Hands-On First Impressions of the New Apple Watch

[wendel7]

You people are hysterical

One of my favorite parts of Apple events is reading all the disappointed comments that people post on the products. What's even better than reading all the comments (made by foremost design artists here at macrumors)? The fact that 90% of you go out and buy the products that you hate so very much.

 

[Matt Leaf]

I have a G-Shock which I love, and to be honest I went back to it after being sick of years worth of digging my phone out just to know the time.

If Apple are really going to compete in this space then I don't think they'll have much of a chance until the actual watch models differ.

Currently it's all cosmetic, but as other have mentioned - waterproof, tough watches are key for heaps of people, and for this to truly take off.

And yes they'll sell a bucketload. But your run of the mill handyman, worker, outdoors person will not buy it.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Is my iphone a device thats being described as a fitness monitor that i can't use when im swimming?

My point is that the Apple watch is much closer to my iPhone than my waterproof Rolex in terms of construction. I wouldn't expect waterproof initially, that may come later.

 

[tcm1975]

That's the interesting question. You have two relatively unrelated things vying for space on the wrist.

But that's the puzzling part to me. Apple has doubled down on the gamble of reinventing the watch. It's clearly not a fashion accessory and your typical "under 30" Apple buyer doesn't wear any watch. The people who wear watches with $350+ to spend aren't going to buy this imo. As you said it's a different product. And I can't speak for the rest of the world but in the USA if you group all the 18-60 year olds who wear a watch the percentage of "watch wearers" goes up the closer you get to 60 and is almost non-existent as you get down closer to 18.

As I said. The Mac Pro of watches. There's a sweet spot for this product. It's just a small one.

 

[Reds622]

Well, apps are going to play a huge role, thats what makes the other iOS devices so popular compared to the competition.

Oooh ooh how about

1. Drink Alerter. An app that counts how many times you have made the gesture motion of drinking from a glass and warns you when you exceed a limit. In fact this could be changed into a drinking game app.

2. Virtual Boxing, it's like a wii controller. Maybe disputes could be humoured with a virtual scrap where the person that can air punch the most in 10 seconds wins

3. Virtual table tennis (with sound and a little vibration when the virtual ball bounces of your virtual bat)

4. Darts / Golf etc score card, networked to your buddies. It could even rate your swing.

5. Air drummer, networked again so you could have a group of people jamming away with diff air instruments.

6. Sleeping alert apps, silent vibration alerts direct to your skin. The casinos might not like that one!

The interface doesn't require you to hold anything which is the obvious strength, it really is hands free. It will get some great ideas and *cough* some daft ones but I think it needs time to be out awhile before we really know how it will do. Sports and health care are the obvious big ones due to the sensors so will see.

Anim

You make some good points.. But at the end of the day, a watch is an intimate device. Unlike a phone, everyone sees it. Thus, perception and look of the device matter. I think it is reallllly a stretch to say that those people who did not wear watches before the Apple Watch will rush out and buy this thing. Don't see that happening at all, do you?

 

[StyxMaker]

Image

I really hope you don't think those look anything like the Apple Watch. If so you desperately need to get your vision checked.

 

[miketheappleguy]

My point is that the Apple watch is much closer to my iPhone than my waterproof Rolex in terms of construction. I wouldn't expect waterproof initially, that may come later.

Which is why I feel apple may have rushed it. They added so many people not long ago that there is no way this was their intended final product

 

[douglasf13]

But that's the puzzling part to me. Apple has doubled down on the gamble of reinventing the watch. It's clearly not a fashion accessory and your typical "under 30" Apple buyer doesn't wear any watch. The people who wear watches with $350+ to spend aren't going to buy this imo. As you said it's a different product. And I can't speak for the rest of the world but in the USA if you group all the 18-60 year olds who wear a watch the percentage of "watch wearers" goes up the closer you get to 60 and is almost non-existent as you get down closer to 18.

As I said. The Mac Pro of watches. There's a sweet spot for this product. It's just a small one.

That was my point. I don't think they're only going after watch wearers, since most watch wearers these days are wearing them simply as jewelry. I think they're going after those that don't wear watches. Whether the technology is enough to pull people in remains to be seen.

 

[macenied]

Good move. The watch is out.

With a product where people can get religious ( Rolex ... ) it's not easy to meet or exceed everyones expectations. There might be more appealing designs or user interfaces, there might be cheaper watches.

Apple showed what they plan to do with this wrist device and so they contribute a lot to mainstream these new wrist devices.

Let the Apple Watch be waterproof and give it an acceptable battery life and Apple has a winner again.

