back to article Even a broken watch is right twice a day: Not an un-charged Apple Watch

The Apple Watch will require daily charging thanks to its poor battery life, Apple CEO Tim Cook has admitted. The daily maintenance is reminiscent of the bad old days when timepieces needed to be wound up to keep them ticking. Speaking at a live Q+A, the Apple boss said: "We think people are going to use it so much you will …

  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    Odd

    I thought the kids/yoof/hipsters had stopped wearing wrist watches these days.

    "The time's on me phone"

    1. AMBxx Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Odd

      You've hit the nail on the head (unintentionally). People aren't wearing this to tell the time.

      I've no use for one, but I can't see the problem of having a 2nd device to charge every night. With wireless charging, just leave phone and watch on charging pad.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Odd

        "I've no use for one, but I can't see the problem of having a 2nd device to charge every night. With wireless charging, just leave phone and watch on charging pad."

        Perhaps, but last I heard, the iWatch doesn't support Qi or the like. That said, there also needs to be consideration for people, say, on the go who may not have ready access to a charger at night or who go the zombie route and don't sleep one night to make some hectic deadline. It would be nice to have a timepiece capable of holding its own for a longer period, say at least two days unassisted. I'm curious about the concept myself, but at this point none of these have hit the the price/perk sweet spot, and I'm willing to wait. I'm probably more inclined to pick an e-ink-based device that can throw up a passive display. Or maybe something like the Qualcomm Toq, only with a more-refined interface.

        1. alun phillips

          Re: Zombies

          Uh, you don't actually have to sleep to charge devices, if your pulling an all nights at your desk just plug it in.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Zombies

            "Uh, you don't actually have to sleep to charge devices, if your pulling an all nights at your desk just plug it in."

            Unless your all-nighter involves being away from things like mains sockets...

            1. i like crisps
              Facepalm

              Re: Zombies

              Not ZOMBIES but SLAVES.

      2. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Odd

        It's like a regression. Turn of the 20th Century soldiers started wearing wristwatches, so they didn't have to use busy hands to pull a pocket watch (usually on a chain) out, and open it to read the time.

        Wristwatches caught on because they are practical.

        Now the hapless youngsters have gone back to pulling a device out of their pockets, opening the case, if they have that type, and touching a button to light up the time.

        Instead of just turning their wrist a bit to see the time.

        'kin idiots.

        1. BXL

          Re: Odd

          Re: werdsmith

          Yeah, because soldiers on the battlefield needing to coordinate their attacks to a schedule has the same requirements to tell the time as people wondering whether they've got time for one more pint.

          1. werdsmith Silver badge

            Re: Odd

            Re: BXL

            As I said, the wristwatch caught on because it is practical. There are a myriad different reasons to look at the time apart from drinking up time.

        2. petur

          Re: Odd

          I bought a Casio with solar and DCF77 just because I wanted to have a watch that would always work and always be correct. It's on my list of best stuff I ever bought.

          When this tech will also be able to show me incoming mails and IM/SMS, I'll upgrade...

          1. Number6

            Re: Odd

            When this tech will also be able to show me incoming mails and IM/SMS, I'll upgrade...

            I have a Pebble watch (it was a gift, not sure I'd have bothered to pay for one) and it does show me incoming stuff. Short stuff it displays, but email just tells me I've got an email. It does show the CLI of incoming calls and I can tell the phone to reject the call using one of the watch buttons.

            It only needs charging once a week, too.

            (contrast my 30yr-old Casio LCD watch which lasts several years on a battery and is still working)

            1. werdsmith Silver badge

              Re: Odd

              @Number6

              Is your Pebble on old firmware? They show all phone notifications including content (like BBC Sports goal updates etc), and I can read email content on mine, was well as whole SMS etc. It doesn't just show the CLI, it pulls up the contact name from the phone.

              The Pebble also has a daylight vis display with memory, dozens of apps for maps, GPS, compass, fitness and loads of other useless stuff too like the ability to make your own custom watchfaces and apps.

