You can now pair multiple Apple Watches to an iPhone, but why?

Apple thinks you have — or want — multiple Apple Watches. With iOS 9.3 beta and the watchOS 2.2 beta, you can pair multiple wearables to the same phone.

Here’s the language from the iOS 9.3 beta release notes:

In iOS 9.3, the Apple Watch app can pair multiple watches at a time. However, all watches must be running watchOS 2.2, which is only available through the developer seed.

For developers, this is a solid feature. If you’ve got a 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch you want to physically test a glance on, this is cool.

When it comes to consumers, I can’t see how this is handy. Unless you’re buying an Apple Watch for the kids (which is a bit silly), why would anyone have two? More to the point, what prompted this feature?

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It could be a forward-facing addition, though. Over time, I can see some using an older Apple Watch for little more than proper fitness tracking during workouts. So long as HealthKit can cobble together data (and it does a decent job with my Apple Watch/iPhone, so Ic an’t see why it wouldn’t be able to handle multiple watches), it may work out just fine.

We can also speculate Apple is working on more hardware for its AppleWatch lineup — maybe a proper fitness wearable. A new report from Buzzfeed suggests Apple has a wearable in the works, which is meant to be used as a dedicated medical device.

To that, pairing “multiple watches” may instead be pairing two ‘Apple-made wearables.’

➤ iOS 9.3 beta release notes, watchOS 2.2 beta release notes [Apple Developer]