A Deep Dive Into The Apple Watch

This is something I know that is on just about everyone’s mind: that damn watch.

Is it something that we need? Will it replace the watch all together?

I love watches and what they do, how they are crafted and the whole art behind them: the history of the mechanical movement itself, which really hasn’t changed for more than a 100 years, the skill and craftsmanship involved in creating a quality timepiece. They grasped at the idea of running a watch on a battery and making it digital. Time goes around the dial, not across a quartz screen. It’s that change that rocked the horological world in the sixties and seventies. Its not physical mechanics, but battery driven circuits, costs and styling that made it acceptable and to a point almost losing the idea of a mechanical watch all together. Those early watches just were just not in vogue anymore and expensive. But the functions were the same as your dad’s and grandfather’s old mechanical watch: time, date, chronograph, countdown and a really cool calculator. It looked different, this future modern thing that’s nowhere near to my grandfather’s bomber watch that got him through the war. But what does this new era of watch ideation and reality mean? Do we really need another watch concept? That old mechanical and even digital watch embedded themselves into cultures and age groups across the globe and are still going strong.

The Apple Watch seems to try to not only blur the lines of craft, usage and collectability to hopefully become integrated in one’s daily process (as the iPhone does now). I’m not a huge fan of knowing my heartbeats per minute and being able to send that to someone or to have a buzz on my wrist to be accompanied by a swish from my phone saying I got even more junk mail, but I think the floodgate is open to push that tchotchke aside and really see what developers will create. Working within existing daily life and complimenting the things we do.

Will there be that fingerprint login to start my car, get bank records, scan just the watch for my ID, passport and plane ticket in one swipe? Send a message to a small wall mounted LED/speaker; letting my boys know I wish them goodnight (there’s no need to leave your room anymore) and that there are no bedbugs (because I ran an app for that).

What I really want to see is its longevity. Will this be a quality tool, or just a toy? What happens when the battery gives out? Will the continual updating of iOS systems quickly render the first generation obsolete? Why bother? Will boredom set in and will I get back in line for the next Apple Watch version? Will the watch itself become a true collectable, an heirloom? Will I pass the Apple Watch on to my children, they way one may a Rolex or a Patek Philippe?

Apple seems to be crossing into new territory. With the advent of the iPod, I don’t remember anyone saying, “Hey, I am going to put this in a safe deposit box and leave it to my kids.” They are just the every day tool and to some, entertainment for our busy lives. But that has changed, perhaps intentionally, maybe only as an unintended consequence with the introduction of the Apple Watch. Could something modern and digital have heirloom potential?

I truly believe Apple is paving the way to a true personal experience, maybe this will become the new “Moonwatch”; keeping our astronauts keyed in with all the tools they need for space travel. Only time will tell.

(Photo: iWatch by flickr user Brett Jordan via Attribution 2.0 License)