Prior to the launch of the Apple Watch, there had been rumors that Apple would make a watch for quite some time. In a broader sense, the wearables industry has become an area of significant interest as the next growth market after devices like tablets and smartphones as the high-end market became saturated and much of the growth that previously existed in the mobile space started to level out. This has resulted in a new alignment of markets and technology; the markets are ripe for a new device to recapture the wild growth of smartphones, and in the 8 years since the launch of the iPhone the inexorable march of Moore's Law has seen another 4 generations of improvements in technology. This time is finally right, it seems, to take a crack at something even smaller and more personal than the smartphone: the watch.

About two years ago, we put out our first wearable review, which examined Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. In the time since then, Android Wear has been launched, with numerous OEMs launching some form of wearable using Google’s wearable OS. However, Apple remained curiously absent from the field despite numerous rumors suggesting that Apple would soon launch a wearable. Last year, Apple announced the Apple Watch, but it wasn’t until just a few months ago that it finally went on sale.

Consequently, Apple didn’t get a first-movers advantage getting into wearables, though it remains to be seen whether that would even matter. As the creator of the iPhone and frequently on the cutting edge of technology and design, Apple had enough good will with the public to be late, and at the same time with all eyes on them they could not afford to screw up. The end result is that though by no means a slight towards Apple’s competitors, there is a clear distinction between everything that has come before the Apple Watch and everything that will come after. For the consumer market as a whole, the launch of the Apple Watch signifies that wearables have moved beyond the early adopter phase for techies, and are now being pitched at (and purchased by) the wider consumer market.

Normally, it’s easy enough to jump straight into what the device is and what’s new about said device, but in the case of the Apple Watch it’s really important that we explore the world in which this watch exists. The world is divided into people that wear watches, and people that don’t. Apple faces the distinct problem is trying to sell to both audiences, which have very different desires from a watch. The people that already have watches don’t want to give up the almost infinite battery life of conventional watches, high levels of water resistance, or anything else that is an accepted standard for watches.

The people that don’t wear watches are probably the closest thing to a clean slate that we’ll get when it comes to the wearable market. On a personal note, I fall into this camp, as I pretty much grew up in the age of widespread cellphone adoption. One of the convenient things about a phone is that they usually have the time on them, along with alarm and timer functionality. For me, this effectively meant that there was no point to wearing a watch. I also tended to have problems with the logistics involved in wearing a watch. In general, wristbands had an amazing tendency to either be too tight or too loose no matter how I adjusted the band. These issues were also compounded with any sort of physical exertion, as sweat tended to collect under the band which made wearing a watch noticeably more uncomfortable. These ergonomic issues, combined with the lack of functionality in a watch, ultimately made me stop wearing watches. Even before cellphones, wall-mounted clocks were more than sufficient for me when it came to checking the time, although I suspect I was far too young for time to really matter all that much.

Of course, I have been trying out various wearables over the course of the past few years. Although I didn’t try LG’s G Watch, I have been able to use the Pebble Steel and Motorola’s Moto 360. However, it was really a challenge for me to find anything to say about these wearables. They could definitely tell the time, and they had some extra functionality, but many of the same problems remained. The wearables I tested just weren’t all that comfortable to wear, and due to some technology limitations both weren’t really all that compelling to use. They could manage notifications, but other than that I found the functionality to be rather lacking. I often would forget to put them on at all before setting out for the day, and when I did I didn’t feel any particular need to go back to put it on my wrist. After a few months, I completely forgot about these wearables and stopped wearing them. At the time, I honestly felt like wearables could end up being another passing fad because it seemed most wearables faced similar barriers in terms of getting people to keep wearing them. Wearables like Fitbit suffered from a pretty significant abandonment rate, and given that I did the same for both the Pebble Steel and Moto 360 it increasingly felt like this would be a persistent problem.

In this context, it seems easy for Apple to fail. Generally speaking, no one has really figured out how to solve the problem of wearable adoption, chiefly because the functionality offered often wasn’t very compelling, and broadly speaking these wearables were often not well-designed. One of the first places we can start with the Apple Watch is the spec sheet. We can speak in empty platitudes about how specs don’t matter, but in the case of something like Apple Watch they definitely will. The right components won’t ensure success, but the wrong components can ensure a poor user experience.

