Posted on 08/14/2015 7:16:12 PM PDT by Swordmaker
No, I am not a renowned tech journalist, nor a 50,000+ followers Twitter guru or an extreme sports fitness expert. I am just a regular sales guy, happily married and blessed with two daughters of 7 weeks and 3 years old. And just so you can put this article into perspective: besides being a father of two young children, I am a business man so I constantly receive some form of communications during the day which I usually answer from either my desk or my car (handsfree of course). I am not into sports (does golf or brisk walking count?) so my fitness goals are not very ambitious. At home I use the entire Apple ecosystem, and … I happen to be a Swiss watch collector.
Starting with the latter: I am the proud owner of a duo of beautiful Swiss handmade mechanical watches. I have the renowned workhorse Rolex 16600 Sea Dweller (40 mm 2008 model, made of high grade 904L stainless steel), that can take you anywhere to 4000 feet below sealevel. And on the other side of the ‘Swiss Made’ spectrum: a beautiful and complex dress watch: my Christiaan van der Klaauw 40mm Ariadne watch with several astronomical complications including a day- and month date, a Moon Phase and a mechanical chronograph function: beautifully handcrafted by the first watchmaker ever to incorporate a full Planetarium into a 40mm size watch. (On a side note: this is strictly speaking not a Swiss Made watch because it is not fully assembled in Switzerland. It does, however, contain a Swiss Made ETA Valjoux 7751 movement so I count this as a Swiss watch.) Both of them are high end automatic watches, meaning that they will provide their own power by simply wearing the watch. They will run for 40 hours after lying still, so not wearing it will require a watchwinder or hand winding.
The ‘wrist time’ is devided between them: Rolex gets the lion’s share of about 6 days a week, used for anything from giving my 3-year old girl a bath (“daddy, can I clean your watch?”) to heavy gardening and home improvement. It collects dust yes, so rinse frequently. Christiaan van der Klaauw: about 2 times a month for Very Special Occasions (it is bi-coloured with a 18 carat gold lunette and stainless steel casing). Including the ones where you strictly are not allowed to wear a watch because of the etiquette (black tie requires a tuxedo which leads into a timeless evening … so no wristwatch allowed).
If one owns two of the most beautiful and iconic watches ever created by man, why would one take interest in an Apple Watch? Living in The Netherlands, I had the privilige of pondering this question between April 24th (launch in de US) and July 17th (launch in The Netherlands). After several weeks of meticulously reading all MDN reviews of the Apple Watch I was absolutely convinced I was no early adopter and I would wait for Apple Watch 2. That would definately bring me more functionalities, renewed design, higher speed (native apps) and an hopefully technological advancements with more versatile sensors.
Until I ran into the perfect opportunity of purchasing the watch below retail price (hey, I am still Dutch after all ;-)). I picked up the Sports version in Space Grey series 7000 aluminum, because I love the colour of this material and I figured the financial impact would be less then if I would purchase one of the stainless steel versions (the Space Black with Link bracelet would be my favorite choice). So there was no risk whatsoever for me to try it on and give it a shot. And boy, was I in for a treat …
Yesterday, on Day 21 After Purchase, I considered for the first time in 21 days to change my watch. I put on my Rolex, had breakfast with my girls, and before getting into my car, ran upstairs to change watches in favour of the Apple Watch. … Say what?! … I was genually flabbergasted… how on earth could I let down my companion-for-years-Rolex in favour of a watch that I had used for just three weeks? What did Tim Cook and his team cook up that was so enticing and all-consuming, even measured by industry standards and market leaders? Well, here’s the secret…
The Apple Watch is not a timepiece jewel like my other high end Swiss watches are. It is unfair for both to even consider comparing them or to compete against each other. Just like an old wind-up alarm clock and a Macbook both tell time, they are nowhere even close to being the same device. The only thing the Apple Watch and my Swiss Duo have in common, and that may prove to be kind of a thing: they compete for the same wrist time! As it turns out, I have more need for a Personal Life Assistant (PLA) on my wrist than just a watch, even such beautiful and reliable ones as my Swiss watches. And Apple cleverly designed the Watch in a way that your wrist just happens to be the best place for their ‘most personal device yet’. And why? What is the ‘killer app’? Well for me, there is none specific. Just like it has been written a lot on MDN, the Watch is a well thought-of combination of features you will need in your personal life.
Being able to read my WhatsApps, emails and imessages without having to adress my iPhone 6/Plus is probably the best one. Heck, that sure saves time and battery life! And Siri is just so well developed that responding to messages has never been easier.
Second best for me is the Activity App. I never thought that such simple reminders to stand up every hour, or being rewarded for achieving my daily calorie goals were so engaging. Even if the calorie count would not be quite accurate, it matters not: it is still fun and rewarding to move more!
Every other great function the Watch offers is at a combined third place. Photos from my youngest to show directly from my wrist? Great! Feeling awkward when reenacting a scene from Knight Rider when I take a phone call from my wrist at the mall? Who cares! The surprisingly fun features just kept coming these last few weeks and I still love them. And last but not least: telling time. Yes the Watch Faces are distincively Apple and I just love how Apple combines a nice Face with practical information, top of the list being able to see my next appointment in a glance.
