13 ms·

Why I have finally taken off the Apple Watch

123 points by mafro 10y ago

rubyfan 10y ago
I was a former hater and said I'd never buy one but recently won a Apple Watch Sport purely by chance. I tried it out and gave it an objective look, if I didn't like it then I'd sell it. After the initial neat factor, I don't remember to wear it every day (this is probably more me not remembering to wear it and less a conscious decision. But the scenario when I do make it a point to wear is when I'm traveling or on a road trip. The killer app was driving with the Apple Watch (not what I would have expected). I found the GPS vibrating prompts, a glance at the watch for next turn really awesome features and I try not to drive anywhere unfamiliar without it. This is one area that's super subtle but really well thought out. Again useful during driving, I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful. Feels safer than taking my eyes off the road to fumble my phone. Would I pay for the next Apple Watch? Maybe. But I definitely no longer consider myself an Apple Watch hater.
- jsemrau 10y ago
  That still does not sound it would validate to investment? A 10 dollar bluetooth earplug does not vibrate but aurally guides you. And at least on my car (2016 C-Class) after pairing you can skips songs via the steering wheel.
  - rubyfan 10y ago
    The subtle vibration and the ability to glance at the next instruction are pretty helpful. An ear bud is just going to make the voice louder than on my phone or when connected to my car audio. The point is, I'm usually not waiting to listen the next instruction and usually listening to music instead. Without the watch I usually miss the instruction or part of it then have to take my eyes off the road. Like I said, the feature is subtle but well done imo. Also 2016 C-Class is probably not a good investment if that's your killer feature ;-) Seriously though, some of us are frugal and won't spend our money on new cars. Bluetooth connectivity is nice but not really worth the investment in a vehicle if you already own one in good repair. A watch is orders of magnitude cheaper.
    - MichaelGG 10y ago
      Why not just mount your phone up in a visible place, turn off audio nav, and leave it in car mode? If you're unfamiliar with the place, surely the map overview is helpful, especially in nontrivial lane/turn scenarios. I get that the vibration is useful to tell you to pay attention, and maybe current map software can't just provide a quick ping sound without screwing up music playback. But I'm not sure why glancing down at your hands is a good idea.
      - rubyfan 10y ago
        Yeah I have one of those phone mount things too and Waze is running on the phone with Maps in the background to shout the audio instructions. The pre instruction vibration is great for just that reason, to tell me to pay attention. Usually a few minutes after the most recent instruction I zone out, so when I'm glancing down at the watch I'm looking for mileage until the next instruction. Also, sometimes I play Slacker radio from the phone too, which the phone does a decent job of interrupting the music and speaking the instruction for. Also I have the Automatic OBD plug which audibly alerts me when I'm speeding and a bidirectional dash camera that fits over my mirror, you know just in case an accident or something. Hmm, after writing all this out I'm thinking I might have over done it with car gadgets.
    - hx87 10y ago
      'Frugal' means different things to people with varying preferences--to me, buying an Apple Watch isn't frugal. Even if you're frugal, pretty much every car that doesn't have Bluetooth A2DP has at least an AUX input, and the ones that don't can either add one as a CD changer emulator or have a tape deck (and thus can use a cassette adapter). Pop in a $13 Bluetooth A2DP adapter on the end, mount your phone on the dash or windshield, and boom, you can stream music while car nav interrupts only when it has something to say. Much cheaper and better solution than a vibrating watch.
- technofiend 10y ago
  >I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful Well presumably you take one hand off the wheel or have a really long tongue?
  - mikeryan 10y ago
    There are active Apple Watch users who use their nose ;-) http://www.wsj.com/articles/nosy-apple-watch-users-discover-another-way-to-go-hands-free-1451077454 http://www.wsj.com/articles/nosy-apple-watch-users-discover-... I'm an apple watch user but I've not perfected the schnozz technique.
  - rubyfan 10y ago
    Haha. No, believe it or not both my hands are on the wheel and I use my finger to tap on the screen. Kind of a 11:30 and 1:00 position - no tongue involved.
- Shivetya 10y ago
  Sorry, but encouraged to take my eyes off the road especially away from the typical line of sight used while driving? no thank you. I can have my phone talk to me when driving and tell me when to turn. There are so many mounts available I can put it anywhere. Besides, if its killer app is GPS there is something seriously wrong with other apps then. Me, when it becomes my phone I will be happy. As in, when its not a slave device.
- stonedge 10y ago
  I sold my Apple Watch a few months ago, but I thoroughly enjoyed this feature. It would subtly vibrate just before you needed to turn and with kids making noise in the car, the vibration was better than listening for "turn now!". I now have a Microsoft Band 2 and with Google Maps I get the same functionality, so it turns out I didn't lose anything by selling my Apple Watch.
- gambiting 10y ago
  "Again useful during driving, I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful." I feel like that's significantly less important nowadays, with literally every single new car offering bluetooth connectivity and music controls directly on the wheel, you can use them without even looking.
- dionidium 10y ago
  I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful. It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car.
  - hx87 10y ago
    Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car (Lexus LS600h L).
    - dionidium 10y ago
      And you can buy the Echo Dot, which I'm willing to guess works so much better that it might as well be in a different category, for $90.
    - relaxatorium 10y ago
      It was available in 2009 in a fairly cheap Ford sedan. Microsoft Sync got a lot of shit because from what I've heard, the touchscreen version was a total mess, but the voice only version before that in my car's been pretty solid.
    - Alupis 10y ago
      >> It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car > Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car Voice command entertainment system are available in your run-of-the-mill $14k car nowadays. 2016 Ford Fiesta S model has Sync 3 voice command system built in.
      - dionidium 10y ago
        Meh. I've never used one of these car systems, but without any knowledge at all I can confidently say that the experience and capabilities come nowhere near matching Alexa. Totally different products. I'd love to be wrong. But I doubt I am.
- superuser2 10y ago
  Really? I found having my watch constantly buzzing on the steering wheel incredibly jarring. There is no substitute for a dashboard mount - directions should be a quick visual scan away, not a "let me take my hand off the wheel, raise my watch, scroll down to the dismiss button, and press it." Google Maps was the first set of notifications I disabled, with vigorous prejudice.
  - vitd 10y ago
    Not sure what you mean about raising the watch and scrolling. On the Apple watch you get a series of short buzzes for a left turn and long buzzes for a right turn. There's no looking, scrolling, or dismissing necessary.
jgrahamc 10y ago
But a few fundamental flaws of the watch suffice to explain 95% of the issues: the watch is too slow to act as a speedy alternative to your phone; the user interface is too fiddly to use on the move; the notification model is too limited to do anything other than encourage you to pull out your phone repeatedly; and Siri sucks. I was an Apple Watch naysayer until I bought one. Now I like it (I don't love it) but it's a useful addition. I disagree about the notification model. It means I can look at a message and decide whether it's important and for short responses reply from the watch.
- taspeotis 10y ago
  I'm an Apple Watch user. I like it, but it was expensive when I bought it (the AUD/USD exchange rate isn't favourable). For the utility I get out of it (health tracking, quick iMessage replies, turn-by-turn directions, weather and stocks at-a-glance) I think it's a three star product based on the original price. And Apple Pay support in Australia is ... lacklustre. We only just got one bank behind it. If my bank supported Apple Pay it might be four stars. If it were half the price (closer to ~AU$330), it would be five stars.
  - lmm 10y ago
    Similar experience with my Pebble. Since I have it now I keep using it, and it is useful, but I don't think it's worth what it cost.
  - jgrahamc 10y ago
    Yes, I agree that price vs. functionality is poor. I don't understand the appeal of Apple Pay at all (at least in the UK). We have contactless debit cards for quick payments and the last thing I want to do is hand over banking details to a third party. Apple Pay seems like the sort of thing that's needed in the US because of the woefully backwards payment infrastructure.
    - mcintyre1994 10y ago
      I find I use Apple Pay a lot in the UK despite my contactless cards because I cycle so my phone and wallet are in my bag - it's nice to only take the phone out. A cheap Apple-Pay-on-my-wrist would be cool, but I'd probably still have my phone in my pocket so I doubt it'd be a meaningful improvement at all. It's all very small though, like you said contactless debit cards are fine.
