Eyewhatch

sparrowcar

I've slightly disguised the title to keep any Apple fanboys and tech nerds away

I have a simple question for you all about the possible release of an apple iWatch.
Will you buy one?

I am going with a yes and not for any aesthetic reason but for functionality.
I have an iPhone and I mountain bike and do a lot in the outdoors. My job also entails being in the outdoors for 30-40% of my day so having something that allows me to reduce the amount of time my phone is exposed appeals to me.
Also being able to track my bike ride from my wrist rather than taking out my phone is very appealing.

I wouldn't have any interest in wearing it out for drinks or on a day off just going about my business but certainly in work and when in the mountains.

Any opinions? Will you buy one?

bogmanfan

I'm not really interested in the phone connectivity end of things. However, I love the idea of the HD3 Slyde watch (https://www.slyde.ch/en/collection/slyde#slyde-steel-pvd) which is basically an LED screen which you can use to display any number of watch faces. If an Apple watch allowed the same kind of features (at a tenth of the price), then I would definitely go for it

Tigger

sparrowcar wrote: »

I've slightly disguised the title to keep any Apple fanboys and tech nerds away.

I have a simple question for you all about the possible release of an apple iWatch.
Will you buy one?

I am going with a yes and not for any aesthetic reason but for functionality.
I have an iPhone and I mountain bike and do a lot in the outdoors. My job also entails being in the outdoors for 30-40% of my day so having something that allows me to reduce the amount of time my phone is exposed appeals to me.
Also being able to track my bike ride from my wrist rather than taking out my phone is very appealing.

I wouldn't have any interest in wearing it out for drinks or on a day off just going about my business but certainly in work and when in the mountains.

Any opinions? Will you buy one?

whats wrong with tech nerds? grumble

its just one more thing to charge at night and will be common and stuff
voice activated hud sunglasses will be where its at

and mechanical watches

run_Forrest_run

bogmanfan wrote: »

I'm not really interested in the phone connectivity end of things. However, I love the idea of the HD3 Slyde watch (https://www.slyde.ch/en/collection/slyde#slyde-steel-pvd) which is basically an LED screen which you can use to display any number of watch faces. If an Apple watch allowed the same kind of features (at a tenth of the price), then I would definitely go for it

I like that idea. I'm afraid to google for the prices of those Slyde watches.

bogmanfan

They're a frankly ludicrous €7,000! Kind of like Vertu phones, you're paying a lot for the packaging, and not for the tech - sapphire crystal, gold case, alligator straps etc. I do really like the idea of changing the dial of your watch at the touch of a button though - from sporty chronograph to simple dress watch.

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

I like that idea. I'm afraid to google for the prices of those Slyde watches.

sparrowcar

Tigger wrote: »

whats wrong with tech nerds? grumble

its just one more thing to charge at night and will be common and stuff
voice activated hud sunglasses will be where its at

and mechanical watches

Nothing wrong with tech nerds I just didn't want the thread highjacked by people sitting at their pc or "macs" in their underpants drinking Pepsi max

Joking aside I wanted a watch enthusiasts point of view rather than the general public. No harm meant.

Eoin

Given that it'd never be a daily watch for me, it would need to have a particularly useful function that'd make me want to wear it on occasion - and I just can't see anything there that would make me do that.

paddyh117

Interesting question - while I'm a fan of the iPhone, I'm far from a nerd.

i love watches though, but struggle to see how apple will be able to package an iWatch that will appeal to the mass market - i don't think watch enthusiasts will be their market - everyone wears watches (OK, most people) but relatively few are watch enthusiasts - and of those that are the % that like yourself, would give up wearing their daily watch for an iWatch's functionality is in my opinion small

I think HUD's are the way forward - certainly for sports people, as the offer so much more than just a watch - i wear a basic Garmin when running for tracking pace/distance, but can see the appeal of something like this to people that spend €000's on their equipment already

http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/jet/

will be interested to see though

short answer is no - probably won't buy one

sparrowcar

paddyh117 wrote: »

Interesting question - while I'm a fan of the iPhone, I'm far from a nerd.

i love watches though, but struggle to see how apple will be able to package an iWatch that will appeal to the mass market - i don't think watch enthusiasts will be their market - everyone wears watches (OK, most people) but relatively few are watch enthusiasts - and of those that are the % that like yourself, would give up wearing their daily watch for an iWatch's functionality is in my opinion small

I think HUD's are the way forward - certainly for sports people, as the offer so much more than just a watch - i wear a basic Garmin when running for tracking pace/distance, but can see the appeal of something like this to people that spend €000's on their equipment already

http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/jet/

will be interested to see though

short answer is no - probably won't buy one

Agreed there is a future there for certain sports and including HUD's in cars. However it would be impossible to wear them while mountain biking. The terrain comes at you so fast that you really wouldn't have time to look at a HUD. As for work.. Can you imagine how silly you'd look wearing a pair of those with a suit

paddyh117

sparrowcar wrote: »

Agreed there is a future there for certain sports and including HUD's in cars. However it would be impossible to wear them while mountain biking. The terrain comes at you so fast that you really wouldn't have time to look at a HUD. As for work.. Can you imagine how silly you'd look wearing a pair of those with a suit

Agreed - Not suitable for work at the moment - although I'm sure though they (and Google etc) will introduce new models for Police/Rescue etc - no reason why they couldn't wear them - huge list of possible uses.

