Spent a little bit of time at the store, but did not get a try-on appointment.
It is for sure is a beautiful device. My wife changed her mind to the space grey sport rather than the silver one. The watches in the wood/glass cases are all running demo software in sync so you can see the displays.
The other commenters are right - the steel watches really look nice. Clearly an upgrade from the sport.
I haven't seen much discussion about the store demo devices. They are really well thought out and really nice. Each has a watch paired to a demo touchscreen (likely a iPad mini adapted for the purpose) with a heavy stand and watch anchored to it. The watch software appears fully functional, but many of the functions are disabled - you can't make a call or send a message or talk to siri.) But you do get to see the fluidity and beauty of the display, how the crown works, and sense of the device as a whole.
One thing I was struck with was that the software and interface is predictably gorgeous, but even though I was prepared for all it can do (been following the product eagerly for some time) I still thought there were times when it was unintuitive as to where I was or how to get to where I wanted to be. I concluded that was because I was just diddling with no purposes. I fully expect that it will take some time to sort the interface out, and get it to work exactly as I expect. IOW, you'll tune your watch to do specific things, and when you do, it will be intuitive how to do exactly that. I really don't expect to clutter it with apps - even though my iPhone is full of apps I hardly ever use.
Tried out the watch in Apple store. Pleasantly surprised at the quality. The display is stunning. Ordered a 42mm SS and a 38 mm SS with rose band for the wife. The latters ship date is July!!
As I indicated before, I agree that the watch should be on all the time.
do you two honestly believe someone doesn't? of course we do - who wouldn't want it to work exactly like a mechanical watch? but we live in real life, and in real life we don't yet have the battery tech to power even an OLED display all day. impossible. and the e-ink tech has terrible resolution. so this remains impossible today, and criticizing it for not being impossible is foolish.
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
Sorry, the watch on wrist was in demo-loop mode and it was hard to catch it while it was cycling through it's screens, or I would have gotten the shot you asked for.
Yup, even Apple is not immune from that mentality, and it cost them $21 million.
What kills me is, after Apple paid the 21M to Mondaine for using the Swiss Railway Clock that Mondaine licensed, Apple stopped using the face. It's a good face, and they'd paid for violating the license... why not license it properly and keep using it?
What kills me is, after Apple paid the 21M to Mondaine for using the Swiss Railway Clock that Mondaine licensed, Apple stopped using the face. It's a good face, and they'd paid for violating the license... why not license it properly and keep using it?
Most likely it was not a perpetual license, indeed it might have only been valid for iOS 6 only. Part of that settlement included damages for infringement. And that's Apple -- they have $178 billion in reserve, so even $21 million tossed away on a clock that no longer aesthetically pleases the design team is not an issue. Also, I'm not sure about this, but I also got that the clock face was a Scott Forstall decision as part of his skeuomorphic design implementation, something Ive has flatly rejected. And Jony gets what Jony wants.
having a crown that sometimes scrolls, and sometimes zooms, is not that much better. The beauty of the iPhone, is that the same gesture always does the same thing.
I'm actually split on this issue. On the one hand, people who wear watches are used to a complicated interface, particularly if they have a watch with many "complications". I know I recently pulled out my Citizen chronograph, and for the life of me, I can't remember which button does what. So in that sense, Apple has definitely improved upon the interface. I mean seriously, how is somebody supposed to figure this out without an engineering degree?
That said, in discussing the round watch face, I realize that scrolling is probably not the best tactic for such a small UI. Many of Apple's other screens with circular selection designs seem far more suited to such a small display. Instead of scrolling down a list, discreet lists with limited info that you swipe through, just like on the iPhone home screens. In fact, presenting a list of things as a scroll is sort of the lazy way to do it ... it means the data can just load without presenting it in any special format. And depending on how long that list is, it can get pretty tedious as well as taxing on the user -- just like those web pages for blogs and the like that continue to load seemingly forever, slowing down the whole process until the entire page is loaded, and then needing to refresh the section you want to view when you actually get to it. There are apps on the iPhone in fact which have migrated to a swipe to advance system because loading so much data to scroll is cumbersome. Indeed, swiping left to right through a list of things seems far preferable on a surface this small than scrolling -- you don't scroll through a book after all. And just like many apps on the iPhone are realizing this same thing, perhaps the Apple watch will as well.
