The Apple Watch is definitely a nifty thing. A few of them aren’t bad looking, either.
However, I believe that it (at least this version) is a dud.
The most obvious sign is that I was in an Apple Store today and only one of the store associates (or at they geniuses?) had one on. In the past, with new Apple devices, they were among the first to clamor for new iPhones and iPads – often proudly wearing them on hip holsters and the like – always in a rush to whip them out and show off that they had the latest and greatest. The vibe around them in the store is decidedly “meh”.
The other thing, for me at least, is that I think that the creators of this product were thinking too much about themselves – the super-harried Silicon Valley Executive type who is running from meeting to meeting and would love to save a few moments by glancing at a watch for updates to their digital life – appointments, tweets, emails, etc. I don’t think that they have knocked it out of the park, as they have in the past, for the rest of us.
Looking forward to the next version – would be nice to see them pull it off.
Follow up: It took until September of 2024 for me to take the plunge.
It wasn’t until Series 10 appeared with features like a significantly larger, brighter wide-angle OLED display, a slimmer and lighter profile, and built-in native audio playback via the speaker. And most importantly, “wellness monitoring capabilities”.
Apple describes them in full (https://support.apple.com/en-us/121202) as:
I still don’t love the rectangular form, but the functionality now brings enough to the table that it is my go-to. A lot of Swatch watches sitting lonely in my drawer.