In terms of the outdoor, suit wearer like yourself - will there be a drive for people to start looking at their watch display, instead of the (now natural) instinct of grabbing your phone from your pocket? ......I'm not sure

sparrowcar

paddyh117 wrote: »

Agreed - Not suitable for work at the moment - although I'm sure though they (and Google etc) will introduce new models for Police/Rescue etc - no reason why they couldn't wear them - huge list of possible uses.

In terms of the outdoor, suit wearer like yourself - will there be a drive for people to start looking at their watch display, instead of the (now natural) instinct of grabbing your phone from your pocket? ......I'm not sure

Probably not. I suppose where I see it will benefit me is where my phone is in a dry bag in my pack it's a hassle to take it out instead of just looking at my wrist.

Having said all this if it isn't reasonably priced I won't touch it.

paddyh117

sparrowcar wrote: »

Probably not. I suppose where I see it will benefit me is where my phone is in a dry bag in my pack it's a hassle to take it out instead of just looking at my wrist.

Having said all this if it isn't reasonably priced I won't touch it.

Well if it has an Apple logo, you can be sure it won't be reasonably priced!

€399 minimum I'd imagine, but plucked that out of thin air!

Eoin

Is this thread specifically about Apple, or more about smart-watches in general? Because another reason I'd be unlikely to get an Apple watch is that I'm not going to shell out several hundred quid for a phone accessory that locks me into a particular phone or brand.

paddyh117 wrote: »

i love watches though, but struggle to see how apple will be able to package an iWatch that will appeal to the mass market - i don't think watch enthusiasts will be their market - everyone wears watches (OK, most people) but relatively few are watch enthusiasts - and of those that are the % that like yourself, would give up wearing their daily watch for an iWatch's functionality is in my opinion small

But the fact they're not watch enthusiasts probably makes it more likely they'll abandon their daily watch in favour of one of these.

paddyh117 wrote:

In terms of the outdoor, suit wearer like yourself - will there be a drive for people to start looking at their watch display, instead of the (now natural) instinct of grabbing your phone from your pocket? ......I'm not sure

I can see the attraction of this, if the UX is executed well (and I would back Apple to get this right). It could be less disruptive to give your watch a quick glance to see if the SMS/email/update justifies stopping what you're doing and pick up your phone to respond as needed (quite a bit like the MS Outlook taskbar notifications).

paddyh117

I assume they will all lock people in to one degree or another - the Samsung watch is for their Phone, so can't see Apple doing different

and here "UX" - the OP specifically said no tech nerds! :pac:

Eoin

paddyh117 wrote: »

I assume they will all lock people in to one degree or another - the Samsung watch is for their Phone, so can't see Apple doing different

Sorry - yeah, you're dead right, but there could be some decent 3rd party watches that would work with multiple phone types (e.g. the Pebble)

Mredsnapper

I don't think id like to have a smart watch. My smartphone is constantly trying to disturb me with silly updates and i would rather not have something on my wrist that makes the problem even worse.

sparrowcar

Mredsnapper wrote: »

I don't think id like to have a smart watch. My smartphone is constantly trying to disturb me with silly updates and i would rather not have something on my wrist that makes the problem even worse.

Yep I completely agree. If I do get one it will be for voice/text only notifications. It certainly won't have Facebook etc activated.

MiCr0

I'm a bit fan of tech (my job is building mobile Internet solutions for tele-co's) but I still haven't been drawn to any of the smartwatches. I'm sure that there's a use case here, but I just don't see it yet.
Its already possible to have intelligent notifications for certain people and apps, and smart lock screens can show you how important any subsequent notifications are without unlocking your device.

I guess the question for smartwatch use for me is what information do I want to see on my wrist that isn't possible or practical to do in other circumstances?

And I've just remembered about Google now and the fact that it can be always listening. I can just talk to my phone and ask it the weather while I'm putting on my coat :-)

Eoin

I am still unlikely to get one, but I do quite like how this new smart watch looks while in "normal" mode:

http://moto360.motorola.com/





However, they're making a big deal that it's round - so I'm guessing it will look exactly like a digital watch trying to look like an analogue one - just in a different shape.

