Smartwatches: soon, coming to a wrist near you

The smartwatch war has kicked off: Sony, Qualcomm, and Samsung have all just announced their models. We now have a new category of electronics and fetish object, and once again we will hear many people swear that they will never put “that” on their wrist, in just the same way they protested they would never use a cellphone, but eventually came round. And when they do, they will make a watch something that is more than just a means to tell the time, probably changing the rules of what we currently consider good behavior.

The smartwatch war comes as no surprise: we’ve been talking about it for some time now, online and in print, and the response on sites like Kickstarter and to precursors like Pebble suggested that there was considerable latent demand. Things are probably about to get a whole lot more complicated thanks to these new arrivals—although this is really Sony’s second attempt—and we can expect a wave of clones and cut-price imitations, with companies that until now had nothing to do with the electronics consumer goods industry getting involved.

We will also be waiting to see the response of Apple, which will once again be looking to set the benchmark in a new category, repeating its success in the MP3 player, cellphone, and tablet markets. Once again we’ll see Apple present its new smartwatch, and hear the pundits say that it isn’t competitive because it lacks this or that function, and probably most of them will be wrong. Or not. It’s never too late for other competitors to learn from history and to improve on a company that for the first time since the death of Steve Jobs two years ago will enter a new product category; but for the moment, the trend seem to suggest that it will remain the trendsetter.

So, what do you need to know if you are thinking about buying a smartwatch? First of all, it feels strange to have your wrist vibrate each time you receive a message or alert that a friend has just posted something on the social networks. Then there is the fact that you will be spending a lot of your time looking at your watch, which will give the people you are with the impression that you are a very busy person. Get used to it: not looking at your watch when you receive a message is unbearable.

It simply isn’t possible to look discreetly at a smartwatch. Until everybody is wearing one and we establish some protocols, the best solution is to inform the people you are with the first time you check your mail. Of course it is always possible to prioritize and to decide which events or conversations are worth interrupting, particularly if you have the sound on: those around you could find your constant beeps and tweets very irritating.

Try to avoid being obsessive compulsive: you don’t have to read every mail as soon as it arrives. This is a lesson that we should all have learned by now after using Blackberries and smartphones for a number of years. In short we have to learn how to avoid an asynchronous media synchronously. Constantly looking down at your watch is as annoying to others as constantly pulling your phone out of your pocket or bag. By about the fourth or fifth time, your interlocutor will have lost patience… and rightly so.

The quality and solidity of the device are key factors: a watch is liable to be knocked around and scratched. Don’t worry too much about the charge time: my experience with a smartwatch that runs for a week on a single charge is that I still plugged it in each night. I don’t want it on my wrist at night: the vibration is enough to wake you; and to tell the truth, leaving it on the night table can wake you. Once you have removed it, the best thing is to plug it into its charger in another room so that the next morning it will be ready to go.

I don’t know if these new models will have some kind of “night mode” or if it will be used as an alarm clock, but a discreet vibration on the wrist is certainly one way of getting up in the morning without waking your partner. I like to keep my watch on even when showering, but I suspect that the smartwatch is probably something best used when and as needed.

I know it’s common sense, but often this is the least common of the senses: be careful with activities that require your full attention, such as driving. There is no law against looking at your watch while you drive, but neither was there against using a cellphone until a few years ago, and it became a factor in a growing number of traffic accidents. As soon as your watch face is used for more than just telling the time, it is much easier to be distracted and to take absurd risks than it might at first seem.

The smartwatch, it should be remembered, is a branch of the smartphone, and contains a processor more powerful than many of the computers you will have owned. There will be considerable cross over functions with your smartphone, raising questions of compatibility and which apps to use. As soon as the smartwatch market takes off, we’ll see thousands of developers trying to find a space on our wrists: Samsung has launched its device with some 70 apps: the voice activation, jogging, and music management downloads are particularly useful.

Right now, I would say that we are at the start of a road headed toward a new category, and that we will see a great many developments in a very short period. Would you talk to a watch, like Dick Tracy used to back in 1952? Would you take pictures with a 1.9 megapixel camera when you have a much better one in your pocket? And what about Bluetooth connections that break up after 1.5 meters? Many of these functions will improve, change, or disappear in the coming years, while others that today seem absurd, may end up being standard.

Meanwhile, start getting used to the idea of a watch as something different. And in all likelihood, you’re going to get sick of seeing smartwatches. Soon, coming to a wrist near you…