pinaceae 10y ago
Same for me, because there is a fundamental flaw in the product: It sucks at being a watch. I can check my Casio without flicking my wrist. I can even take it off and place it next to my keyboard and keep track of the time. Not possible on the Apple Watch, even more infuriating by the inconsistent detection of the wrist movement. The Apple Watch is a watch that sucks at being - a watch.
- dagwaging 10y ago
  this is one of the reasons i'm quite happy with my first gen pebble: the screen is always on, so i can always see the time i also got mine for half the original price, at $75 i think they were smart to focus on the things smartwatches actually do well: notifications, and simple remote controls (i.e. for music, navigation) having physical buttons makes it much more useful, since i can easily perform actions without even looking at the watch, or with gloves on and only having to charge it once a week is wonderful i personally don't use activity trackers, but the newest pebbles include that functionality i think android wear and the apple watch both try to do too much, and end up being good at nothing
  - jon-wood 10y ago
    The activity tracking is the Pebble's killer feature for me. While I like getting notifications on my wrist, and being able to see the time whenever I choose is nice, what I really love is passive tracking of how far I've walked in a given day and how long I slept for. They've also just today released a mood tracking app alongside the rest of the tracking which prompts you once an hour for a quick summary of your mood and what you did in the last hour. Being able to later go back and correlate all these things is awesome - even now I know that on days I get out and exercise more I'm happier, soon I should be able to give objective numbers on that, along with being able to determine things like the correlation between caffeine and happiness/energy levels over the day. I'm pretty excited for the Pebble Core as well, especially since they announced Alexa integration, I think its got a lot of potential for drastically changing how we interact with mobile computing and moving on from the current interactive glass paradigm.
- 10y ago
threeseed 10y ago
The Apple Watch is by far their weakest product since the Puck Mouse. The notifications are genuinely useful but the rest of it is a mess. App startup times are long enough that it's quicker to pull out your phone, unlock it and search for an app. Not that the apps are useful enough to warrant opening them anyway. The data in glances isn't frequently updated so they are next to useless as well. And overall the UI is slow with superfluous animations. At the gym and want to switch from indoor cycle to running. It takes 10-15 seconds. And worst of all the rate of improvements is glacier slow so it could be years before it gets better.
- eddieroger 10y ago
  Even more than the iPod HiFi? The Watch has it's problems, and your complaints are legitimate, but it's hardly the weakest product since the puck mouse. Apple is just really good at making us forget about the bad products. Despite WatchOS being 2.0, it's still first-gen hardware, and everyone knows Apple is better on the second revision.
jbarham 10y ago
I've had the Pebble Time for about a year and really appreciate it. First, the fact that its "E-paper" display is always on means it works well as an old-fashioned watch so I can instantly tell the time. (I still find it crazy that the Apple Watch display is off by default!) Pebble's notification support works really well with Android so I can see at a glance whether a new email or WhatsApp message is something I need to respond to on my phone. Most of the time I don't, so I spend less time fiddling with my phone. The feature that I most appreciate that I hadn't anticipated is that the Pebble vibrates and shows who's calling when someone calls me. Which means I can keep my phone on silent all the time but never miss a phone call. So I'm definitely a fan of the Pebble Time. Its UI is really simple and well thought out, especially compared to the Apple Watch, and there's really nothing else I need it to do, apart perhaps from being more physically attractive.
- fredley 10y ago
  I really hope Pebble can take advantage of the swelling backlash against the overly complicated and 'feature'-ridden watches put out by Apple and other Android manufacturers, rather than be caught up in it. They got right pretty much first time around the minimal set of things you actually want to use a smart-watch for, and haven't swayed from this principal over their various iterations. I had one of the first KS originals, and have worn it, then my Time, almost every day since I got it.
  - Retric 10y ago
    I think long term they are going to want both sides of the equation. That way they don't get left in the Dust if Android improves and they can play up e-ink as differentiation vs simply missing features. Basically, they can look more impartial by saying we think X is better, but we also sell Y if you really need Z. Much like how Amazon sells Fire and Kindle with some versions of Fire costing less than any version of Kindle.
    - ethbro 10y ago
      I think the key lesson of things like Fitbit's smart watch has been that you don't get a good watch by taking "everything it could do" and then subtracting features until you get where you want to be. You do it by building up features from user story primatives (e.g. I want to glance down and see who's calling). Then shipping with enough primatives covered to be useful.
melling 10y ago
"You don’t use your watch at night, because you’re asleep" Your Watch, or a better version of it, could monitor your sleep. https://blog.cardiogr.am/what-do-normal-and-abnormal-heart-rhythms-look-like-on-apple-watch-7b33b4a8ecfa https://blog.cardiogr.am/what-do-normal-and-abnormal-heart-r... "It’s that smartwatches are a solution in search of a problem." Also not true. Health and safety are a huge reason most people will be wearing a smartwatch, or wearable, in the future: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo...
skywhopper 10y ago
It's not for everyone. I agree that trying to put real apps on the thing was clearly done too early. But for me, the weather widget, GPS prompts, silent and unmissable notifications (and good integration on some apps like PagerDuty where I can Ack a page from the notification itself, no waiting on an app to launch or pulling out and unlocking my phone), and quick timer setiing (I use this multiple times almost every day--to remind myself to rotate laundry or check on what I'm cooking or all sorts of other tricks to help keep my ADHD brain on track) all combine to make something that has improved my life at the margins. I hadn't worn a watch in 20 years but Apple came up with one that was worth wearing to me.
blisterpeanuts 10y ago
>> "But the most obvious alternative is to massively increase the amount of voice control the watch offers, and Apple simply doesn’t have the technical chops to do so. While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t." This passage from the article jumped out at me. Is he saying that voice recognition is the missing killer feature in an Apple Watch, whereas Android watches hold the promise of adding such a feature because Google (and, irrelevantly, Amazon) are better at it? Without getting into a technical debate about which tech giants are ahead in voice recognition and its applications, I am interested in the notion of conversing with a smart watch. The obvious application is to provide the time of day to a sight impaired person, or (more trivially) to someone driving a car or operating heavy machinery who can't glance down. Probably it could be programmed to guide the sight impaired down the street, buzz if you veer off the sidewalk, etc. Even there, it's merely a peripheral to the smartphone which can do all of that and more. My Moto 360 was purchased on a whim because it was on sale, and indeed I wear it infrequently on a whim, usually when going to a tech event or a conference that requires strict adherence to a schedule, and then only for its obvious geek value. It's fun, my daughter loves changing the watch faces, and occasionally it's even useful for discretely screening calls and texts. I just keep thinking that some brilliant kid is going to stumble across a killer application for these watches, and then we'll be off to the races. Still scratching my head on this one, for now.
- sickbeard 10y ago
  He's saying google now and cortana are better at being voice assistants than siri.
bitslayer 10y ago
"While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t. There’s no easy solution there." Until the Apple-Google merger. I for one welcome...
andybak 10y ago
At launch it superficially appeared to me that Google had attempted to go further than Apple in rethinking the UI of watch apps. Apple seemed to have plumped for a more conventional 'app launched on a phone' than the Android watches Can anyone that has used both comment on whether this perception was true and if that mitigated any of the criticisms in this article?
kileywm 10y ago
I've had a smart watch for about 2 months now. I've come to appreciate it the most for one particular reason: notifications. I silence (no sound or vibrate) my phone and rely on the watch for all notifications. It's really quite peaceful for me and everyone around me.
- efaref 10y ago
  SMS-based 2FA is also a dream when you can glance at your wrist and then type the code in.
