The Series 5 meanwhile has prices starting at £499 for the aluminium model with a 40mm case. That goes up to$499.00

for the 44mm case and the price climbs higher if you go for the stainless steel or the titanium or ceramic models. Start throwing in some fancy straps and you can quickly end up with an aggressively expensive piece of wrist candy.

You can pick the Apple Watch in a 44mm or 40mm case sizing. This is a 44mm. (Metro)

Easily the biggest change for this generation of Apple Watch is the introduction of an always-on display. You no longer have to lift your wrist to wake it up, which can save the wearer a fair amount of effort. Never again will you have to try and surreptitiously lift your wrist during a boring work meeting or dinner event to see how much longer the torment will last. Apple says the Series 5 has the same 18-hour battery life as previous models. It’s unaffected by the always-on display because of the ability to lower the refresh rate. The screen can drop from 60Hz right down to 1Hz, making it power efficient when not in use. Other tricks are employed – such as swapping a white display to a black one or removing the second hand from certain clock faces when your wrist isn’t raised.

Other new features include a built-in compass, which is particularly useful when orientating yourself using Apple Maps, and a new Noise app. The Noise app uses the Watch’s microphone to detect the decibels in your surrounding area. If they get too high, it’ll ping you a notification to get out of the Steel Panther gig and go visit the library instead. Previous health-focused apps are still present and accounted for. The Series 5 will monitor your heart rate and can take an EKG of your heart

alth for you. It also has Fall Detection which can be linked to the emergency services. If triggered, it gives you a 30-second countdown when it fails to detect motion before sharing your location with the emergency services. These features may seem trivial, but they could save your life one day

The Series 5 runs on the newly-released watchOS 6, which is also coming to every other Apple Watch bar the first version. It brings with it the aforementioned Noise app as well as a Cycle Tracking app for women. Apple points out this shouldn’t be used as a benchmark for contraception or fertility, but it is helpful for female wearers wanting to track their period. Other new apps include Voice Memos, Calculator and a dedicated app for Audiobooks. For the first time, you can access the Apple Watch app store directly from the device itself. I didn’t find myself using it that often – but it’s nice that you no longer have to go through the iPhone if you want to add some functionality. Despite the vast gulf Apple has been able to create between itself and other smartwatch makers, the Apple Watch Series 5 is not a perfect device. As mentioned, there’s a claimed 18-hour battery life on the Apple Watch and I found that it didn’t even make it this far. To be fair, I’m a fairly heavy user. I activate the GPS once a day for the cycle commute to the office and regularly use the Watch as a remote control for music playback. I also found the Voice Memos to be handy as I record reminders to myself.