Apple Watch vs Traditional Watch

Ariel Adams from ABlogToWatch — a website dedicated to reviewing watches — has written an extensive review of his time with the Apple Watch and whether or not the Apple Watch will replace his traditional watch. He has some really interesting insights that I have yet to find from most of the tech pundits out there. I’ve pulled few parts that I found super interesting.

“Natural” is a word I’ve been using a lot over the last few days to describe the Apple Watch. I say that because, in my opinion, looking at information on your wrist just feels so much more natural than carrying around a Hershey bar-sized computer in my hands. I am probably not the first person to observe that the throngs of people who keep their mobile phones in a death grip at all times look a bit silly. That just isn’t natural and what makes it worse is that many mobile phones today (including the iPhone) have the ergonomics of a bar of soap. Smartwatches are attached to your wrist, don’t require a hand to carry around, and are useful at a glance. Mobile phones simply can’t claim that – and in practice, these seemingly minor elements make for a remarkably different experience when you put something on your body as opposed to in your hand.

Mark Miller wrote a wonderful piece on this called Apple Watch: It’s form is its function and I couldn’t agree more. After have owned the Apple Watch for a few months now, the idea that I’d have to carry around a semi-fragile “Hershey-bar sized computer” actually seems weird. I love the fact that I can wonder without the constant worry of whether or not something important has come in.

Ariel continues:

I’ve long known that Apple was studying the traditional wrist watch industry, but it is only more recently that I’ve discovered why. Apple was never trying to really mimic traditional watches in a direct sense, even though there are a lot of borrowed themes and elements. If that were the case, Apple’s goal would have been to create a connected digital device that reminded people of traditional watches – but was actually just an electronic gadget. I think a lot of people have this idea about the Apple Watch, and I don’t think it is true.

Ahem… Moto 360, LG G Watch R, Samsung.

Some have argued that round would have been “better” but they’re misunderstanding what better actually means. Better if it was an analog watch? Sure. Better as a device that’s meant to be glanceable and pull in information such as text and graphics? Nope. I don’t care what anyone says, a round watch would have sacrificed function for looks. To me, Apple hit the nail perfectly. This is by far once of the nicest square-ish watches I’ve ever seen. In fact, I think it’s the nicest smart watch out there even when compared the the round ones. Seriously, have you seen the LG G Watch R?

On whether or not the Apple Watch would replace Ariel’s traditional watch:

I honestly never imagined how much I would miss the individuality I felt when wearing a more distinctive looking traditional watch. It isn’t that I miss my beloved mechanical watches, but rather that I really miss the feeling I have when wearing a well-made analog machine. There is little else out there that helps you really appreciate how emotional the experience of wearing a traditional watch is than wearing a smartwatch for an extended period of time.

That is all a long way of saying that “no, the Apple Watch has not displaced my traditional watch…” but it will supplement it. I am in a position now where I truly want to wear both. I’ve become very accustomed to the convenience of having a lot of very useful information at my fingertips, but I also love more than ever the feeling I get when wearing a traditional watch. I also think that because of the Apple Watch, brand new people will also feel this way if they should ever happen to put on a traditional watch in tandem with their Apple Watch for any period of time.

Call me crazy, but I consider this a big win for Apple. In fact, I’m actually amazed that the Apple Watch today is good enough for Ariel to want to wear it alongside an analog Watch. To me, that suggests that most people would be willing to forfeit a traditional watch entirely. I agree that there’s something special about analog watches, but there’s going to be a point where the function of the Apple Watch is just too valuable to people. It’s not there yet, but when it get there, it could get real nasty for analog watch makers.

Be sure to read Ariel’s full review here. It’s really great.