By now you’d have figured (based on our constant social postings) that I had scooted down over to Sydney, Australia to get Apple’s new addition to its growing device family, the Apple Watch. Yes, it may be crazy, flying all the way to another country just to try and buy a piece of electronics (not even a big one) but hey, we went and did it anyway.
Just note though, I’m not a big fan of smartwatches. Never saw any practical use to them and this is with me personally owning three smartwatches myself; the original Pebble, the Samsung Galaxy Gear S and the ill-fated Kreyos, all three which I have never really wore more than a week throughout my ownership of them.
Still I decided, why not? How bad can it be right? And what did I think when I first tried it out? Read on.
It’s a looker all right
Off the bat, there is one thing I really can’t deny. The Apple Watch, is a looker. It’s still squarish/rectangular though, forgoing the more traditional wristwatch shape that LG, Huawei and Motorola have chosen to emulate. Apple however has managed to make what’s essentially been considered a boring shape, look way more polished and good looking.
You may be thinking, just how good looking can you make a square/rectangular shape anyway? Well like the iPhone 6, it all boils down to the little details. And Apple has paid attention to a ton of them. There’s the screen which Apple has designed to gently curve at the sides to the metal body. This design style gives the illusion that the screen doesn’t have a bezel and even more importantly, doesn’t make it look like it’s framed in an ugly metal body.
Not that the body itself is ugly either. With curves and abound and rounded edges, Apple has managed to soften the traditional, boxy look that has been attributed to majority of smartwatches, and make it look, for the lack of a better word, sexy.
Combine that sexy, rounded body with its screen and what you get a device that looks like a well-polished pebble. It even feels like one, especially since the watch does have a surprising heft to it. For me that slight weightiness that the Apple Watch has is a good thing as it makes you feel you actually have something substantial on your wrist instead of something that feels more akin to a toy watch.
There’s also Apple’s knack of looking at the smallest details. Even the back of the Apple Watch was given a good design workout with the charging base and sensors integrated into a roundish plate, reminiscent of the backs of a traditional wrist watch. Most other smartwatches just slap the sensor on somwhere convenient and what I feel, is without much thought, but not Apple. Nice touch indeed.
Then of course, there’s the build material and variety of colours you could choose from. All three versions of the Apple Watch; Watch Sport, Watch and Watch Edition, looked really good. Even the aluminium Watch Sport would easily give any of its competitors a run for their money, at least when it comes to the design department.
And with two sizes screen sizes to choose from; 42mm and 38mm, it’s not a one size fit all device either. I managed to try both watches and found that the 42mm was just nice while the 38mm version looked pretty dainty and ridiculously comical on my wrist.
