The Apple Watch: It Succeeds as Jewelry
The Apple Watch: It Succeeds as Jewelry
A few days ago, I wrote about why I preordered a new color Pebble Time instead of waiting to see what Apple would be telling us about the Apple Watch at its Monday press event. Now that I’ve seen the presentation of the Apple Watch, and gotten to try one on, has my mind been changed?
Maybe. A little.
I test-wore the new Apple Watch (the large size, with a 42mm case) at Apple’s demo event Monday. The takeaway? It is gorgeous, even more than I remember from Apple’s September announcement. And although it looks bulbous in photos, I found it actually small enough to fit under my shirt cuff, and stylishly, too.
Previously:
But the key thing is the apps. Now, the Pebble has apps, and app developers love Pebble. It’s a small company with awesome people, and they’re really good to developers. But no matter how great Pebble is, it will never reach as many people as Apple, and thus serious developers will be more likely to put their best efforts into Apple Watch apps over Pebble apps.
The new Apple Watch apps demo really well. It’s cool to see a little fake Uber app on the watch, in which you can summon a car with just a tap … and see the little driver headed your way on a map on your wrist. And Apple will use the phone’s high-resolution, high-contrast display to great advantage. For example, it will show QR codes (those square barcodes) that you’ll be able to scan to board an airplane.
There will be a lot of cool apps like that.
The built-in apps are also Apple-pretty. The health apps show you how sedentary you are in such a beautiful way that you’re going to want to get up and move just so that you can see your little progress bar wiggle forward. (And, of course, the Apple Watch will also record your movement and your heart rate.)
(Photo: Yahoo Tech)
Finally, there are the watch faces. Come on. Stunning. Maybe not as functional as the Pebble’s in one key way, since the Pebble’s display is always on, while you have to raise your arm or tap the Apple Watch to turn it on; but again, the Apple Watch makes full use of the high-resolution display to show a lot of data (if you want it to) or just a pretty and minimalist watch display (if you’d rather). The Mickey Mouse face is even animated: The little guy’s feet tap.
If you’re a watch nerd and a fan of “complications” (extra data) on your watch, like seeing the moon phase, then the Apple Watch is for you. The Astronomy face will show you just an absurd amount of data, for example. It’s like having an orrery on your wrist. Other watch faces are likely to come: for bicyclists, surfers, pilots, drivers, stock market wonks, weather nerds, and so on. They’re probably going to be beautiful, data-rich, and fun to use.
(Photo: Apple)
I initially dismissed the Apple Watch as a poor piece of jewelry. Based on what I just saw at Apple’s event, I now think it’s more successful as jewelry than the Pebble. It’s expensive, it’s very shiny, and it has features that are just blingy fun. It oozes luxury. That’s what jewelry is.
So what about the Pebble Time that I have on order? I’m not canceling it. I’m looking forward to having a reasonably priced, good-enough-looking, highly functional smart timepiece that I don’t have to baby (recharge every day) like the Apple Watch. And I’m going to get the features that I really want on my wrist: text notifications and calendar alerts.
But man, that Apple Watch sure looks good.
