Apple announces Apple Watch
- Thread starter Volotaire
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Mysterious
Banned
Wait there are different sizes? Of the watch itself? Or just the band?
SuperPac
Member
4-5k per watch? Crazy, imo. Wife would love the gold one, but not at this price.
Yeah, I imagine when the final pricing is announced there will be a lot of people shocked. A lot of Apple pundits like Gruber and the ATP folks have tried to set expectations somewhat but - there's gonna be a ton of "LOL Apple = expensive."
SteveMeister
Hang out with Steve.
$4000-$5000 is batshit insane. $1000-$1500 is more in line with reason for the higher-end watch. $350 & $500 are not bad prices for the others.
Valkyr Junkie
Member
There will be a watch with a 38mm face, and a watch with a 42mm face. Each one will have separate band sizes as well, aside from the fact there are numerous band/strap design choices.
yea, there are two. Smaller is probably aimed at women, but I'm yet to get a feeling how small it is really. Bigger one is definitely too big for my wife's hand.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
There is always the slim chance the watch is modular and can have the S1 swapped out or whatevs. Unlikely but it would certainly change quite a bit about the watch.
Yeah, that's true. Change out the guts.
I only remember Gruber suggesting that and it didn't appear to be repeated a whole lot. at least not by anyone who came to that conclusion on their own instead of just repeating Gruber. I know I said in this thread that $500 for the SS model would be the base price.
$1000 would be a poor choice considering the quality of mech watches available for 500 to 1000. the Apple watch in SS is not better craftsmanship than a Stowa Marine, sorry
GuitarAtomik
Member
These prices are too high for what the product is IMO. But it's Apple so it will sell. I guess it makes more sense if you're buying it mostly as a fashion accessory (nothing wrong with that).
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
When looking at the price of these watches, it is important to compare them to other watches, and not other electronic devices, even though they do straddle a line between the worlds.
An 18k gold watch is not an inexpensive item, and $4k-$5k is not unreasonable for that market. It is WAY out of my price range, but for a high end watch, that's not at all surprising.
It is also important to point out that people who have seen these watches say they are of exceptional quality. I've read several different reports that say the $350 Sport version is better than just about any other $350 watch on the market. Add in all of the capabilities that it brings to the table, and you can understand why people who enjoy wearing watches are excited about this product.
Personally, none of these prices surprises me in the least. But then again, I'm someone who wears a watch almost all the time, and currently has a GPS watch on his wrist that can't do half of what the Apple Watch can, despite costing $600.
An 18k gold watch is not an inexpensive item, and $4k-$5k is not unreasonable for that market. It is WAY out of my price range, but for a high end watch, that's not at all surprising.
It is also important to point out that people who have seen these watches say they are of exceptional quality. I've read several different reports that say the $350 Sport version is better than just about any other $350 watch on the market. Add in all of the capabilities that it brings to the table, and you can understand why people who enjoy wearing watches are excited about this product.
Personally, none of these prices surprises me in the least. But then again, I'm someone who wears a watch almost all the time, and currently has a GPS watch on his wrist that can't do half of what the Apple Watch can, despite costing $600.
$4K-$5K is not considered unreasonable in that market because there it's also an investment in a scarce product that holds its value. A Rolex (or a Hermes Bag for another example) is supposed to last for decades and be passed on to the next generation. We have no idea of Apple's upgrade plans for the iWatch and it isn't likely that they will share them with us. Recent history is not that encouraging though:
iPhone 1
Released Jun 29, 2007.
Price Drop on Sep 5, 2007 (Partial refund for earlier adopters).
Spec bump (storage) on Feb 8, 2008
Discontinued on Jul 11, 2008 (after 12 months)
Successor was iPhone 3G -- good update, good pricing change -- released July 11, 2008, discontinued on Jun 7, 2010 (after 23 months)
iPad 1
Released April 3, 2010.
Discontinued on Mar 2, 2011 (after 11 months)
Successor was iPad 2 -- huge update, no pricing change -- released March 11, 2011, discontinued on Mar 18, 2014 (after 36 months)
iWatch 1
????
Of course the people who can afford to buy a gold iWatch could probably afford to buy one every year but even the regular/sport Watch is a hard sell for everyone else if it might be obsolete after 1 year...
Would you link to some of those reports?
p.s. what GPS watch do you have? How long have you had it?
Which makes it even more of a fashion statement for the ultra rich, which the gold one is targeted at.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Yeah, I just don't get it.
I have the the top-end 15" Retina MacBook Pro.
I have a Mac Mini.
I have an iPad Air.
I have an iPhone 6 Plus.
I have an AppleTV (lol).
I'm a huge Apple guy. I also have a handful of decent quality watches - Seikos and Citizens that cost between $200 and $600. I think I'll buy a Hamilton by the end of the next year that's about a grand. I'd love to someday own a $5,000 Omega.
But $500+ on a watch that is pretty much worthless every few years, and is "outdated" on a yearly basis? I just don't get it - especially when The Moto 360, which is at least CLOSE to the Apple Watch, is $250.
I'm not arguing that they won't do it. I'm not even arguing it won't be successful.
But for me? I like to buy EVERYTHING on Day One, and I don't think I will with the Apple Watch.
This review has been discussed before and it's such a shill piece it makes the Verge blush.
$4k for a gold case seems like a joke to me. The rich kids of Instagram will be all over it though.
Functionality versus lifespan. The fuck do I need to spend hundreds on a watch for just to tell time.
At the rate you're buying analog watches, how can you complain about smartwatches?
It's like saying, "Smartphones are going to be rendered useless annually, while my rotary phone has been going strong for 40 years."
