I have an Apple Watch on my wrist

I got it last Friday. So far, I’m still learning all that it can do - it’s an amazingly deep device.

I just got my first call when I was wearing it, and my iPhone was in another room. I took the call Dick Tracy-style, and it worked perfectly. I still haven’t found my killer app, but I think the potential is immense with this device.

Which model did you go for? Which band?

I have had mine (SS + blue leather loop, and a spare green sport band) for a month or so and found a few things…

[ol]
[li]It will never replace Swiss stainless steel when I am going somewhere dressed up nice. I ended up buying a watch winder to keep one of my nice Swiss watches wound during the week so I can put it on for church.[/li][li]It is the bee’s knees for working at home. I leave my phone upstairs where it gets a good signal and never have to worry about it–text messages, emails, and phone calls come in on my wrist.[/li][li]It’s absolutely the cat’s pajamas for running. I love being able to start my run, quickly glance at my distance, control the volume of my audio book, and so on, without digging out my phone. And since I want my phone with me in case of a running tragedy, the “needs the phone to work best” part doesn’t really matter.[/li][li]Apple Pay is fun. I go to the Acme store near me instead of ShopRite for small stuff because Acme lets me pay with my watch.[/li][li]The band changing mechanism is perfect. It is so neat to be able to slip off the leather band and slip on the sports band in seconds, with a robust mechanism. Just jiggle it a little before trusting that it latched.[/li][/ol]
I am excited about what will happen in the future software updates. Remember that the iPhone was very basic when it was released: there were no 3rd-party apps, no app store, no copy and paste, no support for corporate email, but it was still more fun to use than the competition. During the supported lifetime of the original iPhone, they made amazing upgrades in its capabilities via new iOS releases.

One tiny thing I hope they fix in the Apple Watch: When I am running and want to change the volume or song, I have to go to the home honeycomb, to the time app, then swipe up to get to the song controls. It shouldn’t be that hard: runners listen to music.

I got the rock-bottom cheapest one - the black sports watch with black band. I wanted the stainless steel one with the mesh band, but a kilobuck was too much for my budget.

The Maps app may be what really sells it for me - I never use turn-by-turn on the iPhone, because I can’t stand the phone telling me what to do. But the tap to turn might be ok…

I’m considering taking the plunge, but these babies ain’t cheap. You guys happy so far? I’ve noticed my apps are starting to add Apple Watch revisions.

Travel app adding boarding passes
Pharmacy app adding med reminders
Weather Channel, might be interesting depending on how important weather is to where I am

As more of these come out, it starts to make more sense.

I’m on the bubble.

Buy one only if you have enough cash in your “toy fund” because that’s what it is. I love it, but all of the reviews are correct in that nobody really needs one.

I didn’t buy any photography gear this year, and I love watches, so I decided to take the plunge.

By the way, some folks out there seem to think you need to put screen protectors and such on an Apple Watch, but you really don’t (at least for the sapphire ones)…Swiss watchmakers have been using synthetic sapphire for years on their timepieces, and it is virtually scratch-proof. I have a Rolex and an Omega that I have worn in many inappropriate conditions (e.g. fixing the lawnmower) for a decade or so and there are still no scratches on either crystal.

The remote-control camera app is just incredibly cool, but I can’t figure out what I’d use it for…

This, 100%. I got the cheapest Sport with the ugly green band to match my cycling jerseys. I’ve worn it a couple of times for the whole day.

The 42mm size isn’t too big and ugly as I feared.

Overall, pretty “meh.” The most killer feature is I can say, “Hey Siri, set a 5 minute timer” when I’m making coffee or cooking in the kitchen. I ordered it to use as a heart rate monitor while riding, but got impatient and ordered a Tickr instead.

It’s also pretty nice for dismissing text messages I don’t care to respond to.

Yeah, so far, toy.

Darn it. I was hoping to be swept away with your stories of awesomeness! :smiley:

I got the all stainless 42mm - I love it - mostly.