          2. Paul

            Re: Odd

            I have one of those too. Not expensive. Am on my third strap - replaced the rubber one, then replaced that with a metal one. Still on its first battery, quite a few years on.

        3. Paul

          Re: Odd

          likewise button-flies on trousers.

          For my last birthday my wife bought me some smart jeans with button flies.

          I wore them a few times to keep her happy, and then they mysteriously found their way deep into a charity bag where they wouldn't be noticed.

        4. jjk
          Holmes

          Re: Odd

          Apple missed a chance there by not making it an actual pocket watch. They would have been able to fit a bigger battery, and the Fedora wearing crowd would have gone nuts for it. Bring back waistcoats, watch pockets, watch chains and the little trinkets you can hang on them, say I.

        5. lotus49

          Re: Odd

          I haven't worn a watch since I was seven. As a consequence, I am very good at estimating the time. It's unusual for me to be more than 5 minutes out and I can usually guess more accurately than that. I use my phone more often than I need to tell the time so having the time on my wrist is absolutely no use to me.

      3. Mage Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: Odd

        And how does the charging pad get power? It's Contactless charger connection. Not Wireless. You need to find a suitable plug socket. Fun when travelling.

        I'll be losing faith in humanity if this more successful than the Apple Pippin.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Odd

          @Mage ""You’re going to wind up charging it daily,” he emphasised."

          Well, according to Mr Cook, "You’re going to wind up charging it daily,” he emphasised.

          So it's going to be like those wind up torches, obviously. Just attach the eco-friendly winding handle conveniently supplied with every watch and wind it for 5 minutes for each hour of planned operation and think of the bonus calories you're burning off at the same time. Win-win for every fanboi.

      4. william 10

        Re: Odd

        But my understanding is that this does not work out of the box with those iPhones ! The extra costs involved in wireless chargers, new backs for your phone etc.. is way to much, when you just forked out for a new wardrobe to allow your to transport your HUGE (and that's Apples words) new iPhone is beyond most peoples budgets.

        1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

          Re: Odd

          As the device hasn't gone on sale yet there seems to be a lot of fuzzy infor doing the rounds.

          If my memory is correct, Apple said

          that it will work with the iPhone 5S. In fact that is the onlyt way to get ApplePay working with an iPhone 5S

          By modern standards, the iPhone 5S is not a huge phone.

          We shall have to wait and see what the thing is with charging these watchlike things.

          I do know on thing for sure.

          I won't be buying any smart watch no matter who makes it. Getting watch staps to go round my huge bony wrists is next to impossible and for devices that come with builtIn straps/bracelets type thingies, then they are a clear no-go for me.

          Now if someone was to put one on a nice gold chain and in a case like a proper pocket watch I might be interested.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

    I'd have thought that kinetic charging as the user moved wouldn't be beyond the technology of today,. Obviously such advanced ideas are alien to Apple.

    Good luck with that, Tim.

    1. Semtex451

      Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

      With kinetic charging, the target audience might have exploded their watches.

      Cough.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Angel

        Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

        And by that you mean the polite round of applause Tim gets after he demonstrates another interesting new product feature, of course.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

      Powered by wrist action? Danger of overwinding the watch, given that fanbois can be such a bunch of w*****s

    3. Mage Silver badge

      Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

      My Russian watch in 1960s wound itself. Other more expensive Swiss ones were better of course!

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

        "Other more expensive Swiss ones were better of course"

        And the cost of a genuine Swiss watch is now approaching what I'd consider car money. However for any sadsters currently dependent upon their smartphone to tell them the time, they might consider upgrading to a Seiko 5. That's a lovely piece of self winding mechanical precision (from Singapore last time I looked) offered in a range of cases and dial designs for around the fifty quid mark.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

      A lot of people aren't wearing watches any more because they carry a phone and they use that instead. What would make them look at their wrist for information about emails, chats, etc. when they're not doing that even for something as simple as the time of day?

