All the pre-release hype surrounding watchOS 3 has proven to be true. It makes the 1st gen Apple Watch feel like a completely different piece of hardware. Faster, more responsive and easier to navigate. All that said, there's one big caveat:

The battery life is now horrendous. One of the nicest features of the Apple Watch (at least compared to the iPhone) was truly all day battery life. I'd start the day at 5:45 AM at 100%, do a minimum 40 minute / 3 mile run first thing in the morning, use my watch multiple times all day and *always* have at least 40% battery by 9 PM. Since upgrading to watchOS 3? I slept in this morning (10 AM) and haven't ran or worked out at all and have purposely avoided using it just as a test, and I'm at 47% battery at 2:15 PM. At this rate the watch will be totally dead by 6.

This is completely unacceptable.

8 hours battery life on a watch is ridiculous. Especially when I've done less than normal every day use. Any ideas? I've removed every app from the dock except Workouts, changed my email from push to checking every 30 minutes and turned off pretty much anything that could be taxing the battery and these are the results I've gotten. My next step is restoring the watch, re-pairing and starting over. I really don't want to have to do that, but I'm at my wits end.

UPDATE: I've discovered some tips that have returned my battery life to pre-watchOS 3 results. See here for more info