LG today has unveiled its latest Android Wear building on the original LG G Watch R and coming up with a more stylish and formal and all-metal “LG Watch Urbane” that’s “designed for a sophisticated and cosmopolitan wearer.” Available in gold or silver, it’s still a standard 22mm model, so you’ll be able to swap out straps if you like. LG’s slimmed down the bezel, as well as the overall size and thickness. The stainless steel handle also has improve protection against scratches and corrosion.
This is starting to look quarterway decent, but it’s still Android Wear, and Android Wear sucks, so it still a long, long way off from passing the funeral test. I’m glad LG is taking the smartwatch in this direction though – a little less computer, a little more watch. The competition – including Apple – can learn from this.
Why do you feel the need to constantly trash Android wear? I understand you don’t like it and I’ve honestly never tried it myself, but there are plenty of 5-star reviews on Amazon/Best Buy for the Moto 360 and other watches, so it’s apparently working for a lot of people. Hence, I don’t think the technology is completely busted, just because it doesn’t work for your particular use case(s).
Pretty sure inanimate objects and product lines do not have feelings.
I think it is because he is one of the 15 remaining people actually caring about watches in the classical sense, while for me a device that just tell the time is about as obsolete as the horse and carriage is for the daily commute, so for me a plain watch is now just a fashion accessory which means i might wear it like once a year.
For me the smart watch is pretty useful if it can just do:
1. Vibrate whenever the phone vibrates.
2. Show a subset of notifications, like calendar alerts, so i don’t have to get the phone out of the pocket.
3. Show who is calling and let me ignore it without taking the phone of out the pocket.
Oh, and i guess it would be nice if it can show the date and time. Things like facebook updates however can stay on the phone.
For me point 1 is kinda enough, i prefer having my phone muted but that means that when i am walking around i don’t notice when it is ringing (i am carrying it in my jeans pocket), and in noisy environments, like a grocery store or outdoors in places with trafic, i might not notice it even if it is unmuted. A vibrating thingie strapped to my arm will be much easier to notice.
It is not like i am yapping on the phone constantly in public, but i imagine most people have a couple of scenarios where they really do want the notification instantly or near instantly. For me it is a “server(s) are down” notification. And less extreme but more common: “please also buy milk/bread/cola/whatever” messages.
Regarding the self invented funeral test, i would probably not wear a smart watch at a funeral, just like i would mute or turn off my phone, wear different clothes than normal, etc, so don’t see how that is at all relevant. I might wear a plain watch, this could be the once a year scenerio i mentioned at the top where i would wear it as a fashion accessory.
I like the look of the new LG watches. They look like they can be used for both casual wear and formal wear, the bronze one maybe slightly on the formal side. I like the plain watch look for a smart watch, simply because it is discreet and doesn’t look out of place and i find it is a good compromise until an invisible watch is invented 🙂
http://www.statisticbrain.com/wrist-watch-industry-statistics/
I think you might be out of touch with reality.
The market for ear rings, necklaces, diamonds, expensive clothes, etc, is still doing fine as well despite them being purely fashion items.
I could be out of touch by reality, i do know that anecdote != statistics, but i personally know one person who wear a watch to keep the time as the primary function, while i know plenty of people wearing them occasionally as jewelry.
My point is that saying a smart watch sucks because it is not as good as your swiss watch for telling the time is like saying that a car sucks because it is not as good as a horse for off road riding.
One interesting part of your link is that 20% of the consumption by value is from Hong Kong, that is pretty crazy. Also pretty interesting is how over represented Germany and France are compared to the USA.
Actually those statistics tell an interesting story.
First some opinions:
I personally don’t think the people who choose to wear mechanical watches will be likely to be converted to smart watches. I also don’t think you are going to get many non watch wearers to adopt watches just because they are now smart.
Moving on…
Of those 1.2 billion watches sold, only 276 million are electronic. I wish those statistics were more detailed because we have to discount most of the people who buy cheap watched.
My guy tells me that you are looking at only about 45% (maximum) of that number as potential smartwatch buyers. Leaving you with 124.2 million spread across the globe.
But that is just the maximum potential market. It tells us nothing about the percentage of people who would want a smartwatch. When you filter out all the other factors, I wouldn’t be shocked to see that we are down to just 5-10% of the 124.2m.
