38 vs 42mm -- a female's perspective

I think it is a smartwatch thing. They just do not look as strange if they are oversized. I would never want my "regular" watch to be the size of my pebble, but for some reason the size does not bother me and I think it looks just fine. I took a photo of it a few days ago, and also thought it looked ridiculously big. Yet in person it looks fine.
 
technosix said:
Here's my take on size.

Other than formal wear, women look good in any size watch they prefer. I'm very observant as a hard core watch collector. I see a wide variety of sizes, styles and colors here in California.

Personally I believe in choices and what one enjoys.
Click to expand...

The problem is that pre-orders went live before we could try it on and figure out which one we'd enjoy better :(
 
HowDroll said:
I liked the sport bands a lot (WAY more than I thought I would).
Click to expand...

I haven't seen the Watch "in the flesh" yet, but I think this message is the most pleasant surprise (it was also in John Gruber's review on Wednesday) I've seen. Not least because I was planning to preorder, and this morning did preorder, the 42mm SS with black sport band.

If that band feels great and remains credible even in business settings, the pressure to add another band (Milanese, Apple Link, or some third-party) abates considerably. I might even consider buying an additional sport band, in a different color, for more informal occasions/reduced wear and tear on the black.

Thanks, OP!
 
HowDroll said:
Just got back from my try-on appointment at the Apple Store. I ordered a 38mm sport last night after thinking that my tiny wrists (probably ~145mm, maybe even a touch smaller -- haven't measured them) would look ridiculous with a 42mm sport watch after seeing some pictures of other people wearing it.

However, after the appointment, I can confirm what other people are saying -- pictures are VERY misleading. The 42mm looks chunky and ridiculous on my wrist in pictures, but in person at the store it looked just fine. If there weren't a 2 month + wait time, I'd be canceling my 38mm and ordering a 42mm instead; I think my personal preference tended toward interacting with the big screen, even though I only got to see the demo loop. (This is also why I have a 6+ iPhone instead of a 6).

THAT SAID, I don't think the 38mm looked 'feminine' or 'too small' -- I think it's just a different style. I saw a few other men of various sizes at the table trying on the 38mm version, and it looked fine on them as well.

Long story short, I don't think it breaks down to a male version vs a female version -- unless you fall at one of the extreme ends of the spectrum, there's not necessarily a wrong choice between the sizes :)

EDIT: also, in case anyone is wondering, the watch feels very light, and I liked the sport bands a lot (WAY more than I thought I would). They feel very high quality -- silky to the touch -- and seem very comfortable to wear, especially compared to the FitBit bands. The screen quality is also FANTASTIC.
Click to expand...

Nice write up, thanks for sharing! So size really doesn't matter? :rolleyes:
 
ssls6 said:
That's really interesting. So from the wearer's perspective, the 42mm looks fine on your own wrist. Maybe from the perspective of someone looking at you, it will look big on your wrist. Wouldn't that be weird.
Click to expand...

I agree. I think this is a pattern that's starting to emerge:

  • In photos, the larger watch looks overpowering.
  • But from the wearer's viewpoint, it looks fine.

Hmm. This echoes the way that many people feel about the Moto 360 etc, as well.
 
HowDroll said:
The problem is that pre-orders went live before we could try it on and figure out which one we'd enjoy better :(
Click to expand...

Very true. As a long time Apple customer I've learned to throw common sense out the window before evaluating anything Apple.

Sometimes they do make good common sense decisions, other times when the committee is deadlocked they let that little Martian have the deciding vote...ha...ha...ha... :eek:
 
Camusrieux said:
I haven't seen the Watch "in the flesh" yet, but I think this message is the most pleasant surprise (it was also in John Gruber's review on Wednesday) I've seen. Not least because I was planning to preorder, and this morning did preorder, the 42mm SS with black sport band.

If that band feels great and remains credible even in business settings, the pressure to add another band (Milanese, Apple Link, or some third-party) abates considerably. I might even consider buying an additional sport band, in a different color, for more informal occasions/reduced wear and tear on the black.

