I’ll preface this review with one quick statement: I dislike watches. In that sense, the Apple Watch had its work cut out for it from the start where my bias is concerned. I finally escaped watch tyranny years ago when I began carrying a mobile phone, so the prospect of having the watch re-enter my life is a daunting one. The hope and promise of a vibrant, meaningful wearable world is one that the industry desperately wants, but it hasn’t been clear that consumers are as excited about it. Devices like FitBit are interesting and novel for exercise enthusiasts but their adoption hasn’t been the sort of rampant excitement we saw for the Smart Phone or Tablet.
It’s also been stated in numerous places that the Apple Watch is a device that grows on you; that it’s hard to judge it in the first week and that your love and connection to it builds over time. Perhaps this will be the case, and so to be fair I’ve been choosing to assess specific features of the Apple Watch rather than the device as a whole. The promise of the Apple Watch is a more connected, simplified experience that enhances your life through a series of use cases, so examining those use cases feels like a better way to get a true perspective on the device.
So, I’ve now been wearing and using the Apple Watch for several weeks. I’ve gone through the cycle that many other reviewers have commented on; delighted a feature one day and annoyed by another the next. I’ll say on the offset that I don’t have a passionate opinion about it one way or another: I neither love it or hate it. To many that seem to enjoy any hint of a failure Apple has that may seem like a damning comment, but it’s not. The original iPhone was also not the slam dunk many remember it as; there were plenty of reviews about it’s speed (too slow), the form factor (slick and hard to hold) and other random elements (gets too hot, screen loses responsiveness over time, etc). The bigger question for the Apple Watch is not if it’s an amazing product today, but if it can become one.
Many reviews go into gooey detail around the unboxing experience. There’s little I can say here that will add to the conversation; Apple does a great job with packaging. Unpacking this product feels like small event, like nearly all Apple products do. This either appeals to you or it doesn’t. Over time I’ve become more interested in using the thing in the beautiful packaging than taking an afternoon unwrapping it. Nitpicking things like the tiny cardboard tabs that hold the cord together (which are mildly annoying) or the quality of the paper in the setup paperwork (it’s paper) is being overly petty. Apple packages up well, and nearly all consumer products companies attempt to copy them in that area whenever possible.
Setup for the Apple Watch was simple. Using the phone’s camera to sync the Watch felt new and cool, even though if you really stop to think about it the experience is a lot like scanning a QR code five years ago. The sync process was clean enough, and when I reset the watch and tried it a second time it still worked quickly and easily. Within five minutes of unboxing the watch I was using it.
The Apple Watch is slow though. Experiences that we are used to on our phone that happen instantly take added time on the Watch. Because we are trained to accept certain behavior the speed feels all the more jarring when we get the title of an app on the screen by itself for 5-10 seconds. Another problem is that because Apple has done a very good job of making “loading” user friendly on the iPhone, the wait on the Watch not only feels slow but looks dumb. The app name with no other real indicator (to be fair, sometimes the loading indicator shows and sometimes it doesn’t… which is actually even worse) reminds you of feature phones circa 2006. That’s not a good thing.
The way the watch comes to life with a small turn of the wrist is clever and works well. The first couple days this feels odd, but you quickly get used to how the display works with you. Beyond the initial “time”, some apps and functions stay on all the time, which takes some mental getting used to, but it’s really no different from how some features work differently on the phone. In the case of the Watch, the apps and functions that persist make sense (like Passbook) so it’s not an annoyance.
The controls are more of a mixed bag. The button to jump you to calling/texting works quickly and easily. It’s recessed so it doesn’t get bumped accidentally and is unobtrusive. The dial (or “digital crown”) is less user-friendly, as pushing it doesn’t always register, and the turn/zoom function of it has different sensitivity depending on what you’re doing. The touch screen is very sensitive and works well, but force touch can be random. The Watch is clever in how it can differentiate between a touch and a push, but it’s not as groundbreaking as multi-touch.
Apple is promoting how intuitive it is, and this is only partially true. Parts of it are, but other parts are bizarrely put together. Most people will find that they figure out how to do a couple of things easily, but wind up neglecting most of the Watch simply because those features don’t make any sense. To call it “immediately familiar” is half-praise… it is familiar, but it’s not comfortable. You’re learning something new here, and while that isn’t a bad thing, it does undermine the connected story Apple is attempting to tell at times.
