:57 PM in response to mactheman
Good afternoon mactheman,

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities!

Thanks for your question. The behavior you are experiencing is expected. Incoming calls will go to your iPhone unless it is turned off. If Handoff is enabled, you can send the call from your iPhone to your Apple Watch. But the incoming call will only go to the Apple Watch if the iPhone is turned off or in Airplane mode.

Use Continuity to connect your Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple Watch

Take care.
Click to expand...
 
Scott- I had no problem setting up my watch3 in my Verizon account and got the email explaining that Verizon waved the initial fee and the $10 per month for 3 months. Then told me what the bill will be starting in January. I did it all online logging into my account. No ignorant poorly trained human to deal with!

I tested it immediately by taking a drive away from the house and it worked both ways. I get lots of nuisance calls so it wasn't long before one came through and I answered it, trying to sell me life insurance.

I also had no problem with the known trouble of interfering public wifi as I never used these locally. I have used a couple in hotels as I traveled but nothing locally. But Apple supposedly fixed that with a recent wOS update.

Scott Greczkowski said:
we went down to the parking garage where we were sure he wouldn't be connected to any wifi.
Click to expand...
Is it possible you had low Verizon signal? There is a cell phone signal meter in some of the watch faces you can see how strong the signal is. Your boss should first make sure the latest update is installed, wOS. and then go out where there is strong cell signal, not inside a parking garage. A parking garage is made of high density steel reinforced concrete that can shield radio signals. That shielding is bad for a larger phone antenna on a cell phone and the watch is even smaller antenna.

Also, I read Roland's post and I see when I did my test I had the handoff feature checked on and had the phone in airplane mode so that is probably why it worked for me.
 
Learn something every day! Scott not only is your boss's phone on a business account with Verizon which does not support number sharing with the watch, it appears AT&T has the same issue with their Business accounts.

Some Apple Watch Series 3 Owners Facing LTE Activation Issues [Updated]

Did your boss switch his account to a personal one to do the test in the parking garage? One of these carriers needs to make a move and then the others will follow along. Like the public wifi bug, this oversight will probably get worked out when Apple gets enough complains and returns.


My son-in-law has two iphones as one is a company iphone. His watch is watch0 but he was considering upgrading. My wife had two phones too but back then the company was all Blackberry.
 
B&H has now discounted some Apple watch series 3 non-cellular aluminum models. Rumors are that series 3 non-cellular models are overstocked and not selling as well as the cellular ( LTE ) models. They also have some model 1's and 2's in stock for discounted prices. If you were considering adding an Apple watch this might be a good opportunity.

Currently I am still averaging 72-77 hours of battery life on my 42mm watch3. (100% down to 10%) Because the watch 3 is considerably faster than my original watch0 some apps that were sluggish to non functional now work great. One of these is my Qardio blood pressure cuff and the scales. Before with watch0 it would only be good for display of the data. I had to use the iphone to operate the Blood Pressure cuff and the scales. Now with watch3, both of these operate from the watch and update the database.

My wife still has the watch0 38mm aluminum and is hinting she wants an upgrade. Might be a surprise for her for Christmas. Her watch still goes on the charger every night. Her battery has been consistent at 15-20 hours.
 
Did some reliability testing on the cell calling from the Apple watch3 LTE so I know what to expect from the watch3 if my iphone is not with me.

If making a call while in wifi zone to my home network and during the call traveling beyond the wifi range, the watch will switch to the LTE and about a half second of audio is lost during the switch. You know the switch happened because the LTE signal strength meter shows up above center ( a series of green dots ) of the watch face. However, when on LTE and when I come back into range of my known wifi region, I have lost the call connection and can't call back for a couple minutes. When I was in range the Verizon LTE tower strength was one dot so maybe that had something to do with the delay, but I would expect the wifi to take over. In a second test, I shut off cellular on the watch and the ability to make a wifi phone call was immediately available. I think Apple has some more tweaking to the wOS to get this minor issue fixed perfect.

In order to use LTE connection, you must be out of range of approved wifi connections. The signal meter doesn't even show up while connected to the wifi or your iphone for calling.


For anyone who has a GPS only watch 3, can you make a watch phone call with your iphone in airplane mode but still in wifi range? I can't test this on my LTE version of the watch.
 
