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If I had to choose between a dumb watch that never needs recharging (like my Citizen Eco-Drive) and a "smart" watch that doesn't even last a full day, I'd choos

If I had to choose between a dumb watch that never needs recharging (like my Citizen Eco-Drive) and a "smart" watch that doesn't even last a full day, I'd choose the dumb watch. Who the hell think that a watch that can't even function a day is an acceptable product? This just blows my mind. And yet, I'm pretty sure they are going to sell millions of them. I wouldn't want one if it was free.

njloof 12y ago
My grandfather's watch only lasts a day between windings.
mathgeek 12y ago
> Who the hell think that a watch that can't even function a day is an acceptable product? You'll have your answer in a few days. You'll even be able to tell who these people are by looking at their wrists.
ctdonath 12y ago
In fairness, the time function for the Apple Watch will continue for 3 days. Comparing it's ability to do a whole lot of power-intensive activity (phone, video, etc) that the dumb watch can't do at all is disingenuous. We heard the same arguments about cell phones. Who would want a smartphone that would discharge in less than a day, when you could get a dumb phone that would hang on for days? or a wired phone that didn't have power problems (even when the power went out)? Then people discovered how darned useful that power-sucking capability was, and have adapted to charging daily. I do wonder when smart watches will include self-charging "eco drive", tapping wrist motion for energy.
- takeda 12y ago
  Compare those 3 days to 2 years with my cheap watch.
iMark 12y ago
My phone battery only lasts a day. In the years before smartphones, multi-day battery life was taken for granted. Tellingly I barely use my phone as a phone. I suspect we will see a similar pattern develop with smartwatches, where telling the time will be only a single bullet point far down a much longer list of features.
sanoli 12y ago
I also swear by my Eco-Drive. Never off my wrist, great water resistance, can see it in the dark without pressing anything - a little tough workhorse. I also can't see wearing a watch that you have to charge every day, or every x days. However, many people are different from you an me, mand people won't mind taking it off and charging it at the end of the day, and won't bother much if one night they come from a party and forget to charge it and find out the next day it has no battery to handle till the end of work. Many people are more used to a smartphone than to a quartz watch (young people, I guess who they're aiming the iwatch for). I think it won't fly, as it's too geeky, a la Google Glass. Regular watches just look way better/cooler/nicer. Not the case with phones, where you didn't have anything to compete in the looks/style front from before. We'll see.
clarky07 12y ago
Why is charging electronics such a problem? Do people wear watches while sleeping? Why is setting it on the charger on my nightstand actually a problem? This seems like an absurd nitpicky thing to complain about.
- milesokeefe 12y ago
  I wear my Pebble every night when sleeping. It's fantastic backup alarm, I never have to worry about forgetting to set my phone's alarm, not hearing my phone, my phone dying, etc. At this point I wouldn't go back to using a watch with less than a few days battery life, it takes out a huge part of the value for me.
  - clarky07 12y ago
    see, and i have the opposite problem with my pebble. since it isn't part of my daily charging routine, it inevitably dies because i forget about charging it ever. I'd be better off including it my daily charging routine.
    - kbd 12y ago
      > it inevitably dies because i forget about charging it ever How is that possible? It gives you ample low battery alerts.
      - clarky07 12y ago
        eh the alert happens in the middle of the day when i'm not near my charger. since i'm not in the habit of charging it at night, sometimes i just forget about it.
- urda 12y ago
  I compare the awful mentality of "why do I have to charge X so many Y times?!" to the same result of modern cell phones. It wasn't that long ago that your cell phone could last days or more on a single charge. Now many people have the routine of just charging their phones at night. The world didn't end, things just progressed.
skc 12y ago
The guy that runs asymco said something that got me thinking about this. He said, the Apple Watch is as much a "watch" as the iPhone is a "phone". I think the idea is that we are thinking about it all wrong. The "phone" functionality of an iPhone is just an app and is in fact one of the least used apps on the device. The same line of thinking will probably start to explain the Apple Watch. It's actually a wearable computer with an app that tells the time.
- spinchange 12y ago
  While there's certainly truth to this, it's also a little bit of apologia/marketing speak. The iPhone is fundamentally a phone. While it does a lot more than just make calls, and is likely purchased for more than the ability to make calls, it is fundamentally a phone first (it's in the name and the hardware), most people buy them in conjunction with a phone carrier or phone plan, and on and on. The Watch (again, right in the name) is fundamentally a watch. It also will do a litany of other cool things above and beyond a typical watch's feature set, but this doesn't change the fact that it is fundamentally a watch. At best, it strikes me as a secondary display, or peripheral device to the phone. I think of how Jony Ive talks about the products... what their essence is, how they strive to make them the "inevitable" ideal object or iteration of a given thing. So, to my mind, if we're calling this a wearable computer that simply also tells time, it isn't more than the sum of the parts anymore, it's an amalgam of features, already done in other form factors, that still won't last on full day's charge. None of which is to say people won't buy it and love it. They will.
- oaktowner 12y ago
  Right. "Phone" was the thing the iPhone did worst of all. When I got my first iPhone (after a Blackberry Curve), one thing I noticed: everything my Curve did, it did better than the iPhone. It was a better phone, it was better for email, it was better for texting. (Ok, it technically had "apps", but they were so bad I never used any). But my iPhone did a million things that my Blackberry didn't do (via apps). Was it a worse phone? Absolutely. Did I love it much, much more than I ever loved my Blackberry? Absolutely. Don't think of this as a "watch." [slight edit for clarity]
brandon272 12y ago
I have a Pebble, which I enjoy. The battery lasts for 4 or 5 days, which is great. However, I find the biggest thing that prevents me from using it is the charging. I'll take it off, attach it to the charger on my nightstand and in the morning I am usually in such a hurry that I can't be bothered to sit down and put it back on my wrist. Just my personal anecdote. Those who aren't rushed out the door in the morning would probably have a different experience! Also, one reason I am happy with the Pebble's 4 - 5 day battery life is because I actually like wearing it to bed because of it's vibrating alarm feature which allows me to be woken up without disturbing my partner.
- mahyarm 12y ago
  I just charge my wrist devices at the office desk. It's usually fast enough for me and I'm not in a rush to leave anytime soon.
drzaiusapelord 12y ago
Moto 360 owner here. I take it off at night and put it down just like I would a real watch. "Down" in this case is onto a small Qi mat. I don't sleep or bathe with watches. Its a total non-issue. I take my phone out and put it on its Qi mat and the watch right next to it. My phone doesn't last more than a day either. No idea how the Apple one works, but the Moto guys figured it out pretty quickly. Just use the Qi standard, ship a cradle, or let people use their own Qi pads. I imagine Apple's "not invented here" mentality is going to make this a worse experience. It doesn't seem to be using Qi. Its proprietary. That's a mistake.
- calciphus 12y ago
  My use case is the exact same. Take the 360 off at night, I don't want to sleep in a watch anyhow. On the occasions I do, it survives a night (but complains of low battery in the morning) in case I need to use it for a silent alarm in the early hours. I agree that the toxic NIH syndrome at Apple harms their users - why not use Qi? Because then they can't charge $30 ($50?) for a replacement / secondary charging cable.

