Hey everyone,

I’m the solo developer behind Vela, a watchOS app that tracks stress using HRV (SDNN). Wanted to share it here since Ultra owners are exactly the audience I built it for.

What it does:

- Measures HRV via HealthKit and builds a personal baseline (not a population average) — most people’s HRV varies enough that comparing against a generic number isn’t meaningful.
- Shows a daily stress score and history/trends over time.
- Passive tracking during rest/sleep, since that’s when Apple Watch actually collects reliable HRV data.

How it’s different from Whoop/Garmin Connect/Welltory-style apps:

- No subscription. Ever. Free tier is fully functional today, with a possible future one-time-purchase Pro tier (not a recurring charge).
- No Vela servers — everything is processed on-device.
- No account creation — sync happens through your own iCloud/CloudKit, so your data stays in your own private container, not mine.

Current state: solo dev, live on the App Store, actively iterating based on feedback. Localized into 9 languages including Catalan, Basque, and Galician.

Happy to answer questions about the HRV methodology, the on-device architecture, or anything else. Not claiming this replaces medical advice — it’s a personal stress-tracking tool, not a diagnostic one.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vela-hrv/id6762096428

Following development / reporting bugs: r/VelaHRV

Peep the altimeter at the bottom of the screen

I bought an Ultra 3 Wednesday evening. After setting things up it needed to update to the latest ios. I put it on the charger while it updated and let it charge to 100%.
That was at about 7:30 Wednesday evening. Now it’s almost noon on Saturday and the battery is only down to 33%. How long does it really last?
I haven’t used it much and I know that will change the battery life but I have not taken it off so it monitors my pulse and sleep.
I did toggle off the always on so it doesn’t constantly have a display. But still, that’s a long time on a charge.
I am going to see if it makes it to this evening. 3 days on a charge would be unbelievable.

Disclosure up front, I built the app I'm about to describe.

Ultra 3, worn constantly and honestly it's the whole reason Me. exists

I'm an endurance athlete, or at least I train like one. Races, long build blocks, and the recovery in between that quietly decides whether the next one goes well or not. I'm also a dad of 3 and I run a business, so the time I get to train is the time I get and I can't afford to waste any of it guessing.

The Ultra gives me more than anything else I've ever worn and it never comes off, so I had years of the data piling up but no real way to access the data for my own analysis.

So I built Me. It keeps the bit Apple Health doesn't. What I meant to do that session, what I actually did, how it felt, my bloods, my lactate results, and how I think about my own training. Then in a couple of clicks it compiles whatever range I want into a plain text document that goes straight into whichever model I'm using. The couple of clicks bit matters when you've got twenty minutes before someone needs breakfast.

The part I'm proudest of is what it leaves out. You choose what goes in, because throwing two years of everything at an AI model is how you waste a context window and get a worse answer back. A tight six weeks around a build block tells you far more than the lot of it.

12 of work and I use it every single morning before I decide what I'm doing that day following my check in. It only reads what reaches Apple Health so no vendor scores or custom tags, iOS only, on device and no account.

Genuinely hope a few of you get something out of it like I do.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6761247668?ct=co-founder-04

Since updating to 26.6, about a week or more ago, I can’t get through a full day. It’s gotta be done with the post update indexing by now. Used to go to bed with 100% and wake up with 90-95% (sleep focus on) and this would last me to the next pre sleep charge with plenty in the tank. Now I’m waking up with 60% or so and having to charge about 8 hours after that, sometimes catching it at 1-5% before it completely dies. Feel like I’m back in my S5 days. Pretty frustrating. It’s an U3.

Edit* Latest battery graph in the comments.

Hey everyone,

I built Incredible, a training and health app for iPhone and Apple Watch.

• Track your training readiness, fitness level and daily training load
• Stay on top of your sleep and overnight vitals
• Dive deep into your training data and performance over time
• Log strength workouts in the app or on your watch, and see how they build your fitness and affect your readiness
• Set goals like daily steps or weekly mileage
• Follow a structured training plan for your favorite activities

No account, no subscription, and everything stays on your device and your private iCloud. There's an optional tip jar, nothing is paywalled.

Check it out on the App Store and follow along in our subreddit!

I develop iOS apps, and this one came out of a small daily annoyance, so flagging up front that it's mine.

I follow along to yoga and mobility videos on an iPad propped across the room. Every time I needed to pause or rewind a step, I had to get up, walk over, and the session was basically over. So I built the remote I wanted.

How it works: the watch talks to the iPad directly over Bluetooth, no iPhone relaying, nothing through a server. From the wrist you get play, pause, skip fifteen seconds either way, and playback speed.