Thanks, OP!
Click to expand...

I'll probably end up picking up a black sport band as well (since it already was sold out when I was pre-ordering and I ended up going with that neon green) and a nice 3rd-party metal one to wear on more formal occasions. I think the sport band will look good with 90% of outfits but might look a bit too casual with super dressy ensembles.

----------
kdarling said:
I agree. I think this is a pattern that's starting to emerge:

  • In photos, the larger watch looks overpowering.
  • But from the wearer's viewpoint, it looks fine.

Hmm. This echoes the way that many people feel about the Moto 360 etc, as well.
Click to expand...

I thought FOR SURE the 42mm would be ridiculous on my wrist after seeing other people's pictures and was very skeptical about the claims that pictures can be misleading! Oh, well. The 38mm is still awesome, and my preference for the 42 is slight enough that it's not enough to dampen my excitement for the 24th.
 
HowDroll said:
and I liked the sport bands a lot (WAY more than I thought I would). They feel very high quality -- silky to the touch -- and seem very comfortable to wear, especially compared to the FitBit bands. The screen quality is also FANTASTIC.
Click to expand...

glad to hear that! i kinda thought their sport bands would be nice... hubby has a few watches with the silicon straps and they are really "silky"... i hoped apple would get theirs right!
 
I had a similar experience, as a woman with small wrists I decided to pre order a 38mm sport as soon as the online pre-orders went live.

This afternoon I had an appointment to try on the watches, my first impression when seeing the 38mm behind the glass was that it was almost shockingly tiny, and I thought I'd made a bad choice.

After actually trying the 38mm on I didn't think it looked too small, but nor did the 42mm seem excessively big, so I've decided to stick with the 38mm and not have my ship date slip until June by cancelling the 38mm and ordering the 42mm.

If I hadn't already ordered the 38mm I think I would have had a tough time choosing which to order and I might have gone for the 42mm.

To me, both looked much smaller in real life, than in pictures and videos I have seen online.
 
i always said the 38mm is a woman's watch.

Now this proves it. If a woman says the 38mm is too small, why would a man even buy it?
 
sinar said:
I had a similar experience, as a woman with small wrists I decided to pre order a 38mm sport as soon as the online pre-orders went live.



This afternoon I had an appointment to try on the watches, my first impression when seeing the 38mm behind the glass was that it was almost shockingly tiny, and I thought I'd made a bad choice.



After actually trying the 38mm on I didn't think it looked too small, but nor did the 42mm seem excessively big, so I've decided to stick with the 38mm and not have my ship date slip until June by cancelling the 38mm and ordering the 42mm.



If I hadn't already ordered the 38mm I think I would have had a tough time choosing which to order and I might have gone for the 42mm.



To me, both looked much smaller in real life, than in pictures and videos I have seen online.
Click to expand...


Out of curiosity, what's your wrist size?
 
The bottom line is that photos of this watch on wrists appear to be misleading. First there is the obvious (but easy to overlook) fact that people's arms vary in size a LOT. But I also think a lot of it has to do with the thickness of the watch, which is considerable. So depending on the angle, things can look pretty different.
 
spytech said:
I'm a man with 165mm/50mm. Based on what you saw and what you're saying, 42mm would suit me?
Click to expand...

I don't know, I think it's a personal thing, I think if at all possible you need to try them on, in hindsight I probably would have gone for the 42mm as I don't wear petite ladies watches, not that the 38mm is petite in the way some other ladies watches are.

Sorry, I'm sure that was not much help
 
Last edited:
I am 5'1" and fairly small. I ordered the 38 and starting to wonder if I should have gone bigger after hearing what even the smaller men have said. At this point its a done deal. I might size up next version though. I rock a 6+ and yes it looks silly when I talk on it but I rare do. So for all the games and other apps I use its great.
 
sinar said:
I don't know, I think it's a personal thing, I think if at all possible you need to try them on, in hindsight I probably would have gone for the 42mm as I don't wear petite ladies watches, not that the 38mm is petite in the way some other ladies watches are.

