Apple Watch

So... Has anybody here bought one?

This may just be the painkillers talking, but I've found myself actually wanting an apple watch to replace my Pebble. I'll take a 38mm sport in black, please.

Thoughts? Tips on keeping myself from buying one?

Don't let me do it.

Ugh, this is just asking for an Apple hate pile-on.

I'm watching with interest. Smartphones (which Apple essentially made a legitimate option for most) have become more like tablets, taking on more and more complex roles. Are the watches a way to move back to a lightweight engagement, feeding little snippets of information without having to haul out a phone that's closing in on the size of a netbook? I think they are.

There was a lot of derision when the iPad came out about how it was an awkward middle child between a phone and a laptop, when it's turned out that it was the best of both for a lot of people.

I'll admit to having a full Apple ecosystem at the house because It Just Works, but my life isn't so connected that a watch needs to be part of it. Still, next time I'm in the same area code as an Apple Store, I want to check one out to get a feel for the interface.

Nope. I'm more interested in the quality of toilet paper I can purchase

Appleseed wrote: Nope. I'm more interested in the quality of toilet paper I can purchase

I like Fiora, the house brand at Piggly Wiggly.

I'm still waiting for the three shells.

I don't get the smart watch thing.

Yes. Mine arrived on 4/24 and I've been wearing it every day since then.

My day job happens to be iOS app development and I wanted to jump in early to get a feel for what it was like to live with it, what new interactions enabled, and how we could improve the lives of our patients by extending our app onto it.

I'm working on my first app for the watch on my own time. It's a fun place to play right now, because there are lots of oddities and nuances that you have to learn about through experimentation instead of searching StackOverflow.

I bought the 42mm Apple Watch Sport in Space Gray with the black sports band. When they first announced these, I expected that the smaller 38mm watch would fit my dainty wrists better than the 42mm watch. After experimenting with some full-size cut-outs, I went with the 42mm version and couldn’t be happier. I highly suggest if you're thinking of buying one of these, make an appointment and go try them on in the store. The 42mm is not huge at all, close in size to my coworker's Pebble. It’s quite comfortable and though you’d expect something that’s flat and has corners to be uncomfortable to wear on your organically-shaped wrist, that has not been an issue.

My one reservation in buying the cheaper Sport version was the band: I expected it to be similar to the old Timex Ironman style watches, or worse, a soft silicone that picked up lint and dirt. I was wrong. For the first day or so, every single person who picked up the watch had the same reaction: wow, that band feels nice. After a week wearing the watch for most of my waking hours, I agree completely. It’s just comfortable. It contours to my wrist without any pressure, it doesn’t pick up lint or dirt, and it doesn’t snag on my arm hairs the way some metal bands do. I didn’t expect to like the novel way Apple dealt with the “tail” of the band, but it’s actually quite comfortable. With my tiny wrists, there’s usually plenty of band left over with a conventional watch band. That leftover bit sticks out, gets caught on things, and is generally a pain in the ass. Not a problem with this watch!

The aluminum casing makes the Sport watch the cheapest of the lot, but also the lightest. I don’t feel like I have a lead weight attached to my wrist, it’s just … there. I don’t know how much heavier the stainless steel or gold watches are, so I can’t compare, but don’t worry about being weighed down by the Sport version.

That covers wearing the watch. The only thing I’ll add here is that even when wearing short sleeves, the watch does not seem to attract unwanted attention. There have only been a few times I’ve been asked about it just by wearing it. I have gotten a few questions when I start using it at inopportune moments (more later).

Utility. So it’s a pretty, albeit comfortable piece of jewelry at this point in the review. Why the heck would you buy one when there are much nicer timepiece-only watches for the same price?

It’s not an earth-shattering revelation. It’s not a life changer. Yet. I expect watches like these will be (almost) as ubiquitous as smart phones are today. Remember when no one knew why you’d ever want a smart phone?

The more connected your lifestyle and the more Apple-integrated those connections are, the more you’ll get out of this watch. On my watch face, I have the usual date/time stuff, plus the local temperature, the watch battery level, and most importantly, my next calendar event. I’ve tied my work calendar into my iPhone, which means I can see at a glance not just my personal appointments, but also the time, name, and location of my next meeting. I love this feature. Tapping on this meeting reveals a list of all of my upcoming meetings/appointments. Very useful.

I did not tie my work email into my watch. I get too many off-hours emails that do not merit my attention, so for now my watch only alerts me when I get a new email on my personal account. It’s a fine way to glance at the sender and subject of an email as it comes in. Which brings me to my next point.

