Apple Watch iPhone Companion App Reveals New Details About Upcoming Wearable

[ZCT]

You're right. It is my opinion. It's also my opinion you don't have a good grasp on what a horological complication is. If you did, I doubt you would still be pushing your software analogy.

Okay, let's get back to basics.

Wikipedia defines a complication thusly, "In horology, the study of clocks and watches, a complication refers to any feature in a timepiece beyond the simple display of hours and minutes. A timepiece indicating only hours and minutes is otherwise known as a simple movement. Common complications in commercial watches are day/date displays, alarms, chronographs, and automatic winding mechanisms."

Therefore by definition, Apple could choose to describe any of the features of their watch beyond basic time keeping as a complication.

Further, Patek Phillipe claims to have made some of the most complicated ultra-complicated watches in the world. One example being their Patek Philippe Calibre 89, a pocket watch with 1728 parts and 33 complications.

While that is an engineering marvel and something certainly to be admired, I would imagine that the programming required to perform all of the functions of the Apple Watch would run to millions of lines of code, produced by dozens of elite programmers over the past few years.

I clearly am not claiming that a Patek Philippe Calibre 89 is the same as an Apple watch. Then again, most people don't have six million dollars to spend on a two pound pocket watch, regardless of its complications.

 

[newagemac]

I don't know where you're pulling your iPhone 6 numbers from but on eBay/Amazon/Swappa they're selling for way more than 350. It's closer to $600-650 for a used 64GB right now. I'd be happy to buy it from you for 350 and resell it for $600

Make no mistake, Apple products (especially iPhones) hold their value very well. No other 4 month old phone sells close to retail on the used market like the iPhone 6/6+.

My guess is he pulled it from some area in or around his gluteus maximus.

 

[oliversl]

Wow, Jony Ive is really making progress in UI design. Now you can have an infinite list of settings. #fixthenosedivetim

 

[HenryDJP]

I'm not even gonna lie. I'm buying this day one just because I can.

And thank you for beta testing so I don't have to waste my money and come here crying when things don't work as most beta testers do.

 

[pfarfour]

202 comments in and the word samsung, pebble, etc. have hardly been used. Instead the conversation has been about horology, swiss watch making, high end timepieces.

Apple Marketing: 1
Tech Forum geeks: 0

 

[Rogifan]

Wow, Jony Ive is really making progress in UI design. Now you can have an infinite list of settings. #fixthenosedivetim

That you'll touch once when you set up the device and probably never touch again.Unless of course you prefer Apple make all these decisions for you or not offer any customizations at all.

I honestly can't remember the last time I did anything with the Accessibilities section in the Settings app.

 

[VeryVito]

I sure hope it's another non-deletable app that I can move into my "DammitApple" folder.

This should surely be a separate download, right?

 

[Cloudsurfer]

What would be the point of that? Just buy a regular watch for way less money. Or a really nice watch for the same amount.

To conserve battery life? You will not always be around a charger so it'll be nice to know how it fares with everything turned off. So you can still check the time when your phone runs out of juice.

 

[tooloud10]

This is either going to be the greatest device I've ever owned or I'll give up on it after the third day...not sure which yet.

 

[pjh]

202 comments in and the word samsung, pebble, etc. have hardly been used. Instead the conversation has been about horology, swiss watch making, high end timepieces.

Apple Marketing: 1
Tech Forum geeks: 0

Exactly! Whether people like it or not Apple have been very skilful about how they have pushed the whole context of this device. While the watch might have as much in common with high end watches as a banana, they've made the link and that's what they wanted. I don't know why so many people can't see that.

 

[diamond.g]

Interesting way of managing the home screen on the watch. Though I wonder if it would be faster to use Voice to launch an app than using the crown.

 

[usarioclave]

Actually, "complications" could be a really hilarious pun/inside joke.

As has been said before, a complication is essentially "extra crap put on the watch that made it more difficult to make." Complication sounds like a term made by the watch maker, not the watch marketer.

What is an Apple watch except a really ridiculous complication? It's probably going to be the most complicated watch ever made. So the use of the term may be not just homage, but self-mocking as well.

 

[DudeDad]

You are being silly. Even a 5 year old knows what the word watch means based on the context it's used. I can guarantee you if you asked an Ivy League student what a "complication" was 99% would give you the common english meaning, not the horological definition.

I would guess most people don't know the control knob on a watch is called a "crown," but "crown" doesn't have negative connotations like "complication." Crown as a control knob also is an intuitive name because it looks like a crown. So there are distinctions to be made, all of which point to what is easy for the average consumer to understand.



