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The Apple Watch Was Not Designed Specifically for Me, But It Sure Seems Like It Was
I want an Apple Watch for four main reasons: Because of the nature of my work, the fact that I own two dogs, the fact that I live in a noisy city and because I hate Bluetooth earpieces. Now I realize that there's no way Jony Ive and Apple's design group has a profile fitting that description in their design briefs, there is no picture of me on their corkboard with a red circle around my face...
...but what they excel at is figuring out universal needs and designing solutions to those. Which is why it feels like the Apple Watch was designed precisely for me and for what I need to do on a daily basis.
I'll start with the two dogs. They require a lot of exercise, which I'm happy to give them to counterbalance the effect of IPAs on my waistline, and I am outside with them a lot—up to two hours per day, every day, rain or shine. This is possible because my work enables me to set my own schedule and work from home.
Which brings me to the nature of that work. In addition to my Core77 duties, I run a rental photography studio in a highly competitive market, and if I miss a single phone call or text message, which may come in at any hour, there are hundreds or potentially thousands of dollars at stake for each message I miss. Clients want answers right away, and if you don't pick up, they go down their list and contact the next studio.
Which raises the problem of me living in a noisy city. When outside with the dogs, my phone lives in a pants pocket. Thus if I'm walking or running I cannot always feel the vibration of an incoming message, nor hear the ring over jackhammers and bypassing ambulances. I've lost a three-day booking before because I couldn't hear the phone and called back five minutes too late. I dislike Bluetooth earpieces so have compensated by constantly walking around with earbuds in, the wire trailing down to the phone pocket, whether or not I'm listening to music or podcasts. So now I can hear if a call or text comes in, but this doesn't solve all problems. When a text message comes in I must wrangle two dogs with one hand, then fish the phone out to manipulate it. Because I am kind of clumsy, this always brings a chance I'll drop my phone. I estimate I've dropped my iPhone 4s over 100 times, on concrete, on pavement, you name it. I have been astonished to see that this cheap silicone case I got for free has been adequate to protect it for all these years:
However, three months ago I dropped the phone—on freaking grass, at a park—and that was the day it decided to land on a rock. The screen cracked.
Worst of all is when you've gone to the trouble, outside in the middle of a thunderstorm when you've sought the shelter of a tree to keep the phone dry under and then fished it out of the safe dryness of your waterproof head-to-toe get-up, then discovered it was a text message from one of your degenerate friends trying to talk you into daytime drinks.
So what I need is:
1. Notification that there's a message or call, independent of ambient noise
2. A way to see who is trying to contact me, before I fish the phone out, and
3. A quick means of responding if the contacter is important.
The Apple Watch is the perfect answer for me. When a message comes in, it "taps" you on the wrist with its "Taptic" engine, providing an impossible-to-miss notification.
To check that message or call all I have to do is lift my wrist and the gyro kicks in, turning the display on. Then I can simply glance at my wrist, rather than stopping the dogs to fish out the phone, to see if the message is important enough to drop what I'm doing. And I can then respond through the Watch rather than having to dig for the phone.
If it did only those things, I'd be happy to buy one. But as it happens, the Apple Watch also does what seems like another several hundred things:
For me, this can't come out fast enough.
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Comments
I say the pebble has solved your problems a couple of years before the Apple Watch.
Yes, Morgan, as a matter of fact the internet is full of vainglorious bozos such as yourself that imagine that the echo chamber of the "Apple Sucks" brigade amounts to a hill of beans.
Hint: it does not.
"I'm not yet sure if an iphone will be a requirement to use the watch"
Because like the majority of the "Apple Sucks" strike force, you don't ever bother to read up on the device you are talking about.
"it's still as ugly and useless as it gets."
Thanks for the in depth analysis. You are such a deep thinking contrarian, bashing a product you haven't even handled.
You are correct, I did skim the article at first. In the example given it might make sense, but it's not really a cure all. I understand that in that instance he lost out on potential business. But to be fair, will that watch prevent that all the time. If answering clients as quickly as possible is the goal, why not have a receptionist? I understand that would be an added cost, but if it means not losing $$ and clients, it would likely pay off. Technology cannot always replace human interaction. I just wonder how the watch will help him when he's in the bathroom or shower, or at the doctors, or a theater, or waiting in line at the store. Or how about when he's asleep and it has to be charged.
I will fully admit that I may have existing bias on how technology may or may not be helping us. But I think the example to me is justifying a mostly redundant piece of tech. Everyone seems to have convinced themselves that they must be "connected" all the time. Is the author competitive because he is better, or just because he is available?
I guess I'm just looking at the deeper implications. Is he working to live or living to work?
"Why don't people just ignore their damn phones for twenty minutes and check it later. No one is that important..."
If you had paid attention while reading the article you would have learned that the author's business depends on his ability to immediately respond to clients, and that a five minute delay once cost him a three-day booking.
Well, at least you've chosen a suitable username to reflect your intellect.
And it does a thousand things those more expensive watches can't do. Anyone who says they are "hideous" is either blind, or blinded by anti-Apple rage.
I've done a book on watches. I have handled some really, super high-end watches, and photographed them. I work with top experts who know their stuff. And I can't wait to get one. I'm so glad my own watch broke, so there's less friction on that front!
I agree. This can't come fast enough.
Like there were other MP3 players before the iPod, other tablets before the iPad, other smartphones before the iPhone. Apple doesn't do things first - it does them best.
The author has explained why. Maybe you skimmed the part where he said:
"I've lost a three-day booking before because I couldn't hear the phone and called back five minutes too late."
Perhaps for some (and this is maybe the point of the article), this product is exactly what they need. My partner is an event manager and can see huge benefits to having this watch.
Most good watches cost $300-$400 anyway. My hesitation is that it may be the new iDevice and therefore cyclic as it is dependent on technology improvements.
Surely we can all remember back to the first iPod. That thing was a brick, but it evolved, as will the apple watch.
Anyway, now, in my personal opinion, this "watch" is indeed ugly and useless. I'm not yet sure if an iphone will be a requirement to use the watch, but if it is, then it's a monumental mistake, mostly because it makes all the watch's functions redundant except for the bio-sensors...Everything else will be right there, in your pocket, in your iphone, including another (guess what) watch.
For a U$400 product, it just offers too little...Besides, we're not talking about a regular U$400 dollar watch which will probably work for the rest of your life. The Apple Watch, like all other Apple products, will forcefully be led to obsolescence in 18 months or less. In two years, it will probably not even work with the current iphone and OSx version.
Let's see how long Apple's reputation is going to last without any real innovation...They've been surfing the first Ipod and Iphone's wave for quite sometime now.
I don't really doubt that the Apple Watch is going to be a hit, though. Apple is still an impressively strong brand. However, if we analyze this watch in isolation from the brand itself, it's still as ugly and useless as it gets.
If they do, it seems they will be impossible to replace as in S+F timepieces...