Mredsnapper

I agree, the new moto watch concept looks nice. Cant see the attraction of knowing that I have new emails though ... I work in IT and it seems I always have new emails. For in car navigation a big screen is preferable and Google now is really only useful for telling the temperature......so this will be useful how? Also, battery life will be critical. There was talk that Apple was working on a combination of kinetic and solar charging to keep their batteries juiced..will be interesting to see how this works.

Bluefoam

No offence OP, but you want to keep fanboys out, and in the same breath declared that you are going to buy a product that has not been announced, nor have any details been released, nor have Apple actually confirmed the existence of the product!!!

To be honest, I think it will have typically good but Applish design, will have less functionality that the next similar product, but will be sold as a premium product & minor innovations will be marketed as world changing technological events...

Personally, I'll wait until HTC release theirs. Their current industrial design is superior to Apples, their software is more accessible, yet has very serious design & UI functionality & they are waiting for all the mé feiners to get their bandwagon products out & are going to release theirs when the technology & functionality catch up with the hype. If the HTC doesn't meet my expectations I'll look elsewhere.

Mredsnapper

Another ' issue' is that these watches will probably have a useful life of 2 to 3 years before an upgrade is required.

Negatives:
MOre distraction via alerts and info.
upgrade cycle
battery charging
Wifi/bt radio against your arm all day

Wibbs

Mredsnapper wrote: »

MOre distraction via alerts and info.

This. Oh god, this. For me sometimes the best function of a phone is the off switch.

Wifi/bt radio against your arm all day

I'd not worry too mch about that M, after all our grandfathers often walked around with a lump of radium strapped to their wrists.

Don't want to sound like a Luddite, but IMHO it's another solution to a non existent problem that only adds to the overload. In a way it's come full circle. The pocketwatch is around for longer than the wrist version and now we've replaced it with the smart phone, but I'm not so sure the pocket to wrist revolution will happen again, or not yet anyway. The first time it did the wristwatch was a practical upgrade on all sorts of levels, for our needs today it would be a downgrade. It kinda reminds me of the 80's digital watch calculators with the tiny buttons. A gimmick, albeit a nerdy cool one(had one myself). Then again maybe I'm just repeating what people thought at the turn of the 20th century and it will take off? I dunno though.

Deep Thought

Wibbs wrote: »

.

I'd not worry too much about that M, after all our grandfathers often walked around with a lump of radium strapped to their wrists.

And some of us still do..... :eek:

Eoin

Mredsnapper wrote: »

I agree, the new moto watch concept looks nice. Cant see the attraction of knowing that I have new emails though

Well, this is the problem for me too. Even if it looked exactly like an analogue watch (and to be fair, a stylish one too, based on the mock-ups), I just don't see the attraction. I can see why some people might want to subtlety/quickly check messages in meetings or whatever, but that seems like a pretty small niche.

Then again, maybe as technology and fashions change, the shift will be towards a larger smart device bracelet worn around your wrist, rather than trying to squeeze a screen into the size of the wristwatch. Either way, I think I'll be watching this from the sidelines for a good while.

On another note, I saw a mechanical watch online a while ago where it looked like a normal analogue watch, but when you turned some slider/the bezel the face went transparent and it turned into a skeleton watch. That would be a very cool way of getting the LCD/analogue blend. But I think that watch was the guts of 10K.

Zagato

Yeah, that is interesting from Motorola alright. I saw this smartwatch concept last week which looks along similar lines

run_Forrest_run

@Zagato, first pic: classy, second pic: ruined it.

But unfortunately (in my opinion anyway) I think this is exactly the way watches and wearable smart technology will go. Is nothing sacred anymore!!

emo72

http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/18/5522226/google-reveals-android-wear-an-operating-system-designed-for

the google wear is interesting. although its a world apart from what id normally use.

scwazrh

bogmanfan wrote: »

I'm not really interested in the phone connectivity end of things. However, I love the idea of the HD3 Slyde watch (https://www.slyde.ch/en/collection/slyde#slyde-steel-pvd) which is basically an LED screen which you can use to display any number of watch faces. If an Apple watch allowed the same kind of features (at a tenth of the price), then I would definitely go for it

The iPod nano 6th gen basically does this and you can buy various straps for it

MiCr0

we'd a big week last week with the android wear announcements and some of the moto360 screenshots
Some nice pics of possible faces for the 360 are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+Motorola/albums/6025927350868561553

And some reviews here
http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/30/5856846/android-wear-review-the-everything-inbox

Anyone going to "invest" in some Gen1 tech?

MiCr0

and at IFA this week we've got a load of new smart watches launched
Moto 360 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPHHOrSbikc
Samsung Gear S https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZFYk4fD4tQ
LG G Watch R http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/04/lg-g-watch-r-hands-on/
Asus Zenwatch http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/3/6100933/asus-zenwatch-with-android-wear-launch
Sony smartwatch 3 http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/09/03/ifa-2014-sony-officially-introduces-smartwatch-3-e-ink-smartband-talk/

and we still apple coming next week http://www.apple.com/live/