After both trying on the Apple Watch and playing with a fully functional model (on display that can't be tried on), I've personally observed the following:
1. The quality.
The build quality is not an issue. On the contrary, it feels like you would expect Apple products to feel like. As I had not preordered and was telling myself that I wasn't interested until a 2nd or 3rd generation model once they made improvements such as making it thinner, better battery life, and additional sensors, as well as seeing what the generation to generation upgrade cycle was like (would bands work with multiple generations, etc), I went into the try-on with no real expectations. I was surprised at the feel, look and nice weight of the stainless steel model. So of course I immediately switched to a feeling of want. Why do you think they want you to try it on. But that led me to...
2. The band options and respective pricing.
I immediately gravitate to the link bracelet because all my recent watches, Citizen Eco-Drive, Seiko Kinetic, Victorinox as well as my friend's Tag have all had that style band. I'm simply not a fan of leather or acrylic style bands. When I tried on the stainless steel with link bracelet I was really surprised by how end it felt. And of course my want level increased. Likewise I was happy at the feel of the sport band but would only use this as a switch out for the link bracelet for working out or other activities where I don't want to wear the link. But the pricing is a huge issue. A fairly nice watch with a nice band is easily worth $1000 but you get a nice watch and not wearable tech that has built in obsolescence. And when you consider that the sport band stainless version is $600, $400 more for a nicer band is somewhat absurd. No Movado or Tag is sold quantifying the band at $400-500 of the watch pricing. In truth at that price, all link versions should include a black or white sport band free for the reasons I mentioned.
3. The UI.
Messing with the display model, I felt like certain aspects of the watch UI were not intuitive and that was never an issue with the iPod, iPhone or iPad at any point in their evolution, even the early generations. I personally would like to see more clean watch faces too. I know you can turn off all the corner markers, but I feel like unless there is a notification of some sort or I am using a Glance, I only want it to look like a nice watch when I look at it. The videos that have been posted show how cool Siri can be with the watch and what some of the functionality can do. But it is also disappointing that there are not more watch faces.
That's my $.02. I certainly want one more than I did but only really like the SS with Link and that runs $1,000 plus $50 for a backup band which isn't really acceptable considering 12-18 months from now Apple Watch 2 will be out and there is no way to know resale value, whether an expensive Link bracelet band will translate to version 2 or 3. But I don't know that I would get a $400 sport band sport aluminum watch for the functionality but to save on cost and give up my nice watch now.
1. The quality.
The build quality is not an issue. On the contrary, it feels like you would expect Apple products to feel like. As I had not preordered and was telling myself that I wasn't interested until a 2nd or 3rd generation model once they made improvements such as making it thinner, better battery life, and additional sensors, as well as seeing what the generation to generation upgrade cycle was like (would bands work with multiple generations, etc), I went into the try-on with no real expectations. I was surprised at the feel, look and nice weight of the stainless steel model. So of course I immediately switched to a feeling of want. Why do you think they want you to try it on. But that led me to...
2. The band options and respective pricing.
I immediately gravitate to the link bracelet because all my recent watches, Citizen Eco-Drive, Seiko Kinetic, Victorinox as well as my friend's Tag have all had that style band. I'm simply not a fan of leather or acrylic style bands. When I tried on the stainless steel with link bracelet I was really surprised by how end it felt. And of course my want level increased. Likewise I was happy at the feel of the sport band but would only use this as a switch out for the link bracelet for working out or other activities where I don't want to wear the link. But the pricing is a huge issue. A fairly nice watch with a nice band is easily worth $1000 but you get a nice watch and not wearable tech that has built in obsolescence. And when you consider that the sport band stainless version is $600, $400 more for a nicer band is somewhat absurd. No Movado or Tag is sold quantifying the band at $400-500 of the watch pricing. In truth at that price, all link versions should include a black or white sport band free for the reasons I mentioned.
3. The UI.
Messing with the display model, I felt like certain aspects of the watch UI were not intuitive and that was never an issue with the iPod, iPhone or iPad at any point in their evolution, even the early generations. I personally would like to see more clean watch faces too. I know you can turn off all the corner markers, but I feel like unless there is a notification of some sort or I am using a Glance, I only want it to look like a nice watch when I look at it. The videos that have been posted show how cool Siri can be with the watch and what some of the functionality can do. But it is also disappointing that there are not more watch faces.
That's my $.02. I certainly want one more than I did but only really like the SS with Link and that runs $1,000 plus $50 for a backup band which isn't really acceptable considering 12-18 months from now Apple Watch 2 will be out and there is no way to know resale value, whether an expensive Link bracelet band will translate to version 2 or 3. But I don't know that I would get a $400 sport band sport aluminum watch for the functionality but to save on cost and give up my nice watch now.
I haven't actually been this excited about a new toy since i bought a networked amplifier for my audio system.