njloof 12y ago

My grandfather's watch only lasts a day between windings.

mathgeek 12y ago

> Who the hell think that a watch that can't even function a day is an acceptable product? You'll have your answer in a few days. You'll even be able to tell who these people are by looking at their wrists.

ctdonath 12y ago

In fairness, the time function for the Apple Watch will continue for 3 days. Comparing it's ability to do a whole lot of power-intensive activity (phone, video, etc) that the dumb watch can't do at all is disingenuous. We heard the same arguments about cell phones. Who would want a smartphone that would discharge in less than a day, when you could get a dumb phone that would hang on for days? or a wired phone that didn't have power problems (even when the power went out)? Then people discovered how darned useful that power-sucking capability was, and have adapted to charging daily. I do wonder when smart watches will include self-charging "eco drive", tapping wrist motion for energy.

takeda 12y ago
Compare those 3 days to 2 years with my cheap watch.

iMark 12y ago

My phone battery only lasts a day. In the years before smartphones, multi-day battery life was taken for granted. Tellingly I barely use my phone as a phone. I suspect we will see a similar pattern develop with smartwatches, where telling the time will be only a single bullet point far down a much longer list of features.

sanoli 12y ago

I also swear by my Eco-Drive. Never off my wrist, great water resistance, can see it in the dark without pressing anything - a little tough workhorse. I also can't see wearing a watch that you have to charge every day, or every x days. However, many people are different from you an me, mand people won't mind taking it off and charging it at the end of the day, and won't bother much if one night they come from a party and forget to charge it and find out the next day it has no battery to handle till the end of work. Many people are more used to a smartphone than to a quartz watch (young people, I guess who they're aiming the iwatch for). I think it won't fly, as it's too geeky, a la Google Glass. Regular watches just look way better/cooler/nicer. Not the case with phones, where you didn't have anything to compete in the looks/style front from before. We'll see.

clarky07 12y ago

Why is charging electronics such a problem? Do people wear watches while sleeping? Why is setting it on the charger on my nightstand actually a problem? This seems like an absurd nitpicky thing to complain about.

