Eyewhatch

MiCr0

giant announcement yesterday - and no mention here - clearly shows how engaged watch people are in this "revolution"

sparrowcar

MiCr0 wrote: »

giant announcement yesterday - and no mention here - clearly shows how engaged watch people are in this "revolution"

Yep. They've priced themselves out of a big market I think. I would be interested in the sports version as stated before but at around €150-200 max but not the €350+ figure that's been released. I'd much quicker put that sort of cash into a steinhart!

Anjobe

As a mobile app developer I am going to have to embrace these at some stage but to be honest I don't see the point of them. I may be missing something, but $350 for something that means you don't have to take your phone out of your pocket quite as often seems a bit much, and the cheapest option that I would be prepared to give wrist time to is $699.

Having said that the design of some of the bands and clasps looks really nice, I have found myself repeatedly watching the video of the clasp on the link bracelet opening and closing this morning. Hopefully we'll see some of that design bleeding through into "real" watches sometime soon.

Anjobe

sparrowcar wrote: »

Yep. They've priced themselves out of the a big market I think. I would be interested in the sports version as stated before but at around €150-200 max but not the €350+ figure that's been released. I'd much quicker put that sort of cash into a steinhart!

I couldn't agree more, I don't think they appeal to those who are into watches (at least not over proper watches at the same sort of prices) and will be too expensive for those who aren't. And who the feck is going to drop 10K+ on a gold one?

Wibbs

The other aspect where IMH they've cocked up is they offer too many choices. Steve Jobs was famous for and often pilloried by nay sayers for reducing choice in the IT business. He was hellbent on streamlining product lines. He regularly criticised other companies for confusing customers with perceived "choice". EG when Microsoft brought out some windows version or other they had something like 8 or 10 different versions and different prices and Jobs bated them by saying apple had just two. The OS and the server version. Jobs understood that the majority of people claim they want choice, but it also confuses them and conflicts them. Outside of the minority nerd types who want the choice of choice as it were, the majority of the buying public want to keep it simple. Well IMH Jobs is spinning in his urn at the watch rollout. If they just had the apple watch in two versions; "Cheap" and "are you on medication" price, with customisation of the straps across both versions, then I could see it working, or working better than this confusing mess with prices and options all over the place.

Bluefoam

sparrowcar wrote: »

Yep. They've priced themselves out of the a big market I think. I would be interested in the sports version as stated before but at around €150-200 max but not the €350+ figure that's been released. I'd much quicker put that sort of cash into a steinhart!

I have been pondering this for a while now... And I really can't see the benefit of using a watch rather than taking your phone out of your pocket for most tasks... a smartphone is a much better device...

I do however like the idea of fitness tracking, as it will encourage me to exercise more and lose some weight, due to the fact that I'm an information junkie.... I have decided on the jawbone up24, because it is the least obstructive and the smallest I can find (with adequate functionality). I wear a watch on my left wrist... So I want something that can sit in my other wrist and not get in the way...

Anjobe

Bluefoam wrote: »

I do however like the idea of fitness tracking, as it will encourage me to exercise more and lose some weight, due to the fact that I'm an information junkie.... I have decided on the jawbone up24, because it is the least obstructive and the smallest I can find (with adequate functionality). I wear a watch on my left wrist... So I want something that can sit in my other wrist and not get in the way...

One of the fitness features of the Apple watch is that it will warn you when you have been inactive for too long. I can take my doctor and my wife telling me I need to get up and exercise more, anyone or anything else that tries it will find that there are unpleasant physical consequences for their impertinence.

rwbug

I was convinced I would get an Apple watch to be used as my daily watch, but I won't be at these prices.

Mredsnapper

For anyone that's interested there is a really good analysis of possible use cases here:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/03/the-next-stage-in-the-battle-for-our-attention-our-wrists/?utm_source=Daily+Lab+email+list&utm_campaign=6d86f356a3-dailylabemail3&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d68264fd5e-6d86f356a3-395921117

Well worth reading IMHO. There is a tldr at the bottom for the time constrained.