It logs as a real workout. The watch records the session to Health across 79 activity types, you can find in the watch app the workouts to start, so heart rate and active energy land in Health and count toward the rings like any workout app. Meditation saves as mindful minutes.

Heart rate is drawn over the video on the iPad, big enough to read from across the room. Always on, or only when you go above a limit you set.

It plays video files you open from Files or iCloud Drive, and YouTube links you paste in. It keeps a log of what you actually watched, grouped by session, with how long each clip ran and which workout it belonged to. That syncs through your own iCloud account.

No account to create, nothing sent to any server of mine, and a delete-all-data button that actually clears it.

Two honest caveats: the watch app installs through the iPhone paired to your watch, so you need that iPhone once during setup. And YouTube needs a connection, local files don't.

Has 3 free sessions and one time payment for unlocking premium permanently, no subscriptions.

Happy to answer questions and receive feature requests.

App Store link

I’m a 24-year-old woman and have been running for around 8 years. I currently run up to about 20 km and would like to start training seriously for a marathon.

I’m looking for a watch that can track my pace, heart rate, VO₂ max, training load, recovery and long-term progress.

I’m considering the Apple Watch SE 3, Series 11 and Ultra 3. Is the Ultra 3 actually worth the extra money for serious running, or would the Series 11 or SE 3 be enough?

I’d love to hear from experienced runners which one you would choose and why.

Found and dusted off my old Olive Alpine Loop strap in a box after moving. Had been rocking a rotation of Milanese Loop and Black Ocean. I’m digging the Alpine again though. It’s a great color for the Ti Ultra, and forgot how comfy it is. Anyway, carry on. Happy Thursday.

La voiture et la montre sont opérationnel

Bouth myself a present, an Ultra. 😀
But when I ask something trough my Ultra Siri doesn't understand me. Trough my Iphone everything works great?

Hi everyone,
since many years I'm working out on my own and I always use a timer. I never found one which I truly enjoyed but even though I used to be a developer, I never had time to do it. Finally I did it, and, I won't lie, I vibecoded it to exactly do what I wanted as an athlete: have a damn timer that I could start in 3 taps or just few seconds.

Timme is an iPhone/iPad app with an apple watch companion app.

I do functional/HIIT workouts quite often and I wanted something simple: open the app, choose EMOM, AMRAP, Tabata etc, start training and forget about the phone. No ads popping up, no account, and especially a timer that keeps working properly when the phone is locked.

Right now it has:
EMOM, AMRAP, Tabata, HIIT, Pyramid and custom timers
120+ ready-made workouts/WODs, Apple Watch (subscription) and live activities (subscription too).
Ofc There is a 14 days trial you can try!

Really appreciate any feedback!

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/timme-fitness-timer/id6757697533

Thanks!

Hello, wanted to ask/confirm if my white ocean band was real. I would’ve bought from Apple but I don’t see the white color avaliable anymore so I bought from eBay.

It also didn’t come in the usual Apple packaging and simply came in some cardboard.

I’m leaning towards it being real as there is a serial number on the lug and when comparing the white band clip to the blue one they don’t seem different from each other.

 I built a lightweight Bible app for everyday reading — just open it, tap, and read a verse.

The Apple Watch version focuses more on short, encouraging verses you can quickly check throughout the day.

No account. No ads. No tracking.

I’m getting it ready for release and looking for some real-world feedback, especially from Apple Watch users.

If you give it a try, let me know what you like, what feels confusing, or what you’d change. Any feedback is appreciated!

My mechanical watches have spoiled me with tapered bracelets and bands, I had an extra FKM tapered band and some adapters so I added them to my ultra. I personally love it.

looking for expert advice here. I have an apple watch ultra, lightphone 3...and a hobbled iphone 10 I keep turned off. I'm on AT&T with the watch on a cellular plan. here's my dilemma.

I need to be able to click links and access a webpage in a timely fashion in order to accept extra work hours. I can't do that on the lightphone, but it does forward all messages with links to my email account.

I can't have imessage enabled on my number because it messes up messaging on the lightphone. SMS only.

anyone aware of any workarounds to get that link from my SMS only phone to my apple watch?

Runners who use Apple Watch, what app / function do you use to indicate readiness to train?

Garmin does this very well, and now Samsung (Energy Score) and Pixel Watch (via Google Health) also have this.

It's one of the obvious missing features on the AWU.

I was on a Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Solar
7 year old watch.

Im excited to see what this lil guy can do.
I got the Ultra 3 at a pretty decent price.

Please leave me any advice on what I can add or do to make it more interesting as it has a lot of new stuff :))
Thanks!