  Apple Watch 38mm Apple Watch 42mm
SoC Apple S1 520MHz CPU Apple S1 520MHz CPU
RAM/NAND 512MB LPDDR3(?)
8GB NAND
512MB LPDDR3(?)
8GB NAND
Display 1.32” 272x340 LG POLED 1.5” 312x390 LG POLED
Dimensions 38.6 x 33.3 x 10.5mm,
25/40/55/54 grams
(Sport/Watch/Gold/Rose Gold)
42 x 35.9 x 10.5mm,
30/50/69/67 grams
(Sport/Watch/Gold/Rose Gold)
Battery 205 mAh (0.78 Whr) 246 mAh (0.93 Whr)
OS WatchOS 1 WatchOS 1
Connectivity 802.11/b/g/n + BT 4.0, NFC 802.11/b/g/n + BT 4.0, NFC
Price         $349/549/10,000        (Sport/Watch/Edition)       $399/599/12,000        (Sport/Watch/Edition)

As we can see, Apple has elected for some relatively conservative specifications. The SoC is relatively low power in nature, and the amount of RAM is probably about right for the kinds of tasks that a wearable will be used for at this time. The display is also of a decent resolution given the display size, and all the necessary wireless connectivity is present. It is notable that Apple is using a relatively small battery, but I suspect that this is necessary in order to fit all of the hardware into the casing of the watch. At least at a high level, it looks like Apple has put the right components into this wearable. However, it's going to take a deep examination of both technology and design to really figure out if Apple has avoided the pitfalls that I've discussed. One of the first and most obvious places to go first is the industrial and material design, which is what we'll talk about next.

Design
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  • everythingis1 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    Is anyone going to talk about that fact that these devices need 2 hands to operate. Doesn't that make the entire platform functionally irrelevant as anything other than a simple sensor? Am I completely crazy or is any smartphone, that can be operated with one hand for basic functionality, superior in every single way?
  • deasys - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    Actually, the Apple Watch can be operated 'no hands.' That's what Siri is all about.
  • everythingis1 - Friday, July 24, 2015 - link

    How do you activate Siri?
  • Barilla - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    Too bad one of the biggest features separating it from other smartwatches - the digital crown - becomes literally unusable if you decide to wear it on right hand. Yeah, some people do that...
  • name99 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    LITERALLY unusable?
    http://www.imore.com/how-set-apple-watch-left-hand...

    You mean the scheme Apple devised for this purpose doesn't work? Forgive me if I trust the opinions of various reviewers who have actually tried it over the opinion of someone who's never even touched an Apple watch...
  • nja4 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    I'm sort of on the anti-Apple hype train too, where reviewers are seem really expected to give Apple products overly positive reviews. However, I don't expect most people to share my opinions. The polish and appeal is so intense that I would bet most people would prefer their products over others. This review, as Ryan said, is going to be read by more than the core community, and I'm SO happy that Ryan responded in such a positive and discussion-oriented way. You're a great part of this community even when people are jerks about this sort of "obvious Apple bias."
  • uhuznaa - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    Nothing that draws 200 comments on Anandtech can be really pointless... As soon as reviews of Apple products will fizzle out here with five comments or so Apple will have lost it. But not sooner.

    Really, all you guys seem to be really obsessed with Apple. Even if you hate it, but you do care very much. Most reviews of smart watches draw much fewer comments...
  • Junereth - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    this site really needs to make comments collapsible. it's incredible hard to navigate in here.
  • SBD.3 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    I'd love to see the iWatch interface optimized on an iPhone. But as far as wearing a watch again, that ship has sailed.
  • Tams80 - Tuesday, July 21, 2015 - link

    A day for a smartwatch is just about bearable, just as it is a smartphone. More battery runtime is always better, but two to three days at moderate usage is the point at which I would be happy (basically, the ability to last a weekend away, where power is not easy to come by). One thing to take into account though, is that the smartphone takes priority. If there is only one charging point, the smartwatch gets left out, and therefore becomes useless.

    As for the review, I have some issues:

    You haven't tried many watches, and by the sounds of it, none to the same extent as the Apple Watch. If that is the case, then I don't think you are qualified to make a comparison to them, as a professional reviewer. Further, you didn't even mention the Alcatel OneTouch Watch; the most apt comparison, as it also works with iPhones. As you clearly spent so much time of this review, you could have at least picked one up. They are cheap, but you also work for the well respected technology site; they might have even sent you one for free!

    "The Apple Watch on the other hand doesn’t suffer from discomfort issues at all, and in this regard, Apple has arguably pushed the industry forward."

    You do know that there are smartwatches out there that take standard watch straps? You do know that there are countless different designs of standard watch straps?

    Finally, two specific points that really grated my gears (especially coming from someone who I expect to technologically knowledgeable):

    "The ergonomic annoyances involved with wearing a wristwatch strongly outweighed whatever functionality it provided."

    What ergonomic annoyances? The watch goes on your wrist, and in many cases never needs to come off. In return watches tell the time, often the date and day, and sometimes more. How is glancing at a watch less ergonomic than getting your phone out of wherever it is and checking it?

    "wireless charging behaves differently from wired charging" - Total fluff, and no shit Sherlock.

    So, to summarise. I think that while this was a good technical review of the Apple Watch, as a product review in general, it was very poor. The author let their personal view cloud his judgement too much, and comparisons were, well basically non-existent. If you didn't intend it to be a product review, then remove the product review sections. I expect much better from AnandTech.

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