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I've had a different experience. I wear mine most of the time. It feels durable enough to me that I don't worry about scratching it (the stainless steel version), and I actually find it makes me less attached to the Internet, not more. I can check it with a quick glance at my wrist when it is convenient, rather than having to fish my phone out of my pocket. It is nice to know that nothing important demands my attention so I can focus on the conversation at hand.

My behavior has completely changed in the 2 months I've had one. Notifications are the biggest one. My phone stays in my pocket more often, I use it very actively to pay for things, and of course as a tracker.

Is it a must have? No, but it works very well for me.

My issue with the tracking is that the data is locked in. My opinion would change if they made an integration/export API.

Export: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qs-access/id920297614?mt=8

Import:https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/health-importer/id930943780?...

Both use the HealthKit API.

What's missing? https://developer.apple.com/healthkit/

I have one. I don't work with my hands, but I'm clumsy; it's already a little scratched. Oh well.

I also have problems with the gesture, though for some reason it doesn't really bother me.

I have the opposite experience with rudeness...I feel like a subtle glance is just way, way less disruptive than pulling out your phone. I keep my notifications (both phone & watch) pretty dialed back, so it's mostly just when someone is directly messaging me that I get a notification. Before, I just couldn't keep myself from pulling out my phone and seeing what was up, and then at that point usually saying 'excuse me' and taking a moment to respond, even if it wasn't urgent. Now, I just glance at it, see it isn't urgent, and reply later.

I also find it helps me from accidentally slipping into my phone in group social situations, since I have zero excuse to pull it out in the first place.

I think it has a lot of potential overall as a device, but besides the issues you brought up, there are other frustrating things about it: Siri is ungodly slow (why can't this be natively recognized on device like my mac?). Replying to a message with voice or emoji is a ridiculously cumbersome process. You can't reply with more than a single emoji, which makes your responses seem overly curt and rude. Shipping with os1.0 apps (where all the computation is on the phone) means almost all 3rd party apps are terrible. &c.

I feel Apple has gotten away a bit from their 'do few things well' core (classic example: original iPhone shipping w/o copy and paste or 3rd party apps), and fallen into the temptation of 'do lots of things so-so'.

To be blunt, I see no point in getting an Apple Watch for numerous reasons (price would be another one for me). But your 1. and 3. sound exactly like the complaints about all the early Apple devices.

I still don't get why we need something between a laptop and a smartphone (especially since it's not really 50% laptop but more 99% smartphone + 3 times the screen size) but hey, even I am tempted to get an iPad, nowadays. I held out on buying an iPhone for a long time since I found it way too fragile but now, of course I have one in my pocket. And let's not forget about the iPod release: "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame."

I see no reason for the Apple Watch to succeed but even less reason to trust my instincts.

I haven't completely stopped wearing it, but I was also quite disappointed after the novelty wore off.

My main qualms were the viewing gesture not working that well and problems in the heat. We regularly reach temperatures in the mid-to-high 90s during the summer, and the watch becomes pretty useless in those conditions (screen is unresponsive and performing touch actions on its own). This makes it very difficult to use as an activity tracker.

Maybe the next version will address some of these problems, if they even make it that long. It is really hard to see this taking off like the iPhone did, though.

I've only had mine for two weeks. I wrote how I use it here:

https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/my-first-two-weeks-w...

My top 3 uses that I discussed are:

1. As a remote for music and podcasts

2. As an activity monitor (health)

3. As a phone.

Granted it has only been two weeks but I feel that the health "benefits" could be a big selling point. Who doesn't want to be a little healthier, or at least believe their actions are making them healthier?

I feel like Fitbit is a better alternative here for daily activity monitoring, and specialty watches for running/biking/etc. I need data export in XML format to really make it portable.

Garmin has a much better offering in their Vivosmart product. Every Fitbit I've owned has failed within 4-5 months and their very developer hostile when it comes to data export and access to your own step data.

Both of these devices probably are better, at least at this time. However, the Apple Watch is a general purpose device that over time should prove to be more useful, especially as the hardware improves in future versions.

For number three, couldn't you just put it in "Do not disturb" mode?

http://www.imore.com/how-use-do-not-disturb-your-apple-watch

Yes, but then what's the point of having it?

So it's too valuable to wear and adds too little value when you wear it ? :)

Honestly, if you bought a fancy watch and don't want to wear it because you do manual work, that's a poor choice on your part and zero to do with the product.

I think you may have missed the point. Apple isn't trying to position this as just a "fancy watch", they're trying to position it as the next must-have consumer item.

Watches designed for heavy manual labor are a niche, not a consumer item.

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The Apple Watch is not any less resilient than other steel sport watches, the problem is that people that are not used to wearing a watch believe they should be scratch proof (ever seen Spigen make a case for a Speedmaster?), which none of the ones you listed are, even at 250x the price, like the Nautilus (which was never a "sport watch" in the sense that you are using here, by the way). Go diving with a Submariner and it will get scratches and dents and no one will be surprised.

To add to the other replies...I bought the sport watch. It wasn't supposed to be fancy.