If you’ve set your annual New Year's Resolutions to create a new and better you for 2020 – congratulations. And if you picked up an Apple Watch this Christmas you have the perfect companion, which could make the difference between a happier, healthier you, and another year of broken dreams.
We already keep a list of our top Apple Watch apps – but to make things easier we’ve rounded up our favourite health and wellbeing offerings for a bit of feel-good New Year charm.
Check out the below – and don’t forget to read our Apple Watch missing manual for more ways to get more from your Apple smartwatch.
8Fit
Free (with IAP) | Download
Way more than just a fitness app, 8fit is all about tracking meals and ingredients and taking part in daily HIIT challenges. The fitness platform is fantastic, and the Apple Watch adds an extra element if you take part in the workouts. You can sync the guided workouts to the Watch making them easier to follow.
SmartGym
Free (Premium $2.99 per month) | Download
A serious workout app for guided gym sessions, you can edit your workouts in the app before you get started. And if you don’t want to carry your phone around on the gym floor, you can sync each workout to your Apple Watch and just follow the plan from there.
MySwimPro
Free (premium $19.99 per month) | Download
If you’re looking to hit the pool this New Year to get fit, make sure your Apple Watch is equipped with MySwimPro. You’ll need an Apple Watch Series 2 (running at least watchOS 4) or later – and once set up with the app you can follow guided pool workouts or just track your time in the water.
Sleepiest
Free (Premium per month) | Download
This funky sleep Watch app uses a koala complication to denote the quality of your sleep habits – and you won’t want to make this sleepy bear angry. As well as sleep tracking (which hooks into the Apple Health app on your iPhone) you can also play relaxing music and sleep sounds to aid a swift drift-off, and this can be controlled from the wrist as well.
Pillow Automatic Sleep Tracker
Free (Premium $4.99) | Download
Another sleep app – Pillow is the Siri of your slumber. A “sleep assistant”, Pillow will analyse sleep cycles automatically using Apple Watch. You can see the quality of last night’s sleep using the Pillow complication.
10% Happier: Meditation
Free (Premium $9.99 per month) | Download
If you’re not so bothered about hitting the gym this New Year, what about some mindfulness? The 10% Happier app includes a Meditation of the Day and a special Siri watch face. Feeling grounded? You will do.
Yazio Calorie Counter App
Free (premium $44.99 per year) | Download
Trying your hand at calorie counting? Well, it’s not easy – as we’ve written about before. But calorie counting is an excellent way of ensuring a balanced diet, and even a failed week can still give you a brilliant awareness of what you eat. If you’re up for giving it a try, Yazio enables you to log food from the wrist.
Equilab
Free (Premium ) | Download
If you fancy horse riding yourself healthy in 2019 you’re going to need Equilab. Like a Garmin GPS watch for the pony gang, it shows distance, speed and time in the saddle.
Clue Period Tracking & Calendar
Free | Download
The beauty of the Apple Watch is that app developers can bring new features to the platform without relying on Apple – and there’s no better example than Clue Period Tracking. Via the iPhone Apple Health app you can tap into reproductive health integration – and see cycle events and receive cycle reminders directly on your wrist with Apple Watch.
Runtastic
Free | Download
There are so many great Apple Watch running apps out there, and you likely already have a favourite – but we’re listing Runtastic because it offers something different: you can listen to Apple Music playlists crafted by Runtastic directly in the app, and do it all without your iPhone.
Nike Training Club
Free | Download
You might already have a preferred tracking app, but why not give Nike Training Club a go this January? There are 185+ free workouts from strength and endurance to mobility and yoga. You can do the guided workouts from the Apple Watch and heart rate is monitored throughout. New Year is all about fresh beginnings – and the Nike Apple Watch apps are well worth a try.
Strava
Free | Download
We’re big Strava users here at Wareable – it’s the best social running app and huge on data, which makes it a pretty compelling mix. The Apple Watch app is a bit basic, but does a great job of melding the power of Strava and its Segments, Suffer Scores and social smarts with the convenience of the Apple Watch. We’re all for it.
Sleep Cycle
Free | Download
Remember back in the Jawbone days how everyone loved getting woken up in the light part of your sleep cycle – well this third party app brings that experience to the Apple Watch. Set your alarm and it will attempt to wake you up outside of your deep sleep/REM zones, plus it’s fully integrated with Apple Health.
Seven – 7 Minute Workout
Free | Download
Get healthy in minimum time with the Apple Watch’s 7 Minute Workout app. Follow the guided workouts at home right from the Apple Watch. They might only be seven minutes long but these can get pretty spicy.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.