Things I like:

  1. I have remote control blinds & lights which I can use the watch to control. Once I upgrade my bridge - I can do it without touching a single button - simply tilting the wrist and once the screen lights - I can say “hey Siri, raise my blinds”.
  2. I like the hey Siri thing - I use it for timers all the time - without having to touch a button or take my phone out. [tilt wrist] “hey Siri, count down 20 minutes”
  3. no more shazam or sound hound - tilt the wrist and “hey Siri, what song is this?”
  4. “hey Siri, show me the last text from bob”
  5. “hey Siri, do I have any appointments on Friday”
  6. I like the logging of your heart rate - it’s every 10 minutes - and you can see (and hopefully export in the future).
  7. I’m a huge watch snob. The fit and finish on the watch is excellent - I have probably close to 100 dollars in tools for changing watch bands - which you don’t need for this - or taking out the links.
  8. very comfortable - I love watches, but generally don’t like wearing them to bed.
  9. I haven’t used it to pay for anything yet, but look forward to it.
  10. being able to see who is calling and decide what to do without taking your phone out is nice. Same with texts (as long as it isn’t too long)
  11. the fact that this is the most anticipated watch in the history of mankind means there should be a huge selections of bands and whatnot appearing. You can get an adapter to use any 22mm band, but that isn’t what I’m taking about.
  12. battery life is longer than I thought and charging is pretty quick. Don’t quote me on this, but I think I can get 25% of my battery back while I’m in the shower and brushing my teeth.

To me - I think what is exciting in what this watch could become. There are plenty more sensors that could be put in the watch.

Things I don’t like:

  1. the main thing I don’t like is the amount of time the watch stays active. I’m currently involved in a project that requires me doing something for exactly 15 seconds multiple times a day. The watch only stays lit for about six seconds. Now I understand they have concerns about battery life, but this should be adjustable by the user or they should find a clever way around this. Right now I have to flick my wrist more than once.

  2. the number/quality of apps right now isn’t amazing. There is no app yet from sonos or roku (although there are third party apps).

  3. there should be more watch faces and customization options - with rotating elements (which would be somewhat useless now due to the short period of time watch stays active).

  4. some of the sensors it relies on are your iPhones - so using it as a compass isn’t always helpful. Not that there are many apps that do that right now.

Oh and by the way - for any of those with the watch - and don’t know this - the “hey Siri” thing isn’t active by default - you need to enable it in settings. And you need to wait for the watch to light before talking (especially if you are trying to show this feature off - otherwise you look like an idiot :slight_smile: )

Mainly it’s great when I’m really busy - and have my hands full - so if I’m in the middle of cooking:

“Hey Siri - how many teaspoons are in a cup?”

And being able to see the alerts that would be on my phone (and still are) appear on my watch a - is really nice.

Also - with the size - the 38/42mm refers to height and not width - I was surprised to find this out.

I read lots of watch stuff, but almost every watch on my bucket list is round - not rectangular. Since you will sometimes see watch sizes given with and without crown - I assumed it was width (which yes doesn’t make sense now that I think of it - it just didn’t occur to me). And depending on the shape of the watch, how high it sits on your wrist, how the band curves, and what not - will effect how it looks and feels. You can’t really compare it without trying it. The height FWIW - is the same in both.

I’d highly recommend going to an apple store to try them on.

I’m bumping/resurrecting this thread to see if anyone’s opinion has changed in the past 2 1/2 years. My wife has one but doesn’t do much with it other than check messages and have it tell her where her phone is. She asked me if I want one but I don’t have enough information to go on given her usage of the thing.

So are you happy with it? What do you do with it?

So, 18 months later…
I hardly ever wear it.

The huge problem (for me), is - I need reading glasses. The display on the watch is fine for gross things like “the time,” but for anything more detailed, I need to break out my glasses to use it, which kind of defeats the spontaneity of the device. Also, I always have my iPhone with me, so the watch is mostly redundant.
That said, I’m thinking of getting the latest generation watch - the 1st gen I have doesn’t have GPS, and I’d like to do some running training and heart-rate monitoring with it.
I have a Garmin watch, but it won’t do continuous heart-rate monitoring, and has lousy battery life when using GPS.

My wife will probably inherit the Apple watch.