But, up close, you realize that this watch is much smaller and more beautiful than most previous smart watches. It’s available in two screen sizes: 1.5 and 1.7 inches.
Within each size, there are three models: Apple Watch (stainless steel body, sapphire back); Apple Watch Sport, built to be tougher and 30 percent lighter (aluminum body, stronger “ion-exchange” glass front, plastic composite back instead of sapphire); and the gold Edition watch, which is 18-karat gold (including the buckle on the band) and quite heavy.
There are six different band styles in various materials (leather, plastic, stainless steel). On the bottom of the watch, at each end, there’s a tiny release button that lets you make quick band changes without a Phillips screwdriver or a visit to a jeweler.
That means there are a lot of options. It’s unlike Apple, really. This is the company usually known for designing products that say, “Here’s the look we've chosen for you.”
You can control the watch using at least four methods. First, there’s Siri. You can dictate text or give commands.
Second, there’s a remarkable “Digital Crown” on the right side (sorry, lefties). Turning the knurled knob zooms in or out of the Home screen, or moves the highlighting through various onscreen options so you can change them. You can also click this crown as an OK button.
Third, there’s a big button below the crown, again on the right side. Apple showed only one function for it: Press it to summon the icons of the people you communicate with most frequently, in order to send them texts, drawings, or — this is so cool — tap signals.
For example, when you want to leave a party, tap three times on your watch’s screen. Your spouse feels the same tapping pattern on her wrist, elsewhere in the room. Or you could send a silent “I love you” tap to your spouse’s wrist when you’re thousands of miles apart.
You’ll also press the big side button twice when you want to pay for something using Apple’s new Apple Pay wireless payment system (see below).
Finally, you can touch the screen: Tap buttons, tap app icons to open them, and so on.
Interestingly, this screen knows how hard you’re tapping — I haven’t seen that before in watches or phones. Pressing hard will serve as a “right-click” — to open a shortcut menu full of options.
There’s a home screen full of tiny round app icons. You can zoom in and out by turning the crown, but there are no labels on these icons, which sounds like it could be problematic.
When you raise your wrist, the darkened screen lights up to show you the time, using your chosen watch face. From there, you swipe up to see Glance: a series of horizontally scrolling info-screens like weather, GPS, stocks, calendar, and so on. (Yes, reminiscent of Android Wear.) You can specify which of these you want to see, and developers can write new ones.
On the back: four round lenses. Light is sent through two of them, and the other two are infrared sensors. Together, they examine the blood flow through your skin, for the purpose of determining your pulse rate.
The charger is a magnetic disk that snaps right onto the back. You don’t have to fuss with prongs or getting the orientation right. It’s even better than the MagSafe adapter on MacBooks.
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