The ?Watch isn't a mini iPhone, as much as it looks like one. And I cast my vote for consistency -- let the digital crown zoom, and get rid of scrolling. I'm not sure what scrolling gets you on a device that small, when swiping can present the same information in the same linear format as scrolling, potentially making it easier to select in the process. How about if you need to zoom to make your selection? Can't scroll and zoom at the same time, right?
I had an appointment for the Covent Garden store but managed to switch it to the Selfridges store-in-store as I needed to pick some other things up from there.
Selfridges is a big store and I had a little trouble finding it. There weren't any signs saying where it was and the appointment location only mentioned the name of the store. Surprise, surprise, it turned out to be in the section with all of the luxury watch brands. Brands like Rolex and Cartier have their own little stores encircling glass desks containing the smaller brands. The Apple Watch was in a larger section at the store front. It's certainly not in the basement with the other technology brands. In fact, the only other electronics brand nearby is Vertu.
It was interesting that all of the staff were wearing Selfridges, and not Apple, apparel. I'm surprised that Apple allowed that. They seemed to know their stuff though and I got to meet the now-famous guy with the moustache from the photos.
I got to try on pretty much all of the different combinations of watch and band, though not every colour. The Sports edition felt better than I thought it would. Anyone who owns an iPhone won't be disappointment with the fit and finish. The SS model was a different matter though. It didn't feel like a gadget or a piece of technology, it felt like a piece of jewellery. I was very impressed. I can also now see why the link bracelet is so expensive. It's an amazing piece of precision engineering.
The haptic technology was definitely the stand-out feature. It definitely felt like a subtle tap rather than a vibration. Impressive stuff.
Most likely it was not a perpetual license, indeed it might have only been valid for iOS 6 only. Part of that settlement included damages for infringement. And that's Apple -- they have $178 billion in reserve, so even $21 million tossed away on a clock that no longer aesthetically pleases the design team is not an issue. Also, I'm not sure about this, but I also got that the clock face was a Scott Forstall decision as part of his skeuomorphic design implementation, something Ive has flatly rejected. And Jony gets what Jony wants.
"Jony gets . . . " etc. Your agenda is really showing today and yesterday. Too bad you have to work so hard, and on the weekend, too.
Lots of verbiage in the other thread too. Quite comical, your round-face arguments.
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
With Rolex and other luxury watches you are paying for a name and nothing more. It has literally no utility at all. I will say that Rolex with the silver and orange like color looks pretty nice and usually I don't like Rolex watches.
WOW! those are solid numbers. I wasn't expecting but 300-500k TBQH...
1M in the US mind you (and since those are not Apple's numbers, I have a feeling they're less than the actual numbers), estimates for the whole world are much much higher. But, who knows if Apple will announce anything.
1M in the US mind you (and since those are not Apple's numbers, I have a feeling they're less than the actual numbers), estimates for the whole world are much much higher. But, who knows if Apple will announce anything.
I think if sales are strong enough apple may release actual sale numbers, at least I hope so ????
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
I like the look of that big round Rolex, much nicer than the crApple watch in my opinion. It also won't go flat after one day and be worthless in a couple of years, nor will it track you and send that information to your phone and then the cloud.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
I like the look of that big round Rolex, much nicer than the crApple watch in my opinion. It also won't go flat after one day and be worthless in a couple of years, nor will it track you and send that information to your phone and then the cloud.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
Oh right...