soylentcola 10y ago
I think a lot of this comes down to cost. A $500+ smartwatch that's mostly useful for notifications and the occasional wrist-based controls seems like overkill to me, personally (but I imagine this depends on your disposable gadget income). But I picked up a Moto360 maybe a year and a half ago for $150 on sale and while its main uses have also been notifications, the occasional voice/tap command, and playing with making watch faces in Photoshop, I'm mostly OK with that. $150 for a computer-watch that can change its appearance and layout to match your mood, occasion, or tie is pretty neat. But I don't know that it's $500 neat. Kinda like Travolta's $5 milk shake in Pulp Fiction, the Apple Watch is a pretty cool gadget, but I'm not sure it's something I'd ever pay that much for. But once you get into the $100-200 range, they start to become more appealing. And once the tech works its way downstream into cheaper products the way basic smartphones have, I think they'll be fairly popular.
scandox 10y ago
When I was a kid I daydreamed about connected devices and how cool it would all be. Now the devices I actually love: Casio A168W-1 Electro Luminescence Silver. 5 years old. Ipod Classic. 8 years old. Kindle Keyboard. Maybe 7 years? I actively loathe my phone. I like my laptop when I'm on the command line. I think the essence of what I am trying to say is that I like devices with low visibility connectivity. We need to turn ubiquity into something much quieter.
ohthehugemanate 10y ago
Dammit smartwatch industry, this isn't rocket science. The core values a watch brings are time on your wrist, notifications, and low maintenance. The core upgrades are simple apps (stopwatch, timer... ), waterproof-ness, and fashion. Those are your dimensions. If you do anything that compromises those product fundamentals, you are making a bad decision. If Pebble came out with a good looking, waterproof watch with a week long battery, they would dominate the market. The fact that they have done so well against the marketing juggernaut that is apple, is a tribute to how close they've come to these core product traits.
- delecti 10y ago
  > If Pebble came out with a good looking, waterproof watch with a week long battery I'm curious which one of those you think they currently aren't meeting, because they currently have the latter two, and the Pebble Time Round is a fairly attractive looking watch IMO.
  - samastur 10y ago
    I can't speak for the original poster but I find none of their watches remotely attractive. They are no worse than other watches in that price range, but I don't wear those either for the same reason.
tombert 10y ago
I used a Pebble for about a year, but the problem to me is that it never really looks like a "watch", but more like a "computer that's on my wrist". I'll admit that's a kind of pedantic little nitpick, and the Pebble is a great little thing, but I switched back to my old Invicta chronograph after awhile.
gloves 10y ago
I had a similar experience to the writer of the article when my fitbit broke when an update bricked it (or perhaps 'braceletted' it? In the weeks between getting the warranty repair, I began wearing the watch my grandad gave me before he passed away. I found two things. 1. I didn't miss anything about the fitbit - the main thing I used it for was time, and the second most used feature - the step counter - wasn't used for much more than something of general interest. I didn't find that killer reason I needed the watch in my life, even though I live an active lifestyle. 2. I preferred wearing the old fashioned watch with sentimental value attached. A watch is so unique as it can be passed through generations and is worn daily by one person over a long period of time. Given the premium real estate of my wrist meaning there is only one place for a device, I'd much rather have something there which is something very special and dear to me, than a gimmick.
- whitehouse3 10y ago
  As an "Apple Guy" and a "Watch Guy" the occasional friend will ask me why I don't own an Apple Watch. Your second point nails it. These machines are intimate, lasting. They spend more time with us than anything or anyone else. Simultaneous style, sentiment, and function with the added benefit that we can pass them on to our children and grandchildren.
joseacta 10y ago
I have a MS Band 2 and it has been great. - Does the fitness tracking really well - Have the GPS for walks, bike rides and running - Have notifications - Weather - Multiple devices: Android, Apple and Windows Phone - Sleep tracking - Watch - Cortana I really need to have it on me all the time. I only take it off for charging while taking a shower.
coldtea 10y ago
>But the most obvious alternative is to massively increase the amount of voice control the watch offers, and Apple simply doesn’t have the technical chops to do so. While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t. Citation needed. Never found any of those assistants particularly impressive, never mind hearing anyone waxing lyrical about it.
dfar1 10y ago
So next time I take my watch off for less than a month I shall too write an article. Clearly the author didn't need a watch, but bought one anyway. Then as expected didn't use it. Less then a month of not wearing a watch, doesn't seem like long enough either as the watch doesn't do everything the phone does, so there's no need to wear it frequently unless you like having a watch, which is not the case here. This article almost seems as clickbait... I could also write about how I bought a $500 coffee maker, and stopped using it after 9 months, because I actually don't drink much coffee. I just thought that having a nice coffee maker would improve my life.
dmschulman 10y ago
I never thought I'd be one to own a smartwatch. I enjoy wearing traditional mechanical watches for quickly being able to tell the time as well as for the fashion aspect, owning a wearable that would tie to my phone, delivering notifications and giving me access to apps, didn't really appeal to me as I prefer to disconnect rather than hyperconnect to my devices. Being someone who does a fair amount of outdoor activity (cycling and hiking mostly), and knowing a few people who are crazy about their Fitbits, I ended up looking into some fitness tracker-oriented smartwatches, landing on the Garmin Vivoactive HR with it's HR monitor and built in GPS. It's a very attractive device for $250, especially if fitness tracking and mapping your workout is important to you. $250 is maybe the upper limit of what I'd want to spend on a smartwatch, but the Garmin has been great for me as a simple intuitive device that knows what it is good at and doesn't try to complicate itself. Though you can cram a surprising amount of information and interactivity in these devices, it goes against good sustainable user experience to make a wrist-top computer as robust as a smartphone. Smartwatches should be a bundle of sensors and quick intuitive bits of display information, not a surrogate to my smartphone.
- heleph 10y ago
  I bought a Fitbit because I wanted to nudge my physical activity from sedentary into not noteworthy. I've been wearing it about three months and it has helped me do that. The other smart phone things I really love are notifications about phone calls and alarms that make the phone vibrate. I almost always miss phone calls, so it's nice to have the option to pick them up. The vibrating alarm is much nicer than being woken by noise and also reminds me when I need to leave work to make it home in time to see my kids. I'd really recommend it as a relatively low cost thing to try For anyone who is interested in trying a smart watch but doesn't want to spend a lot of money.
jdlyga 10y ago
I like my Apple Watch. It's nice to see the time, weather from dark sky, and the occasional text, and subway delay notifications. That's it.
rickyc091 10y ago
I think most people are in agreement that the app launch speed is horrendous, that'll get better in time. For me the two best features has been the notifications and dark sky as a complication. A few other things I use on a pretty regular basis... * Siri, set timer. (I just wish Siri was faster... it's pretty frustrating) * Locate my phone, this has been a life saver. As someone who runs a lot of events, I have a tendency to just leave my phone on a table and forget about it. * Having calls redirected to your wrist. This coincides with leaving my phone somewhere. Events are usually super loud so I wouldn't hear my phone anyways, but the pulsing vibration on the wrist is difficult to ignore. --- I purchased an Apple Watch for my mother who works in a more corporate setting with a shared desk. She's constantly on her feet and she has no pockets to keep her phone on her. The watch has been an incredible investment for her as she use to only check her phone during lunch and as she left for work. These days it's easier to get a hold of her in case of an emergency. When she's on the go, her phone is typically in her pursue, so you can imagine the benefit of the phone on her watch. The Apple watch isn't for everyone, but there are certainly some people that benefit from it more than others.
joshstrange 10y ago
