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.
I hear that.
But
Is there an Apple Inc.-created App for it?
If not yet, our FRiend may just have to settle for being un-happy (if that makes him happy) for some time longer yet...
Aah, but there's always hope that Apple Inc. will pull through, and in the end vanquish all whom dare look askance at breathless promotional ad copy masquerading as general chat & news.
I will never bother you. Goodbye.
That's enough to get yours out of hock?
I don't think so.
Did you hear about the recent study that indicates the more a person encounters proud, self-righteous Apple fanboys, the more likely they are to entertain thoughts of suicide?
Just think if the world went near-total Apple fanboy.
After the first few waves of self-culling, there would be nothing much left of redeemable value, possibly leading our nearby star to suddenly belch a kill-shot just to get rid of the 'winners' who don't realize they are hopeless (hopeless, cuz' they spend so much time thinking about how great Apple, and their own opinions on the universe are).
25 or 6 to 4
Having fun? RedHeeler WAS an ass. He deserved it for attacking me right out of the gate after being an asshat on the other thread where he got his nastiness deservedly deleted by the admin moderators.
Why do you think you need to defend him and join him in his personally insulting ass-hattery? What is it to you? Why do you feel the need to attack me?
My soul is fine and not in any kind of "hock," thank you. . . Look to your own for attacking people for no reason except you don't like the thread. In other words, get the log out of your eye, before you complain about the sliver in mine!
You were doing fine until you decided I was somehow posting "breathless promotional ad copy masquerading as general chat & news," which happens to be of interest to about 700 plus of your fellow Freepers who belong to the Apple special interest PING list which I maintain. They kind of OUTNUMBER you and their opinion drives me more than yours.
Being the keeper of the Apple PING LIST does not mean that I have sold my soul to Apple any more than Dayglored has sold his Soul to Microsoft for maintaining the Windows PING list.
If you don't like the thread, move on to one you do like and don't comment in this one. As I said, you were making some amusing comments before you decided to get insulting along with RedHeeler.
Please never include me, regardless of your post/s. Thanks
Matching his and hers watches. . . she wears his and she wears his? I doubt either of them would be caught dead with the other's watch. . . to remind them who's married to whom.
I mentioned you, it is only proper etiquette to ping you. You can stay out of Apple threads if you don't like them. . . You obviously don't. So go on to read something else. Don't bother responding.
With your approach to discussion and support for people on FreeRepublic, you don't represent conservatism very well. I have nothing but contempt for you after your performance tonight.
Thanks.
Get over yourself.
You really think 700 "ping list" members would care for (or need) THIS latest Apple promotional article?
It's ridiculous from the headline.
It's not worth replying to in detail.
It's all so tangled beyond comprehension, it would take at least twice the column length to unravel, show and explain how and why that is, and most likely (if present patters hold) you still wouldn't be able to accept that in addition to the article itself being a piece of Apple watch promotional commentary fluffcrap, your own reasoning & patterns of self-justification added to it, are seriously flawed (and near worthless) also.
I have a Stainless Submariner and a Two tone Daytona both were purchased in the early 80’s. Neither have been to the shop in over 30 year’s. I gave 875.00 for the Submariner and 1700 for the Daytona, price them now. Used are going for 5 times what I paid for those with the Daytona possibly bringing even more.
That's a lot of money for a watch?
Oh well.
Difficult to obtain performance, done in style, cost$ $extry$.
Misspelled words are still for free though, when I do it.
If I had unlimited amounts of money, I sure wouldn’t spend it on either a $6,000 Swiss watch or a $400 Apple watch. My $100 Seiko tells the time just fine and I don’t want to carry a magnifying glass to read stuff on an Apple watch.
I would think anybody that relies on a rechargeable device for all those functions might be in trouble for a panic attack when it dies. Sooner or later I'm worried about where Apple is taking us.
On the subject of watches I have an American made Dakota pocket watch that is virtually indestructible and keep perfect time. Do they make a water proof Apple Watch?
“Did you hear about the recent study that indicates the more a person encounters proud, self-righteous Apple fanboys, the more likely they are to entertain thoughts of suicide?”
Ah, yes, the Apple obsessed... If you wish to see one, go look in the mirror.
Apple makes excellent products, which are useful to many people. Deal with it.
Hey great. Some people are happy to have them.
There are a few who are even sane about it.
Well, of course. It’s your money, and it is your prerogative to spend it in any ridiculous way you want. I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise.
Actually, yes. . . and some of them thank me for posting articles such as this which is NOT an Apple promotional piece. YOU may think it is, but it is not. A lot are thinking about buying the device—it's not a watch—as an accessory for use with their iPhones and would certainly be interested in why someone who has preferred very expensive timepiece jewelry watches to suddenly eschew wearing those in exchange for a $400 wrist accessory for his phone. It might help them make their choice.
You naysayers who can't seem to see beyond the ends of your time-telling-old-fashioned ideas of what a watch is think it's just the same and cannot understand and "beyond comprehension" because of that inability to realize it is NOT A WATCH like you've known before. Right now people are trying to define it.
This is one more bit of information for people who are trying to define it for themselves.
Those who have bought them have been surveyed as being 97% satisfied with them. For an initial product, that's unheard of.
Why would I worry about that? I'm not going to run out of charge. I put my Apple Watch on at 7:30 yesterday morning. . . and took it off at about 2:10AM this morning and put it on a charging stand next to my bed. When it started to charge it said 65% charge was left after more than 18 hours of normal use. . .
Do they make a water proof Apple Watch?
No one makes a "waterproof" watch, only "water resistant" watches. Even dive watches are "water resistant" to certified depths for a certified period. Apple Watches are certified water resistant to a rating of IPX7. . . a certain depth for a certain period. . . which for IPX7 is a minimal 1 meter for 30 minutes. People are swimming with Apple Watches for longer and deeper. . . diving to 10 meters. . . and the Apple Watch has been independently tested to 40 meters. This was all covered with videos in an article in Slash Gear. However, the touch screen interface doesn't work too well with a wet finger in a submerged environment.
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