You waited. And you tapped your fingers on the desk. And you sat and waited some more, for the UPS person. You stared at your mailbox. And then, after all of that, UPS showed up. And you signed. And then you had that box in your hands. The cardboard box, when opened, gave way to a sweet white box. You opened it by pulling the little tag off, and then you pulled the watch out of the box. You tried on the two bands. And you picked the one that fit you the best.
So now what? Turn on the watch by hitting the button on the side and watch that beautiful Apple logo light up the screen. But now you need to pair the watch with your phone for it to be useable. So what to do? Well, first of all, make sure your phone is updated to the latest and greatest version of iOS. From there, open the Apple Watch app on the iPhone.
The app will prompt you to start pairing a watch with the phone. You can only pair one watch with an iPhone. Tap the Start Pairing button. When prompted, line up the screen on the watch with the image and the outline.
Wait for the watch to complete pairing and then tap the Set Up Apple Watch button.
You’ll then be prompted for which wrist to put the watch on. I used my dominant wrist, so right.
You’ll then be prompted to accept the Terms and Conditions (aka license agreement) from Apple. Tap Agree.
Tap Agree again.
Next, when prompted for the Apple ID to use, if you’d like to use an Apple ID with the watch, provide the password for that Apple ID using the Enter Password button, or use the Skip This Step option to skip the Apple ID.
At the Location Services screen, tap OK. This is really just informational to let you know that Location Services will be used. It’s kinda’ necessary to use the watch properly.
At the Siri screen, again, you’re informed that Siri will be used. Tap OK.
At the Diagnostics screen, same thing. You’re informed that diagnostics will be supplied to Apple. Tap OK.
At the Apple Watch Passcode screen, choose whether you’d like to use a passcode on the watch. I’m not a fan of using a passcode on the watch; however, you will have to use one if you want to use Apple Pay on the watch. Tap Create a Passcode to set one up now and then provide the passcode you’d like to use.
The Apple Watch will sync apps and show glances from apps that are on the phone. Tap Install All to go ahead and install any Apple Watch apps on the device. You can always turn them off later. Or you can tap Choose Later to go ahead and complete setup and wait until later to set up the watch and finish apps setup later. I’d recommend using Install All and then turn off the ones you don’t want later.
Then the watch will start syncing with your devices. At the Apple Watch Is Syncing screen, wait. Don’t do anything else or get the watch too far from the phone or you’ll have to start over from scratch.
The watch looks like this while it’s syncing.
Once the watch is finished syncing, use the My Watch app to sync apps, show glances, setup Apple Pay and configure which built-in apps are shown on the device.
The next and most important aspect of your new Apple Watch is to use it and love it. Go for a run, sync some apps, enjoy the hell out of your new watch. It’s great. Now, get to it!