I had a Pebble Steel and quite liked it but switched to the Apple Watch when it came up. I agree with some of the other points here: * Apps suck 99% of the time * Apps are slow * The UI is hard to use (especially while moving) * Siri is SLLLLOOOOOWWWWWWWWW When siri does work it's awesome but I find myself just saying "Hey Siri" (to activate my phone) or holding down the home button for a second to activate it much more often. The watch is just too slow most of the time and nothing is more frustrating than telling it to do something, it failing, and then me having to go do it on my phone. Also when most people ask me about it I say "I like it but it's far too expensive for most people to justify, I even have a hard time self-justifiying it to myself now that I've had it". Notifications, weather, upcoming events, time, fitness/activity? All great and it's why I wear it daily but it's been months since I launched an app on it. I'll see where Apple goes with it but I'm very much so considering switching back to a Pebble Time or other Pebble device as they are cheaper.
- spyspy 10y ago
  I like to say that I don't regret buying it, but if it got lost or broken I wouldn't be in a rush to replace it.
Zikes 10y ago
What I want most out of a watch right now is something that for every outward appearance is a normal analog watch, but has a small motor in it to vibrate when my phone receives a notification. I had a first-gen Kickstarter edition Pebble and for all of its gimmicks, the knowledge that I would feel every notification and also never suffer from phantom vibrations was the part I enjoyed the most. Stylistically I didn't much care for it, and eventually gave it to a friend. If someone were to just take a normal looking watch and make it vibrate when my phone does, with no other change whatsoever, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
- make_clean 10y ago
  I hear you. Take a look at the Martian line of smartwatches. https://www.martianwatches.com/ https://www.martianwatches.com/
- mikestew 10y ago
  If someone were to just take a normal looking watch and make it vibrate when my phone does I recall that at least one company does. I apologize, though, because such a device does not fit my personal use cases and therefore I haven't the first clue about telling you how to find it. (Does a quick search on "analog smartwatch" to prove his point...) Oh, well, I guess you could start here: http://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/best-smart-analogue-watch http://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/best-smart-analogue-wat...
busterarm 10y ago
Unfortunately for me, they'll never get past the fact that I appreciate watches for their movements. A watch is entirely an aesthetic choice -- you have to want their aesthetic. I have a 50-year old Rolex Air King (way older than me, family heirloom) and I can't imagine switching to anything else anytime soon. It's simple, no-nonsense and a beautiful watch. I appreciate other, fancier watches and might wear something on the high end for a really posh event, but that's it.
- nashashmi 10y ago
  > never get past the fact that I appreciate watches for their movements How does this sound: never get past the fact that I appreciate phones for the calls they make We have to come to accept they are watches in name only. And mostly remote controls for phones.
  - busterarm 10y ago
    That's great insight. Along those same lines though, I don't want to wear two devices on my arm and the remote control has to compete (aesthetically) with the watch. Both are mostly useless to me -- I already have a phone. I'm still going with the watch.
mdemare 10y ago
Killer app for me: alarm clock. I wear the Apple Watch at night, and it'll wake me (vibrations) without waking my girlfriend.
RobotfromOT 10y ago
I just paid for snacks at my local, rural, small-business-run convenience store with my watch. Seamless. Apple Pay is another great reason to keep wearing the watch.
- kylec 10y ago
  Funny, even though I wear an Apple Watch every day I've gone back to using Apple Pay on my iPhone instead. It's just easier than the contortions that are sometimes required to get the Apple Watch close enough to the reader.
tunesmith 10y ago
I'm surprised that hardly anyone is mentioning the activity wheel. That's the killer feature as far as I'm concerned. I don't know much about the science behind it, like if filling your activity wheel actually means you are doing a somewhat good job at being healthy, but I know that my settings are definitely keeping me more consistently active than I would by default otherwise. It's a key part of my life now, and I've filled that damned wheel about 95% of the days that I've owned the watch. Given that I'm not sure I would have improved my habits without it, I feel like it has definitely improved my life. Other things that the watch has been a nice addition for - checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient. Receiving/reading messages while the phone isn't out. The rest of it, not so much. The watch could be better at showing the time when you want to see it; I often have to tap the face. I rarely use Siri. I ignore calendar/mail entirely, phone works better. I dislike Apple Maps and use Google Maps instead. I could theoretically be in the market for a smaller/slimmer Apple fitness device.
- eric_h 10y ago
  > checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient Holy shit I have no idea why I never thought to do that, that's a great feature. I agree that the watch is not a life changing tech upgrade like the iPhone was, but personally, I find the features on the watch that I do use to be convenient and compelling enough that I still put the watch on every morning. Really, the killer feature I want is disable the god damn screenshot feature on the watch, or at least give me a button in the photos app to "purge all watch screenshots" because fully half of my photo library is accidental watch screenshots, and I haven't had the time to come up with a way to script it. Oh yes, and apple pay when a vendor accepts it is just down right awesome.
- mikestew 10y ago
  I'm surprised that hardly anyone is mentioning the activity wheel. That's the killer feature as far as I'm concerned. If it does what I think it does, Garmin, Suunto and others have the same "killer feature" (in which case one should wonder, what is that feature killing? Not Apple's competitors.) Pebble doesn't, last time I fired my up a few weeks ago. Other things that the watch has been a nice addition for - checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient. A button push on my Garmin. One long push on Pebble, if you've set it up for that. Pebble has watch faces that show weather all the time. Haven't looked, but I'd be surprised if someone didn't do the same for Garmins. The watch could be better at showing the time when you want to see it; I often have to tap the face. This is where I think that Apple failed miserably. It's the main reason that I, as an iOS/Mac developer and all-around fanboy, didn't even consider the Apple Watch when it came out. Wanna know the time with a Garmin or a Pebble (or a Suunto, or just about any other smartwatch out there)? Want it to work every...single...time? Turn your wrist until the watch is in your line of sight. You'll see the time, guaranteed. (Caveat: if it's dark, might have to hit the backlight button. Though the Garmin on my wrist will light up at night when I turn my wrist with about 95% success.)
vitd 10y ago
When the watch came out, I thought, "Oh that's neat. Not neat enough to buy, but neat." Eventually, I got a good discount on one and bought it. While it may not be life changing, I love it. I use it daily and for lots of things. The reminders and notifications are extremely useful. Siri works great for me. I send texts from it, I set timers while cooking, I check the weather and time and next event I have scheduled. When getting dressed in the morning, I immediately notice when I don't have it on because it's become such a part of my life. So I guess your mileage may vary. It turned out to be just what I was looking for without even realizing it.
beloch 10y ago
The Apple watch came with some pretty high end cases but, even if it had been a useful product, the rapid obsolescence curve made buying a nice case a true waste of money. The same goes for all other smart watches on the market. What I'd love to see is a smart watch that comes in two parts: 1. A case 2. The "movement" If a smart watch manufacturer released a case and movement separately and then committed to providing compatible movements in the future, suddenly you wouldn't have to feel bad about buying a nice case. Upgrading the movement every couple years would become relatively cheap. If the company made the case an open standard, you'd likely be able to get one from your favorite watch maker, making their smart watch a much more personal item, as mechanical watches are. This has already been done with mechanical movements. e.g. Many mechanical watch manufacturers only make cases, and put ETA movements in them. Given how long mechanical movements can last, it's just bizarre that this hasn't been done with smart watches yet.
sgtpepper43 10y ago
I feel like Apple is killing smart watches. Android watches are cheap enough that they can make incremental improvements and everyone would be fine with it. Even then, I have the huawei watch, and it's already so, so much better than the apple watch. And cheaper. So I worry that people are going to get fed up with the apple watch before Android watches get a chance to really take off.
cloudjacker 10y ago
hilarious because all of this was obvious to everyone that didn't buy the watch took the fan boys nine months to figure it out
- chillacy 10y ago
  Hey if you're looking for evidence, you'll find it. My story is the opposite. I bought it to build apps on it, didn't really care for wearing it, until one day I realized that my day was subtly worse if I forgot it at home. And that's when I realized that it was useful in a small way. Now that I have my work calendar and weather on the face, it's become quite nice to have.

