Reader Road Test: Apple Watch

For me, the Apple Watch lost most of its cool factor on Friday when it went on sale in New Zealand. Now anyone can get one.

The coolest thing about my Apple Watch is everyone wants to see it.

They ask, 'what does it do?' Not that much. The attraction and utility of the watch is more in the discreet way it does things.

It tells the time, but not well. It's a pretty watch face, and impossibly clever to know when I want to see it (to save battery life, the screen remains blank until you flick you wrist around), but the moment of ... delay is just long enough for a frisson of irritation. It's not healthy to be irritated when I'm already looking at my watch because I'm late.

David Allen, who invented the Getting Things Done method of organising your life, observed that the feeling that you haven't done something is an obstacle to focus and contentment. I get so busy I don't get time to read up on time management. The Watch manages the distractions better.

That nagging feeling when you're in a meeting and your phone buzzes? I don't get that any more. I see email and texts in a glance.  I can text back without ever having to pull out my phone.

My daughter called me from the top of the slopes at Ruapehu last weekend while I queued for a chairlift. I could respond to her without unbundling my phone from layers of jackets and gloves.

When friends inquire about the Watch, I lift my wrist and tell Siri to call them.  Gobsmacks every time.

"Siri, remind me to put the recycling out when I leave home in the morning." The Watch sets up a geo-fence - it knows where I live - and taps my wrist with a reminder I would ignore if it were a buzz on my phone. Glancing at the weather, checking the stock price and skipping through my podcast is easier than fumbling for the phone. I don't need them all day the way the desert needs rain, but I check them about as often as I check the time. They belong on my wrist.

I boarded an Air NZ flight by waving my wrist in front of the scanner, which turned out not to be quite as airy as I hoped because I had to turn my arm upside down, which held people up and the lady behind me seemed to think I was a banker.

I don't have to look down at a screen for directions while driving because maps show directions on my wrist, hands on the wheel, officer.

Our photos are slightly less narcissistic. Instead of selfies, we put the phone on the other side of the table and operate its camera by remote from the watch.

It takes a while to learn it. Watch software is not as intuitive as an iPhone.

The aluminium watch itself is sleek enough. I will sit out a couple of iterations before I spring for the stainless steel watch, and I have one or two other things I need to pick up before I spend $30k on a gold one.

The rubber strap should only be worn if you also keep your pens in your top pocket. Beautiful straps are on Amazon for peanuts.

I forgot to charge the watch once. It needed charging half way through the next day and even after wearing it for only a few weeks I felt its absence, the way you notice the absence of a instant replays when you're watching a live rugby game. I have grown used to the discreet taps and buzzes on my wrist, letting me see a text from my wife, an email from my boss, or a buzzing like a cattle prod reminding me to exercise. 'Move, ya slob.'

I miss my bling watches. You can buy two or three Pagani Design watches on Amazon for the price of the cheapest Apple Watch, if carrying my name around is your symbol of status and cool. I want to wear the watch my wife bought me, or the one that reminds me of Paris.

I wear watches as  jewellery. They also tell the time without irritating me. I just wish it were cool to wear one on the same wrist as an Apple Watch.

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