 

[whiteboytrash]

You make some good points.. But at the end of the day, a watch is an intimate device. Unlike a phone, everyone sees it. Thus, perception and look of the device matter. I think it is reallllly a stretch to say that those people who did not wear watches before the Apple Watch will rush out and buy this thing. Don't see that happening at all, do you?

Why does it matter what people do or if they rush out and buy it?

Watches are limited by screen real estate. They can never be a full function device. They are a information update tool - time, date, notifications etc.

It also addresses the limitation of an iPhone. The phone is in your pocket and that limit in was always you had to take it out to read text, use maps etc. With the watch accessory you don't have to.

I use google maps on my bike. I wear headphones for the directions. With a watch I don't need to.

Thus to your point; This is not a device for those who don't wear watches. It's a device for those who have a iPhone who can't use their phone in a given moment or just want simple, short information updates from their phone without taking the unit out of their pocket.

Haptic feedback and the digital crown for accuracy are the key here.

 

[Anim]

You make some good points.. But at the end of the day, a watch is an intimate device. Unlike a phone, everyone sees it. Thus, perception and look of the device matter. I think it is reallllly a stretch to say that those people who did not wear watches before the Apple Watch will rush out and buy this thing. Don't see that happening at all, do you?

I must admit that now it doesn't appear to be a "fashion" device yet but I would need to see it in person to be sure. As for what it displays while awake could be anything left to app developers imagination and thus be very adaptable to an individuals taste. E.g. Matrix display, Predator counter, Flaming watch hands...the sky is the limit there i guess.

 

[zedzded]

It’s ugly and lacks functionality. If Apple think they are selling something that will appeal to the mass market, they are highly deluded. Perhaps in 2 – 3 years, when the smart watch has evolved, more people will start wearing them, but in its current guise, it’s nothing more than an ugly gimmick.

 

[sracer]

I'll just stick with this, thanks.

Image

That's my thought as well. I just picked up a silver 8GB Nano in mint condition and an aluminum Lunatik watchband for about $100. It actually is more in line with what I'm looking for than the watch.

But good for those who are interested in that.

 

[StyxMaker]

Compared to this, what do you guys think of the UI comparison. is it night and day?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFi-QpuZfXs



Image

So, why did she have to swipe twice several times to get the watch to do what she wanted? I like the looks of the Apple Watch, but then I'm not irrationally opposed to square watches. I'm wearing a Casio Echo-Drive with a square face now.

 

[Four oF NINE]

Which is why I feel apple may have rushed it. They added so many people not long ago that there is no way this was their intended final product

As I queried in a prior comment, I have to wonder how much 'room for improvement' was baked into the first generation. I suppose we'll see, because early adopters like myself are willing to overlook first gen hiccups to get the tech features. It's cheap enough, why not?

 

[Aeolius]

A textbook example of how NOT to sell a product. After watching this demo, I feel the Apple Watch was thrown together with no cohesive vision. App selection, for example; dozens of tiny dots? What a nightmare. Make selections by page-flipping would have been so much better. And yeah... water resistant, NOT waterproof. Ugh.

 

[polee]

This is an unimaginative design for a watch. Looks like an iPod Nano retrofitted to become an apple watch with some minor modifications. No wow factor so unlike the time, for example, when the Macbook Air was launched.

 

[Zwhaler]

Phew.. That was a long one.

Well put, I enjoyed reading that.

 

[fortysomegeek]

Compared to this, what do you guys think of the UI comparison. is it night and day?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFi-QpuZfXs

Wow. And in a very,very bad way.

This is the first time I notice but the 360 ticks. View 41 seconds into that clip.

The Apple watch sweeps the second hand; emulating a mechanical automatic watch. That is a big turn-off on the Moto 360 but I assume Google can fix that in software.

Now watch the reveal of the Apple watch. Look at the .46 time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Q2gH1PGTrg

 

[KALLT]

One of my favorite parts of Apple events is reading all the disappointed comments that people post on the products. What's even better than reading all the comments (made by foremost design artists here at macrumors)? The fact that 90% of you go out and buy the products that you hate so very much.

It happens every time. When the iPad was introduced, hell broke lose on the web. I remember that Steve Jobs got almost depressed after reading so many negative comments. Only to come back with a success story the year after. Even now, iPad continues to be the tablet of choice for many people. The emotions will disappear in the coming weeks and months.

I am positively surprised of the Apple Watch and I say that as someone who doesn’t like watches and is very sceptical of the prospects of smartwatches at this time. Apple has done several things right – they put a lot of effort into design and customisability; they thought about interaction by adding the crown and a new gesture; they included specific hardware to measure some of your vital signs, to give the watch some unique capabilities (killer apps); and they added lots of fun elements with the walkie-talkie and gesture communication and gimmicky watch interfaces. Add to that some decent iOS 8 integration, this could be very interesting.