123 points by mafro 10y ago

I was a former hater and said I'd never buy one but recently won a Apple Watch Sport purely by chance. I tried it out and gave it an objective look, if I didn't like it then I'd sell it. After the initial neat factor, I don't remember to wear it every day (this is probably more me not remembering to wear it and less a conscious decision. But the scenario when I do make it a point to wear is when I'm traveling or on a road trip. The killer app was driving with the Apple Watch (not what I would have expected). I found the GPS vibrating prompts, a glance at the watch for next turn really awesome features and I try not to drive anywhere unfamiliar without it. This is one area that's super subtle but really well thought out. Again useful during driving, I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful. Feels safer than taking my eyes off the road to fumble my phone. Would I pay for the next Apple Watch? Maybe. But I definitely no longer consider myself an Apple Watch hater.

jsemrau 10y ago
That still does not sound it would validate to investment? A 10 dollar bluetooth earplug does not vibrate but aurally guides you. And at least on my car (2016 C-Class) after pairing you can skips songs via the steering wheel.
- rubyfan 10y ago
  The subtle vibration and the ability to glance at the next instruction are pretty helpful. An ear bud is just going to make the voice louder than on my phone or when connected to my car audio. The point is, I'm usually not waiting to listen the next instruction and usually listening to music instead. Without the watch I usually miss the instruction or part of it then have to take my eyes off the road. Like I said, the feature is subtle but well done imo. Also 2016 C-Class is probably not a good investment if that's your killer feature ;-) Seriously though, some of us are frugal and won't spend our money on new cars. Bluetooth connectivity is nice but not really worth the investment in a vehicle if you already own one in good repair. A watch is orders of magnitude cheaper.
  - MichaelGG 10y ago
    Why not just mount your phone up in a visible place, turn off audio nav, and leave it in car mode? If you're unfamiliar with the place, surely the map overview is helpful, especially in nontrivial lane/turn scenarios. I get that the vibration is useful to tell you to pay attention, and maybe current map software can't just provide a quick ping sound without screwing up music playback. But I'm not sure why glancing down at your hands is a good idea.
    - rubyfan 10y ago
      Yeah I have one of those phone mount things too and Waze is running on the phone with Maps in the background to shout the audio instructions. The pre instruction vibration is great for just that reason, to tell me to pay attention. Usually a few minutes after the most recent instruction I zone out, so when I'm glancing down at the watch I'm looking for mileage until the next instruction. Also, sometimes I play Slacker radio from the phone too, which the phone does a decent job of interrupting the music and speaking the instruction for. Also I have the Automatic OBD plug which audibly alerts me when I'm speeding and a bidirectional dash camera that fits over my mirror, you know just in case an accident or something. Hmm, after writing all this out I'm thinking I might have over done it with car gadgets.
  - hx87 10y ago
    'Frugal' means different things to people with varying preferences--to me, buying an Apple Watch isn't frugal. Even if you're frugal, pretty much every car that doesn't have Bluetooth A2DP has at least an AUX input, and the ones that don't can either add one as a CD changer emulator or have a tape deck (and thus can use a cassette adapter). Pop in a $13 Bluetooth A2DP adapter on the end, mount your phone on the dash or windshield, and boom, you can stream music while car nav interrupts only when it has something to say. Much cheaper and better solution than a vibrating watch.
technofiend 10y ago
>I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful Well presumably you take one hand off the wheel or have a really long tongue?
- mikeryan 10y ago
  There are active Apple Watch users who use their nose ;-) http://www.wsj.com/articles/nosy-apple-watch-users-discover-another-way-to-go-hands-free-1451077454 http://www.wsj.com/articles/nosy-apple-watch-users-discover-... I'm an apple watch user but I've not perfected the schnozz technique.
- rubyfan 10y ago
  Haha. No, believe it or not both my hands are on the wheel and I use my finger to tap on the screen. Kind of a 11:30 and 1:00 position - no tongue involved.
Shivetya 10y ago
Sorry, but encouraged to take my eyes off the road especially away from the typical line of sight used while driving? no thank you. I can have my phone talk to me when driving and tell me when to turn. There are so many mounts available I can put it anywhere. Besides, if its killer app is GPS there is something seriously wrong with other apps then. Me, when it becomes my phone I will be happy. As in, when its not a slave device.
stonedge 10y ago
I sold my Apple Watch a few months ago, but I thoroughly enjoyed this feature. It would subtly vibrate just before you needed to turn and with kids making noise in the car, the vibration was better than listening for "turn now!". I now have a Microsoft Band 2 and with Google Maps I get the same functionality, so it turns out I didn't lose anything by selling my Apple Watch.
gambiting 10y ago
"Again useful during driving, I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful." I feel like that's significantly less important nowadays, with literally every single new car offering bluetooth connectivity and music controls directly on the wheel, you can use them without even looking.
dionidium 10y ago
I also found the ability to skip music with my hands still on the steering wheel to be incredibly helpful. It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car.
- hx87 10y ago
  Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car (Lexus LS600h L).
  - dionidium 10y ago
    And you can buy the Echo Dot, which I'm willing to guess works so much better that it might as well be in a different category, for $90.
  - relaxatorium 10y ago
    It was available in 2009 in a fairly cheap Ford sedan. Microsoft Sync got a lot of shit because from what I've heard, the touchscreen version was a total mess, but the voice only version before that in my car's been pretty solid.
  - Alupis 10y ago
    >> It's a sign of how broken and far behind automobile tech is that Alexa was first developed for the kitchen and not the car > Voice commands on car entertainment systems was available all the way back in 2008, albeit in a $120k car Voice command entertainment system are available in your run-of-the-mill $14k car nowadays. 2016 Ford Fiesta S model has Sync 3 voice command system built in.
    - dionidium 10y ago
      Meh. I've never used one of these car systems, but without any knowledge at all I can confidently say that the experience and capabilities come nowhere near matching Alexa. Totally different products. I'd love to be wrong. But I doubt I am.
superuser2 10y ago
Really? I found having my watch constantly buzzing on the steering wheel incredibly jarring. There is no substitute for a dashboard mount - directions should be a quick visual scan away, not a "let me take my hand off the wheel, raise my watch, scroll down to the dismiss button, and press it." Google Maps was the first set of notifications I disabled, with vigorous prejudice.
- vitd 10y ago
  Not sure what you mean about raising the watch and scrolling. On the Apple watch you get a series of short buzzes for a left turn and long buzzes for a right turn. There's no looking, scrolling, or dismissing necessary.

jgrahamc 10y ago

But a few fundamental flaws of the watch suffice to explain 95% of the issues: the watch is too slow to act as a speedy alternative to your phone; the user interface is too fiddly to use on the move; the notification model is too limited to do anything other than encourage you to pull out your phone repeatedly; and Siri sucks. I was an Apple Watch naysayer until I bought one. Now I like it (I don't love it) but it's a useful addition. I disagree about the notification model. It means I can look at a message and decide whether it's important and for short responses reply from the watch.

taspeotis 10y ago
I'm an Apple Watch user. I like it, but it was expensive when I bought it (the AUD/USD exchange rate isn't favourable). For the utility I get out of it (health tracking, quick iMessage replies, turn-by-turn directions, weather and stocks at-a-glance) I think it's a three star product based on the original price. And Apple Pay support in Australia is ... lacklustre. We only just got one bank behind it. If my bank supported Apple Pay it might be four stars. If it were half the price (closer to ~AU$330), it would be five stars.
- lmm 10y ago
  Similar experience with my Pebble. Since I have it now I keep using it, and it is useful, but I don't think it's worth what it cost.
- jgrahamc 10y ago
  Yes, I agree that price vs. functionality is poor. I don't understand the appeal of Apple Pay at all (at least in the UK). We have contactless debit cards for quick payments and the last thing I want to do is hand over banking details to a third party. Apple Pay seems like the sort of thing that's needed in the US because of the woefully backwards payment infrastructure.
  - mcintyre1994 10y ago
    I find I use Apple Pay a lot in the UK despite my contactless cards because I cycle so my phone and wallet are in my bag - it's nice to only take the phone out. A cheap Apple-Pay-on-my-wrist would be cool, but I'd probably still have my phone in my pocket so I doubt it'd be a meaningful improvement at all. It's all very small though, like you said contactless debit cards are fine.

