“I was reminded, as I watched a live stream of Tag Heuer’s shouty boss build hype for his company’s second Android Wear watch, just how difficult it is to make a good smartwatch,” Vlad Savov writes for The Verge. “As users, we expect all the thinness, lightness, and versatility that we’re used to from smartphones, but married to the always-on time display and two-day battery life of a mechanical watch. And we’re only willing to pay impulse-purchase prices.”
“As things stand today, two years after its release, the Apple Watch still presents the best balance between looks, size, function, battery life, and price,” Savov writes. “Apple simply designed its way around the shortcomings of smartwatches better than everyone else. The company seems to have been conscious of the fact that, like a parked car, the watch will sit inactive most of the time, and so it needed to have an appearance that was appealing even without surfacing a time.”
“It’s a sculpted black monolith, whose darkness spills over the edges and either blends into a black metal frame or contrasts nicely with a lighter color. Returning to the car analogy, it reminds me of a fine auto with tinted windows, which is not a bad association to have. The Apple Watch is self-evidently a piece of technology, but its soft, pebbly shape is friendly and universal,” Savov writes. “So, for the immediate future at least, the Apple Watch looks like the best designed smartwatch that any of us can get.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In the Days of Steve, watchOS 1 and 2 would have existed only within Apple, rejected by Steve as he sent Kevin Lynch et al. back to the drawing board to get it right. After millions of early Apple Watch adopters – including us, very happily – beta-tested the thing in public for Apple (standing in for Steve, so to speak, as beta testers), we finally got here to watchOS 3 (or what Steve’s Apple would have released to the public as watchOS 1.0).
Regardless, the Apple Watch on the market today, especially Series 2/Nike+, now fulfills its promise. It’s certainly the best smartwatch on the market, by a large margin.
We can hardly wait for “Series 3” and watchOS 4!
But all that means is that it’s the best of the useless watch products. In the end, it’s still useless.
You obviously don’t have an Apple Watch. You non-AW people who naysay AW are all the same. Spouting meaningless babble to make yourself feel better because you can’t afford to get, or are too stupid to understand why you’d want, an AW.
Actual AW users laugh at your ignorant comments.
Every Apple Watch owner seems to think that this device is the most important human invention of all time. I guess this view is better than expressing buyer’s remorse.
I had the original apple watch for many months before ultimately selling it to one of my friends. I travel a lot for my job and having to recharge it every night just wasn’t worth it for me. I replaced it with the Withings steel hr which does everything that the apple watch did that I found useful (basic notifications, activity tracking, heart rate monitor, waterproof) for much less money, always on time (it’s a real watch) and month long battery life.
Great you found something that works for you.
I travel a lot as well for work and found no issue with setting my watch to charge when I plug my iPhone in for the night. Not a big deal.
I have a few of the Withings products – the latest scale, BP monitor and App, and they make great stuff.
I may switch back to the apple watch when they release a version with at least a 2 day or quick charging battery. I have a sleeping disorder so sleep tracking has become very important to me. (I admittedly miss apple pay on the watch. that was the best feature by far)
at the age of 83, I find many uses for my watch. If I were to fall or have an MI, I just push in the oblong button to summon 911, give out my coordinates and notify my wife and son that I needed to make a 911 call. I track my heartbeat on my hour walk I make every day and its keeps me on time in taking pills.I have lost weight and inches using apps for the watch. I use the time frequently. I can now have that 2nd martini and not forget to take the meat off the barbecue. These are just a few examples why this watch is so very valuable to me.
The Apple Watch is only useful to fanboys.
Love my Apple Watch s2 nike…. for notification/messaging, health/ activity monitoring and ohhhh how sweet it us to use Apple pay on Apple watch…
And its just the beginning!
Addicted to the thing.
🙂
Addicted? That’s a sad acknowledgement. Your opinion is weak, biased, and pathetic.
It’s still ugly, thick and somewhat pointless unless you a fitness fanatic. I have only seen 3 or 4 in the wild.
I personally don’t like the Apple Watch, but I can’t deny its success. I see it everywhere. It’s also not very thick (have you seen some of these watches like Invictas?) considering the awesome power packed inside of it. And as the author said, it’s definitely an attractive piece considering what Jony Ive had to accomplish.
However I just refuse to put up with the hassle of charging my watch every night, so Apple Watch remains one of the few products from Cupertino that I’ve never owned.
….however I just refuse to put up with the hassle of winding my watch every morning……
What a dickhead!
First of all, most mechanical watches have a reserve of nearly two days when fully wound.
Second, there’s a reason automatic movements were created–people hated the idea of winding their watches! The Seiko automatic I wear as my daily timepiece winds itself with the movement of my wrist. I never wind it, moron.
Third, there’s a reason quartz watches were invented and took over the world–because even automatics can be too much maintenance. Most people with watches have a battery inside that gets replaced every 5 years or so and they don’t have to worry about anything.
This isn’t the Depression, I have other options besides hand winding my goddamn watch everyday or charging it.
But you still persist in talking about a time keeper. . . the least of what the Apple Watch does. Every other one you talk about ONLY keeps time and nothing else.
My watch has notifications, sleep tracking (try that apple watch), activity tracking (including swimming), heart rate monitor and the battery lasts for a month (while recharging in only 30 minutes). The time is also displayed on my watch with an always on display. I love it WAY more than the apple watch that I had for several months.
I notice you don’t bother to name this miracle watch. . .
The withings steel HR
You claimed this miracle watch has the same functions as the Apple Watch. . . here is Withings own site’s photos of their screens on the watch. . . and it is no where close in functions to the Apple Watch.
3or 4 in the wild??? Are you kidding me?? Are you from Nebraska or Iowa? I live in Northern California and I see multiple AW’s every day including the series 2 I have and the series 2 my gal friend wears. I would not be without it for all it does. I still have over 60% battery when I take it off at night to put in my cool little rubber Apple Macintosh replica where it gets cradled and charged with very little effort!
I see them all the time in Metro Detroit as well. And on wrists of people of all ages too! I was recently in a Grocery Store that takes Apple Pay, when I paid with my WATCH the very old female clerk asked me to show her how to setup Apple Pay on her WATCH, and she held up her arm to show me her 38mm pink WATCH! Even though I was in a hurry, I took the 5 minutes to help a fellow WATCH user!
“either blends into a black metal frame or contrasts nicely with a lighter color. ”
Those clever Apple bastards, they didn’t go the route of other watches, instead they made their watches either black or a lighter colour (silver). Where did they find such geniuses?
I have the latest Apple Watch. I didn’t think it was all that appealing before I bought it but was willing to give it a try. Anyway after several months I have taken it off and have gone back to my analog watch. It really doesn’t do anything I care about. I don’t think it is particularly attractive, just a rectangular thing on my wrist. Not sure where those who think it’s design is genius are seeing that I don’t. I have seen other android watches that I think are more visually appealing, but I have no interest in going that direction.
What is the big deal about charging AW every night? My charger is on the night stand. As I lay me down to sleep, I take off my AW (as I previously did with my dumb watches) and click it to the charger. In the morning I put it back on. OH, THE HUMANITY!
The apple watch competes with devices that have sleep tracking. Charging it at night eliminates this functionality as an option.
And yet, I wear my watch to bed every night for sleep tracking, with no issues. I just take it off an hour before bed to charge up for the next day.
I am thrilled that Apple Watch has brought purpose and meaning to so many. I shudder to imagine the degradation and worthlessness some suffered for so long without Apple Watch.
Time “usually” ages a design. But the Watch looks even better today as a design object than it did the day it was released. That’s a testament to great design. That’s the very definition of timeless design.