Alerts. We’ve all gotten used to “phantom buzzes” where we think our smartphones are buzzing when in fact it’s sitting there quietly. I’ve found the “haptic” alert engine on the watch to be incredibly effective with a low incidence of false alarms. Really, it feels just like someone is tapping you on the wrist. There’s a sound too, which I feel a little odd leaving on, but that is subtle enough that I don’t worry about it (too much). In sum: if you rely on alerts from emails or SMS to keep your life flowing, you’re going to love this watch.

Doing things: Siri is your friend when wearing an Apple Watch. I’ve generally used her to send SMSes, and once to get directions home. She works OK in both cases, though I do feel a bit of a fool talking to my watch. And you still need to interact with the screen to confirm input, hit send, etc. The favorite contacts interface is novel and surprisingly effective. Navigating the app screen is novel and slightly more frustrating. Glances are less useful than I expected, but will improve markedly, I expect. Using the crown wheel to do things is becoming more natural. If you can’t do it in a few taps of large, simple buttons, it’s not worth doing on the watch. I have yet to pre-load personalized SMS responses, but that’ll happen and will make the SMS interactions far more useful.

Battery life: I don’t use my watch constantly. I wear it all day, glance at it frequently, interact with it a couple times an hour, but I’m definitely not a power user. I have yet to run the battery down completely in the course of a day, even a 19 hour day (oops). Excellent.

Etiquette. I don’t think this has been established yet, but it seems fairly straightforward: don’t be an ass. Sadly, since your watch is right there on your wrist and doesn’t have to be dug out of a pocket, here’s a temptation to subtly open and skim that new email the instant it comes in. At this point (and having fallen into this trap a couple of times), I’ll note that you’re never as subtle as you think and actually using the watch is a two-handed operation. Lift the watch hand, use the other hand to interact. Not subtle at all. I feel a lot more tempted to glance at a notification when it’s on my wrist than when it’s on the phone in my pocket. We’ll see how that works out.

The damn Activity app. One of the default apps allows you to set some activity-based daily goals (calories burned, minutes of exercise, standing time per day). Early on I set it to something simple. Now if I sit at my computer for over an hour, engrossed in code, it'll tap on my wrist and say "stand up and move around". And I do it. I'll take a walk around the cube farm, interact with a couple of people. When I get back to my desk a couple minutes later, I honestly feel better. This is one of those things I didn't expect when I bought my watch. It makes one healthy habit that much easier to keep. Also, it's been tracking my heart rate every 10 minutes since I got it. I'm not sure what I'll do with that information, but I'm a data guy, it'll be useful at some point.

Overall, it allows me to keep on top of my schedule better, it allows me to keep on top of my personal email very easily. It makes sending some SMSes much easier, and makes responses to basic SMSes incredibly easy. It's a great health device (not just activity, but it makes tracking my runs much easier, as I don't have to wear my phone in a ridiculous arm band).

It's not a great telephone mouthpiece. I've done that once "for real" and once just to show how ridiculous it is. It's not Dick Tracy, it's dickhead. Talk into watch. Move watch to ear to listen to response (half-duplex). Try listening to your watch/wrist right now (Not you Tom, keep that shoulder immobile!). Isn't that a ridiculous pose? Yeah.

How's that for a review?

Oh, and even though I'm sure there's nothing I can do to stem the tide of inevitable Apple-saucing, I will point out the glitches and bugs I've encountered in the watch.

Sometimes when I raise my wrist, the screen doesn't come on automatically.

I am generally pro Apple even though I choose not to own any of their stuff.

I can see how watches will be popular in the future and I am sure there will be some interesting apps for it but I cannot imagine shelling out hundreds for something of marginal (for most) use that will look rediculously large and underpowered in a few years.

The fact that you have to still carry a phone also kind of kills the utility in many situations, especially when you consider that will likely not be a requirement in a few years.

Not my thing at all. A very expensive toy for most. The commercials cannot even make them seem useful, and Apple generally has very good marketing.

They have sold a LOT of them though...

Great review BTW.

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I don't get the smart watch thing.

This. I don't see how it can make my life any better in any way, no matter who builds it.

Toyman01 wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I don't get the smart watch thing.

This. I don't see how it can make my life any better in any way, no matter who builds it.

And again. Also, living with an iPhone 4s for the last year and a half has me convinced to go Android next time. So yeah there's some of Keith's Apple hate; the point is they deserve it.

