The Apple Watch Is Here
The day finally arrived, my long awaited Apple Watch was here. I decided to savor the experience and proceed slowly. Maybe a few photos?
The Apple Watch comes in three basic flavors –Expensive ($349 ), More Expensive ($549), and Ridiculously Expensive ($10,000). The cost varies according to the case materials and the included band. Functionally, they are all the same. Prudent person that I am, I went with Expensive – the Apple Sport Watch in Space Grey with black band. It comes in a very nice little box – Apple is excellent at packaging.
I’ve had my Apple Watch – Sport Watch – Expensive version – for almost a month now and thought it about time to share my experiences. But let me say a few things first. I’m not going to focus, as some have, on what the Apple Watch doesn’t do. I don’t get that approach. Heck, it’s a watch for Pete’s sake. And it’s a first edition of a totally new Apple product. So let’s move on. Also, everyone’s experience with this product, as with so many others, will be very personal. How you use your Apple Watch, and is it helpful to you will depend on your needs and desires. Here’s my own personal take on my Apple Watch experience to date.
First, the Apple Watch is not something I need. Like the old song with the lyrics which go something like “got along without you, before I met you – I can get along without you now,” I survived just fine without the Apple Watch and there really is nothing here that I now find I can’t do without. That said – I really like my Apple Watch, I find the watch to be very useful and helpful. How so? Read on ………….
It tells time. I’m one of those who always wears a watch. And the Apple Watch works fine as a timepiece. In fact it does so with style and versatility. You can change the watch face according to your mood or situation. To the left is the “Chronograph” look. At the top of the article is my “Mickey Mouse” look for more casual occasions. Below you see the “Utility” face. 
There are others as well.
And, in addition to time, the faces provide various amounts of date (Apple calls these bits “complications”) which you can tailor according to your need. To the left above you see that the current temperature is 79 degrees in the upper left corner. There is a stopwatch function which I can activate in the upper right corner. At the bottom left is an indication that I have nothing on my calendar for the day (how can that be?) And at the bottom right is the current time in Sydney Australia – (always good to know what time it is on the other side of the world don’t you know?) In the Utility version I have placed similar information including the date. And again – all of these bits of info can be modified, swapped for others, etc., according to your desire. Pretty handy.
Incoming Calls. The Apple Watch works in concert 
with your iPhone. So naturally it will notify you of incoming calls. No more fumbling around looking for your phone to check on a call. The screen to the right shows that I have just called myself ( the caller name shows up if they are in your contact list – otherwise you get the phone number). From there you can answer the call and actually carry on a conversation by talking to your watch. Or you can hang up. But for me, the best feature is the fact that after glancing at the watch to see who calling, you can silence the call and have it sent to voicemail by simply putting your hand over the watch face and covering it up. So, quickly and without much of an interruption, you can check and decline a call. Very handy for me when calls come at inopportune times.
Text Messages. You can set your watch up to provide you with text messages when they are received. To the left you see a portion of a text exchange I had with Dave (don’t ask me what this exchange was about). You can dictate your responses by voice which can then be sent as an audio response or a text response directly from the watch. You can also initiate text messages from the watch by using Siri. I find these text features to be really handy. I use them for maybe 50% of my text responses now.
Calendar Events & Alerts. You can be notified of Calendar and schedule alerts
which will show up on your Apple Watch. In fact you can check all of your calendar events on the watch. For me, this is very convenient and I find I am setting many more alerts for myself and using my calendar much more efficiently. The image to the left is an example of a task I need to do – well, I’m working on it now actually.
Reminders. In a similar manner, you can set reminders to alert you on your watch. Very handy. Using this more and more as well. Having this info on my watch just works better for me than having them come to my iPhone.
Sports Updates. I’ve set up my ESPN Sports App to keep me up to date on The Kansas City Royals. The screen shot to the left shows the notification I received when the KC vs Twins game ended showing me the final score. (Go Royals! ) Of course you can again tailor this to your needs – change teams, sports, frequency of updates, etc.
Weather. As I mentioned, I have set my watch 
face to show current temperatures. But you can also have other information such as weather quickly available (depends on which weather app you use of course) – just need to scroll to it on the watch face to get info like that to the right. With a bit more scrolling you can also get forecasts, etc.
Customize It. The Apple Watch can be configured to provide you with the information that you want. Making changes is a simple and intuitive process. This ability to customize functions is a big plus in my mind. I’ve found ways that the Apple Watch can be helpful for me today, but I can change or modify how I use it according to my situation.
Bottom Line. I was a bit uncertain about purchasing the Apple Watch. I was not one of those who ordered on-line on Day 1. I went to my local Apple Store and checked it out. Tried one on. Talked with the staff and asked questions. Based on that experience I went ahead and got one. Bottom line for me – I’m glad I did. I really like it. Of course – “your mileage may vary.”
The Apple Watch ……… Enjoy The Adventure!
Dr.B, The Photo Trekker
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