Apple Watch Review — Five weeks in.

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The Apple Watch Project

7 min readJun 12, 2015

After using the Apple Watch for five weeks I can finally share with you what living with the Apple Watch is like and if it’s worth investing in.

It is here.

Since the greatest comeback in corporate history, which began in 1997, Apple has ventured in to arguably 3 new product categories. If we put aside the iMac, that would be the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. That’s an average of one new category every 4.6 years. So why does this matter? Because each time the expectation gets higher and the world looks closer to see what the next big thing will be. It gets to a point where the expectation gets too high and people look for flaws. I think now I understand more then ever its top secrecy when it comes to new products.

So lets fast forward to 2015. The Apple Watch has arrived and everyone is talking about it. It’s April 24th and some people have had their watches delivered. Many have not. I was one of the lucky ones. I have had some time with it and I can honestly say there are benefits to it and areas where I’m just not sure. There are areas of opportunity and I hope they really see these and move forward with them.

Let’s start with what it is not. It is not a replacement of your phone. It is not a replacement of luxury watch brands. It is not the end product. It is not perfect. Above all, it is not for every body.

OK so now we got that out the way, let’s talk about what it is.

Getting set up

It is an experience. From the moment I received the box, till the moment I opened it and put it on for the first time it was thoroughly exciting. Each Apple Watch version has a different box. Mine is the sport version, so the box is made from a lovely unibody plastic. Think old school polycarbonate white MacBooks. The Apple Watch box has a a matte wrapper round it to protect it, who protects the box of the product?

When you open it you are immediately welcomed by the your Apple watch. Mine was laid down flat and long. It just begged to be held and worn. Once you put it on you get what wearable technology means. You can find more on wearable technology here.

To get set up you have to scan your Apple Watch with your iPhone. “Scan what?” you may ask. Well it’s not a QR code.

Have you seen the new Avengers movie? When they have Jarvis in a bright orange looking sphere, which represents the AI, then you see this massive blue sphere which look infinitely more complex and alive then Jarvis, thats Ultron. You basically have to scan Ultron! I have no idea if there is a purpose for having this sphere or if it is a more complex QR code, but what I do know is that it felt and looked very cool.

The initial set up will take some time. Then some more time. It will feel like forever. Maybe it was just my excitement and impatience. In all fairness it is transferring across a lot of your information, your apps that you wanted on your Apple Watch. Your settings, your calendar information, other regional languages and settings info you would expect. As with all things Apple it is a very simple and intuitive process.

Using it for the first time

The Taptic engine will excite you when you first feel it. You have never felt anything like it. As some one coming from a Pebble after 2 years of use, you will absolutely feel the difference. The Pebble, iPhone and most devices that vibrate will use a vibrator that works basically by rotating at a high speed and you will feel that movement. Now the issue is that they can also make a lot of noise and they can some times be quite strong, to the point where they will start to bug you. The Apple watch does it different. It uses what is called a Linear Resonant Actuator (LRA). What does that mean? That instead of rotating it moves from left to right, creating what feels like a simple tap. This is a very Apple thing to do. Question everything. Break down everything and make better use of technology.

When you want to have access to information there are basically three ways. When you get an incoming notification it pops up a fast and smooth animation to notify you quickly what it is. From there you can see if require action. You can swipe up for what are called glances. You can configure these in the settings. It gives you information from Apps on your iPhone. This could be the weather, your nearest Starbucks, your battery level, you can find you phone from here, calendar, stocks, maps, trains, Instagram, the list is endless. Just think of an App you “glance” at regularly. They can go on your glances and then you have no more reason to keep puling out your phone to glance on this.

You can access your notifications by swiping down. Here are all your notifications if you haven’t acted on the ones that have come in. Some Apps let you respond directly from the Apple Watch some are purely for notification purposes, for now.

Lastly you can press the digital crown to go in to a honeycomb interface. Here you can flick around looking for an App to see more info from or engage more with certain apps.

A health device

I had owned a Nike + Fuel band for just over two years. I get the whole wearable health category and was an avid user during all that time. Apple Watch does take it to a new level, but it is also missing a trick with it.

There are three rings that you are working towards. Active calories used, hours stood and continuous exercise. Active calories is used referring to the fact that it doesn’t measure how many calories in total you are using in the day as its to measure your bodies naturally calorie usage. What it can measure is your level of activity and how many calories that may have used. My current goal is set to 600 which is not easy but also not unachievable. Standing hours represent the amount of hours in which at some point you have stood for at least a minute. There is a lot of talk in the health industry at the moment that is saying that “sitting is the new cancer”. With this in mind the apple watch remind you every hour to stand if you haven’t. It was really interesting to see how in the office this started as quite bizarre, but now its become a norm. Continuous exercise is doing some form of exercise for a continuous period time. A long walk, run etc

There is one element that I thoroughly enjoyed about my Nike+ Fuelband that the Apple watch does not have and that is the social element. I could compete with my Nike+ Fuel friends for the most points. I would love to do that same with my Apple watch friends. A bit like a Game Center but for health. Alternatively as Nike no longer make the Fuel band, bringing that software to the Apple Watch would be amazing, keeping me in the Nike Ecosystem.

Communicating

There are some new ways to communicate with people. The other button on the right hand side, below the digital crown goes straight in to your favourites. These are designed to be the people you must frequently message or talk with. Directly from here you can call people and speak to them using your Apple Watch. The first time you feel a bit strange, this is what you used to see on Knight Rider or Dick Tracy as you grew up.

There is an option for your friends that also have an Apple Watch is really interesting. You can send them a drawing that you do on the small screen, you can tap them or send your heart beat. Time will tell if these are just gimmicks or genuine ways that people will start to communicate more intimately.

A nice thing is replying to iMessage. You can reply straight from your watch by talking. This will then give you the option if you want it sent as text or voice. I found this rather useful at times.

Battery

Before launch there was a lot of talk about battery. People would worry that it would barely last the day. After 3 weeks of use I can tell you that battery need not be a worry for you! My Apple Watch battery will easily last 2 days. I’m not even exaggerating. Is this good enough? I would say yes. Most of us are used to putting our phone on charge each night. This naturally extends over to my watch.

My Pebble would last days without charge, yet I never benefited from that whilst I slept. I once tried using some sleep tracking App and I found it so complicated to use that I gave up.