The whole smart watch thing is interesting...

I'm not a watch enthusiest- but I've noticed some things....

So back until the 50's- watches were all mechancial- and the owners had to actually wind them. Movements varied- but it seems as if 8/sec is pretty common.

Then the quartz watch came- and were considered premium watches- as owners didn't have to wind them.

Then digital watches came- almost super premium when they came- but just a dark screen until you touched a button to reveal pretty basic LED's.

(all the while, mechanical watches continued, an auto winding mechanism was developed, and the ultra premium mechanical watches continued)

Then LCD digital watches came, which were cheaper than the LEDs by a wide margin- add in the increasing power of the computer- and before you know it, the digital watch revolution was pretty over. You can still get them for cheap.

Then someone developed the cheap electric movement- and Swatch covered the market in cheap watches- which many others followed. Even with things like style and solar charging, quartz watches kind of get looked down on.

Most recently- cell phones. Which pretty much eliminated the NEED of any watch, since you had a perfect time keeper.

Now we are back to mechanical watches. Even Swatch has announced that they developed a movement that they will sell for under $200.

Plus we have smart watches. For the people who love gadgets, and still have the idea of a real Dick Tracy watch- think about that- it was thought of how many years ago? We have that, mostly, now.

Size wise- I don't see them as any burden at all- they all are right in line with every watch you can get right now. Maybe not as powerful as ones 5 years from now- but easily within the boundary of watches. Prices- I know they seem expensive, but for the most part, they are right in line with the low end luxury market. $550-$1100 is a very rich (as in lots of good choices) market range to be in. They all look something other than a comptuer.

I may not get one, but I certainly see how they can be very popular. It's a nice piece of jewlery, and it's quite functional.

Setting aside that I'm not an Apple fan, they were discussing it on NPR about a month back. They made an interesting point about brand new Apple tech that it is sort of (my words) like buying the first model year of a brand new car model. They haven't had the opportunity to fully test it out in the field yet and figure out what is going to really work and what doesn't. The first iteration tends to really be for the true fans with the proclivity and money to enjoy playing around with the latest and greatest tech.

For some people, being part of that initial pioneering to refine a new technology to make it fully practical is part of the experience. If you want a more polished and useful tool/toy, you're generally best off waiting until the 2nd iteration is released in 6-12 months.

Keith Tanner wrote: Are the watches a way to move back to a lightweight engagement, feeding little snippets of information without having to haul out a phone that's closing in on the size of a netbook? I think they are.

Interesting point. Will the watch work without a phone?

It's my understanding they won't. So they can't replace a phone, they just change the way you interact with it. Which is interesting. It may be tech for tech's sake. Or it may not.

Curmudgeon wrote:

Toyman01 wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I don't get the smart watch thing.

This. I don't see how it can make my life any better in any way, no matter who builds it.

And again. Also, living with an iPhone 4s for the last year and a half has me convinced to go Android next time. So yeah there's some of Keith's Apple hate; the point is they deserve it.

We had an android phone in the house, there's a reason that there isn't one here any more.

ProDarwin wrote:

Keith Tanner wrote: Are the watches a way to move back to a lightweight engagement, feeding little snippets of information without having to haul out a phone that's closing in on the size of a netbook? I think they are.

Interesting point. Will the watch work without a phone?

It will, but it will just be a watch.

Keith Tanner wrote: It's my understanding they won't. So they can't replace a phone, they just change the way you interact with it. Which is interesting. It may be tech for tech's sake. Or it may not.

Curmudgeon wrote:

Toyman01 wrote:

Fueled by Caffeine wrote: I don't get the smart watch thing.

This. I don't see how it can make my life any better in any way, no matter who builds it.

And again. Also, living with an iPhone 4s for the last year and a half has me convinced to go Android next time. So yeah there's some of Keith's Apple hate; the point is they deserve it.

We had an android phone in the house, there's a reason that there isn't one here any more.

Out of all the people in my family and circle of friends, the only one who still does Apple on purpose is my 80 year old mom. She needs the training wheels and crutches.

Ah. Count me out then for a while, until they get really cheap or are shown to be really useful. Turns out it doesn't work with my phone anyway (4S).

I bought one after reading and watching everything I could find on it. My company pays for all my other Apple stuff, but the watch would be a personal purchase. I am a cheapskate, so you know it had to be worth it to me personally to shell out $400. I have not received mine yet, so the proof will be in the wearing, but here is why I committed to one.