      Some people wear a watch as a fashion statement (hence the large market in fake Rolexes, etc). But I can't see someone who does that swapping their bejewelled hunk of stylish polished Swiss perfection for something cheaply made out of plastic from Apple.

      Some people wear a watch simply because they want to know the time of day. There's nothing about an iWatch that sounds like it does that job better, or at all after 24hrs away from a mains socket.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Useless, expensive AND inconvenient, a genius idea

      Kinetics can't generate nearly enough power. There's a reason why even dumb LCD watches have those little batteries in them, rather than using kinetics like their self-winding mechanical cousins.

  3. Semtex451
    FAIL

    Wind up Merchant

    "You’re going to wind up charging it daily,” he emphasised

    Was he trying to be funny?

    1. kmac499

      Re: Wind up Merchant

      Possible marketing spoonerism should it have read ??

      "We’re going to wind up charging you daily,”

    2. frank ly

      Re: Wind up Merchant

      About five years ago, I bought a cheap wind-up watch from Argos. It actually had a prominent 'warning' statement in the instructions to tell you that if you didn't wind it up every day then it would stop working. I felt so old.

  4. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    Chinese

    The market for iWatch is supposedly China and handwritten tweets

    To read short messages in chinese easily without a lot of context you need to know the order the strokes were made in. The iWatch has a messaging app where you can draw a chinese character and it is sent to the recipient a stroke at a time in real time, so they can get your tweet and understand it quickly.

    1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

      Re: Chinese

      Not quite: you can always understand the meaning of written Chinese messages - this is as expressive as any other written language, and a lot more compact than many. The problems arise in verbal communication.

      Mandaran Chinese has a very small repertoire of sounds, compared to other languages, so the number of homophones is very high: cases like the English "red" and "read" are much more commonplace. The fact that Mandarin is actually a second language for most of the population just adds to this confusion.

      So when speaking face to face, it's not uncommon for Chinese to make a "writing" gesture of part of the word that they're saying, in order to disambiguate a word that sounds the same. On the phone, this option is not available.

      Still, it sounds like someone at Apple inventing an application for this watch, rather than them inventing the watch to fill a need.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Chinese

        My understanding was that the watch enabled precisely this "writing on your hand" functionality.

        You start to write a message to somebody and it pings their watch and shows the character being drawn as you draw it.

  5. Simon Harris

    Bad old days.

    A clockwork watch may have needed winding up every day, but that did take less than a minute and didn't need plugging in somewhere.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Bad old days.

      I also recall that all but the most expensive and elaborate timepieces tended to drift significantly as the day passed. If anyone's ever seen "The Secret Life of Machines" Tim Hunkin did an episode on the quartz watch and covered timepiece history in some detail. Knock the cheap quartz watch all you want, but it's hard to beat it for consistency.

      1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

        Re: Bad old days.

        > tended to drift significantly as the day passed.

        Yes, back in the days you'd have to re-synch your watch once a day, using for example the 10h10 London Express. Nowadays watches don't drift anymore, which is probably a good thing, if you get my, er, drift.

        1. ItsNotMe

          @ElReg!comments!Pierre

          "...Yes, back in the days you'd have to re-synch your watch once a day...

          Strange...but my 45 year old Omega SpeedMaster doesn't "drift significantly" at all...never has...and has kept perfect time since new. Never had to sync it. It just works! :-)

          And for those who think that having to wind a watch every day is so tedious...might be a good idea to check yourselves into a hospital for a checkup.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @ElReg!comments!Pierre

            Except twice a year in those places they observe Day Light Savings...... {}:>))

          2. Charles 9

            Re: @ElReg!comments!Pierre

            "Strange...but my 45 year old Omega SpeedMaster doesn't "drift significantly" at all...never has...and has kept perfect time since new. Never had to sync it. It just works! :-)"

            I said, "all but the most expensive and elaborate timepieces..." A $3700 Omega Speedmaster chronograph qualifies as "expensive and elaborate".