So now what? How about The Duo? At least there must be SOME practical advantage they have over the Apple Watch? To quote our beloved Steve Jobs when adressing a stylus in the first iPhone presentation in 2007: “ … No!”.
Water resistance? Surely the Rolex will outperform the Watch? … Yes of course it does, when you go swimming or scuba diving. But for every day use I just keep on my Watch for everything I do. So by now my 3-year old has washed it almost daily (yes, fully submerged for at least 5 minutes) and I wear it every day in the shower… Dry off carefully and you are ready to go!
The battery life then? Surely an automatic watch will outlast the Apple Watch? Sure it does, but at times I do not need it. For me it does not matter that my watch keeps running when I am asleep, as long as it is ready to go when I get up. So I put on my Watch at 06:00 hrs, I put it on its charger at 23:00 hrs after medium to heavy use during the day, and it still has an average of 35% battery life left!
It is lonely at the top. By now I managed to flick a switch in my head: my beloved Swiss Watches will remain the most beautiful jewelry and the best handcrafted mechanical watches in the world, and I will regard and wear them as such with pride. But my Apple Watch with its excellent mix of build quality, design, reliability and functionality has managed to take up at least 80% of my wrist time in less then a month, and it will likely continue to do so for many more months to come. A remarkable achievement.
If so I can’t imagine why.
I’ve no idea where my watch is. Haven’t seen it in two years. I don’t care to look for it. There’s now and not now. Everything else is just noise made by someone other than me.
Me first, you can have the apple butter thing.
I will take the contrarian Freeper view and say I think it’s a great concept. It frees you from having to constantly retrieve your phone, a benefit which becomes a greater convenience as smart phones get larger. Leave your phone on the desk or on the car seat or in your pocket and use the watch.
It makes the most sense if you are a person who is a heavy user of smart phones, obviously. If you are still using tin cans tethered with string, it’s not for you.
I don’t believe Steve Jobs would have allowed the Apple Watch to be released. It seems an unfinished, unfocused product. I’ve noticed customers avoid it like the plague at the local Apple stores (local being Cupertino, Santa Clara and Palo Alto).
No Patek-Philippe? What a poseur...
:P
You seriously think that if you wear an Apple watch, that you’re “screaming to the world that you’re a sodomite”?!
Wow...
Ed
Alton Brown was interviewed by Men’s Jouranl about his love of watches, he mentioned that he used to own a Patek but got rid of it.
Neat article.
Ed
Not my experience. My girlfriend bought a new MacBook on line with pickup at the local Apple Store at Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento. We were there all of twenty minutes to complete the pickup. While there, I saw them sell six Apple Watches. . . four Apple Watch Sports and two of the stainless steel versions. There were more people looking. That was on a Saturday in a store that was literally jammed with people.
Typical of Dutch to be materialistic like that.
Just saw a ad for the Apple WATCH on the SF Giants…
Does your $6.94 watch from Wall-Mart keep track of your calories consumed, your miles run, or your steps? How about your heart rate? Can it give you directions to catch the subway and what level the train you need is going to be on? How about which bus to take to get to the Movie theater on time? Can you receive your messages on your $6.94 watch from Wall-Mart? How about messages? Does it answer your queries about your stocks you are invested in without bothering the people around you? NO? Why not? Does it warn you of upcoming appointments in time to get to them? If not, why not? How about phone calls. . . does it tell you who's calling so you can decide whether it's important enough to excuse yourself from the room to answer it without digging out your phone? No, why NOT? Oh, it's just a clock.
A $500 computer and a $5 alarm clock both tell time. . . but there's a world of difference between that computer and that alarm clock. One only tells time and wakes you up in the morning. The other can do that and a lot more.
Try to buy back your soul. Regardless, of any watches or redeemable units of integrity. Whadda ya think? Give it a try. That’s all you got, right?
Why would anyone buy an Apple watch in the first place?
I started to plunk down a big chunk of change for a nice watch...
And then decided a nice looking $200 dept. store watch was all I needed....
Oh....and a $40 sport watch.
Really, RedHeeler? I just saw you being quite an ass over on a thread where one of our fellow Freepers was asking for help with thoughts of suicide and you essentially handed her an emotional gun to do the deed, telling her to go soak her head and not bother us with her drama. YOU seem to be in need of a soul. Go look for one in the discount department. It's all you can afford. . .
Good luck reading this puppy, even magnified!
Swing and a miss... what’s your deal? We had a good conversation without you. She is doing well, regardless of us, dogs, horses or the comradery of life in relief of contrast. Such is the breath of God.
Society could be working its way toward Dick Tracy two-way vid watches, and if so, it’ll probably be the Apple Watch, and within a year or two. That’s actually something I might use, but again, I’m not in the right financial demographic for anything like that.
Of course, video phones put the obscene back in obscene phone calls, and having both hands free could revolutionize things. ;’)
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