“After some hands-on time with the Apple Watch, I’ve learned a few things. Perhaps the most important of which is that the majority of discussions regarding the Apple Watch by the traditional watch media have been rather misguided,” Ariel Adams reports for aBlogtoWatch. “I feel that people need to understand that the Apple Watch is not only a new type of product for Apple, but the first real ‘cross-over watch’ that wades in both the waters of technology and horology. For a moment, I’d like people to put aside their criticisms and complaints, and consider what I believe to be a future inevitability: the dominance of the smartwatch as a necessary tool in the everyday lives of everyday people.”
“There has been a lot of speculation about the prices of the steel Apple Watches as well as the gold models. In regard to the latter (Apple Watch Edition pieces), I would like to confirm that they are in fact produced from solid 18k gold and use a unique manufacturing technique selected by Apple that improves the hardness of gold. According to Apple, the extra hardness is thanks to a special gold alloy, but they didn’t go into more detail,” Adams reports. “At this point, I would be surprised if the Apple Watch Edition was priced at over $5,000, but also surprised if it was priced at under $1,500 or $2,000.”
“While an iPhone can live without an Apple Watch, all Apple Watches must have a host iPhone,” Adams reports. “A good example is during exercise. Apple indicated to me that you don’t need to take your phone around with you while you exercise, unless you require GPS functions. The Apple Watch can store some media, such as songs, independently on the device (the internal storage of the Apple Watch has yet to be announced), and it can track a lot of exercise and movement data without being connected to an iPhone. Once paired again, the Apple Watch shares data with the host apps on the phone.”
“Apple Watch users will install an Apple Watch app on their iPhone, which will be used to download apps onto the watch as well as likely manage Apple Watch settings. A user’s iPhone is also used to help with computational demands,” Adams reports. “Apple cleverly pushes a lot of processor needs to the phone in order to preserve Apple Watch battery life. Thus, the Apple Watch is snappier, with longer battery life because a lot of tasks can be off-loaded to the host phone. Having said that, aside from installing apps, most things can be done from the watch itself (such as adjust settings, customize the interface, select watch dials, switch apps, etc…)”
Tons more in the full article – highly recommended – here.
Related articles:
Five things we learned about Apple Watch at Paris Fashion Week – September 30, 2014
Apple’s Jony Ive and Marc Newson show off Apple Watch at Colette event in Paris – September 30, 2014
Apple’s design team headed to Paris Fashion Week, likely for Apple Watch event – September 29, 2014
Can Apple disrupt the luxury watch industry with a $10,000 Apple Watch? – September 17, 2014
Jean-Claude Biver: ‘The Apple Watch cannot compete at all with European watches’ – September 15, 2014
What the Apple Watch says about Apple – September 15, 2014
Tim Cook of Apple Watch battery life: ‘You’ll want to charge them every night’ – September 12, 2014
Old school watch makers don’t get Apple Watch – September 12, 2014
Apple Watch, the world’s first real smartwatch, will be a massive hit – September 9, 2014
Apple iWatch designer Jony Ive: Switzerland is in deep shit – September 4, 2014
Let me know when it has wireless charging. I won’t buy a watch I have to plug in though, otherwise, I do like what I’ve seen of this device.
This is from the product page:
“In fact, our goal was to make Apple Watch easy to charge in the dark. Without looking. While being only partially awake. We arrived at a solution that combines our MagSafe technology with inductive charging. It’s a completely sealed system free of exposed contacts. And it’s very forgiving, requiring no precise alignment. You simply hold the connector near the back of the watch, where magnets cause it to snap into place automatically.”
The charging is inductive, you don’t have to plug it in.
Yea where is this true wireless charging without a base station at that schiller spoke about 2 years ago?? I was hoping to see that this year on the iPhone and Watch if it ever came out.
Why is this NOT true wireless charging? Surely it is enhanced wireless charging simply different to what you are used to thinking of.
Wireless chargers are big and heavy and still need a cable to plug into the wall. Terrible for mobility. I would hazard a guess that the charger for this watch weighs about the same as the cable of the Android world wireless chargers. For the small battery in the watch the charger AC to DC converter is probably a little nub on the end of the cable. Smart design. The wireless chargers you are talking about are 1/2 the size of an iPhone 5 and weigh 1/4 lb.
Michael, cashxx, THIS is what you have to complain about? Wowww! If the glass was 99.99% full, you’d be saying, “It’s not full.”
This product is mind-boggling! It’s way beyond any supposed competitor. And you want to complain because you need to TOUCH the charger to the back of the watch!!!!!!
Media, please, please use woman’s hand to showcase watches.
I do not want to look at those huge hairs on man’s hand. (Disclaimer: I do not hate men, I am hairy at places myself, but still.)
Sorry, I messed up with the closing tag.
How can dislike of hairy hands be anything but man hate? Men are hairy. Period. Non-hairy men can only be achieved through artificial means. (Actually the same goes for women, their hairs just tend to be finer, usually.) Guys: Embrace your masculinity! Keep the hair.
Unless you want to appeal to dress of course in which case shade those wrists before you lovingly slide into that Apple watch. Oh get a room won’t you.
The management sincerely wishes to apologize and to announce that Carol Merrill of “Let’s Make a Deal!” was not available to act as a female hand model for the Apple Watch. We are currently working with our modeling agencies to provide a suitable replacement.
Thank you.
“… that wades in both the waters of technology and horology…” So many ways to dispute this.
The Watch is a satellite of the Mothership iPhone in other words. That would certainly make the watch more capable offloading from the iPhone in a symbiotic relationship.
The way Apple Watch works is not that different from how iPhone works. iPhone does have a lot of onboard processing capacity, but it relies on a connection to online servers for many key functions. For example, Siri does most of the “heavy lifting” off the iPhone, to translate what you said and formulate a response. Maps stores most of its available data off the iPhone, and retrieves it “as needed.”
Apple Watch just adds a layer to this efficient “distribution of processing” that Apple is so good a creating, and presenting to the user as “magical.” Most users do not care where the processing is done; “it just works.” For them, Apple Watch makes it happen…
This is why the Apple Watch experience will be VERY difficult to copy. Apple controls development of both iPhone and Apple Watch, software and hardware. Apple can make Apple Watch into an integral extension of the customer’s iPhone, with a convenient secondary screen, user interface point, and multi-sensor, located on the user’s wrist. It works with iPhone 5 or later, which is a HUGE pool of potential (already existing) customers.
The competition will need to make their “smart watch” into a more stand-alone (and therefore less capable) product, because they cannot count on customers having a particular type of smartphone. Android fragmentation means roadblock, even within ONE company. Yes, Samsung can make their latest watch work with their latest smartphone, but Android phone makers to not have a good track record for backward compatibility, even within the same company.
So, to copy how Apple Watch works, the competition must greatly limit the “link” between watch and phone. Either the interaction is more limited, or “what works with what” (compatibility) is more limited. That makes a “clone” product that works like Apple Watch infeasible, because they won’t be able to sell enough of a particular watch model to justify the expense of creating it. In comparison, Apple can create a product that works with ALL iPhones, iPhone 5 and later. If even 10% of potential Apple Watch customers buys an Apple Watch, it will have HUGE sales.
Samsung will reverse engineer the watch, make it work with one new model, and claim it’s theirs.