            1. ItsNotMe
              FAIL

              Re: @ElReg!comments!Pierre

              That's wonderful @Charles 9...but I was not replying to you. I was replying to @ElReg!comments!Pierre

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "That could all change with the Apple Watch, of course, but would you wear a timepiece that required a daily charge?"

    See also:

    That could all change with the Apple iPhone, of course, but would you use a mobile phone that required a daily charge?

  7. Simon Harris

    Cook himself is fond of bonking his shopping

    Me too... I'm not allowed in Sainsbury's any more!

    1. Irongut

      Re: Cook himself is fond of bonking his shopping

      Pita Predator!

  8. DaddyHoggy

    My Seiko Kinetic watch has been ticking over nicely for 15 years now. I wear it daily, so I presume the battery stays fully charged - but still 15 years is good going.

    I did stop wearing it once for a week. After a couple of days the pointers stopped moving, but I gave it a little shake and they moved back to the right time and carried on where they left off.

    As a time piece that I don't have to think about/interact with other than its actual function of telling me the time when I look at it - it's perfect.

    1. Simon Harris

      Some of those look quite handsome watches.

    2. tony
      Happy

      Seiko

      I've one of the early Seikos, possibly from around the time you brought yours 98/99? what I did find irritating was the need to change the capacitor every 5/6 years when it wouldn't hold it's charge overnight.

      My thinking was; you sold me this with the promise that I don't have to change the battery every five odd years, changing something else with a similar time frame isn't a massive improvement...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Seiko

        "I've one of the early Seikos, possibly from around the time you brought yours 98/99? what I did find irritating was the need to change the capacitor every 5/6 years when it wouldn't hold it's charge overnight."

        That was due to the capacitors being faulty. Now they come equipped with lithium batteries instead. No idea on their lifetimes though.

  9. Graham 24

    Long-term battery life

    My concern would not be the fact it needs charging every night (although that would be a pain without some sort of induction pad, and inconvenient even then - forget to put it on the pad as you go to bed - no watch the next day).

    If it needs charging once per day when new, how long will it be before the battery gets "tired" and only has 50% charge capacity. At that point the watch keels over half way through the day, making it useless.

    1. Darryl

      Re: Long-term battery life

      Ah, but it's an iProduct. You're expected to buy the Apple Watch 1S next year, so you won't care about the old one's battery life.

  10. Mage Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Steve Jobs appeared able to do in his sleep

    Really?

    I don't think very many new successful product categories in Apple ever (Steve wasn't there for some)

    In about 36 years ...

    Apple II

    Lisa (fail)

    Mac

    Newton (Not Steve's): Killed by Steve but had potential

    Pippin (Failed game console)

    iMac

    laptop Mac

    OSX based on NextStep/BSD replaced Mac OS

    iPod

    Wristable Ipod mini thing

    iPad

    iPhone

    Various incremental developments of above are NOT really new products. So maybe on average one really new Apple product / category every four years. Did Steve sleep so infrequently?

  11. stucs201

    A daily charge is fine IF...

    ...it only takes the same few seconds that winding a mechanical watch does.

    Overnight charging is OK for a phone. However when I wake up I generally want to know the time (to answer the important question of "Do I need to get up or can I turn over and go back to sleep?"). I don't want to have to hunt around on the bedside table to answer that question - I can find my wrist a lot easier.

    1. Anthony Hegedus Silver badge

      Re: A daily charge is fine IF...

      I just say "hey siri what time is it" and my iphone dutifully tells me the time

      1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

        Re: A daily charge is fine IF...

        > "hey siri what time is it"

        That a sure hit* with the ladies I would imagine.

        Assuming Siri can understand what surely sounds more like "hairy wedding zit?". Having to be articulate kinda ruins the point of knowing whether you can go back to sleep...

        *As in "slap" perhaps?

    2. Number6

      Re: A daily charge is fine IF...

      I take my watch off overnight, but then I have a bedside clock-radio to tell me the time in the dark.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A daily charge is fine IF...

      The main problem with requiring a nightly charge is that it won't hit the sleep monitoring market. I don't know if that's a huge market, but a lot of people have sleep issues and being able to track them and possibly do something about them would be worth the price by itself to some people.