Not a bad market, but nothing like the smartphone market.
Fact is everyone used to have a wristwatch, it was essentially a standard item. Now most young people with a smartphone don’t bother wearing a watch. I don’t know anyone in my generation that does.
Those are some great points. Removing interactions with the watch would probably save quite a bit of battery and costs (i.e. only bluetooth, no wifi, no touchscreen required, just one or two tiny buttons to ‘cancel’ would probably do).
As far as anecdotes go: I have no use for a watch either and my girlfriend is the only person I know who occasionally wears one (no smartphone either, though I did manage to make her a fan of ebook readers!)
For everyone else I know mobile phones have become the new smart pocket watches.
>>It is not like i am yapping on the phone constantly in public,
Don’t you ever check the time?
The design of this watch… I want it. Never wanted Apple Watch because it looks ugly, but this one… makes my eyes shine!
The bronze-one looks actually quite terrific, must be the first smartwatch that looks so damn good to my eyes. It’s great to see LG taking steps forward design-wise. Alas, I still don’t know what to use a smartwatch for and I, for one, would anyways be put off by the rubbish battery-life. If I could figure out something to actually use the watch for I still wouldn’t buy one until it can last 2 weeks on a single charge.
Urbane (not urban) means “death clock” in my native language. Scary concept.
Since this “smart”watch saga has started, I’ve seen no product or concept that i). is actually smart, ii). looks good (at least this LG watch fulfills this criterion), iii). lasts at least 24 hours without being bulky and heavy, iv). is actually usable for at least 1 useful thing besides telling the time (if even that…).
And to make things worse, I don’t expect to see any in at least the next couple of years. So, I’m still sticking with watches without computers – especially so, since the “computers” in these “smart” watches are a big joke, and the “smart”ness is practically non-existent.
Edited 2015-02-17 06:52 UTC
Looks great, but dead in the water because it’s Wear. I own the previous LG and it ended up in the drawer after a week.
The problem is that with a phone in the pocket at ALL times, the entire idea of a smart watch is completely idiotic. My phones makes a gentle vibration when a message arrives. I tend to wanna reply, and I can only do that in a reasonable way using the phone anyway.
These things will go away, and our wrists will be liberated once again.
Our wrists were enslaved again by the arrival of the smartphone.
It was fast and easy to check the time on the always-on display of a dumbphone, but the whole ceremony of whipping a 5″ device out of your pocket, fumbling for the power switch, turn it on to check the time, then off again and putting it back in your pocket is EXTREMELY inconvenient.
And if your phone is large, or your pants are tight, then you probably won’t find it in your pants pocket, and you will have to search in a variety of coat pockets, handbags or backpacks.
I find it hard to believe all this people that say the wristwatch is obsolete, unless they are permanently typing on the smartphone (which well could be).
Having been a Casio CFX-400 user back in the early 90’s, I still don’t get this smartwatch craziness from vendors, other than mobile phone sales flattening out and they need to sell something else to stay relevant.
I guess the whole smart watch craze by manufacturers has eluded me. Smart glasses – without a camera integrated – would be far greater of concept and remove privacy issues. Google glasses were kick ass for navigation and media playback. But none of the applications so far on the watch are killer so to speak.
Maybe it’s time to get away from the notifications deal and keep it down to simple things?
1. Time & Date
2. Compass to show direction
3. Voice recorder for dictation and MP3’s (with playback via headphones)
4. Heart beat monitor
5. Laser pointer
6. Emergency light and/or Strobe flasher
Stop going for full-time wireless connections. My old MP3 player could go 30 hours on a cheap AAA battery, so I can see that still being worthwhile. Using the phone as an iPod kind of sucks for me personally. I didn’t define playback via cord or Bluetooth, because people will argue that point. Maybe you could justify GPS, but it’s such a battery drain. Storing maps and such increases memory refreshing and really phones just do it better anyhow.
I see people running at night and using expensive red LED strobe lights. That’s a good function for the smart watch. Maybe restaraunts like Panera Bread and Buffalo Wild Wings could use a swipe of your watch to sync with their systems so you no longer have to carry the ‘puck’ back to your table. At the same time it allows a patron to text back and forth with the host. Wait, maybe phones should do that.
But seriously, keep functions limited on smart watches. They need to be cheap and disposable. Under $50.