Four months into owning an Apple Watch and amid all the noise about it either doing phenomenally well in the market or disappointing expectations, I feel ready to offer my own unbiased user experience. To put this in a bit of context, I have always been interested in watches, have read several books on horology and recognize most watches at first glance. At the same time, I am a cautious spender and my relationship to watches has remained mostly platonic. Unlike other people who caught the watch bug, I only own three nice models and a Rolex Explorer occupies my rather small wrist most of the time.
Apple's announcement to launch a Watch put me in a dilemma. To me a watch by definition is assembled by a Swiss watchmaker. It would never have occurred to me wearing something with a battery inside. But then I am fully immersed in the Apple eco-system and Jony Ive's emotional statements about the Watch finally sold me.
I received my 42 mm steel model with white sport band in early May and have worn it every day since. Will I go back to my mechanical watches? Maybe for special occasions like evening invitations but not for day to day use and here is why.
To me, the Watch has two game changing features. First, it weaned me off the iPhone. Through carefully tuning the notification settings, I get alerted with a gentle tap on the wrist when I receive an important message and I happily ignore all others. Finding the right balance took a couple of weeks of defining VIPs on my iPhone but it was definitely worth it. Second, the Activity and Workout apps have a strange addictive quality to them. I worked out a lot before owning the Watch but now I am even more disciplined and I regularly choose the staircase over the elevator in order to get these three circles completed every day. Having a heart rate sensor with me any time I feel like running is also game changing. I have one with a chest strap but it mostly sits on a shelf collecting dust.
Where Apple clearly excelled is the hardware. I wear mine during heavy workout in often hot climate and under the shower. Both the Watch and the band look as shiny and new as on day one. The mechanism to exchange bands is an embarrassment to all traditional watchmakers. Why didn't Rolex come up with something like this? At the end of an average day, when I put the Watch back on its charger its battery typically still has 40% juice left. While this is not great, a somewhat bigger battery would not make a difference to me. Charging it every night is easy to remember while charging it every other night is something I clearly would forget to do quite a lot.
In terms of software, I believe that Apple got the essentials right. First and foremost, the Watch does not demand attention in the way the iPhone does. The whole software experience is a bit complicated and not really Apple-like. But then I also understand the conflicting objectives of making the Watch highly personal and customizable while keeping it as simple as possible. Let's hope that the watchOS 2 gets the tradeoff done in a better way.
In summary, the Watch is by far the best first generation device I have ever owned.
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