- Say a product with low functionality and extreme price and little distinction from other watches (besides the name) looks nice
- Claim watches are investment (sic) when few are (even Rolex')
- Claims Apple products lose all value in a few year when they keep a high residual values after those few years
- Use the word "Apple" to form an insult (nobody who actually buys Apple would do that btw),
- Use the battery mantra, that's used by trolls
disregarding function, usage, and the fact all electronic devices have all the same limitations
- Go for the conspiracy, tracking, privacy stealing angle about Apple
- Despite privacy/security being something Apple is recognized for
- Supposedly having owned Apple device which would collect the exact same thing...
- The Watch being a companion to a phone that actually has the GPS and network capacity and can also track you...
- Claim to own a Apple device
- Low post count for an account that's so old.
Find the thread were I entered the list : "how do ID a troll". You ticked off most of the boxes perfectly... You're 95% of the way there, try a bit harder and you'll get to 100%.
LOL. Sounds like someone is a bit defensive? Are you saying if you own an Apple product you have to like the Apple watch? I'm not the one that isn't making sense. I've owned many Macs and several iPhones and I'm not the one blindly accusing others of lying. I expressed my opinion that the watch is a shit product. I'd prefer they focus on making decent professional software like a new Aperture instead of this crap.
PS. I use the word crApple all the time. Just like I call my laptop crAppBook Pro. It's just my weird sense of humour. In all humour there's a bit of truth but it's mostly because of my disdain for fanatasism in any sphere. Why should Apple fan boys be immune? I love my rMBP but I put a sticker over the Apple logo.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
When did owning an Apple product ever preclude someone from being a troll? That's an assumption I'd never make, in fact, it's one not borne out either here or on MR, home of "Apple product owning trolls."
I'm not saying you're a troll, mind you, just responding to your post, but also have to say, calling it a "crApple watch," and your use of "fanboys" well, those are two of the favourite and juvenile tactics employed by trolls, Apple product owning or not.
Comments
Spent a little bit of time at the store, but did not get a try-on appointment.
It is for sure is a beautiful device. My wife changed her mind to the space grey sport rather than the silver one. The watches in the wood/glass cases are all running demo software in sync so you can see the displays.
The other commenters are right - the steel watches really look nice. Clearly an upgrade from the sport.
I haven't seen much discussion about the store demo devices. They are really well thought out and really nice. Each has a watch paired to a demo touchscreen (likely a iPad mini adapted for the purpose) with a heavy stand and watch anchored to it. The watch software appears fully functional, but many of the functions are disabled - you can't make a call or send a message or talk to siri.) But you do get to see the fluidity and beauty of the display, how the crown works, and sense of the device as a whole.
One thing I was struck with was that the software and interface is predictably gorgeous, but even though I was prepared for all it can do (been following the product eagerly for some time) I still thought there were times when it was unintuitive as to where I was or how to get to where I wanted to be. I concluded that was because I was just diddling with no purposes. I fully expect that it will take some time to sort the interface out, and get it to work exactly as I expect. IOW, you'll tune your watch to do specific things, and when you do, it will be intuitive how to do exactly that. I really don't expect to clutter it with apps - even though my iPhone is full of apps I hardly ever use.
Really looking forward to getting mine in June.
Tried out the watch in Apple store. Pleasantly surprised at the quality. The display is stunning. Ordered a 42mm SS and a 38 mm SS with rose band for the wife. The latters ship date is July!!
do you two honestly believe someone doesn't? of course we do - who wouldn't want it to work exactly like a mechanical watch? but we live in real life, and in real life we don't yet have the battery tech to power even an OLED display all day. impossible. and the e-ink tech has terrible resolution. so this remains impossible today, and criticizing it for not being impossible is foolish.
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
Sorry, the watch on wrist was in demo-loop mode and it was hard to catch it while it was cycling through it's screens, or I would have gotten the shot you asked for.
Yup, even Apple is not immune from that mentality, and it cost them $21 million.