Don Landis said:
B&H has now discounted some Apple watch series 3 non-cellular aluminum models. Rumors are that series 3 non-cellular models are overstocked and not selling as well as the cellular ( LTE ) models. They also have some model 1's and 2's in stock for discounted prices. If you were considering adding an Apple watch this might be a good opportunity.

Currently I am still averaging 72-77 hours of battery life on my 42mm watch3. (100% down to 10%) Because the watch 3 is considerably faster than my original watch0 some apps that were sluggish to non functional now work great. One of these is my Qardio blood pressure cuff and the scales. Before with watch0 it would only be good for display of the data. I had to use the iphone to operate the Blood Pressure cuff and the scales. Now with watch3, both of these operate from the watch and update the database.

My wife still has the watch0 38mm aluminum and is hinting she wants an upgrade. Might be a surprise for her for Christmas. Her watch still goes on the charger every night. Her battery has been consistent at 15-20 hours.
Click to expand...


The GPS-only Apple Watch 3 is a great watch. If you can get it at a discount, then score! I have no sense of regret over not getting the Cellular one, and I have saved an extra $10/month to boot.
 
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You're too rough on a watch with glass. Next time spend a little more for the SS model with sapphire crystal face. I've banged mine pretty hard against metal and not a scratch.
 
rockymtnhigh said:
The GPS-only Apple Watch 3 is a great watch. If you can get it at a discount, then score! I have no sense of regret over not getting the Cellular one, and I have saved an extra $10/month to boot.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I agree and I may decide to cancel the Verizon service. Other than testing, experimenting, I haven't really used the watch without my iphone. That makes the self contained phone calling pretty expensive. We'll see when the 90 free days are up. $10 isn't much but it is unnecessary, in my real world use. My iphone case and airpods case is attached to my belt. So if I put on my pants, I have those items on me always. But, I'm certain there will be many who find just the watch a convenience and enjoy leaving the iphone at home.

Speaking of testing, the tests I did yesterday had about 15 minutes of talk time and that appears to have sucked up 1/3 of my battery. This run may get only 50 hours on a charge whereas I normally get 72-77 hours.
 
Don Landis said:
You're too rough on a watch with glass. Next time spend a little more for the SS model with sapphire crystal face. I've banged mine pretty hard against metal and not a scratch.
Click to expand...
Maybe next time, since I have Apple Care just need to pay the $69 charge for it to be repaired/replaced.
 
Don Landis said:
To be honest, I agree and I may decide to cancel the Verizon service. Other than testing, experimenting, I haven't really used the watch without my iphone. That makes the self contained phone calling pretty expensive. We'll see when the 90 free days are up. $10 isn't much but it is unnecessary, in my real world use. My iphone case and airpods case is attached to my belt. So if I put on my pants, I have those items on me always. But, I'm certain there will be many who find just the watch a convenience and enjoy leaving the iphone at home.

Speaking of testing, the tests I did yesterday had about 15 minutes of talk time and that appears to have sucked up 1/3 of my battery. This run may get only 50 hours on a charge whereas I normally get 72-77 hours.
Click to expand...

I could not be happier with the AW3/GPS. Rode 90 minutes on the bike this morning, walked 1.5 miles, the watch is still at 90% of battery. Crazy good. And the HRM was in constant use during both exercises, with the bike one using a third-party app.

For me, my iPhone is with me all the time, no reason to leave it home. Only scenario I could see that valuable, would be at the beach. But hell, that sadly only happens a couple times a year, at best.
 
A lake front is not a beach! Of course if you never saw a real beach, how would you know? 😀

Thanks for your question. The behavior you are experiencing is expected. Incoming calls will go to your iPhone unless it is turned off. If Handoff is enabled, you can send the call from your iPhone to your Apple Watch. But the incoming call will only go to the Apple Watch if the iPhone is turned off or in Airplane mode.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to comment on this- When I ran my tests of the LTE phone calls, I did have my iphone in Airplane mode before I left the house. So it is true that if you want to use the cellular feature for inbound calls, you have to put your iphone in Airplane mode before you leave it behind or the calls will not alert your watch unless you are in BT range. I ran a number of tests on this to see what the limitations were and not be surprised if I decided to use it. When my wife called me from out of town, the call came through just like I was near my iphone. She said the connection was very clear and not able to know I was on the watch. Also, when I spoke, I held my wrist at waist high and talked normally plus I was outside. I did not hold the watch to my face to speak. Plenty of signal to noise delta.
 

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