Apple Watch and the search for the perfect wearable

I’m a believer in the Wearable space. I love the idea of accessories we naturally wear everyday being smarter, more personal, and more useful. This space started with activity trackers or a smarter pedometer and has exploded since. Now there are rings, clothing, glasses, and dozens of watches. In a world where your smartphone can do a lot of heavy lifting and hardware prototyping is finally cheap enough, we’re all waiting for the magical device we can’t live without.

I’ve owned and tried: the Jawbone Up (v1 and v2), the Fuelband (v1 and v2), the Fitbit, and I’m now a proud owner of the latest and greatest in the wearable space, the Apple Watch. (Thank you Bryan!) None of the previous devices made it beyond a couple of months. So with my new shiny watch, I asked myself what do I want out of my magical wearable device?

Two asks:

• Don’t get in my way
• Actually be smart and useful

So let’s evaluate the Apple Watch and my previous wearables on those two dimensions.

Don’t get in my way

Now this one is easy, the biggest downfall to wearables is that they require work from you. Battery life, chargers, how you attach the device to you, etc. The watch/bracelet format is by far the best form factor I’ve used and most of the activity trackers are now some type of a bracelet.

I had a bunch of tactical problems with earlier devices. The first iterations of Fitbit were a clip in. Their recommendation was for women to clip it on their bra. It was awkward and I forgot all the time. I’ve also accidentally dropped it several times. Both v1 and v2 of Jawbone required manual syncing and charging via an audio jack.

So my minimum requirements are:

• Battery life: easily last more than 24 hours
• Wearability: do not fall off when I change clothing or requires placement in an awkward location
• Data syncing: done seamless with smartphone
• Not fragile: can deal with daily life

The Apple Watch meets all these requirements. The battery life could probably last two full days if I wanted it to. The pairing with the iPhone works seamlessly. I’ve stuck my phone in lockers and in other rooms and generally the watch continues to work. It truly meets the bar of it just works.

Beyond the basics:

• I don’t hate how it looks on me
• It doesn’t distract me from NOW

While I haven’t yet found a wearable that represents my personal style. The Apple Watch with it’s different bands, faces, and sizes gets close. Most devices while designed by talented industrial designers are too sporty or clunky to wear everyday. I’ve gone as far as to hack my Jawbone with metallic colored nail polish to try to fix this problem.

The other component of don’t get in my way is how intrusive the device is. We live in an increasingly connected life where we pay more attention to screens than to the people and places in front of us. This is why I was never a huge fan of Google Glasses, which actually went as far as to put the electronic world in front of the real world. I need products that helps me get off my screens. Basically I want to spend more time staring at actual human beings in a non creepy way :) Most of the devices meet this bar by being unobtrusive. They are just there collecting data silently. The Apple Watch is interesting in that it does notify me. However so far, it’s actually helped me decrease screen time. (See smart/useful section)

Actually Smart and Useful:

This is a device you want to wear everyday and would considering going back home for forgot it. Things in your life which pass that bar: smartphone, keys, wallet, generally a pretty small list. So let’s see how things stack up.

Jawbone/Fitbit/Fuelband are all great devices for people who need help changing their sedentary lifestyle. They are smart pedometers which help you set expectations and goals on how active you are during the day. The best value add was the sleep data. It was good to gain an understanding of how long and how good my sleep was. For the first month, I loved learning about my patterns and hitting new goals. However, I quickly got bored and also frustrated. Bored because once the patterns were established, they didn’t change much. Frustrated because a lot of my activities are not tracked accurately. If your primary mode of fitness is not walking/running or hiking, you’ll feel cheated. For me the fact that yoga, pilates, and spin didn’t count was a dealbreaker. In the end, I had a lot of sleep and step data, but it didn’t translate to clear changes in my life.

Apple Watch: First thing first, the Apple Watch is a terrible activity tracker. The activity tracker is much less sophisticated and accurate than the previous devices. It tells me I’m standing 13 hours a day when I know I’ve been sitting in meetings most of the day. It tells me I’ve exercised for 15 mins that day when I was in SoulCycle for 45 mins. It works well if you explicitly use the Workout app and tell Apple Watch you’re running/cycling/etc. However, I want it to just work without the explicit signal. Do not buy an Apple Watch if you want an accurate and smart activity tracker.

What the Apple Watch is good for:

• Getting me off my smartphone and on with my life. If you’re at all like me, you’re surgically attached to your smartphone even though you know it’s no longer a healthy relationship. With the Apple Watch, my calendar is always there at a glance, I can quickly reply or ignore messages, change the music, and call an Uber all without pulling out my phone and getting lost in the world of emails/FB/Instagram/etc. That’s a game changer for me.
• Gentler notifications: I’ve come to hate notifications because when I have a mtg in 15 mins or a new message comes in about 5 separate apps or devices start to buzz/ring/popup at me. The Apple Watch intercepts them and with a gentle tap on my wrist, tells me “hey something is up”. So far it has been much more manageable than other notification systems.
• Fun/Novelty: The heart rate monitor and the digital touch or watch to watch messaging are features I am loving right now but expect to use less over time. The heart rate monitor have incredible longterm potential to make the watch the best and most useful activity tracker ever, but right now by default it is only taking measurements every 10–15 minutes and not great to really understanding when you’re exerting yourself. I assume this is due to battery issues. My boyfriend and I have definitely sent heartbeats to each other using the digital touch. It’s a fun new way to communicate but obviously very limiting for actual communication.

Conclusion

I’m currently very happy with my Apple Watch and excited to see what happens. Feature requests in no particular order:

• Smaller/sleeker hardware: the smallest face/band is still quite prominent and slightly clunky.
• More control over notifications: the haptic notifications is almost like an assistant tapping you on the shoulder. We all want a smarter assistant who will only do that when it makes sense.
• Better/more watch faces: Currently you’re limited about 6 watch faces that Apple designed, there is clearly a lot of room here for artists/engineers to collaborate and do more.
• Make a real activity tracker: The activity tracking and heart rate monitoring feel very crude, make this an actual feature that is accurate and useful.
• Facebook friends: messenger and the main app need better integration

Love to get your feedback or questions on the Apple Watch or whatever device you’re using.