pinaceae 10y ago

Same for me, because there is a fundamental flaw in the product: It sucks at being a watch. I can check my Casio without flicking my wrist. I can even take it off and place it next to my keyboard and keep track of the time. Not possible on the Apple Watch, even more infuriating by the inconsistent detection of the wrist movement. The Apple Watch is a watch that sucks at being - a watch.

dagwaging 10y ago
this is one of the reasons i'm quite happy with my first gen pebble: the screen is always on, so i can always see the time i also got mine for half the original price, at $75 i think they were smart to focus on the things smartwatches actually do well: notifications, and simple remote controls (i.e. for music, navigation) having physical buttons makes it much more useful, since i can easily perform actions without even looking at the watch, or with gloves on and only having to charge it once a week is wonderful i personally don't use activity trackers, but the newest pebbles include that functionality i think android wear and the apple watch both try to do too much, and end up being good at nothing
- jon-wood 10y ago
  The activity tracking is the Pebble's killer feature for me. While I like getting notifications on my wrist, and being able to see the time whenever I choose is nice, what I really love is passive tracking of how far I've walked in a given day and how long I slept for. They've also just today released a mood tracking app alongside the rest of the tracking which prompts you once an hour for a quick summary of your mood and what you did in the last hour. Being able to later go back and correlate all these things is awesome - even now I know that on days I get out and exercise more I'm happier, soon I should be able to give objective numbers on that, along with being able to determine things like the correlation between caffeine and happiness/energy levels over the day. I'm pretty excited for the Pebble Core as well, especially since they announced Alexa integration, I think its got a lot of potential for drastically changing how we interact with mobile computing and moving on from the current interactive glass paradigm.
10y ago

threeseed 10y ago

The Apple Watch is by far their weakest product since the Puck Mouse. The notifications are genuinely useful but the rest of it is a mess. App startup times are long enough that it's quicker to pull out your phone, unlock it and search for an app. Not that the apps are useful enough to warrant opening them anyway. The data in glances isn't frequently updated so they are next to useless as well. And overall the UI is slow with superfluous animations. At the gym and want to switch from indoor cycle to running. It takes 10-15 seconds. And worst of all the rate of improvements is glacier slow so it could be years before it gets better.

eddieroger 10y ago
Even more than the iPod HiFi? The Watch has it's problems, and your complaints are legitimate, but it's hardly the weakest product since the puck mouse. Apple is just really good at making us forget about the bad products. Despite WatchOS being 2.0, it's still first-gen hardware, and everyone knows Apple is better on the second revision.

jbarham 10y ago

I've had the Pebble Time for about a year and really appreciate it. First, the fact that its "E-paper" display is always on means it works well as an old-fashioned watch so I can instantly tell the time. (I still find it crazy that the Apple Watch display is off by default!) Pebble's notification support works really well with Android so I can see at a glance whether a new email or WhatsApp message is something I need to respond to on my phone. Most of the time I don't, so I spend less time fiddling with my phone. The feature that I most appreciate that I hadn't anticipated is that the Pebble vibrates and shows who's calling when someone calls me. Which means I can keep my phone on silent all the time but never miss a phone call. So I'm definitely a fan of the Pebble Time. Its UI is really simple and well thought out, especially compared to the Apple Watch, and there's really nothing else I need it to do, apart perhaps from being more physically attractive.

fredley 10y ago
I really hope Pebble can take advantage of the swelling backlash against the overly complicated and 'feature'-ridden watches put out by Apple and other Android manufacturers, rather than be caught up in it. They got right pretty much first time around the minimal set of things you actually want to use a smart-watch for, and haven't swayed from this principal over their various iterations. I had one of the first KS originals, and have worn it, then my Time, almost every day since I got it.
- Retric 10y ago
  I think long term they are going to want both sides of the equation. That way they don't get left in the Dust if Android improves and they can play up e-ink as differentiation vs simply missing features. Basically, they can look more impartial by saying we think X is better, but we also sell Y if you really need Z. Much like how Amazon sells Fire and Kindle with some versions of Fire costing less than any version of Kindle.
  - ethbro 10y ago
    I think the key lesson of things like Fitbit's smart watch has been that you don't get a good watch by taking "everything it could do" and then subtracting features until you get where you want to be. You do it by building up features from user story primatives (e.g. I want to glance down and see who's calling). Then shipping with enough primatives covered to be useful.

melling 10y ago

"You don’t use your watch at night, because you’re asleep" Your Watch, or a better version of it, could monitor your sleep. https://blog.cardiogr.am/what-do-normal-and-abnormal-heart-rhythms-look-like-on-apple-watch-7b33b4a8ecfa https://blog.cardiogr.am/what-do-normal-and-abnormal-heart-r... "It’s that smartwatches are a solution in search of a problem." Also not true. Health and safety are a huge reason most people will be wearing a smartwatch, or wearable, in the future: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyone-will-wear-a-smartwatch/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/28/in-the-future-everyo...

skywhopper 10y ago

It's not for everyone. I agree that trying to put real apps on the thing was clearly done too early. But for me, the weather widget, GPS prompts, silent and unmissable notifications (and good integration on some apps like PagerDuty where I can Ack a page from the notification itself, no waiting on an app to launch or pulling out and unlocking my phone), and quick timer setiing (I use this multiple times almost every day--to remind myself to rotate laundry or check on what I'm cooking or all sorts of other tricks to help keep my ADHD brain on track) all combine to make something that has improved my life at the margins. I hadn't worn a watch in 20 years but Apple came up with one that was worth wearing to me.

blisterpeanuts 10y ago

>> "But the most obvious alternative is to massively increase the amount of voice control the watch offers, and Apple simply doesn’t have the technical chops to do so. While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t." This passage from the article jumped out at me. Is he saying that voice recognition is the missing killer feature in an Apple Watch, whereas Android watches hold the promise of adding such a feature because Google (and, irrelevantly, Amazon) are better at it? Without getting into a technical debate about which tech giants are ahead in voice recognition and its applications, I am interested in the notion of conversing with a smart watch. The obvious application is to provide the time of day to a sight impaired person, or (more trivially) to someone driving a car or operating heavy machinery who can't glance down. Probably it could be programmed to guide the sight impaired down the street, buzz if you veer off the sidewalk, etc. Even there, it's merely a peripheral to the smartphone which can do all of that and more. My Moto 360 was purchased on a whim because it was on sale, and indeed I wear it infrequently on a whim, usually when going to a tech event or a conference that requires strict adherence to a schedule, and then only for its obvious geek value. It's fun, my daughter loves changing the watch faces, and occasionally it's even useful for discretely screening calls and texts. I just keep thinking that some brilliant kid is going to stumble across a killer application for these watches, and then we'll be off to the races. Still scratching my head on this one, for now.

sickbeard 10y ago
He's saying google now and cortana are better at being voice assistants than siri.

bitslayer 10y ago

"While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t. There’s no easy solution there." Until the Apple-Google merger. I for one welcome...

andybak 10y ago

At launch it superficially appeared to me that Google had attempted to go further than Apple in rethinking the UI of watch apps. Apple seemed to have plumped for a more conventional 'app launched on a phone' than the Android watches Can anyone that has used both comment on whether this perception was true and if that mitigated any of the criticisms in this article?

kileywm 10y ago

I've had a smart watch for about 2 months now. I've come to appreciate it the most for one particular reason: notifications. I silence (no sound or vibrate) my phone and rely on the watch for all notifications. It's really quite peaceful for me and everyone around me.

efaref 10y ago
SMS-based 2FA is also a dream when you can glance at your wrist and then type the code in.

