CUPERTINO – There's a lot needed to make smartwatches a real category. Apple has figured out some of it: the company knows UI design, and wow, can it do fashion. But the first-generation Apple Watch looks expensive and thick, with short battery life. That isn't to insult Apple specifically: no other smartwatch maker has gotten over those hurdles either.
I got to strap on an Apple Watch in demo mode. It's a lump, just like other smartwatches nowadays: a block of smooth metal that, at 38mm, is almost exactly the same size as LG's G Watch. It's pretty thick, too. The 42mm version is the same thing but even larger.
There's ... something ... about the design and case materials that just put Samsung's and LG's models, especially, to shame. A lot of it was about the leather and metal bands, but the all-metal body played a considerable role, too. Samsung's smartwatches have a bunch of fashion bands, but they tend to look gaudy and slightly off. Apple's case and bands had that harmonious Apple finish and balance.
The whole thing is more premium looking and feeling than Samsung's, LG's, or Sony's entries, and smaller than the gorgeous but pizza-pie-sized Moto 360. It's obvious the software wasn't anywhere near complete. We weren't allowed to use the watch completely freely. But the UI is beautiful and intriguing. Your iWatch-enabled iPhone apps appear as a sort of "cloud" that you can pan around and zoom into; arranging the apps into areas in the cloud act as a kind of folder scheme.
I took a closer look at the maps and messaging apps. The maps look terrific; you can pan by dragging and zoom with the watch dial. Messages pop up and can be responded to with pre-selected answers. This is going to rely a lot on either Apple's smarts at guessing possible answers or on Siri's voice recognition for responses.
The touch-messaging app seemed totally insane. It's like you're now living in a game of Pictionary. I'm extremely biased here, because I like words, but trying to communicate to someone entirely through scribbles and emoji seems really crazy. Also, the trick where you transmit your heartbeat to the Watch's subtle haptics felt creepy, although I could see how some people would consider it extremely romantic. For some reason, I bet that'll take off in China.
There are a whole bunch of problems in the smartwatch world. Apple solves one of them: this smartwatch finally looks fashionable. It might also be offering a radically new, more usable UI, although it's hard to tell before the software is truly baked. But this feels a lot like iPhone 1.0 – remember, the iPhone that didn't even run apps? It feels like the entire smartwatch industry is handicapped by technological limits that make these devices thick, clunky, and battery-hungry. Apple has brilliant designers, but it just can't change the parts that are available to it.
We'll see more in early 2015, when the Apple Watch comes out.