      The other problem is that people who aren't used to wearing a watch might forget to put it on the next morning, and it'll end up in a drawer next to every other smart watch, or it'll end up as a glorified fitness band.

      I still don't see the market for a smart watch, they'll sell some because the Apple solution will be nicely integrated and do a good job as a fitness watch - I've actually been considering buying one and holding off waiting to see what Apple offers. I can't see why I'd want to wear it the whole day, however, rather than only when I'm working out.

      Until someone comes up with a killer app that makes people want to wear it all the time (and "getting alerted when I receive a text so I don't have to take my phone out of my pocket is NOT a killer app) it is yet another solution looking for a problem. Maybe it really is targeted more at China for the character drawing, and Japan for passing "touches" to each other. That latter could be popular among teenagers I suppose, depending on where you strap the watch and which side is facing out...talk about safe sex! :)

  12. JDX Gold badge

    "You’re going to wind up charging it daily"

    Nice pun there Tim.

    Would it be possible to have a windable e-watch, how much winding would you have to do?

    1. Simon Harris
      Joke

      Re: "You’re going to wind up charging it daily"

      I believe there was a prototype, but to get enough charge it took 20 minutes to wind so Apple made a cordless screwdriver to wind it up.

      The only problem was, the screwdriver needed charging every day!

  13. Sgt_Oddball

    I still wear a watch.

    I'm still partial to wearing a mechanical winding watch only, there's this funny turn o' the century tech where it wind's itself up just by bring on my wrist. Is that so hard? Also I would only consider a smart watch if I could have it as a pocket watch on a chain. It'd be much easier to use over all and would allow for a larger battery. Or is that just too practical?

    1. D@v3

      Re: smart watch as a pocket watch

      err, smartphone maybe (just stick it on a lanyard) thing is, still needs charging daily....

      (I might have missed the joke, if so, I already have my coat, just need to finish my pint and I'll be gone)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "We think people are going to use it so you will end up charging it daily."

    Fixed that for you, Tim.

  15. Frankee Llonnygog

    It won't tell the wrong time when the battery's flat

    Since itt doesn't have an eInk screen, it will just go dark

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bald statement

    Very funny. Does it cause hair loss too?

  17. D@v3

    smart watch usage

    The thing is, all, smart watches, regardless of how small, light, user friendly or whatever, need 2 hands to actually do anything on them, at all (apart from read the time)

    I can do a fair amount on my phone one handed, it is only occasionally that I need to hold it in one hand, and operate it with the other, but you try performing any 'smart' function, on any of these watches with one hand, and your going to have a hard time.

    1. Thecowking

      Re: smart watch usage

      Except things like skipping music tracks, playing and pausing, or whatever else an application binds to the accelerometer on my pebble.

      It makes you look daft, but skipping a track by waving your hand gets normal surprisingly fast.

      Of course people get used to you looking like a plonker at about the same speed, but I was already used to that :P

    2. ThomH

      Re: smart watch usage

      It depends whether you lump health watches in with smart watches. If you do then mine does the following without two hands: monitors my heart rate, steps taken, skin temperature and perspiration level, all so as to determine periods in which I'm sleeping, running, walking or cycling, and therefore to comment on my general fitness.

      Which are mostly things my phone doesn't do. Or I wouldn't have bought it.

  18. Kevin Reilly

    This is an opportunity for apple to sell approved wireless charging mattresses so you can recharge your own batteries at the same time as your watch. No seriously!

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Coat

      "wireless charging mattresses"

      Sex toys which never run out of battery power? That might be a new and sustainable market.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sounds like it's been designed perfectly!

    I mean why else would you bother to queue up to for the new and improved iWatch II if the battery life of the original was up to scratch?

  20. Headley_Grange Silver badge

    Is a broken watch is right twice a day?

    For how long is a broken watch right? I think that the actual period for which it tells the right time is vanishingly small - so it's never right in fact.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Is a broken watch is right twice a day?