Anjobe

It appears that the claim of up to 18 hours of battery life may be a tad optimistic - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11461317/Apple-Watch-battery-lasts-as-little-as-three-hours.html

art

Anjobe wrote: »

It appears that the claim of up to 18 hours of battery life may be a tad optimistic - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11461317/Apple-Watch-battery-lasts-as-little-as-three-hours.html

It's a bit disingenuous that article to be fair, no-one is going to use the watch to make a three hour call when they've a phone stuck in their pocket!

I agree with Wibbs earlier though, the amount of choice they are offering is very un-Apple and kind of stupid really.

Anjobe

art wrote: »

It's a bit disingenuous that article to be fair, no-one is going to use the watch to make a three hour call when they've a phone stuck in their pocket!

Fair enough, but it is highlighting something that users will likely find frustrating, as has been the case with other Apple products. Battery life on an iPhone is great, as long as you don't actually use it.

art

Anjobe wrote: »

Fair enough, but it is highlighting something that users will likely find frustrating, as has been the case with other Apple products. Battery life on an iPhone is great, as long as you don't actually use it.

We've discussed this earlier that battery life will be a crucial factor, given Samsung's effort was clocking in at six to seven hours of simple normal use for example. If Apple can get a realistic 12 to 14 hours then it will be okay for most people I'd say. Not sure where you're coming from with your remark as all their products so far have excelled the competition in battery life terms so it's more likely this one will too. But it will probably still catch a number of people off guard to find themselves waking up in the morning (having not put the thing on its charger) and finding the watch is dead.

Anjobe

art wrote: »

We've discussed this earlier that battery life will be a crucial factor, given Samsung's effort was clocking in at six to seven hours of simple normal use for example. If Apple can get a realistic 12 to 14 hours then it will be okay for most people I'd say. Not sure where you're coming from with your remark as all their products so far have excelled the competition in battery life terms so it's more likely this one will too. But it will probably still catch a number of people off guard to find themselves waking up in the morning (having not put the thing on its charger) and finding the watch is dead.

I'm not criticising the Apple Watch in comparison to other smart watches, but 18 hours was a bold claim for the battery life and I think it is fair to scrutinize that. The article that I linked to suggested it will only last for 7 hours of health monitoring, which is one of the features that Apple are really pushing and pretty much the only area in which it does something that the phone can't.

art

I doubt anyone will want to monitor their heartbeat for seven hours straight! But I agree it's unlikely people will regularly get 18 hours out of it either. Though Apple's claims on the iPad and iPhone were fairly accurate so I'm willing to wait and see. What surprises me is the desire in so many quarters to have this fail, I can't see the point in that - the Guardian has just published a stupid article of such type (which our Times has cogged), just comes across as bitter and mean-spirited.

Eoin

art wrote: »

I agree with Wibbs earlier though, the amount of choice they are offering is very un-Apple and kind of stupid really.

I agree it's un-Appley, but I don't know if it's stupid. I think they want people wearing a watch they want, rather than a watch Apple has prescribed. They're trying to cross gadgetry with jewellery, so forcing the same watch (or maybe 2 versions) on everyone is obviously not something they think will be a winner.

Not to mention the extra revenue possibilities of people mixing and matching their straps.

As an aside, I can't wait to handle some of their bracelets - by most accounts, they're supposed to be very well made. They'd want to be for a couple of hundred dollars, but it sounds like they're more than the afterthought that they are on many smart watches. And a lot of watches in general actually.

art wrote: »

]What surprises me is the desire in so many quarters to have this fail

I'm not surprised at all - there's a massive anti-Apple bias out there. It's a shame because whether or not you agree with how prescriptive they are, there's no denying that what they produce heavily influences what others do. The Apple Watch is going to make smart watches more mainstream than any other brand can, so ultimately it benefits the market.