I must not understand you're argument, but they're saying that they're willing to spend a lot of money on analog watches since they're going to last. There is skepticism of spending that much for an apple watch, however, since they may not last (due to updates that may end in a couple of years)
He was including the stainless steel/gold/sapphire iWatch versions in that comparison, not just merely the $350 plastic and aluminum iWatch
It's unfair to compare mechanical lifespan versus software update lifespan.
It's also unfair to ignore the infinite functionality of a smartwatch compared to an analog watch.
GuitarAtomik
Member
I think in this context, where they are by virtue of price point and positioning competing as more of a fashion accessory as opposed to tech/functionality gadget, it's completely fair. (I'm mostly talking about the high end versions)
infiniteloop
Member
WatchKit is out:
http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/18/apple...lowing-developers-to-prepare-for-apple-watch/
"Apple Watch is our most personal device ever, and WatchKit provides the incredible iOS developer community with the tools they need to create exciting new experiences right on your wrist," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With the iOS 8.2 beta SDK, developers can now start using WatchKit to create breakthrough new apps, Glances and actionable notifications designed for the innovative Apple Watch interface and work with new technologies such as Force Touch, Digital Crown and Taptic Engine."
Gruber:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/11/18/watchkit-hig
http://9to5mac.com/2014/11/18/apple...lowing-developers-to-prepare-for-apple-watch/
"Apple Watch is our most personal device ever, and WatchKit provides the incredible iOS developer community with the tools they need to create exciting new experiences right on your wrist," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "With the iOS 8.2 beta SDK, developers can now start using WatchKit to create breakthrough new apps, Glances and actionable notifications designed for the innovative Apple Watch interface and work with new technologies such as Force Touch, Digital Crown and Taptic Engine."
Gruber:
http://daringfireball.net/linked/2014/11/18/watchkit-hig
Purple Cheeto
Member
Yeah I spent 2 hours reading through the documentation and messing around with one of the samples. Its basically a way of doing app notifications when you can't look at your phone. You really can't do anything interesting yet (no games, no usage of things like the mic, no core location, no background services) and they don't have plans for other things people were dreaming up (watch faces are not something you can make).
Its a really expensive notification center.
Its a really expensive notification center.
Coreda
Member
Native apps in 2015
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
Hmm. Interesting tidbits. I'm still game for the fitness part of it, but looks like you'd be good waiting a year or so.
Purple Cheeto
Member
Yeah so we are a year away from seeing anything interesting on Apple Watch. You can't even do dynamic animations and there's no way to create custom UI elements.
infiniteloop
Member
He added it later
badcrumble
Member
So it's kinda analogous to CarPlay for now, then.
I wonder if and when we'll see something similar come to AppleTV.
I wonder if and when we'll see something similar come to AppleTV.
Apple does things this way. The original iPhone didn't even have apps at first.
SuperPac
Member
The benefit of doing it this way initially is there won't be a crush of apps just written in Xcode and not tested on real-world devices that would kill the battery and it'd give people time to use the thing just for notifications and think up actual decent uses for it.
I can't imagine using it for more than twitter, texts, VIP email, and maybe Facebook/photos anyway. And Apple's own apps won't be constrained quite this way anyway.
So...now where's the price and release date?
I can't imagine using it for more than twitter, texts, VIP email, and maybe Facebook/photos anyway. And Apple's own apps won't be constrained quite this way anyway.
So...now where's the price and release date?
smokeandmirrors
Banned
This thing has NFC in it right?
LyleLanley
Banned
Yup.
beta product.
Meh, the original iPad had apps. This iWatch doesn't even allow watchfaces.
Meh, the original iPad had apps. This iWatch doesn't even allow watchfaces.
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
The iPad as a device was a new product but it shipped on software version 3.0.. I think that's a nuance worth pointing out.
And aren't they selling watch faces? Didn't they show off Disney branded faces at the event or am I misremembering?
GuitarAtomik
Member
This makes that Gruber speculation after the reveal pretty funny. If that really turns out to be the extent of it's functionality, then it's even more overpriced than I thought.
Eh, I don't agree. The notification center analogy is apt for glances and actionable notifications, but not really WatchKit apps, which can have actual navigation-based UIs. And your expectations of this were misaligned if you expected to game on such a small screen, use core location when there's no GPS or WiFi, or run apps in the background when the battery apparently only lasts around a day. This philosophy statement in the HIG is key:
As for a UIKit equivalent for the Watch, I'd expect that to be revealed at WWDC with iOS 9: https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/534935227781873664
D
Deleted member 22576
Unconfirmed Member
Man, the fact that views will display a giant icon with abbreviated text upon first glace (the motion of you gesturing the watch to a viewable position.) And then transition to a more detailed instructional view focused on text upon holding the device in a viewable position is a pretty mindblowing interface concept.
The guidelines also say to deemphasize color in actionable UI elements.
You can almost imagine the interactable layer of the ui existing in greyscale, and color being [nearly exclusively] used to signify your spacial location within the OS.
somethng smthg black screens use less battery
what
The guidelines also say to deemphasize color in actionable UI elements.
You can almost imagine the interactable layer of the ui existing in greyscale, and color being [nearly exclusively] used to signify your spacial location within the OS.
somethng smthg black screens use less battery
what
Purple Cheeto
Member
I mean I'm not surprised after they announced you have to have an iPhone to use the watch, I guess I just thought maybe it was gonna be a little more than a dumb terminal you wear on your wrist. My expectations were low and I got even less.
Apple deliberately chose that design for a reason. It's supposed to be a homage to what is considered exemplary craftsmanship in watches (i.e. The first Rolex Oyster). I'm not sure they've succeeded in getting that point across.
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