Apple Watch: Three Months In

I think this collection largely hits on most of what I would say about Apple Watch. I don’t agree with everything, but directionally, it seems correct: Apple Watch is a mixed bag.

I’m almost exactly three months into wearing the device. Yes, I’ve worn it every day in that span, which is clearly a good sign. I also still get asked about it on almost a daily basis — also a good sign, as people still seem to be interested in it. But I definitely wouldn’t say I love the thing. I like it, but after all this time, it’s still not vital to me day-to-day. It’s a nice-to-have.

After two weeks with the Apple Watch, I wrote that I was still trying to figure out how it fit into my life and that I thought it would take some time. Bad news: I’m still not quite there yet.

Here’s what I do know: I almost never explicitly tap an app to open it on the Apple Watch. Hell, I almost never visit the app screen. To me, the Apple Watch remains all about the push notifications, and a few of the Glances.

I suspect truly native Apple Watch apps will change this slightly, as one issue I have with the apps is that they’re entirely too slow. But I still believe there will be only a handful of apps that are worth having installed on the watch. And the majority of those will still be for richer notifications (I really hope developers are able to take advantage of varying haptic feedback for these).

The times I enjoy Apple Watch most are both obvious and boring. When I’m in a meeting, it’s now much easier to see if something urgent is coming in (versus the old, ruder method of pulling out your phone to check it). Same is true during a film. The activity notifications range from nice to annoying. And I like running timers for things such as how much longer I have left in a flight. Groundbreaking, I know.

As for the interface and interaction model, I’m now completely used to it. In fact, I sometimes find myself “force touching” the iPhone screen in order to dismiss all my notifications — can’t wait for that in the next iPhone.

But mainly, I enjoy Apple Watch as a way to see various things I care about at a glance: the weather, the date, another time zone, my activity, my upcoming appointments, and, of course, the time.

And the thing still looks great. I have two bands I regularly swap in and out depending on the situation. I’m already debating getting another. Apple absolutely nailed it with these bands.

So I consider myself in a holding pattern with the Apple Watch. I want to see what developers come up with using watchOS 2. I’m cautiously optimistic about this, but I find myself leaning farther away from the notion that anything truly revolutionary will be created with this platform.

I hope I’m wrong. Though not this wrong.