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/

art

I'm nine months now with a Pebble, find it scratches a completely different itch watch wise, it's very much a functional tool which I use when I really do want to know, say, exactly when a text or particular call comes in. Then there's days when, what I want, is to wear a watch ...

art

So, the iWatch is indeed here... it's a mobile device with a strap really, the watch bit just an after-thought. I'm kind of disappointed in its design from the pics I've seen so far, doesn't have that typical Apple edge, could be anybody's effort from an aesthetic point of view, though the functionality does seem pretty rich.

Wibbs

Looks very 1970's to me. Not sold on it myself. I'd have to see more pics.

Senecio

I think it looks quite smart. It looks more like a quality piece of kit than any other wearable device on the market.

Ghost Train

Looks okay, little bit boring looking maybe, round watch would have been more interesting
350$ would that be 350€ sale price here

Wibbs

I do like, or at least appreciate using the crown as a selector/input device, rather than exclusively using the touch screen part. I mused about this on another forum a while back with regard to smart watches. Watches have crowns(and buttons) so it seems silly not to utilise that in a smart watch. I mean on a normal say chronograph, you use the crown to set and sometimes wind the watch(I'm V old skool ) and you use the pushers to start, stop and rezero the chronograph function. That's before you consider how you could use a rotatable bezel a la a pilots/dive watch as a selection device. For me anyway the rotatable bezel is a bloody obvious one for inputting actions and commands and again we have had them on watches since the early 1930's and are on Casios all the way to Rolexes etc today.

So people are used to that. Hell back in the day of the ubiquitous digital watch all we interacted with were buttons. Now ironically since the iphone and its competitors and Steve Jobs hating external buttons we've drifted from that and IMH that's the mistake. It hobbles the designer and their options. Hence all the smart watches so far are self limited to the screen bit.

There is a balance to be struck of course. I mean I had(and have) a late 70's seiko calculator watch and the buttons were/are just too small to be useful, but you could design a smart watch with say two or four large buttons for selection, a crown for scrolling and/or a rotating bezel for same. One of the nice things about apple's original iPod way back in the day was the simplified scroll wheel and you could do quite a bit with that. If you added a touch screen on top you'd have a lot of options.

So though I'm not so impressed by the watch itself, so far anyway, the simple addition of the crown as an input device might get others to have a wider approach and think outside, actually think within the box of 100 years of wristwatch design and apply it to the smart wrist wearable device type. At the moment I think too many if not all are computer geek designers, not watch geek designers.



*EDIT* I mentioned earlier that the watch has a 1970's vibe to it. Looking at it more I'd say more specifically it has an early 1970's vibe from the French company LIP. They brought in some top end non watch designers at the time, guys like Tallon and Meyer among others and came out with some well funky designs. The Apple watch reminds me a lot of them. If one showed up on ebay as a vintage and I couldn't read the dial I'd swear LIP on first glance. Not too surprising as one of the external designers Apple brought in recently has done watch and clock designs and many of them look like they'd fit right into the 1974 LIP catalogue and one looks like a direct update. I'd add in some early quartz Omegas to that. One publicity shot looks like the Omega Megaquartz marine chronometer on first glance. I have to say I am impressed by their band/strap options. On design anyway I think they have most of the competitors on the run, though feature wise...

art

i thought the opposite, re design vs features: feature wise they've brought together a lot, the third party apps, usual notifications but an instant messaging element too and then what's probably the real seller. all that health kit stuff; design wise though it just reminds me of other nicer things (eg Ventura watches).

Also have to mention again my pebble, specifically in respect of touch screens: three buttons one side, up, down and select, one the other side for back! Also has seven days battery life, a very important aspect not mentioned at Apple yet. The samsung gear's battery is laughably bad and apparently the latest motorola watch is actually worse than that, it won't last a working day never mind lasting morning to night; Apple not mentioning it kind of suggests implicitly it's nothing to crow about either?

Eoin

art wrote: »

Apple not mentioning it kind of suggests implicitly it's nothing to crow about either?

Correct - it's looking like a day's battery life is all you can expect. The functionality would have to be very good to make up for that, otherwise it won't take long for someone to forget to put it on in the morning and then just stop bothering with it.

