It’s the object of 2015, but do you really need one? Claudia Croft prepares for Apple Watch mania

By Margaret.

It's the object of 2015, but do you really need one Claudia Croft prepares for Apple Watch mania

I want one. It’s not rational. I don’t need it. I already have an iPhone 6 and a vintage Rolex, but I want an Apple Watch like a four-year-old wants to eat cake at a birthday party. I’ve read the spec and admired the classical beauty of its rectangular proportions. I’ve fantasised about having the 18ct gold one with the black strap.

(Karl Lagerfeld also wants a black one.) I’d wear mine with the Mickey Mouse home screen to offset all that expensive gold, and I have already imagined myself saucily twiddling the little knob (aka the Digital Crown) that controls the device.

I’m not alone. The Apple Watch is the most wanted object in the world. JP Morgan has forecast that Apple will sell 26m of them in 2015. That figure would almost match the total number of Swiss watches exported in 2013, which, according to the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry, totalled 28m, worth 15bn.

I want an Apple Watch like a four-year-old wants to eat cake at a birthday party

Should Rolex be quaking? The Apple Watch can’t do what a Rolex does (telegraph power, status and discernment), but it will wipe the floor with existing smartwatch manufacturers such as Fossil and Pebble, and give mid-market watchmakers a fright. Finally, here is a piece of wearable tech that is fun to use and won’t make you look like an idiot, especially when there are so many choices for Apple watch bands. Unlike the ill-fated Google Glass, Apple Watch is a thing of beauty, and it has the cool factor. “This is going to be part of our fashion lives,” said Sarah Andelman, owner of the trendsetting Paris concept store Colette, which previewed the watch to its customers last October. Hordes of French hipsters joined Anna Wintour and Lagerfeld to get a glimpse of the watch. Nobody has ever queued for a Pebble.

Jony Ive has got the tone of the Apple Watch just right. It looks elegant but not standoffish, and as well as the 18 variations of the regular version, there are the 10 Sport options, which come with a lightweight case, strengthened glass and a rubber strap, plus the more expensive Edition range (six models), made from 18ct gold.

Whichever one you want (and you do want one), the friendly, open and endlessly customisable face invites you to play. Here is a technically sophisticated grown-up object that will bring out the kid in you. But there is another compelling reason why the Apple Watch will be the mega-object of 2015. We all want to experience the delicious but fleeting pleasure of feeling utterly modern before it ticks over into the inevitable and ultimate shame of obsolescence. The Apple Watch isn’t a watch at all, it’s the pompadour wig of the 21st century. It’s great fun, wonderful to look at and absolutely of the moment. Enjoy.

And it works, too…

The technology expert David Phelan road-tests the Apple Watch

In a few weeks’ time, the most hyped fashion gadget in years will launch. Do you need it? Doesn’t matter. This is Apple and you will want one. Five years ago, when the company announced the iPad, nobody quite knew what it was for, but people lusted after it all the same. This time, at least the purpose is clear: the Apple Watch straps to your wrist and tells the time. But, this being Apple, that’s hardly the whole story.

First, it’s super-intimate. The company’s British-born design chief, Jonathan Ive, has said the company’s focus is “a compulsion to take powerful technology and make it relevant and personal”.

I was one of the first people to see the watch, last September, in Apple’s hometown of Cupertino, and this “focus” was immediately obvious. There were customisable watch screens (more, doubtless, have been designed since): you can have everything from your calendar appointments to Mickey Mouse dancing the seconds away right there on your arm. It will be available in two face sizes and with six choices of strap – a level of personalisation that is new to Apple and may be the brainchild of one of the company’s shrewdest hires: Angela Ahrendts. The former CEO of Burberry was lured to Apple as its retail supremo and her fashion, design and sales skills will prove vital.

Then there are the features: your phone links to the watch, meaning you can see whether it’s your beloved calling before hunting for your tucked-away phone. If you don’t mind looking like a character from Back to the Future, you could answer the call on the watch, or dictate a text message using Siri.

If it sounds complicated, it’s not: just as the iPhone gave us the pinch-to-zoom gesture to enlarge or shrink what’s on screen, so the Apple Watch uses a Digital Crown (the knob on the side that you use to wind a regular watch) to zoom in and out of apps, return to your main screen and so on. This works alongside a fluid and sensitive touchscreen that even responds to the amount of pressure you use.

Apple Watch, from $349, from April

Apple Watch, from $349, from AprilWhat about the clever stuff, though? Your watch can guide you to your next destination – tell Siri where you’re going and just start walking. Reach a crossroads and the watch vibrates one way to tell you to turn left, another to go right, so you needn’t even look at your wrist to see which way to go.

You can send quick messages to your contacts using the screen. Draw stuff with your finger, such as a question mark and a glass of wine to see if a friend’s free for a drink, and the scribble appears on the recipient’s watch. Or send your heartbeat – your actual heartbeat right now, which is about as personal as it gets. The watch uses LEDs on the back to measure your pulse and, instantly, your heartbeat throbs on your friend’s watch. It’s fun and intimate, and may well prove popular next Valentine’s Day.

This is only the beginning: Apple Watch does a lot, but will do much more. When the iPad launched, it was the perfect storm of a desirable object, a highly intuitive operating system and lots of apps created by ingenious designers.

Of course, the Apple Watch won’t be cheap. No UK price has been announced yet, though in America the basic model starts at $349. However, for the gold Apple Watch Edition, it’s expected that the price will leap to several thousand dollars. This won’t stop the usual circus when the Apple Watch comes to town: people will sleep outside flagship Apple Stores for days on end; queues of several thousand excitable customers will assemble for the first day’s sales. Chinese knockoffs have already been in evidence, looking near-identical, but running different software and doubtless with much lower-grade components.

The only thing missing? A camera. Sure, there is a remote-control app that will allow you to set up a picture from afar, but for Generation Instagram, the lack of selfie potential may disappoint. For now, the wristie will have to wait.

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Watches
Published
Oct 05, 2015