Interestingly enough, I received a ‘free’ smart watch when I renewed a mobile phone contract. It was a smart looking watch, stainless steel case, shiny black glass face, black silicone rubber strap. It was understated but looked good – it had a cool trendy aesthetic. And perhaps most importantly it told the time.
It was an Android Wear device so I synced it with my Android mobile phone and all was well. Well sort of. What did the watch do for me? (apart from tell me the time) how did it enhance or increase my day to day efficiency and effectiveness in both my work place, at home and at play?
I’m not entirely sure it did either or anything apart from tell the time. It provided the option for many different watch face designs: sports, classical, futuristic, chronograph, digital, analogue and many more. It was a great time piece. It bleeped and vibrated when I received a text or message notification. This inevitably prompted me to pick up my phone and read the text or message and take appropriate action necessary. I could also access online news provided I was synced and close to my phone to take advantage of any local wifi network.
The circular display was bright, colourful and a little larger than a £2 coin – so relatively speaking the display was quite small in terms of displaying text and images that were easily viewed.
My smart watch needed charging every 1-2 days on its dedicated charging adapter. If I forgot to put the watch on charge overnight it was often dead in the morning – at which point I’d grab my trusty £10 Casio analogue watch which worked every day and just told the time.
I wanted to like and use my smart watch because it seemed like it was a cool thing to have and use. But, ultimately, it wasn’t. I loved the design and the amount of tech’ that had been shoehorned into the tiny internal cavities (aside from not having GPS) It told the time but other than that it didn’t work for me. Perhaps my expectation were too high? It was just a watch after all. Everything else is on my smart phone…