But it's not "high end" watch terminology. It's just watch jargon. Fine if you are a collector or watchmaker. When your average consumer goes in to even the best of jewelry stores for a watch they don't ask to see a Breitling with lots of complications. They ask for one with day/date and chronograph. In fact, that's how the catalogs read too.

And I don't know about smart watches being sad and geeky. Depends which one. But being a stuffy and snotty horologist is something I'd want to be associated with even less. Apple has worked hard to make its brand youthful, fresh and simple. Not sure why Apple would endeavor to change that to pretentious and unnecessary. In the past Apple has made its mark on its own terms, not others.

I believe it's Apple's way of trying to keep this classified as a watch and not a "smart watch", which is what the competition is producing. I'm not defending it, I just was explaining that's what I believe they are doing. And look what it's done...you've had a lesson in horology.

As for the crown...yeah, most people know it's called a crown.

 

[CausticSoda]

I loved reading a few of the earlier posts about "complications". It is a lovely word, and I have not encountered its use in the context of horology. I hope it proves useful in a future pub quiz...

As for the watch, like many, I stopped wearing one post-iPhone. Perhaps the 2nd or 3rd gen might tempt?

 

[MozMan68]

I was just having a conversation with co-workers about buying one of these...as a person who has always worn a watch, I do not want to give up on my very nice Omega. But I love the idea of what Apple is doing here as far as the ability to track fitness AS WELL AS have something that is not a "cheap looking fitness band" type of device on my wrist.

Think of all the sub-30 year old folks now that will suddenly be wearing watches and the infinite future possibilities around bands and new models that Apple will surely introduce.

For me, I'm seriously looking at this right now, but missed the pre-order date.

http://kairostband.com/

Way cheaper, just as kewl (IMHO) and will allow me to keep my high end analog face.

 

[cmChimera]

I like a nice watch as much as the next guy, but do we really need any of these features? To me it seems like more of a bother to the user than a feature. Seriously? I need a watch to tell me to stand up every hour. Come on guys, isn't that kind of embarrassing? Imagine your on a date and your watch beeps and your date asks "what's that?", and you say, oh, it's just my watch reminding me to stand up because I'm a lazy ass..... Oh yeah, that's real attractive..

Options:
1. Don't be so insecure
2. Turn that feature off.
3. Realize that she can't hear your notification.

if anyone actually buys this watch, are they going to be stupid enough to go running with it? As soon as a few people get bopped from behind in Central Park and their 700 buck watch jacked, that will be the end of that tune.

I plan on running with my watch. I find it pretty unlikely that I'll be robbed of it. At the very least, I find it to be as unlikely as me getting robbed of my iPhone. Could it happen? Yeah, and some people get robbed, but it's not exactly a common occurrence for most people. Also, as other have mentioned, people walk (not run) with way more expensive accessories.

That is true. But when there are no solid gold watches on the market for $1,000, why and how would Apple introduce the cheapest one? And cheaper by 90% compared to even the cheaper luxury brand versions of their solid gold watches. Gold plated could be sold at the $1,000 price range. But I understand that the Edition is not just plated.

If you can find a solid gold watch being sold new for under $1,200 let me know. I just don't think that is remotely what the pricing is for that type of item.

This is a new product category for Apple, and as far as the Edition, something pretty new altogether. Most high end watches have a substantial price markup, and we're not sure if Apple will follow suit. They may, but I've seen multiple arguments for and against them doing so that make sense, so it's a little too early to assume the price.

 

[Mic2904]

Biggest achievement for the apple watch is yet to be confirmed, but it's rumored it can tell the time

 

[co.ag.2005]

I would say "once upon a time" to that in this day and age Apple products resale value has plummeted lower than ever. I probably could only sell my used iPhone 6 64gb for about 350-400 at this point and it's only around 4 months old.

I agree with Poppy that 1st Gen Apple products have a much shorter life than the 2nd gen follow up, in the iPhone's case 3rd gen as the 3GS was around for a much longer time than the OG and the 3G. It's almost a miracle that the 2nd Gen iPad is still supported in 2015.

swappa says otherwise, and this is for a "locked to at&t" iPhone 6

http://swappa.com/buy/apple-iphone-6-att/us

Edit: after reading the entire thread, you just used that price as an example... glad you don't truly think it would only sell for that much

 

[doelcm82]

Biggest achievement for the apple watch is yet to be confirmed, but it's rumored it can tell the time

If all you need is something to tell the time, you don't need an Apple Watch (or any smart watch). If all you need is something to make phone calls with, you don't need an iPhone (or any smart phone).

