Hands on with the $10,000 Apple Watch Edition

At the Apple event today I tried on the new Apple Watch Edition model. It was by far the most expensive thing that’s ever been on my wrist.

Apple surprised a lot of people today by announcing that the Apple Watch Edition, the 18-karat gold version, would sell for $10,000. Is it worth it? Well, not to me, but it’s a pretty nice experience.

I found the touchscreen to be responsive, and the images there to be bright and clear. However, I did have a bit of trouble hitting the tiny app icons on the Watch’s small screen. On a couple of occasions I hit the icon next to the one I wanted, and launched the wrong app.

The “digital crown” on the side of the Watch rotated smoothly, and seemed to control zoom-ins and -outs in a predictable way.

This first video is me trying on the $10,000 (yes, I’m going to keep saying it) Watch for the first time:

http://youtu.be/nmTTORdW710

The Watch was a little heavier than I expected, and the weight of it made it slip around on my wrist just a little. Also, I’m used to wearing a watch on my right hand, but that doesn’t work so well with the Watch. I had to reach over the watch to get to its digital crown with my right hand, which seemed awkward.

On the plus side, the white leather band on the Watch felt soft to the skin.

Apple’s Jony Ive said the Watch would in large part be a messaging and notifications device, and it is. I found the user interface for the messaging functions to be simple and intuitive. I was curious to find out how well the voice dictation worked on the Watch, and it worked pretty well. Even in a loud room with lots of voices, the Watch understood every word I said.

The second video is me running through some of the major features and apps of the device:

http://youtu.be/UpqkPZdtFsg

You can launch ApplThe Watch still seems a little too tied to the phone at this point. But that will, of course, change over time. We’ve also yet to test the 18 hours of battery life Apple claims, which will mean a lot to the user experience.

Could I see myself wearing one of these devices? Possibly, but not the Edition. I’d feel more comfortable (and safe) wearing the $349 Sport model around.

And spending 15 minutes with the Watch isn’t enough to get a feel for how the device would fit into my daily life. In order for me to wear something so “present” on my arm, it would have to do a lot to make my life easier throughout the day.