The display is brilliant, but isn’t leveraged nearly enough. Apps that show photos look nice, but feel extremely limited in what they present to the user. Which brings up perhaps the most frustrating part of the Watch; it’s clearly intended to be a new way to connect and present information… but the way user behavior is carried out often feels dated rather than revolutionary. If you wanted a low-res display of chat messages you get one… but did you want that?
Further, Apple uses the Watch to push Passbook more aggressively. This means if you’re paying for a Starbucks purchase using your watch you need to open Passbook rather than the Starbucks app. If you want to check into a plane you need to open your boarding pass in Passbook rather than your airline app. Like it or not, you’re going to use Passbook. But the user experience is terrible in these scenarios; you’ve been trained to go to the Starbucks app, check your balance, perhaps reload your card, and then pay with one touch. With the Apple Watch you open your Starbucks app, see information that is largely unhelpful (like where the nearest Starbucks is, a problem nobody has given there is one within visual sight at nearly any point in your life), and then have to close the app to go to Passbook. Further, it’s comical watching people have to bend their wrist in strange positions to get the barcode to scan. It’s simpler to just pull out your phone; the connected Watch experience didn’t take away steps, it added them.
As a “phone” the Watch is great, particularly in the car. The Watch allows a nice, hands-free experience that keeps your hands on the wheel. Some cars have a connected speaker experience, but the Watch feels more natural. The sound quality is surprisingly good and dialing people is simple and straightforward.
As an exercise device the Watch does what it says, and thankfully only gives a passing nod to “gamification of fitness” which wandered out of style years ago. The vibration reminders to stand up are less helpful (particularly when driving) but this is easily turned off.
Other functions like the stopwatch and weather work fine, while text messaging limits you to present responses. Music works ok as a remote, but you’re only barely saving time through the Watch’s interface. In general apps that take very basic information work well here, while anything that requires more interaction feel patched (poorly) for a Watch experience that hasn’t been fully thought through.
The Watch is customizable, but it takes some unintuitive paths to get you there. Some functions are available only through the phone app, while others can be done using the “force touch” and dial method to get where you want.
Overall the Watch does what it claims to (mostly) and is less obtrusive and annoying than I expected as someone who doesn’t like watches. But it also feels like an incomplete product, something that will evolve heavily over the next two years or become a partially useful legacy product like the Apple TV has. Apple clearly has intentions for the Watch and the connected behavior it wants to provide, and I’m pretty confident that like the iPhone the experience will get better over time.
But this leads me to the question I’ll end the review with: what is Apple trying to really accomplish? Innovation often takes two forms: adaptive or transformative.
Adaptive innovation takes common user scenarios and aims to make them easier. Take the innovation of paying for gasoline at the pump rather than having to go into the store; in the early 90’s this innovation rolled through the US and was immediately embraced. It took a situation that people did every day and made it easier by removing steps. It was popular because it didn’t try to change user behavior as much as simplify it.
Transformative innovation changes behavior entirely. It may take away steps, but it also requires you to fundamentally do things in a different way. The innovation of digital music over physical CDs is an example of this change. Digital music is easier to download, store and retrieve, but it required people to fully embrace a change how they purchased and consumed music. The end result has been successful because the benefits outweighed the fears, but it was far more of a behavioral leap for people than paying for gas at the pump was.
Both types of innovation can be positive, and at times both are absolutely necessary. Where companies go wrong is when they confuse the two and wind up forcing behavior on a population that isn’t ready for it or doesn’t want it in the first place. When companies forget that the role of innovation is to improve the experiences of their customers things can go bad in a hurry.
The Apple Watch is a little from both categories; both adaptive and transformative. A connected digital life is something that is coming one way or another, and it’s up to how well companies handle this transition to determine how quickly the innovation will happen. Apple hasn’t figured it all out yet.
The watch is a quality piece of equipment and does a good job of getting past the initial barrier of comfort and basic usability. But the usage isn’t fully baked and it’s hard to tell how quickly Apple will get there. If the plan is to sell an Apple Watch 2 this time next year… then this is going to be a very long and painful road. Apple needs to show how software can push better experiences, rather than counting on the yearly hardware refresh that the iPhone enjoys. Nothing about the Watch as it currently is will convince people to buy it again in a year.
Watching how Apple pushes experiences on the Watch will be critical. It’s still new and the doomsayers often feel like they are just digging for any reason to criticize a usually infallible company. The Watch has the potential, so it all comes down to if Apple sees the hard work as over or just beginning. To build a truly brilliant connected world that, there’s a lot more remaining to be done.