Edit - I thought tablets were pointless when they came out, but I've done a u-turn since. For most of my business trips, I can now just bring a tablet instead of my crappy work laptop.

I'm still not convinced, and the one day battery life makes it a lot less of a grab-n-go option in the morning. But app developers can be very clever at coming up with new ways for a gadget to be used, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

Wibbs

Looking at all the pics that have come out since the launch, I am well impressed in one area, the strap options. Man there are some real beauties. The watch itself looks like very nice quality, especially at that pricepoint of around 400 - 500 quid. I can't see Omega being too worried, but Seiko and Casio should be, at least at a comparable pricepoint.

The issue I have and have wittered on about with all smartwatches inc the Apple watch, is that they to me at least are a solution to a non existent problem. They don't particularly add to the devices you already have, much less replace them. That and their built in obsolescence, which runs 100% contrary to the wristwatch as object. Even the least watch interested person expects their Argos special that cost 49.99 to last for at least a decade. Sure the Swatch phenomena was a little about "throwaway" fashion, but they didn't cost 500 quid. Buy the iwatch or whatever and it's not going to work with your phone in 3 years time, never mind 10. The care and feeding of such a device is another issue. Charging once a week would be bad enough, but every day? And this is coming from a weirdo who gets the horn for vintage handwinds.

paddyh117

Stolen from the Apple forum, but really good review here

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review

I've gone from being very Meh about it, to now wanting one.....

could see it as a daily beater and keep my good watch for meetings/nights out

Bluefoam

paddyh117 wrote: »

Stolen from the Apple forum, but really good review here

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review

I've gone from being very Meh about it, to now wanting one.....

could see it as a daily beater and keep my good watch for meetings/nights out

As reported by BGR, no-one has had this watch on their wrists for more than 3 minutes and most for a lot less... Any review at this stage is just conjecture and holds little weight, there is no way the reviewer could have had enough time with the watch to make accurate observations.

The tile says it all:

A Watch Guy's Thoughts On The Apple Watch After Seeing It In The Metal

paddyh117

Bluefoam wrote: »

As reported by BGR, no-one has had this watch on their wrists for more than 3 minutes and most for a lot less... Any review at this stage is just conjecture and holds little weight, there is no way the reviewer could have had enough time with the watch to make accurate observations.

The tile says it all:

mmmmm ok - do you know what "in the metal" means?

he has taken photos with at least 6 different straps, so i think it's safe to assume he had it for more than 3 minutes.

Bluefoam

paddyh117 wrote: »

mmmmm ok - do you know what "in the metal" means?

he has taken photos with at least 6 different straps, so i think it's safe to assume he had it for more than 3 minutes.

All display models in a controlled environment... he saw exactly what everyone esle was shown as they files out of the auditorium after the event... I'm not denying that he saw them in the metal, but I'm suggesting that he didn't have enough hands-on time to write an accurate review

Eoin

Agreed on the strap options - I thought it looked pretty slick on the mesh bracelet.

I can't see Omega being too worried, but Seiko and Casio should be

Tissot as well, with their line of T-Touch gadget watches.

I am not sure if the life of the watch will be as big a deal. In fact, while hardware has moved on considerably; modern phones are actually slightly more future proof, in that it's a hell of a lot easier to update the firmware.

So I think a 3 year life (still not a lot admittedly) is not out of the question.

paddyh117

Bluefoam wrote: »

All display models in a controlled environment... he saw exactly what everyone esle was shown as they files out of the auditorium after the event... I'm not denying that he saw them in the metal, but I'm suggesting that he didn't have enough hands-on time to write an accurate review

Well we shall have to agree to disagree

yes they were display models, but he tried on several straps on both sizes available - without going through all the functionality (which is probably not complete) I'd say he had enough time to test the look/feel and build quality, which is all anyone can expect at this stage.

It's going to be a €350-€400 watch, how much time does he need??

I've had a T Touch at €550, and if i had the choice again, I'd pick one of these

Wibbs

paddyh117 wrote: »

yes they were display models, but he tried on several straps on both sizes available - without going through all the functionality (which is probably not complete) I'd say he had enough time to test the look/feel and build quality, which is all anyone can expect at this stage.