milesokeefe 12y ago
I wear my Pebble every night when sleeping. It's fantastic backup alarm, I never have to worry about forgetting to set my phone's alarm, not hearing my phone, my phone dying, etc. At this point I wouldn't go back to using a watch with less than a few days battery life, it takes out a huge part of the value for me.
- clarky07 12y ago
  see, and i have the opposite problem with my pebble. since it isn't part of my daily charging routine, it inevitably dies because i forget about charging it ever. I'd be better off including it my daily charging routine.
  - kbd 12y ago
    > it inevitably dies because i forget about charging it ever How is that possible? It gives you ample low battery alerts.
    - clarky07 12y ago
      eh the alert happens in the middle of the day when i'm not near my charger. since i'm not in the habit of charging it at night, sometimes i just forget about it.
urda 12y ago
I compare the awful mentality of "why do I have to charge X so many Y times?!" to the same result of modern cell phones. It wasn't that long ago that your cell phone could last days or more on a single charge. Now many people have the routine of just charging their phones at night. The world didn't end, things just progressed.

skc 12y ago

The guy that runs asymco said something that got me thinking about this. He said, the Apple Watch is as much a "watch" as the iPhone is a "phone". I think the idea is that we are thinking about it all wrong. The "phone" functionality of an iPhone is just an app and is in fact one of the least used apps on the device. The same line of thinking will probably start to explain the Apple Watch. It's actually a wearable computer with an app that tells the time.

spinchange 12y ago
While there's certainly truth to this, it's also a little bit of apologia/marketing speak. The iPhone is fundamentally a phone. While it does a lot more than just make calls, and is likely purchased for more than the ability to make calls, it is fundamentally a phone first (it's in the name and the hardware), most people buy them in conjunction with a phone carrier or phone plan, and on and on. The Watch (again, right in the name) is fundamentally a watch. It also will do a litany of other cool things above and beyond a typical watch's feature set, but this doesn't change the fact that it is fundamentally a watch. At best, it strikes me as a secondary display, or peripheral device to the phone. I think of how Jony Ive talks about the products... what their essence is, how they strive to make them the "inevitable" ideal object or iteration of a given thing. So, to my mind, if we're calling this a wearable computer that simply also tells time, it isn't more than the sum of the parts anymore, it's an amalgam of features, already done in other form factors, that still won't last on full day's charge. None of which is to say people won't buy it and love it. They will.
oaktowner 12y ago
Right. "Phone" was the thing the iPhone did worst of all. When I got my first iPhone (after a Blackberry Curve), one thing I noticed: everything my Curve did, it did better than the iPhone. It was a better phone, it was better for email, it was better for texting. (Ok, it technically had "apps", but they were so bad I never used any). But my iPhone did a million things that my Blackberry didn't do (via apps). Was it a worse phone? Absolutely. Did I love it much, much more than I ever loved my Blackberry? Absolutely. Don't think of this as a "watch." [slight edit for clarity]

brandon272 12y ago

I have a Pebble, which I enjoy. The battery lasts for 4 or 5 days, which is great. However, I find the biggest thing that prevents me from using it is the charging. I'll take it off, attach it to the charger on my nightstand and in the morning I am usually in such a hurry that I can't be bothered to sit down and put it back on my wrist. Just my personal anecdote. Those who aren't rushed out the door in the morning would probably have a different experience! Also, one reason I am happy with the Pebble's 4 - 5 day battery life is because I actually like wearing it to bed because of it's vibrating alarm feature which allows me to be woken up without disturbing my partner.

mahyarm 12y ago
I just charge my wrist devices at the office desk. It's usually fast enough for me and I'm not in a rush to leave anytime soon.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago

Moto 360 owner here. I take it off at night and put it down just like I would a real watch. "Down" in this case is onto a small Qi mat. I don't sleep or bathe with watches. Its a total non-issue. I take my phone out and put it on its Qi mat and the watch right next to it. My phone doesn't last more than a day either. No idea how the Apple one works, but the Moto guys figured it out pretty quickly. Just use the Qi standard, ship a cradle, or let people use their own Qi pads. I imagine Apple's "not invented here" mentality is going to make this a worse experience. It doesn't seem to be using Qi. Its proprietary. That's a mistake.

calciphus 12y ago
My use case is the exact same. Take the 360 off at night, I don't want to sleep in a watch anyhow. On the occasions I do, it survives a night (but complains of low battery in the morning) in case I need to use it for a silent alarm in the early hours. I agree that the toxic NIH syndrome at Apple harms their users - why not use Qi? Because then they can't charge $30 ($50?) for a replacement / secondary charging cable.