Sorry, I'm sure that was not much help
Click to expand...


You actually were helpful in a way, thank you.

And I won't be able to try the watch before ordering.

I think I'll be going with 42mm. I like smaller watches but 38 seems too small for my wrist.

the risk of 38 being too small isn't worth it I think... if the 42 is too big, we'll, I guess I can fit to it lol.
 
38 vs 42mm -- a female's perspective

The 42mm is practically your entire wrist here but to each their own. I'm petite with a boney wrist. Might go ahead with the 38mm, looks good.
 
ssls6 said:
We need a pic taken by someone else far enough away so there is no parallax affect. Can just be an arm so identities are obscured.
Click to expand...

How's this? I have a 155mm wrists circumference by the way and this is the 38mm.

The 38mm is smaller than I anticipated, and the 42mm isn't as big as I thought it would be. After trying both on though, I feel that the 38mm is very understated and subtle on my own wrist, which is exactly what I need to stop looking at my damn phone and annoying the girlfriend very 5 minutes, but without her really nothing # haha.

On another note, the Milanese loop is beautiful, but only just fit me in the 42mm variety, whereas the 38mm had plenty of room for adjustment. I would bear this in mind when choosing a size for yourself. Also, the classic leather buckle is stunning, and so damn comfortable! I'll be buying one of those eventually. I can see it happening.

Edit: not sure why it shows as sideways in the post, clicking it makes it display normally though.
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 918
Last edited:
daijholt said:
How's this? I have a 155mm wrists circumference by the way and this is the 38mm.

The 38mm is smaller than I anticipated, and the 42mm isn't as big as I thought it would be. After trying both on though, I feel that the 38mm is very understated and subtle on my own wrist, which is exactly what I need to stop looking at my damn phone and annoying the girlfriend very 5 minutes, but without her really nothing # haha.

On another note, the Milanese loop is beautiful, but only just fit me in the 42mm variety, whereas the 38mm had plenty of room for adjustment. I would bear this in mind when choosing a size for yourself. Also, the classic leather buckle is stunning, and so damn comfortable! I'll be buying one of those eventually. I can see it happening.

Edit: not sure why it shows as sideways in the post, clicking it makes it display normally though.
Click to expand...

That 38mm looks OK to me and not too small. I think over time we'll all discover that apple put a lot of thought into this and chose the sizes correctly.

I think some of mac rumors "don't get a 38mm watch" stuff we are reading is more about looking at a small display and not a watch size issue. This will be a new experience for all of us and all of us are still using a "phone" frame of reference.

Thanks of the photo.
 
I'm a woman with a small wrist and I pre-ordered the 42 MM Sport.

I chose that based on the size of the Pebble (~40MM) that I've been wearing for a year and a half. I definitely didn't want to go smaller, and the 2MM difference wasn't going to be too huge that it would have been a crazy adjustment. And at the end of the day, I wanted more real estate on the screen.

Thanks for your thoughts. Looks like I made the right choice.
 
Moyank24 said:
I'm a woman with a small wrist and I pre-ordered the 42 MM Sport.

I chose that based on the size of the Pebble (~40MM) that I've been wearing for a year and a half. I definitely didn't want to go smaller, and the 2MM difference wasn't going to be too huge that it would have been a crazy adjustment. And at the end of the day, I wanted more real estate on the screen.

Thanks for your thoughts. Looks like I made the right choice.
Click to expand...

I compared both to my pebble steel, and the 38mm is smaller in overall frame than the pebble steel, but the screen size is virtually the same.

The reason they look smaller in person is because of the rounded design. Like Jony Ive said about iPhone 6, the rounded design gives the illusion of the device being smaller.
 
Just leaving the Apple Store. I'm a woman and I have tiny wrists not sure what size. I'll have to measure when I get home. I also have a 6+ and love it. I was certain that I would like the 42. I went with the 38 the 42 was just too big for me. And I was shocked at the weight difference in the ss and the al. I ended up with the sport with an extra band. I'm glad I waited until I could try it on for myself.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Back
Top