soylentcola 10y ago

I think a lot of this comes down to cost. A $500+ smartwatch that's mostly useful for notifications and the occasional wrist-based controls seems like overkill to me, personally (but I imagine this depends on your disposable gadget income). But I picked up a Moto360 maybe a year and a half ago for $150 on sale and while its main uses have also been notifications, the occasional voice/tap command, and playing with making watch faces in Photoshop, I'm mostly OK with that. $150 for a computer-watch that can change its appearance and layout to match your mood, occasion, or tie is pretty neat. But I don't know that it's $500 neat. Kinda like Travolta's $5 milk shake in Pulp Fiction, the Apple Watch is a pretty cool gadget, but I'm not sure it's something I'd ever pay that much for. But once you get into the $100-200 range, they start to become more appealing. And once the tech works its way downstream into cheaper products the way basic smartphones have, I think they'll be fairly popular.

scandox 10y ago

When I was a kid I daydreamed about connected devices and how cool it would all be. Now the devices I actually love: Casio A168W-1 Electro Luminescence Silver. 5 years old. Ipod Classic. 8 years old. Kindle Keyboard. Maybe 7 years? I actively loathe my phone. I like my laptop when I'm on the command line. I think the essence of what I am trying to say is that I like devices with low visibility connectivity. We need to turn ubiquity into something much quieter.

ohthehugemanate 10y ago

Dammit smartwatch industry, this isn't rocket science. The core values a watch brings are time on your wrist, notifications, and low maintenance. The core upgrades are simple apps (stopwatch, timer... ), waterproof-ness, and fashion. Those are your dimensions. If you do anything that compromises those product fundamentals, you are making a bad decision. If Pebble came out with a good looking, waterproof watch with a week long battery, they would dominate the market. The fact that they have done so well against the marketing juggernaut that is apple, is a tribute to how close they've come to these core product traits.

delecti 10y ago
> If Pebble came out with a good looking, waterproof watch with a week long battery I'm curious which one of those you think they currently aren't meeting, because they currently have the latter two, and the Pebble Time Round is a fairly attractive looking watch IMO.
- samastur 10y ago
  I can't speak for the original poster but I find none of their watches remotely attractive. They are no worse than other watches in that price range, but I don't wear those either for the same reason.

tombert 10y ago

I used a Pebble for about a year, but the problem to me is that it never really looks like a "watch", but more like a "computer that's on my wrist". I'll admit that's a kind of pedantic little nitpick, and the Pebble is a great little thing, but I switched back to my old Invicta chronograph after awhile.

gloves 10y ago

I had a similar experience to the writer of the article when my fitbit broke when an update bricked it (or perhaps 'braceletted' it? In the weeks between getting the warranty repair, I began wearing the watch my grandad gave me before he passed away. I found two things. 1. I didn't miss anything about the fitbit - the main thing I used it for was time, and the second most used feature - the step counter - wasn't used for much more than something of general interest. I didn't find that killer reason I needed the watch in my life, even though I live an active lifestyle. 2. I preferred wearing the old fashioned watch with sentimental value attached. A watch is so unique as it can be passed through generations and is worn daily by one person over a long period of time. Given the premium real estate of my wrist meaning there is only one place for a device, I'd much rather have something there which is something very special and dear to me, than a gimmick.

whitehouse3 10y ago
As an "Apple Guy" and a "Watch Guy" the occasional friend will ask me why I don't own an Apple Watch. Your second point nails it. These machines are intimate, lasting. They spend more time with us than anything or anyone else. Simultaneous style, sentiment, and function with the added benefit that we can pass them on to our children and grandchildren.

joseacta 10y ago

I have a MS Band 2 and it has been great. - Does the fitness tracking really well - Have the GPS for walks, bike rides and running - Have notifications - Weather - Multiple devices: Android, Apple and Windows Phone - Sleep tracking - Watch - Cortana I really need to have it on me all the time. I only take it off for charging while taking a shower.

coldtea 10y ago

>But the most obvious alternative is to massively increase the amount of voice control the watch offers, and Apple simply doesn’t have the technical chops to do so. While Google and Amazon have been creating voice assistants that people seem to actually use and wax lyrical about, Apple … hasn’t. Citation needed. Never found any of those assistants particularly impressive, never mind hearing anyone waxing lyrical about it.

dfar1 10y ago

So next time I take my watch off for less than a month I shall too write an article. Clearly the author didn't need a watch, but bought one anyway. Then as expected didn't use it. Less then a month of not wearing a watch, doesn't seem like long enough either as the watch doesn't do everything the phone does, so there's no need to wear it frequently unless you like having a watch, which is not the case here. This article almost seems as clickbait... I could also write about how I bought a $500 coffee maker, and stopped using it after 9 months, because I actually don't drink much coffee. I just thought that having a nice coffee maker would improve my life.

dmschulman 10y ago

I never thought I'd be one to own a smartwatch. I enjoy wearing traditional mechanical watches for quickly being able to tell the time as well as for the fashion aspect, owning a wearable that would tie to my phone, delivering notifications and giving me access to apps, didn't really appeal to me as I prefer to disconnect rather than hyperconnect to my devices. Being someone who does a fair amount of outdoor activity (cycling and hiking mostly), and knowing a few people who are crazy about their Fitbits, I ended up looking into some fitness tracker-oriented smartwatches, landing on the Garmin Vivoactive HR with it's HR monitor and built in GPS. It's a very attractive device for $250, especially if fitness tracking and mapping your workout is important to you. $250 is maybe the upper limit of what I'd want to spend on a smartwatch, but the Garmin has been great for me as a simple intuitive device that knows what it is good at and doesn't try to complicate itself. Though you can cram a surprising amount of information and interactivity in these devices, it goes against good sustainable user experience to make a wrist-top computer as robust as a smartphone. Smartwatches should be a bundle of sensors and quick intuitive bits of display information, not a surrogate to my smartphone.

heleph 10y ago
I bought a Fitbit because I wanted to nudge my physical activity from sedentary into not noteworthy. I've been wearing it about three months and it has helped me do that. The other smart phone things I really love are notifications about phone calls and alarms that make the phone vibrate. I almost always miss phone calls, so it's nice to have the option to pick them up. The vibrating alarm is much nicer than being woken by noise and also reminds me when I need to leave work to make it home in time to see my kids. I'd really recommend it as a relatively low cost thing to try For anyone who is interested in trying a smart watch but doesn't want to spend a lot of money.

jdlyga 10y ago

I like my Apple Watch. It's nice to see the time, weather from dark sky, and the occasional text, and subway delay notifications. That's it.

rickyc091 10y ago

I think most people are in agreement that the app launch speed is horrendous, that'll get better in time. For me the two best features has been the notifications and dark sky as a complication. A few other things I use on a pretty regular basis... * Siri, set timer. (I just wish Siri was faster... it's pretty frustrating) * Locate my phone, this has been a life saver. As someone who runs a lot of events, I have a tendency to just leave my phone on a table and forget about it. * Having calls redirected to your wrist. This coincides with leaving my phone somewhere. Events are usually super loud so I wouldn't hear my phone anyways, but the pulsing vibration on the wrist is difficult to ignore. --- I purchased an Apple Watch for my mother who works in a more corporate setting with a shared desk. She's constantly on her feet and she has no pockets to keep her phone on her. The watch has been an incredible investment for her as she use to only check her phone during lunch and as she left for work. These days it's easier to get a hold of her in case of an emergency. When she's on the go, her phone is typically in her pursue, so you can imagine the benefit of the phone on her watch. The Apple watch isn't for everyone, but there are certainly some people that benefit from it more than others.

joshstrange 10y ago

I had a Pebble Steel and quite liked it but switched to the Apple Watch when it came up. I agree with some of the other points here: * Apps suck 99% of the time * Apps are slow * The UI is hard to use (especially while moving) * Siri is SLLLLOOOOOWWWWWWWWW When siri does work it's awesome but I find myself just saying "Hey Siri" (to activate my phone) or holding down the home button for a second to activate it much more often. The watch is just too slow most of the time and nothing is more frustrating than telling it to do something, it failing, and then me having to go do it on my phone. Also when most people ask me about it I say "I like it but it's far too expensive for most people to justify, I even have a hard time self-justifiying it to myself now that I've had it". Notifications, weather, upcoming events, time, fitness/activity? All great and it's why I wear it daily but it's been months since I launched an app on it. I'll see where Apple goes with it but I'm very much so considering switching back to a Pebble Time or other Pebble device as they are cheaper.

spyspy 10y ago
I like to say that I don't regret buying it, but if it got lost or broken I wouldn't be in a rush to replace it.