Even though I am not the target customer for this product, I can see its benefits and success. My only two concerns are that the user experience looked very unorganised and confusing, with lots of random swipes and hard presses and an unintuitive UI overall. It is certainly not the most straightforward product to use, especially when compared with Android Wear’s more simple approach. The other concern is the battery life, which Apple was completely secretive about. They did say that you can ‘charge it at night’, suggesting at least an all-day battery life, but they should have addressed it as it tends to be the number-one concern with smartwatches. Now I’m thinking that they haven’t solved that problem yet.

 

[Bladers]

Are you guys for real? Have you ever held an actual (lets put the bar super low, $400) nice watch in your lives? There's a lot of things that make a luxury watch besides having a round face and a dial around it. In every single photo besides the highly post-processed one with the metal band, the Moto360 looks like a piece of junk someone buys from the jewelry counter at Walmart.

The Apple Watch is never going to look exactly like a Tag or Omega, much less a Rolex or Ulysse Nardin. No smart-watch ever will. This brings me to the most important part, which isn't features or anything of that sort.

It's a digital computer that sufficiently resembles a luxury watch:

http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/entry_photo_images/10679416/iwatch3002_verge_super_wide.jpg

That's not a professional photo. That's taken from the pavilion after the keynote.

Now, I personally don't want one because I don't need one and I don't feel it would add sufficient utility to my life at the moment. But as young attorney who has to regularly dress professionally, I'd have no problem pairing that watch with a suit.

Smart-watches will eventually become commonplace. If for no other reason than the health benefits. Today, Apple has presented a product that you never knew you needed in a package that you will actually use (read: digital crown). I'm taking a leap of faith in the company but I will bet you that once you use it for a sufficient amount time, you'll forget you ever lived without it.

The same as every other product they've ever released, when they get you to put it on in an Apple store it's going to bug you until you have one. That's the genius of their company. The adoption might not be as fast as some fanboys will preach, but it is coming. By the third iteration Apple will be selling these things like iPads. This one is just the start.

And that is why Samsung and Motorola are shaking in their boots. Everything they've come up with so far is worthless. No one who sets any trend wants to use their products. Those smart-watches are by definition, pure, trashy novelty.

Apple just changed the game. I'm excited to see what they do with the Apple Watch.

lmao. u have lost it.
the apple watch is absolute garbage.

 

[triptolemus]

My point is that the Apple watch is much closer to my iPhone than my waterproof Rolex in terms of construction. I wouldn't expect waterproof initially, that may come later.

But the Watch is more closer to the Rolex in relation to the wearer than the iPhone. I wouldn't expect a $400 wristwatch not to be sufficiently water resistant such that one could shower and swim with the thing. Deep sea diving, okay, perhaps not, but swimming? Shower? C'mon, man...

I wear a wristwatch now. It goes on in the morning, off at night. Everything's not for everyone, I get that. But it is, after all, called Watch. Not iWatch.... it's a watch, first and foremost. Or at least it should be.

 

[charlesdayton]

Hey guys, Google here. Today we are pleased to announce a revolutionary new product category. This amazing device was designed from the ground up be worn on your wrist. It has a magnificent circular touchscreen, the first of its kind. Truly magical. In terms of design, our goal was to create an elegant fashion accessory that wouldn't look out of place alongside premium Swiss timepieces. We're extremely proud of what we came up with, and we think that our customers are absolutely going to love it.

Introducing the Moto 360:

Image

Looks great in renders, but in real life is huge.

I was expecting the Apple watch to be slim like a normal watch, but it is also too bulky for my taste. I will keep using analog watches until smarwatches become thinner.

 

[CausticPuppy]

Looks really cool, and I could see myself using this. But it's not worth $350.

I also feel that Apple are just jumping on the band-wagon. Samsung has a smart watch, Motorola has a smart watch. Google are releasing one.... So Apple are just filling the gap.

And do you know why Samsung, Motorola, and Google have smart watches? Because a while back they heard a rumor that Apple was making one...


It's THIS THREAD ALL OVER AGAIN. Apple can't innovate, Apple just builds "me-too" products, too expensive, gimmicky, etc etc-- except back then it was all Steve Jobs' fault...

 

[miketheappleguy]

As I queried in a prior comment, I have to wonder how much 'room for improvement' was baked into the first generation. I suppose we'll see, because early adopters like myself are willing to overlook first gen hiccups to get the tech features. It's cheap enough, why not?

Personally I wouldn't call it cheap. I can get a polar watch for 199 dollar with the heart rate monitor. Other than the heart rate monitor my iphone can do everything the iwatch can do and can do it better. To me this thing is a 199 to 250 dollar device. But alas that's just my opinion.