1. The iPhone and the Apple universe has improved my life everyday, so I was interested in the watch immediately. I am a busy professional who travels with 2 kids and a schedule that is packed from wake to sleep. In addition, I have the attention span of a gnat and the memory of a dead goldfish, so I rely heavily on the reminders and tasks and emails and texts to stay connected, on schedule and on task. I also oversee Social Media programs and online campaigns, so access to these at all hours is important to putting food on the table.

2. I was skeptical about a "small iPhone" until I read that the Watch was designed for "momentary interactions". Confirm a meeting. Accept a call. Reply "OK" to a text. Check your next appointment. Get a reminder. Get a nudge to do something. All without having to fish the phone from your pocket. This is like manna from heaven for a busy multi-tasker.

This also makes it attractive for someone who is in the car a lot, and on a motorcycle. I can get navigation updates as taps to my wrist. On the bike, I just need a nudge when the next turn is coming up and what direction it is. That makes it great for short runs to semi-familiar places...which I do a lot.

1. The look and feel were amazing. So light, you just forget that it is there. I have issues wearing anything on my wrist all day, but the Watch was so comfortable with the sport band or the Milanese Loop. Besides, it's $400...that's chump change in the world of Men's watches. I am surrounded by Tags and Rolexes and other Swiss "I have a small penis but an expensive watch" models. People I interact with professionally are not going to see it as a lavish purchase.

2. I am an early adopter of Apple stuff because their personal track record with me has been flawless. I seem to "get" Apple in a way that I never did with Microsoft. plus most of my stuff is work-supplied, so why stray.

3. The GRM features that are exclusive to the Apple Watch are way better than anything in the Magazine or Website. (OK, I made that up)

4. If they Watch gets me to move a bit more and exercise a bit more, then all the better. I could use it.

I hear it will be possible to tell what time it is by just glancing at your wrist so, berkeley yeah! No more taking the phone out of your pocket just to see what time it is!

Apple is innovative!

I will put aside my Apple hatred and try to evaluate the whole "smart watch" thing objectively.

Look, it's a toy. Nobody needs a smart watch. It's for gadget geeks like me who like to have the latest electronic gizmo. The Apple Watch is not the first smart watch, Pebbles have been around for years, and there have been several Android Wear watches out for the past year or so. But nobody has the marketing or brand awareness of Apple, so they alone have the power to make smart watches popular and accepted in the marketplace. Everyone else will ride their coattails and be happy to do it.

As for me, I'm intrigued by the first generation of Android Wear devices (Moto 360, LG G Watch, Samsung Galaxy Gear, etc), but not enough to plunk down my money yet. I anticipate the second generation will arrive later this year. I'll see what kind of improvements in functionality and battery life they offer, then I might take the plunge.

I'm going with no. I think it is ultimately a nice looking article of jewelry--and therein is where I find the issue with it: It is going to be obsolete in 2-5 years. Or it will be inferior, anyways. I have an issue with that for a watch; I still have my Seiko from Christmas in 2002, and my Bulova from Christmas in 2012. My grandpa still has his Omega from 1962. Will you have the iWatch in 2020?

It doesn't answer any need or want for me that isn't better answered by either a smaller phone, or a watch that will retain 100% of its functionality for a lifetime.

I'm not willing to plunk down the cash on one yet, but Peter hit on several of the points that have my interest.

A tap on the wrist to tell me I've got a call or message would be great! I can't tell you how many calls and texts I miss because I neither hear nor feel my phone going off. Especially when I'm outside. I've tried all kinds of different ringers and such, I just don't hear any of them. Not even the crazy obnoxious ones. Which really irritate co-workers when I leave my phone on my desk and it goes off.

The activity app, for when I'm over-focused at my desk. Get up, walk around for a few minutes, change the frozen focus of the eyes, blink.

GPS. Maybe. I'm very interested in a coded wrist tap about turns or such coming up. I get easily distracted and miss things otherwise. Not so sure about trying to look at my wrist when driving.

Battery life. If it can go all day, that's crucial. Seems it can.

Dunno if Pebble or others do these things.

There are a few things that do give me pause. Almost all of which are unverified hearsay.

Supposedly you have to be wearing your iphone to make the watch work. That seems absurdly redundant if true.

Supposedly the glass is not Gorilla glass or other hardened glass.

Price. Lordy that thing is expensive.

https://youtu.be/oL1xf_X0W2s