Apple Watch,  Wearable Technology

Apple Watch and Achievements

As with many a wearable that tracks movement, running and the such, the Apple Watch comes with… Badges. Wait, no, they’re called Trophies. No, crap, sorry, they’re called Achievements. You could just call them gamification incentives. Either way, they’re nice, they’re modern, and to me they’re a little bit more meaningful than some of the others that I’ve seen out there. As with the Fitbit, there aren’t a ton of Achievements to be had (for example, as compared to the Fuelband, which has dozens and dozens of them).

There is a unique twist with the Apple Watch Achievements in that many are deferred until you’ve used the device for a few days, a few workouts or a few weeks. This way, you get a little bit of a baseline before you start breaking your own records. One of the smarter innovations, albeit a minor one – shows how much thought was put into minor details on these devices. Another interesting twist is that it primarily uses active calories, rather than just looking at all calories expended. Another twist I like a lot.

So here’s how they work. Use the Activity app on the watch to track your progress.

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When you hit an achievement, the watch tells you.

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Use the Activity app on your iPhone to see the status of your achievements. Pretty simple.

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Here’s a list of all of them, straight out of the Activity app:

  • First Running Workout: Awarded on your first run using the Workout app on your Apple Watch.
  • Workout Record: Awarded after the 5th calorie-based sessions with the Workout app when you hit a new record.
  • 7-Workout Week: Earned after doing at least 7 fifteen minute workouts in a single week.
  • New Record: Set a new personal record for most calories burned in a day after your first 10 days using the Apple Watch.
  • New Award: Set a new personal record for most exercise in a day after your first 10 days using the Apple Watch.
  • Move Goal 200%: If you double your daily move goal, you get this cool achievement. (awarded once)
  • Move Goal 300%: If you triple your daily move goal, you get this swanky badge, er, I mean achievement. (awarded once)
  • Move Goal 400%: If you quadruple your daily move goal, you get this award and simultaneously prove that your move goal is way too low!
  • New Move Goal: Earn your Move Goal for the first time. The easiest achievement to hit. Just hit your goal once!
  • Perfect Week (Exercise): Hit your exercise goal concurrently, every day from Monday to Sunday.
  • Perfect Week (Stand): By default, your stand goal is to stand for 10 minutes an hour for 12 hours in a day.
  • Perfect Week (Move): Hit that move goal every day from Monday to Sunday.
  • Perfect Week (All Activity): Hit all three goals from Monday to Sunday. And keep in mind. These four goals are not 7 days concurrently, but those 7.
  •  Perfect Month: Hit your goal every day from the 1st through the end of a month. Not 30 concurrent, but every day in a month.
  • Longest Move Streak: Make a new streak for concurrently hitting your move goal.
  • 100 Move Goals: Pretty cool to hit your move goal 100 times!
  • 365 Move Goals: This is similar to the Every Damn Day Trophy with a FuelBand. Except that you don’t have to hit your goal concurrently, just a total of 365 times. But you should totally go for concurrency.
  • 500 Move Goals: You get this bad boy when you hit your move goal total 500 times.
  • 1000 Move Goals: We probably won’t see anyone with this achievement for a long time. But this one means that you have hit your move goal 1000 times. Not concurrently, just total.

I’ll make this into a page accessible in a nav bar, available at here. I also have lists of FitBit and Nike badges, if you’d like to see how the three platforms stack up.