This page outlines using Reftime’s application, RefTime on the watch, and understanding unique behavior. The RefTime application on the phone integrates with HealthKit. Be sure to give RefTime access to the healthkit data when prompted.
RefTime is designed to run in the foreground, it will not “go to sleep” while a timer is running. End of half haptic and audible signals are provided. Each minute into stoppage time another haptic/audible alert will occur. At the start of the second half stoppage time is ignored on the timer display. Total time is captured in your log and healthkit data.
If GPS information is available Reftime will give you local weather and attempt to guess your local field. For series 0 and series 1 watches GPS information is only available through your iPhone if the watch communicates within 10 minutes with the iPhone. Health data is written to the activity center when access is enabled.
Below is a screen shot of a training workout results with location in app:
Press Game HH:MM to quick start at your last game length, a 60:00 minute game in the above case. This is especially useful when working tournaments.
Pressing PLAY starts the game and you’ll receive a haptic alert to confirm.
The set game length is seen below here:
Touch or use the crown to dial in the total game length, RefTime will calculate half length.
When remaining time in half is down to the final 60 seconds the button to end the half (or end game in 2nd half) becomes active. This limit was impose to protect against accidental swipes testing hit constantly on the field of play.
Stoppage time is shown as red as seen here. Every minute into stoppage time a haptic (sound and buzz) nag is provided. That’s been pretty nice in practice. For this example we are in first half stoppage for a 80 minute game.
Second half starts at regulation. For a 60 minute game it’ll start at 30:00, for a 90 start at 45:00. For this example this is the second half start for an 80 minute game.
For series 0 and series 1 Apple Watch RefTime tries to get game location from the iPhone within 10 minutes of ending a session (game or training). This doesn’t always work due to lack of proximity to the iPhone. For series 2 watches and when earlier generation watches can get GPS coordinates location will be shown on the iPhone app along with local weather at the time of the event.
Using force touch (look it up) on your watch allows you to abandon a game or simply exit. Abandoned games are recorded in your log as such and game time at abandonment can be seen.
Why Force touch and accidental swipe?
It is incredibly easy to accidentally bump the buttons especially with long sleeves, rainy weather, or simply hitting your watch face against clothes, or scratching… Due to that button presses are minimally relied upon outside of starting/stopping each half. To end or abandon a game prematurely use the force touch behavior.
Health kit records workouts
Your game workout is recorded in the health kit if you enable this feature on your iPhone. Did you forget? No worries, iPhone lets you fix that on your iPhone. Be sure to enable location services too to allow your location to be recorded.
This occurs at the whim of iOS. Usually occurs pretty quickly. You can share you log, just game log, or just training log with others via the Apple share icon seen in the RefTime app.
Tap the field you want to modify and use either touch or the crown to change the count. Limits are 40 intervals, max time for segments is 10 minutes.
Segment 1 is called Run. Segment 2 is called Walk.
When you hit the TRAIN button the Apple Watch will switch to Training mode and give you a three second countdown to start timer.
A mid-point and 5 seconds remaining alert are given for each training segment. For very short training segments only a 5 second alert or none at all (for really short segment) will be given.
With segment transition a unique haptic will be given both while in training and game sessions.
It is incredibly easy to accidentally bump the buttons especially with long sleeves and rainy weather, or hitting your watch face against clothes during half time. Due to that buttons are minimally relied upon. Use force touch to quit the session early.
Your game workout is recorded in the health kit if you enable this feature on your iPhone.
It has been seen that attempts by the iPhone and Apple Watch to connect or disconnect (with distance from iPhone) that alert haptics can be missed while training. This has been minimized as well as possible, but you may note issues. The ultimate fix is to either to run with the phone or shut off the watch’s radio stack before you start training. This is an iOS thing Apple needs to address.
WatchOS trying to connect with iOS via bluetooth can occasionally cause missed haptics when training. Also seems to happen at times when the Apple Watch is losing connection. It’s been minimized with some tinkering, but can still occur. Turning off the watch’s radio stack before you begin a workout (seems to not be a problem during games) can nullify this.
Accidental swipes happen and are a pia. After considerable self testing in all weather conditions but snow it is found that its accidental swipes happen. The Apple Watch application makes use of force touch to prematurely end a session. The GameTimer end half/end game button is disabled until the last minute of each half.
This necessitated the use of force touch to abandon a game, prematurely end a game or end a training workout.
Let us know if you’re having problems with accidental behavior and how you got there via a scenario; e.g. I was working a game in severe rain with long sleeves and … everything else you can think of so what you saw can be recreated. Please make sure you can repeat this yourself, the problem does seem to be fairly well mitigated now in version 1.03.
Health kit information including distance and steps are all recorded in the health kit information. It could be displayed in the log too, seemed redundant so I excluded it. What do you think?