Rising tide and all that...

art

Yeah, perhaps the strap thing will be an exclusion that proves itself. I'm very unlikely to get one but will be very curious in general to see the reaction when these are actually out "in (on!) the flesh" so certainly open to correction, especially given how rare it is for Apple to get this sort of thing wrong. And, obviously, agree very much with your second point, the "rising tide" is exactly what fascinates me, looking forward to seeing all sorts of interesting new products in the next year or two, it will be exciting. The anti-apple bias thing is just sad.

Edit: Missed this piece of information earlier, re the battery: "a Power Reserve facility exists so you can still check the time for up to 72 hours longer". So that's three days timekeeping on top of normal "smart" usage, not perfect, but much better than having it simply die on you.

Zagato

Only came across this today, but is a preferable concept to me. The stories are all from January but can't remember seeing it here.
Needs a lot of work with regard to functionality and ensuring low profile/comfort. but if it provided some of the fitness/health stuff along with notifications and a decent contactless pay service, woulld allow you have all the pluses and still the watch you want!

Eoin

I'll be getting an Apple Watch with work (we've written a "proof of concept" app for Android & Apple watches), so will report back here.

Initial reports indicate that the "digital crown" is not that intuitive, which is a surprise. I'd have thought that consistent behaviour would be one thing that Apple would absolutely nail, even if it's new territory for them too.

Edit: smart strap is an interesting idea

Zagato

I just moved to london and something that would prevent me needing to take wallet out of my pocket for tube (4-6 times a day) would be handy. Also forgot my ID today and made trying to access places at work a pain - so if we could jump to a point where this was in smart strap, I would be very interested.
Only issue then would be that I'm not allowed wear a watch at work

Wibbs

Eoin wrote: »

I'll be getting an Apple Watch with work (we've written a "proof of concept" app for Android & Apple watches), so will report back here.

Cool!

Initial reports indicate that the "digital crown" is not that intuitive, which is a surprise. I'd have thought that consistent behaviour would be one thing that Apple would absolutely nail, even if it's new territory for them too.

IMH this is the product that is going to highlight precisely what Jobs brought to Apple. I would bet the farm that he wouldn't have signed off on it in it's current incarnation and would most certainly not have signed off on the tyranny of choice part.

Edit: smart strap is an interesting idea

+1

Deep Thought

Zagato wrote: »

Only issue then would be that I'm not allowed wear a watch at work

FFS...I'd leave :cool:

Anjobe

More Apple Watch knocking articles in the papers today - I found this one quite amusing. While I don't hate Apple myself, I do think they have been guilty of sufficient hyberbole and hubris to have brought this sort of thing on themselves.

Mredsnapper

Anjobe wrote: »

More Apple Watch knocking articles in the papers today - I found this one quite amusing. While I don't hate Apple myself, I do think they have been guilty of sufficient hyberbole and hubris to have brought this sort of thing on themselves.

Rolex sponsor that section of the Guardian....

Eoin

The Apple Watch ecosystem is gathering legs already - some 3rd party strap options

An adapter for a standard 24mm strap:
http://get-click.com/

Cheaper straps:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1843570774/time-for-change-a-band-for-every-occasion?ref=nav_search

Charge your watch from the strap:
http://reservestrap.com/#about

art

Some of the charger/cradle type things that are coming out now are actually really nice!


e.g. Pad&Quill charger

Northern Monkey

I tried a few of these on over the weekend in the apple shop. I liked it much more than I thought I would, but at £850 on a bracelet my money would be going elsewhere.

Homer

To say I was shocked to see this video on IWC Facebook page this morning would be an understatement!!

*not sure this will play on mobile devices*

http://bcove.me/2gscyrgf

Eoin

Looks like it's just a thingy you put on the strap
http://www.ablogtowatch.com/iwc-connect-watch-strap-smartwatch/

Homer

Ah ok. As I said I was on mobile device and it was a short teaser video so didn't give too much away as to what it was. Cheers for the link E