+1 I mean I've held a Patek in my hands for about 5 minutes and even then while I couldn't tell if it was a good timekeeper function wise, you could see and feel the quality over say a TAG. Even in photos of the apple product it looks like a "lot of watch" at that pricepoint. Or this shows the big profits being made on similarly priced watches at the same pricepoint. Some of the straps alone on the apple product are of very high quality going by pics and in the hand reports(and the quality or lack thereof can be felt in bracelets PDQ).

It's going to be a €350-€400 watch, how much time does he need??

I've had a T Touch at €550, and if i had the choice again, I'd pick one of these

I reckon a lot of folks will think similarly. Suunto would be another maker who should be worried, particularly if apple bring out a "rugged" model.

This won't affect high end mechanical Swiss/German makers so much, if at all. That's another market and a small one. The vast majority of non watch people go on name, fashion, availability and price. Hence quartz powered "fashion" watches sell at a rate that would make Rolexes head spin.

Apple will hit that market nicely. They already have the name, they have the fashion thing, or a segment of it, they have the supply ecosystem down pat and if the average price of one of these is around the 500 quid mark the price looks good too. If I was them I'd have them on "sale" as part of a phone/network package, dropping the perceived price even further(an option not open to Seiko et al).

Motorola and other Android makers? Different market. More aimed at "nerds", the rebellious and pricepointers. Brand loyalty is lower, it's all about the function/price and there are an often bewildering array of options. There have been jokes(correctly) that the new iphone is about 2 years outa date. No way would an Android phone be selling if it was a year out of date. Apple gets away with that because of much higher brand loyalty and perceived value. I suspect their watch will plug into this existing ecosystem where other smart watches won't, or not as consistently. Just look at the mainstream hype over this watch compared to the others.

Apple have done this before. Go back to 07 and read industry pundits who in the majority of cases were sure they would fail in the cutthroat phone market. They may pull it off again.

Eoin

paddyh117 wrote: »

Stolen from the Apple forum, but really good review here

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review

Very interesting read, I'm pleasantly surprised that the author is quite open minded about the whole thing.

I think another market that people may be forgetting are the people who are not the target of any watch market. People who think it's pointless to wear something that has maybe 1 or 2 functions that their phone can do. But a functionally rich companion to their ever present phone is something they'd like.

Again, going back to tablets - I think that rather than cannibalising another target market (aside from netbooks, which were one of the biggest tech flops of recent times); they more invented one. This could be similar.

Personally I'm sticking with my Jawbone UP24 because 1) I get a week's battery life out of it, and 2) it doesn't preclude my wearing a real watch.

Rucking_Fetard

http://www.hodinkee.com/blog/hodinkee-apple-watch-review

I'm not even sure we can call it a watch. Okay, it goes on the wrist, and it happens to tell the time, but that's about where the similarities between Apple's just announced watch and the hand-assembled, often painstakingly finished mechanical watches we write about, and obsess over, end. I was lucky enough to be invited to Cupertino to witness the announcement of the Apple Watch firsthand, and though I do not believe it poses any threat to haute horology manufactures, I do think the Apple Watch will be a big problem for low-priced quartz watches, and even some entry-level mechanical watches.

In years to come, it could pose a larger threat to higher end brands, too. The reason? Apple got more details right on their watch than the vast majority of Swiss and Asian brands do with similarly priced watches, and those details add up to a really impressive piece of design. It offers so much more functionality than other digitals it's almost embarrassing. But it's not perfect, by any means. Read on to hear my thoughts on the Apple Watch, from the perspective of a watch guy. Oh, and there are dozens of in-the-metal pictures, too.

Nolimits

I think it looks pretty ugly as far as a watch goes. The only smart watch that looks like a nice watch is the Moto 360

Anjobe

Eoin wrote: »

I think another market that people may be forgetting are the people who are not the target of any watch market. People who think it's pointless to wear something that has maybe 1 or 2 functions that their phone can do. But a functionally rich companion to their ever present phone is something they'd like.

This hits the nail on the head I think. The Apple Watch is not really targeted at watch freaks, it looks a nice product and possibly quite a useful one too, but I wouldn't ever wear it in place of any of my battered old "real" watches. That's more of an emotional view than a pragmatic one though, and it could really appeal to iPhone users not encumbered with that sort of baggage.