Apple Watch for £184/£224 - worth it?

[0003462]

For the folks using an Apple Watch:

Apple kindly gave me a £75 voucher for my iPhone 4s recently, bringing a potential Apple Watch purchase down to £184/£224 (I don't know which size I'd get for my skinny man-wrists).

Do you folks reckon - at this time - the Watch is worth this money?

Fitness tracking, wrist-Siri (for directions, music control, alarms) and novelty/convenience (notifications, sunset/sunrise times, wrist-Apple Pay) are what interest me. Third-party apps do not, except the Starbucks app.

Do you folks feel the Watch is too slow for these tasks?

The voucher will either go toward a Watch or wireless headphones in the future.

Cheers lovely people, Scott.

 

[Brenster]

Personally I bought into Apple Watch with the 38mm Space Grey Sport last June, so I've been using it for nearly a year now.

LOVE:

Apple Pay for the morning coffee
iMessage/email notifications to the wrist
Reminders/calendar notifications to the wrist
Telling the time(!)
Using Siri to set timers in the kitchen whilst cooking
Getting BBC/Guardian breaking news notifications to the wrist
Workouts/activities prompts to 'get up and move about' and to track leisurely walks during my lunch break
Skipping/pausing tracks on my iPhone whilst walking
Phone calls to the wrist whilst driving
The looks and feel of the device with Apple nylon band

DON'T LOVE:

Occasionally slow to react to apps opening
Siri mishearing/misinterpreting me

It's not the second coming of the iPhone. Its lovely to have and I find it genuinely useful but it will not change your life. Love mine enough to be actively considering an upgrade to a 42mm stainless steel watch.

In terms of the requirements you list, it'll do all of those with aplomb. Watch OS 2 is an improvement over 1 in all respect whilst still having the odd interface oddity. Third party apps, in quantity, quality and speed are the weakest aspect of Apple Watch so far. The first party stuff is all good though and as long you don't expect everything to be instant you should be fine speed wise.

Short answer would be to arrange for an in-store try out of both the 38mm and 42mm Sport models with both the Sport and Nylon bands. The Watch look and feel, both in materials and how well it fits your wrist, is such a personal thing that there is no real substitute for trying it out in person and making the call yourself.