The surprising reasons I’m getting an Apple Watch

Jumping to buy every “hot” new tech device would leave you with a drawer full of useless gizmos and an empty bank account, but sometimes a product comes along that richly rewards early adoption. I’ll explain why Apple Watch is one of those products.

First, the problems

At the risk of starting off on a defensive tone, I’ll clear a path by heading off the list of objections that may pop into your head when I move onto explaining why I want one of these things. Many people have complained about:

Apple Watch is tethered to the iPhone — you have to buy and carry both devices, and Android users are left out. This is a real limitation, but I’ll explain later why it may not be as bad as people think.

Single-day battery life — the product needs to be charged nightly, which is an extra daily step and limits its use for sleep tracking. Buying an Apple Watch means you think it is worth the few seconds each night to take it off then put it back on in the morning, in the same way owning a car is worth the few minutes a week you need to spend at the gas station.

Bulkiness — the watch is slightly boxy and bulky. This was necessary to get the single-day battery life. Hands-on reviews say the watch is still practical to wear on a daily basis, but certainly future generations will slim down.

The Apple Watch Edition is cray — it is easy to dismiss the whole product line when you see the $17K Edition that does nothing more than the entry level $349 version. Although I do think Apple’s strategy to ensure the watch is seen as a premium fashion accessory is smart, I’m not defending buying the product for > $10K. I’m asking if the product is worth the price of the Apple Watch Sport: $349. The existence of a $17K version does not change that math, even if it offends delicate sensibilities.

The cost, and that it is a first-generation product — I combine these because they are related. All tech products improve each generation, so a decision to buy today is because you think the value you get between now and the next generation exceeds the cost. If I buy an Apple Watch for $349 this year, upgrade it in two years, and sell the old one for, say, $149, I need to believe spending $100 per year (let’s call it $8 per month) was better than spending the next two years of my life with a conspicuous naked spot on my wrist. I believe it is:

Function follows form

What baffles many people about the Apple Watch is that it doesn’t seem to actually do anything you can’t already do with your phone, which you have to have with you anyway. The case for the Apple Watch relies on believing that having these feature delivered via a watch, not a phone, makes them materially different. The differences:

• The Apple Watch is always available, unlike a smartphone which may be in your bag, at your desk recharging, in your glove compartment, in your pocket, in your locker, or on your nightstand.
• The Apple Watch doesn’t require you to stop what you are doing, switch it on, and unlock it each time you use it. It only takes a couple of seconds to get at your watch — you don’t even need to unlock it once it has already been unlocked the first time, as long as you don’t take it off.
• The Apple Watch can silently and unobtrusively notify you via its Taptic Engine. The people you are with may not even know you’ve gotten a notification.

These might not seem to make a material difference over a smartphone, but we have a long history of not anticipating the massive difference the form factor of a product can make. Maybe this is because I’m old enough now to remember many conversations like the following:

• “Why do I need a laptop? If I really need to get some work done, I’ll just go back to my desk.”
• “Why do I need a cell phone? I already am paying for phones at home and work, and I can use a payphone in a pinch.”
• “Why do I need a smartphone? I have a cell phone, and I can grab my laptop if I want to get on the web.”
• “Why do I need a tablet? I have a laptop.”

The fact that the Apple Watch is always available and is unobtrusive will let me do the following things with it:

• If I am out to dinner with friends but am expecting another friend to call to join us, I can leave my phone in my bag and focus on my friends, knowing that the watch will tap my wrist when my other friend call. We’d otherwise have the distraction of my phone on the table buzzing every few minutes.
• If I’m flying down a mountain on my road bike on the way to rendevous with some other cyclists, when my phone rings I don’t have to pull over, take off my gloves, pull out my phone and switch it on to see if my friends called. I can just sneak a quick glance at my wrist.
• If I’m out for a run or walk, I can twiddle my music, podcasts, and Strava with a tap on my wrist. I can run with my phone in a backpack, not in my hand.
• If I’m interviewing job candidates in my office, I can leave my phone charging at my desk, knowing that when my next appointment arrives I’ll get that tap on my wrist.
• I’ll finally start using fitness tracking apps since I’ll be gathering data over the entire day, not just the 60–70% of the day when my phone is on me.
• When my wife needs to find me around the house, she can always tap on her wrist to ask me where I am, even if my phone is charging on my nightstand.
• When I’m out shopping, I can pay by swiping my watch without needing to put down my stuff and dig my phone out.
• At the gym, I can leave my phone in the locker room and listen to my music and podcasts from the treadmill or weight bench.
• If we are traveling as a family and have split up to see different sites, we can easily coordinate a spot to meet up, even if our phones are in our bags or we have the ringers turned off since we are in a church or museum. (We probably suffered a dozen missed connections due to phones being inaccessible).
• And, believe it or not, I can finally figure out what damn time it is without digging out my phone. (Of course I could just wear a watch — a decent-looking one would cost, say, $349).

If smartwatches had been invented first and we already took these interactions for granted, few of us would be clamoring for the smartphone to be invented so we can move those functions off of our wrist and onto a clumsier and more inconvenient form factor. In fact many people who have tried the Apple Watch have already reported they use their phone far less often. (Users Wearing Apple Watch Take iPhones Out “Far, Far Less”)

Have you ever lost your remote control and had to change channels by getting up and walking over to the TV every few minutes? That is what life without a smartwatch will feel like once you get used to always having the product on you.

For that matter, if you already wear a watch, when you need to know what time it is, do you grab your purse and take out your phone instead of just glancing at your wrist?

I’m sold on the utility of the product, but there is another very important reason I’m getting an Apple Watch.

Welcome to the future

Wearables have been invented. They will never be uninvented. The Apple Watch is the first product that will make wearables go mainstream. Over the next few years:

• Wearables will give corporations new ways to communicate with, support, and sell to consumers. My company will be blind to the opportunities to build products to help them if we don’t have a visceral feel for the product. We’ll get out-innovated in the same way that many companies that ignored new technologies have.
• Wearables will shape how my kids interact with each other. Kids will invent new ways to chat, bully, and flirt with each other. I’ll be ill-suited to understand their world if I don’t understand the technology they use.
• Businesses will discover many new ways to use wearables to help their employees collaborate and communicate. My company (Sagan Systems) will be at a disadvantage to our competitors if we don’t understand them. I‘ll be less able to spot good opportunities or help them succeed with my work as an advisor to Point Nine Capital.
• App developers will create products we never would have anticipated, including new billion dollar businesses. No major new computing platform has ever *not* done this. I can use those products maybe even get involved in some of those businesses.
• And, it is simply fun and exciting to watch the world change and participate in that change. I’m far too young to sit on the sidelines and kvetch about kids today and their shiny new gadgets. (For an excellent read on how older people can avoid falling victim to this common trap, please read: http://abovethecrowd.com/2012/03/26/why-youth-has-an-advantage-in-innovation-why-you-want-to-be-a-learn-it-all/)

Now, this doesn’t mean you should jump on every new gadget that comes along on the off chance that it will change the world and you’ll be left behind. I never bought a Google Glass: borrowing one for ten minutes was all I needed to know that thing was never going mainstream. (However you can bet I’ll get an Oculus Rift the moment that one comes out: it is the next product on the horizon that has the potential to “change everything”.)

But the Apple Watch will usher in the age of wearables. A new set of apps and services that we haven’t even thought of will change the way we interact with each other and with our world. I want to go along for the ride.

Which seems like a pretty good investment of $8 a month.