If you hear someone say "it's just a watch, you know you're dealing with an idiot, a jerk, or both. Same goes for those who say "it's just a phone". Laugh at them. Laugh loudly and at great length.

 

[Dezryth]

Nevertheless writing code is a relatively common skill that can be learned by a big percentage of the population if they so desire, whereas the skills needed to say make a watch that chimes the hours and minutes, with springs of secret alloy metals and little hammers that sound sweet, is more like an artisan craft that is passed on through the generations like the formula for the glue used in a Chippendale chair, or the skill required to select the sternpost for the mightiest of the 18the century Oak ships.

But my point was only that Jonny Ive made a *big deal* about showing respect for the tradition and I think he's showing disrespect. It's not so much that they want to call an image of a 'complication' a 'complication' that's fine, but let's not big ourselves up as well Jonny.

There's no disrespect here. If anything it's keeping the timepiece and the tradition alive. Think of all the people who are going to learn what a complication is when the word would have otherwise continued heading toward being obsolete.

You are just looking for something to complain about. Damn, get off your high horse. What should they have been called? Watchface Glance notifications? It's smart to use a word that already exists to describe something like this.

 

[capricorn71]

I am an Apple fan and a watch fan. So the Apple watch is a must-have for me.
But I am a little bit disappointed, as the watch will only Sync with an iPhone.
I don' t have one, as I don't need one.
Why are there these constraints? Why can't the watch work with an iPad?

I had an Abacus WristPDA. It synched by iSync with my old Mac.
For me a cool Little device.

In the post-PC aera synching to an iPad would be appropiate.
So I can only hope, the Apple watch can at least replace my Casio wrist calculator. ( Yes, I am a nerd )

 

[StyxMaker]

Just what we need. More options in the Settings.

It's getting kinda full for stuff that just works.

Don't blame Apple, it's the users who clamored for more options and settings.

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Jonny Ive made a big deal about researching and respecting the tradition of the watch so it's a bit rich to rip off the word 'complications' and apply it in such a trite way to something that is in reality just an image of a complication. 'Complication', always referred to the ridiculously complicated extra mechanisms that only the greatest of the master watchmakers could build. Often they were frivolous in practice but impossibly beautiful in execution.



Now it's just a few lines of code that gets the epithet.

In watchmaking there are complications and grand complications. I would agree with you if they had called them grand complications.

 

[Julien]

Great exclusive interview with Mark Gurman today on Tech New Today. Time Code 1:30

http://twit.tv/show/tech-news-today/1174

 

[manu chao]

It never ceases that you arrive in the middle of my discourse and assume I mean something totally differently. Timing huh? I do understand the meaning of a horological complication. I was pointing out the logical fallacy of telso's statement by using his hyperbolic "logic" against him. Context man, context.

My post was not meant as a comment on your post. It was a comment on the general topic of how the term complications could be applied to smartwatches. I just replied to your post in order to ensure that somebody interested in and knowledgeable about the term complications would see my post via a quote notification.

One could argue what you state but they would be wrong. Showing other stuff on the face of the watch doesn't suddenly make it not a watch. One would also be wrong about the exceptions. Complications of different categories are, with very few exceptions, displayed separately. Time complications are displayed separately from striking complications which are displayed separately from astrological complications. Not every watch as all three and there are subsets in each category.

I think we mean different things when we say 'displayed separately'. To my knowledge, mechanical watches don't have switches that make the watch face disappear to show the complication (the exceptions I thought of were watches where you can flip the whole watch and see something else on the backside). The watch arms might be used to display the complication but the actual face (the non-moving part) doesn't change.

One can argue a lot what can or should be called a complication on a watch with a digital display. But in the end, one cannot make any absolute statements, only ones about the degrees of appropriateness. At one end of the scale, a smartwatch doesn't have to use the term complications for any of its functions as there is nothing strictly normative about the term complications in regard to digital devices. And at the other end, the term complications could be used for any function other than showing the time. Whether calling a display of your heart rate a complication is a good idea or not is certainly open to question, not least since we had sportwatches for maybe 20 years now and I don't think anybody has called any of their non-time-telling features a complication.

But smartwatches are just at their very beginning (if we differentiate between sportwatches and smartwatches) and anybody who is successful in this category has the potential to be normative about how language is used to describe its components and features in the way that other companies like Google have become normative about what the verb 'to google' means.

 

[StyxMaker]

Gorilla glass is ion strengthened glass, they discuss that in a video corning has on the material. Therefore it is safe to say that ion reinforced glass is gorilla glass

Except Gorilla Glass is a trade marked product of Corning, ion strengthened glass is not. By using the term ion strengthened glass Apple is indicating they may buy it from Corning.