What kills me is, after Apple paid the 21M to Mondaine for using the Swiss Railway Clock that Mondaine licensed, Apple stopped using the face. It's a good face, and they'd paid for violating the license... why not license it properly and keep using it?
What kills me is, after Apple paid the 21M to Mondaine for using the Swiss Railway Clock that Mondaine licensed, Apple stopped using the face. It's a good face, and they'd paid for violating the license... why not license it properly and keep using it?
Most likely it was not a perpetual license, indeed it might have only been valid for iOS 6 only. Part of that settlement included damages for infringement. And that's Apple -- they have $178 billion in reserve, so even $21 million tossed away on a clock that no longer aesthetically pleases the design team is not an issue. Also, I'm not sure about this, but I also got that the clock face was a Scott Forstall decision as part of his skeuomorphic design implementation, something Ive has flatly rejected. And Jony gets what Jony wants.
having a crown that sometimes scrolls, and sometimes zooms, is not that much better. The beauty of the iPhone, is that the same gesture always does the same thing.
I'm actually split on this issue. On the one hand, people who wear watches are used to a complicated interface, particularly if they have a watch with many "complications". I know I recently pulled out my Citizen chronograph, and for the life of me, I can't remember which button does what. So in that sense, Apple has definitely improved upon the interface. I mean seriously, how is somebody supposed to figure this out without an engineering degree?
That said, in discussing the round watch face, I realize that scrolling is probably not the best tactic for such a small UI. Many of Apple's other screens with circular selection designs seem far more suited to such a small display. Instead of scrolling down a list, discreet lists with limited info that you swipe through, just like on the iPhone home screens. In fact, presenting a list of things as a scroll is sort of the lazy way to do it ... it means the data can just load without presenting it in any special format. And depending on how long that list is, it can get pretty tedious as well as taxing on the user -- just like those web pages for blogs and the like that continue to load seemingly forever, slowing down the whole process until the entire page is loaded, and then needing to refresh the section you want to view when you actually get to it. There are apps on the iPhone in fact which have migrated to a swipe to advance system because loading so much data to scroll is cumbersome. Indeed, swiping left to right through a list of things seems far preferable on a surface this small than scrolling -- you don't scroll through a book after all. And just like many apps on the iPhone are realizing this same thing, perhaps the Apple watch will as well.
The ?Watch isn't a mini iPhone, as much as it looks like one. And I cast my vote for consistency -- let the digital crown zoom, and get rid of scrolling. I'm not sure what scrolling gets you on a device that small, when swiping can present the same information in the same linear format as scrolling, potentially making it easier to select in the process. How about if you need to zoom to make your selection? Can't scroll and zoom at the same time, right?
I had an appointment for the Covent Garden store but managed to switch it to the Selfridges store-in-store as I needed to pick some other things up from there.
Selfridges is a big store and I had a little trouble finding it. There weren't any signs saying where it was and the appointment location only mentioned the name of the store. Surprise, surprise, it turned out to be in the section with all of the luxury watch brands. Brands like Rolex and Cartier have their own little stores encircling glass desks containing the smaller brands. The Apple Watch was in a larger section at the store front. It's certainly not in the basement with the other technology brands. In fact, the only other electronics brand nearby is Vertu.
It was interesting that all of the staff were wearing Selfridges, and not Apple, apparel. I'm surprised that Apple allowed that. They seemed to know their stuff though and I got to meet the now-famous guy with the moustache from the photos.
I got to try on pretty much all of the different combinations of watch and band, though not every colour. The Sports edition felt better than I thought it would. Anyone who owns an iPhone won't be disappointment with the fit and finish. The SS model was a different matter though. It didn't feel like a gadget or a piece of technology, it felt like a piece of jewellery. I was very impressed. I can also now see why the link bracelet is so expensive. It's an amazing piece of precision engineering.
The haptic technology was definitely the stand-out feature. It definitely felt like a subtle tap rather than a vibration. Impressive stuff.
"Jony gets . . . " etc. Your agenda is really showing today and yesterday. Too bad you have to work so hard, and on the weekend, too.
Lots of verbiage in the other thread too. Quite comical, your round-face arguments.
http://news.investors.com/041215-747480-apple-watch-preorders-solid-day-shopping-data-estimates.htm?ven=yahoocp&src=aurlled&ven=yahoo
How reliable can this be?
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
With Rolex and other luxury watches you are paying for a name and nothing more. It has literally no utility at all. I will say that Rolex with the silver and orange like color looks pretty nice and usually I don't like Rolex watches.
According to these people more then 1 million ?Watch were pre-ordered.
http://news.investors.com/041215-747480-apple-watch-preorders-solid-day-shopping-data-estimates.htm?ven=yahoocp&src=aurlled&ven=yahoo
How reliable can this be?
WOW! those are solid numbers. I wasn't expecting but 300-500k TBQH...
WOW! those are solid numbers. I wasn't expecting but 300-500k TBQH...
1M in the US mind you (and since those are not Apple's numbers, I have a feeling they're less than the actual numbers), estimates for the whole world are much much higher. But, who knows if Apple will announce anything.
I think if sales are strong enough apple may release actual sale numbers, at least I hope so ????
Wow, that side-by-side Apple Watch vs Rolex picture is the best.
You should have done a watch face for watch face comparison.
Any of the flexible Apple Watch faces would have blown the static Rolex faces out of the water.
The Swiss are toast even if they block the Apple Watch from selling in Switzerland.
I like the look of that big round Rolex, much nicer than the crApple watch in my opinion. It also won't go flat after one day and be worthless in a couple of years, nor will it track you and send that information to your phone and then the cloud.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
Deleted
I like the look of that big round Rolex, much nicer than the crApple watch in my opinion. It also won't go flat after one day and be worthless in a couple of years, nor will it track you and send that information to your phone and then the cloud.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
Oh right...
- Say a product with low functionality and extreme price and little distinction from other watches (besides the name) looks nice
- Claim watches are investment (sic) when few are (even Rolex')
- Claims Apple products lose all value in a few year when they keep a high residual values after those few years
- Use the word "Apple" to form an insult (nobody who actually buys Apple would do that btw),
- Use the battery mantra, that's used by trolls
disregarding function, usage, and the fact all electronic devices have all the same limitations
- Go for the conspiracy, tracking, privacy stealing angle about Apple
- Despite privacy/security being something Apple is recognized for
- Supposedly having owned Apple device which would collect the exact same thing...
- The Watch being a companion to a phone that actually has the GPS and network capacity and can also track you...
- Claim to own a Apple device
- Low post count for an account that's so old.
Find the thread were I entered the list : "how do ID a troll". You ticked off most of the boxes perfectly... You're 95% of the way there, try a bit harder and you'll get to 100%.
LOL. Sounds like someone is a bit defensive? Are you saying if you own an Apple product you have to like the Apple watch? I'm not the one that isn't making sense. I've owned many Macs and several iPhones and I'm not the one blindly accusing others of lying. I expressed my opinion that the watch is a shit product. I'd prefer they focus on making decent professional software like a new Aperture instead of this crap.
PS. I use the word crApple all the time. Just like I call my laptop crAppBook Pro. It's just my weird sense of humour. In all humour there's a bit of truth but it's mostly because of my disdain for fanatasism in any sphere. Why should Apple fan boys be immune? I love my rMBP but I put a sticker over the Apple logo.
I own a rMBP and iPhone 5s so I'm hardly some Apple-bashing troll. Just sayin'!
When did owning an Apple product ever preclude someone from being a troll? That's an assumption I'd never make, in fact, it's one not borne out either here or on MR, home of "Apple product owning trolls."
I'm not saying you're a troll, mind you, just responding to your post, but also have to say, calling it a "crApple watch," and your use of "fanboys" well, those are two of the favourite and juvenile tactics employed by trolls, Apple product owning or not.