Zikes 10y ago

What I want most out of a watch right now is something that for every outward appearance is a normal analog watch, but has a small motor in it to vibrate when my phone receives a notification. I had a first-gen Kickstarter edition Pebble and for all of its gimmicks, the knowledge that I would feel every notification and also never suffer from phantom vibrations was the part I enjoyed the most. Stylistically I didn't much care for it, and eventually gave it to a friend. If someone were to just take a normal looking watch and make it vibrate when my phone does, with no other change whatsoever, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

make_clean 10y ago
I hear you. Take a look at the Martian line of smartwatches. https://www.martianwatches.com/ https://www.martianwatches.com/
mikestew 10y ago
If someone were to just take a normal looking watch and make it vibrate when my phone does I recall that at least one company does. I apologize, though, because such a device does not fit my personal use cases and therefore I haven't the first clue about telling you how to find it. (Does a quick search on "analog smartwatch" to prove his point...) Oh, well, I guess you could start here: http://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/best-smart-analogue-watch http://www.wareable.com/smartwatches/best-smart-analogue-wat...

busterarm 10y ago

Unfortunately for me, they'll never get past the fact that I appreciate watches for their movements. A watch is entirely an aesthetic choice -- you have to want their aesthetic. I have a 50-year old Rolex Air King (way older than me, family heirloom) and I can't imagine switching to anything else anytime soon. It's simple, no-nonsense and a beautiful watch. I appreciate other, fancier watches and might wear something on the high end for a really posh event, but that's it.

nashashmi 10y ago
> never get past the fact that I appreciate watches for their movements How does this sound: never get past the fact that I appreciate phones for the calls they make We have to come to accept they are watches in name only. And mostly remote controls for phones.
- busterarm 10y ago
  That's great insight. Along those same lines though, I don't want to wear two devices on my arm and the remote control has to compete (aesthetically) with the watch. Both are mostly useless to me -- I already have a phone. I'm still going with the watch.

mdemare 10y ago

Killer app for me: alarm clock. I wear the Apple Watch at night, and it'll wake me (vibrations) without waking my girlfriend.

RobotfromOT 10y ago

I just paid for snacks at my local, rural, small-business-run convenience store with my watch. Seamless. Apple Pay is another great reason to keep wearing the watch.

kylec 10y ago
Funny, even though I wear an Apple Watch every day I've gone back to using Apple Pay on my iPhone instead. It's just easier than the contortions that are sometimes required to get the Apple Watch close enough to the reader.

tunesmith 10y ago

I'm surprised that hardly anyone is mentioning the activity wheel. That's the killer feature as far as I'm concerned. I don't know much about the science behind it, like if filling your activity wheel actually means you are doing a somewhat good job at being healthy, but I know that my settings are definitely keeping me more consistently active than I would by default otherwise. It's a key part of my life now, and I've filled that damned wheel about 95% of the days that I've owned the watch. Given that I'm not sure I would have improved my habits without it, I feel like it has definitely improved my life. Other things that the watch has been a nice addition for - checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient. Receiving/reading messages while the phone isn't out. The rest of it, not so much. The watch could be better at showing the time when you want to see it; I often have to tap the face. I rarely use Siri. I ignore calendar/mail entirely, phone works better. I dislike Apple Maps and use Google Maps instead. I could theoretically be in the market for a smaller/slimmer Apple fitness device.

eric_h 10y ago
> checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient Holy shit I have no idea why I never thought to do that, that's a great feature. I agree that the watch is not a life changing tech upgrade like the iPhone was, but personally, I find the features on the watch that I do use to be convenient and compelling enough that I still put the watch on every morning. Really, the killer feature I want is disable the god damn screenshot feature on the watch, or at least give me a button in the photos app to "purge all watch screenshots" because fully half of my photo library is accidental watch screenshots, and I haven't had the time to come up with a way to script it. Oh yes, and apple pay when a vendor accepts it is just down right awesome.
mikestew 10y ago
I'm surprised that hardly anyone is mentioning the activity wheel. That's the killer feature as far as I'm concerned. If it does what I think it does, Garmin, Suunto and others have the same "killer feature" (in which case one should wonder, what is that feature killing? Not Apple's competitors.) Pebble doesn't, last time I fired my up a few weeks ago. Other things that the watch has been a nice addition for - checking the weather over the next few hours by spinning the dial is very convenient. A button push on my Garmin. One long push on Pebble, if you've set it up for that. Pebble has watch faces that show weather all the time. Haven't looked, but I'd be surprised if someone didn't do the same for Garmins. The watch could be better at showing the time when you want to see it; I often have to tap the face. This is where I think that Apple failed miserably. It's the main reason that I, as an iOS/Mac developer and all-around fanboy, didn't even consider the Apple Watch when it came out. Wanna know the time with a Garmin or a Pebble (or a Suunto, or just about any other smartwatch out there)? Want it to work every...single...time? Turn your wrist until the watch is in your line of sight. You'll see the time, guaranteed. (Caveat: if it's dark, might have to hit the backlight button. Though the Garmin on my wrist will light up at night when I turn my wrist with about 95% success.)

vitd 10y ago

When the watch came out, I thought, "Oh that's neat. Not neat enough to buy, but neat." Eventually, I got a good discount on one and bought it. While it may not be life changing, I love it. I use it daily and for lots of things. The reminders and notifications are extremely useful. Siri works great for me. I send texts from it, I set timers while cooking, I check the weather and time and next event I have scheduled. When getting dressed in the morning, I immediately notice when I don't have it on because it's become such a part of my life. So I guess your mileage may vary. It turned out to be just what I was looking for without even realizing it.

beloch 10y ago

The Apple watch came with some pretty high end cases but, even if it had been a useful product, the rapid obsolescence curve made buying a nice case a true waste of money. The same goes for all other smart watches on the market. What I'd love to see is a smart watch that comes in two parts: 1. A case 2. The "movement" If a smart watch manufacturer released a case and movement separately and then committed to providing compatible movements in the future, suddenly you wouldn't have to feel bad about buying a nice case. Upgrading the movement every couple years would become relatively cheap. If the company made the case an open standard, you'd likely be able to get one from your favorite watch maker, making their smart watch a much more personal item, as mechanical watches are. This has already been done with mechanical movements. e.g. Many mechanical watch manufacturers only make cases, and put ETA movements in them. Given how long mechanical movements can last, it's just bizarre that this hasn't been done with smart watches yet.

sgtpepper43 10y ago

I feel like Apple is killing smart watches. Android watches are cheap enough that they can make incremental improvements and everyone would be fine with it. Even then, I have the huawei watch, and it's already so, so much better than the apple watch. And cheaper. So I worry that people are going to get fed up with the apple watch before Android watches get a chance to really take off.

cloudjacker 10y ago

hilarious because all of this was obvious to everyone that didn't buy the watch took the fan boys nine months to figure it out

chillacy 10y ago
Hey if you're looking for evidence, you'll find it. My story is the opposite. I bought it to build apps on it, didn't really care for wearing it, until one day I realized that my day was subtly worse if I forgot it at home. And that's when I realized that it was useful in a small way. Now that I have my work calendar and weather on the face, it's become quite nice to have.