Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Shipped an Estimated 30.7 Million Apple Watches in 2019, Beating Entire Swiss Watch Industry
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I actually have a friend who wears his ceramic Apple Watch on one wrist and his Rolex on the other. Personally, I feel the health data currently coming from the Apple Watch is not very important for the vast majority of people. I do like that it tracks my heart rate while I'm working out but it's honestly not that useful. The timer during the workout is more useful for me.
In the future the Apple Watch may add more sensors and data that may change my mind.
One of the things about mechanical watches is that you're more likely to have a watch that nobody else in the room has on their wrist. The Apple Watch is one of those "me too" items. I see so many people on the street and in documentaries on TV wearing it that it devalues the watch in my eyes.
There are different casing materials and watch bands to help in this regard but the Apple Watch is so popular it doesn't help escape the ubiquity of it.
I expect that eventually we will see a redesign of the casing and that will help add some differentiation from the several generations of the current design that is currently out.
I do think the current design is fantastic and it would be more interesting to see Apple add to the lineup than simply eliminate the current design.
Although on the other side of that coin, a very large number of people find that closing their rings helps motivate them to stay active. In that sense, although the value of the raw data my be of limited use to some, the increased activity is very beneficial to many. In my opinion anyway.
The ECG feature has been tremndosly useful to a number of people
A Texas man says his Apple Watch saved his life by detecting problems with his heartbeat
A Texas man says he found out he had a potentially fatal heart problem after his Apple Watch notified him that his heartbeat was irregular.
www.businessinsider.com
and the fall detection feature saved this man
Apple Watch's Fall Detection feature saves man's life
www.deccanherald.com
I don’t see why this is such a huge deal.
It’s easy to do something differently, it’s hard to do something that’s better, and it’s even more difficult to do something that’s both different and better.
Based on the current pace of improvement, I expect Apple to use the same form factor for 3-4 years in a row, which seems to be in line with the pace at which most people upgrade their Apple watches. It just feels wasteful to keep changing the case design ever so often, especially if it doesn’t bring any meaningful improvements along with it.
If anything, I think it’s cool that more and more people are wearing the Apple Watch. Certain features, such as activity ring sharing, really only makes sense when you have a network of friends wearing the watch. During my meetings, a few other colleagues (all wearing Apple watches) and myself now stand up when prompted by our watches, and the rest of the room has gotten used to it.
My Apple Watch is definitely here to stay.
I'm more interested in the Venn diagram overlap for customers in both markets and then which one they choose. Buying an Apple watch is not nearly the same process as buying a Swiss watch.
Out of curiosity, don't you ever like to pull out the Swiss watch when you're dressing up? I'd love to own a nice watch but sadly can't afford it!
I believe the case design will remain largely similar for a very long time. Improvements are likely to be in further thickness reduction and a more edge-to-edge display, but I feel the basic shape is already too iconic to mess with. Iteration is the key here. Sort of like how the Porsche 911 has slowly evolved.
well, the AirPods is not major, its just your regular earphone but wireless. It does not take a genius to get there. I believe wireless headsets exists before the Airpods, its just the Apple version
I've always had a bunch of watches, never dropped a lot of money on them, but some that the general public would consider "nice." The Apple Watch is my most expensive. And I would venture to guess that 90% of Apple Watch owners would never had dreamed of buying a +$400 watch before they purchased the Apple Watch.
[automerge]1581034500[/automerge]
The whole reason I bought my Series 4.
I'd be more interested in purchasing an Apple watch if they could come up with something that could take the place of my Dexcom G6. Until then I'll just stick to my analog Tag lol
True, but my comment was in reply to someone saying that no Apple watches make it to a landfill because they can be recycled, which I don’t agree with. But to your point, in the grand scheme of tech related trash, I’m sure it makes minimal difference when you have cheap android tablets that don’t last a year and have no recycling program.
[automerge]1581038690[/automerge]
A few articles I read said the airpods brought in 8 billion in revenue and 5 billion in profit for Apple. I’d call that major.... Also, touchscreen phones were around before the iPhone and well...
Last edited:
I've been a ewatch user since the first "Pebble" hit the streets and never looked back. Then the Apple watch hit and I've been thru 1 to 5, buy the cheapest model and roll it annually as they are basically disposable. It's the functionality, from opening my garage (or car) doors when I'm home from a walk, to Hue light control, checkout at the market with a flick of the wrist, pellet grill notifications, and myriads of other really helpful tasks without whipping out a phone. Clearly others have seen the light as well. If you love having a $10k lump of basic time on your wrist, go nuts, that's what makes us individuals.
i smiled at your analogy of the apple watch being the current day pager.
the tech of the pager limited its effective use cases.
the tech in this apple wearable is almost unlimited.
but the problem starts with the title of this macrumors article.
the premise of the article is really old and needs to change.
comparing the apple watch to swiss watches is absurd.
they are completely different products and serve completely different markets.
Except I’ve read about several examples in this thread where someone intentionally or unintentionally replaced their high-end mechanical watch for an Apple Watch. They aren’t completely different products since both occupy the same space on your wrist, and even though they aren’t worn solely to tell the time, they also aren’t considered non-functional jewelry.
Tag spent a ton of money developing their own smart watch. Last I checked it sold for $2K, and it was 100% intended to be these two “completely different products“ at the same time. There isn’t a 1:1 correlation—no one is saying that—but to claim they aren’t correlated at all doesn't Make sense either.
They have different purposes. If you're in a workout or walking around your house or walking to dogs with limited access to your phone, an Apple Watch is more appropriate.
However, if you're at a business meeting, a social event, a ceremonial event where style and class are king and distractions are unwanted, a mechanical watch is a better choice.
More appropriate to the conversation I have a 100 year old pocket watch that still runs, but I’m not going to take off my Apple Watch and carry it.
So, we’ve gone from ‘I’ve never seen an Apple Watch in the wild’ to ‘too many people are wearing them’.
I wear my Omega just about every day. I think the Apple Watch is practical in its own way, but it is redundant for me since I always have my phone with me.
Also, I love the ticks and the sweeping mechanical movement of the seconds hand. I don’t get that satisfaction with an Apple Watch
Forget the signatures, the record for an Apple 1 computer is $905,000 - - it's from the same time period as when the guy bought his watch, similar price at the time, and yet sold for even more than that guy's lucky Rolex ($500,000 - $700,000).
__________________
Edit: This is where I should have dropped out of this discussion - - in the immortal words of Mark Twain:
“Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”
Last edited: