Apple Watch: Love it or Hate it?

IMO it's a useful gadget that tells time. All the alerts and info is distracting 

The distracting nature of this device is a feature, not a bug, for its creators. I can not summon enough scorn for this and its ilk.

Wore a smartwatch for about 9 months. Hated it. Quit for another 6 months. Turned off all the notifications so it's now just a fitness tracker I wear on the off-wrist. 

It should not even be called a watch, IMO.

Super useful. Awesome technology. Don‘t own one, but I can see why people do. I just don’t want to have the same thing as everyone else on my wrist (looks down at Hamilton Khaki on wrist). 

mine stops working after two year. then i bought mechanical watch 😂

I'm definietly not into smart watches, but wear what makes you feel good, it has some useful features, but a watch for me is to cut myself off a little from my phone.

It serves the function of the most capable watch in human history, about as distractingly as one can.

Would you buy a wristwatch if the brand is a fruit name? Definitely not me 😁

It bugs you all the time and spends a good deal of time on the charger. It connects you to the world when you really need to unconnect more. Let the Millenials be a slave to their tech until they come to their senses. At least you can put your phone down and walk away from that thing. After work the only info you need comes from a hot breather.

Don't care. Don't need it.

I want a watch to disconnect me from the always-on internet/phone/pc stuff.

I wore one for years. Finally got sick of my wrist constantly buzzing to suck me back into the rabbit hole of the internet. The watch’s real use though is the fitness stuff. It really does do a good job of tracking fitness. I still wear it when I’m cycling. But when I’m done I promptly remove it.

The only thing I like more than the Apple Watch's functionality is how butt hurt people get when someone posts one on a watch forum.  

Not a watch, no reason to discuss here.

Don't knock it until you try it. I've worn a watch nearly every day since ~1970 and picked up an Apple Watch on my doctor's advice after a cardio scare in 2017. I love it.

Nowadays, I typically double wrist with a mechanical on the left and an Apple Series 1 on the right. I wear the Apple Watch primarily for health reasons and fitness/sleep tracking (I only get notifications of texts from my wife and kids... all others are turned off), but I am a bit addicted to having weather on my wrist. I also like the heartrate/GPS functions when riding my bike, the timers when grilling, and the music/podcast functions when out walking. 

Overall, I think Apple tried to respect horology - they provide many analog watch faces and refer to the add-ons with the horological term of "complications." For many (like my 20 year old daughter), the Apple Watch faces may be their first introduction to a GMT, chronograph, or California dial.

They are great wearable tools that also tell you the time. However, I will readily admit that Apple Watches are not "collectible" because the software and proprietary batteries limit their useful life. Mine is still going strong after 6 years of use/abuse, but it hasn't been able to run the latest software for years, cannot be used with newer features like Fitness+, and will eventually be a brick when it can no longer get a new battery (based on Apple's practice of stopping repair when "obsolete" 7 years after stopping sale, I won't be able to get a new battery after 2024). 

For its functions, I love it. A lot of people could get a lot of use from it in their everyday life and it doesn’t look too bad. As a piece of jewelry, a mechanical watch will always look better. There’s a place for Apple Watch in a collection and in the watch world, but it’s not a direct replacement for a mechanical watch. 

Yes, only for gym and other sports. I've already tried using it on the other wrist but I didn't feel comfortable with kind of two “watches”.

Love it. In contrast to most folks on this forum, modern mechanical watches leave me cold. Too big, bulky, and ostentatious. I do love vintage watches, however, and have a 1936 Omega pocket watch, a 1942 Omega HS↑8 wrist watch for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, and a 1962 Seamaster 30. Since I was also born in 1962, I can safely say that nothing made since then is any good. (Fortunately, my wife is a few months older than me; also my daughter is the exception that proves the rule.)

But for daily wear and fitness, nothing comes close to the Apple Watch for me.

Ok - a garmin guy not apple but here's my experience.

1. Im a lefty so wear my "watch" (lets say) on my right wrist 

2. I wear my garmin 24/7 on my left wrist.

3. When setting my mechanical watches every morning I go to the google nest in the kitchen to get the time and I constantly forget the garmin I'm already wearing actually tells the time

Lesson - my garmin, despite being able to be a watch - isn't, my brain says its purpose is to track exercise, heart beats, training stress - a million other things and while it can tell the time I somehow, automatically, just don't use it for that.

 I  don't hate it. I don't want one.

On the one hand, they're killing the "affordable" sub $1,000 watch market. On the other, I've heard it argued that they're a boon to the watch market as a whole. They are getting people used to wearing something on the wrist again, could be a gateway to other sorts of watches.

A very impressive piece of electronics that does so much more than a watch and does it so much better.  It's a computer not a watch.  Watch complications were invented  as a mechanical way to deliver information to us while we waited for computers to be invented.  A watch has style and beauty that electronics lacks. A watch is fashion, style and expression. An Apple watch is a black geometric shape on which data appears.

Preface: I've been into tech  my whole life, i was an early apple watch adopter and wore that series 0 into the ground and decided it was time to go back to less tech watches. 

My opinion the natural evolution of watches, just as much a watch as a G shock. watches were always a tool for the period, and now we live in a period where we are asked to stay on top of contact constantly, we need reminders to move because we are all super sedentary, reminders to breathe because we are all under so much self perpetuated stress (world has always been stressful, but now we hear about all the stress all the time), it unlocks your computer, lets you get away from your phone and if you put in the time into managing your phones notifications properly it doesn't have to be "too obtrusive" hands down the best countdown timers I've ever used... so why did I stop? 

I didn't use all the extra data, I dont need prompts to move and the metrics which motivated me when I was younger i realised were a distraction from how ultimately I wanted to live my life. Charging it is not an issue if you live in an electronically developed area. Fragility wise, no difference really from an automatic but doesn't c contest with a g shock and looks less weird putting a case on it than you would a ss mechanical watch but i did manage to break my apple watch though it was replaced under AppleCare (things you wont necessarily get on your mechanical) and you wont break your g shock. 

I needed less distraction and more presence, I only use my digital watch in the gym these days, even the sounds of the timer going off irks me at home now so I just check the time more often on my mechanical piece and remain present enough in mind not to forget i put something in the oven... still worth it though. mechanical watch + phone kinda covers my needs. 

Conclusion: Apple watch is great for a "Contemporary minimalist" or Data Junkie, who doesn't want to carry much day to day but function efficiently in the Developed world infrastructure. One has to accept its a consumable product it will last you 5 years and it will put in the work for those 5. Same as your phone, same as your computer. This watch will not replace your time telling jewellery, it's a tool watch. 

It has its place.  On the other wrist. 

Maybe a watch you don't care for, but definitely a watch. Your statement is like saying that because you don't care for his politics, you don't consider Biden to be President.

Those folks are just like the people that claim Biden isn't President. Of course he is, and of course the Apple Watch is a watch. Just because they don't like an inconvenient truth doesn't mean it isn't the truth.

I put mine on in the first time for about a month and have to say I love it, I think of it as a premium Casio

#NotMyWatch

1. Does it belong here in the convo of timepieces? No, it’s wearable tech, which I classify with the oura ring, AR glasses, etc.. we wouldn’t include those in this conversation. (not saying it’s not a watch, just wouldnt include it in this convo)
2. Love or hate it? Indifferent, to each their own. I prefer garmin and use it for running/hiking/sleeping/health monitoring.
3. Do you wear one on your other wrist? Not yet, but I’ve been playing with the idea of wearing a garmin bracelet (vivosmart 4) on the other wrist or getting an oura ring
4. How is it rotated in your collection? I wear a garmin Forerunner for running/workingout to track paces, distances, heart rate zones. I use a vivosmart for sleep tracking.  I wear an analog watch for work, going out, around the house. This system works for me.

I think its still regarded as a "Watch" since its part of the watch history but I think all us enthusiast shy away from such devices since its sorta fround upon. I think its a watch and I reckon if the user finds it, pardon me, useful then why not rock it. Jen Elle rocks the Apple watch and a Time piece together. 

Does the Apple Watch belong in a conversation about time pieces? 

Depends on context. Unfortunately for people that are into "horology", I would say no, but not because it's not a time piece but because when people generally talk about horology they are appreciating the history and craft that goes into the watch or the brand.

Unfortunately the modern smart watch is just too new to have the legacy and nostalgic  sentimentality that Casio elicits despite being mass produced, and it definitely does not have much artistry put into its production beyond design.

Perhaps with enough time people will look back with a new sense of appreciation on iFixIt's gadget tear-downs and Scan of the Month posts that show the care and attention that go into circuit design and chip placement of various devices.

Or do you think it doesn’t belong here at all?

I think there is a place for it, albeit small. If someone wants to be able to set multiple count-down timers, while running a stop watch, while keeping many alarms, it's the right tool for the job. A mechanical watch simply cannot do that, or if it can the complexity required translate to a cost that is prohibitive to most of us.

Do you like the Apple Watch, or do you hate it?

I like it. As other commenters have said, it is the modern tool watch for the office worker. 

I enjoy mechanical watches because they are simple and help me track time without tracking that much time. I like the idea of the watch lasting years without needing a service and that it can be powered by my winding instead of needing the full infrastructure provided by modern civilisation.

A true enjoyer of timelessness and mindful appreciation of life would probably not even want a watch at all.

The apple watch is on the complete opposite end of that mindset. I can multi-task to my heart's desire. I can have as many notifications as I want. I can track and quantify various things about my life beyond just how much time has elapsed since I turned my watch bezel.

Follow up question - do you wear an Apple Watch on the other wrist?

Just one watch at a time for me.

Or do you rotate on different days between the Apple Watch and others in your collection? 

I daily it on work days and change to a mechanical on weekend, when it's useful to know the time, but I don't need to be that on time for anything.