      Given that typical watches show each second for about a second (whether digital or analog) rather than moving in a continuous fashion, about 2 seconds a day.

      1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

        Re: Is a broken watch is right twice a day?

        You're right, JDX, if you're assuming that time comes in 1 second quanta, but it doesn't - time is continuous (for the moment*).

        Assume my watch is stopped at three o' clock (exactly). When a real 3PM comes around how long does it stay 3PM for? It's not 3PM for a whole second. When the real time is 3PM plus 0.264443 seconds the stopped watch is slow. Ditto for when it's 3PM + 6E-24 secs*. It's only telling the right time when the real time is 3 PM ± 0 secs. The stopped watch is only correct for an infinitesimally short amount of time - no time at all really, so I don't think it ever tells the right time.

        *There are theories about quantized time, but the quanta are much smaller than 1 sec - GIYF.

        1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

          Re: Is a broken watch is right twice a day? @Headley_Grange

          Totally overthinking it dude. A mechanical watch doesn't really measure time, it's a mechanism that is designed to display a representation of the time. In other words, it doesn't internally store anything relevant to the time. It doesn't care if it's 3 PM, or 3 PM plus 0.264443 seconds; the only thing that matters is the position of the hand relative to the static display.

          More precisely, the view that the owner has of the position of the hand relative to the static display. It's not always exactly the same thing especially on jewel-like watches with no marks, strangely-shaped displays and/or angled glass.

          In short, a broken watch is right as long as you can't tell that it's wrong. Which is at the very least 2x 1 s per day, and 2x several minutes per day in the case of some "jewel" watches.

    2. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: Is a broken watch is right twice a day?

      Some lady watches can actually be right for a good 5 minutes when broken. That's the kind which is not terribly useful to tell the time when they're not broken...

  21. hi_robb

    Hmmm

    "I need to charge my iWatch every day!"

    Is that a wind up?

    "No it's got a battery,.."

  22. DrXym

    My watch is the opposite

    The more I use my watch the longer it lasts because has a kinetic charger. If I don't wear it for a few days it'll stop updating the watch face but will continue to maintain the time internally for as long as the battery holds out. When I pick it up and give it some charge the hands whir around to the correct time.

    Anyway, I have to wonder what the hell anyone is thinking to buy a "smart" watch which can't even go a day without a charge. What is it that the phone actually does that remotely justifies such a pitiful battery life?

  23. Ed 11

    "Even a broken watch is right twice a day" - I've a broken F-91W in my bedside table thats begs to differ.

    1. stucs201

      I thought those only broke when used as a timer for a bomb?

  24. JamesPond

    Replacement battery

    Going on my previous experience of Apple batteries on 2x MacBook Pro and 3x iPhones over the last 7 years, iWatch users will need to plug in every 6 hours or so after using for a year, never mind every 24 hours! I bet you can't take it into the local jewellers for a £5 replacement battery either!

    I'll keep my Seiko kinetic thanks.

  25. OutToPlayJazz

    Daily charging...?

    Daily charging? I'm not understanding this. My work iPhone 5S usually does two days with ease on a charge and my personal iPhone 6 Plus is doing four days between charges at the moment. You people must be on your phones all the time! As for the Apple Watch, yes charging it nightly would be a pain in the proverbial! My Seiko Kinetic Auto Relay charges every time I move and that's a decade old! Good job it's not driving a 42mm retina display, eh?

    1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

      Re: Daily charging...?

      My 5S also lasts a couple of days if I just use it as a phone and bugger-all else, but if I just wanted a phone I'd have kept my Nokia 6310 and gone for a couple of weeks before stomping around the house searching for the charger that hardly gets used.

      Let's pick a real-life example: I want to do a pub crawl in town. I do my research plan the route - upload the maps to Google maps, upload the interesting information and the quiz to DropBox - then head off with me mates. Problem is that if the pub crawl lasts for more than 6 hours then the phone won't make the distance - really - it won't - trust me.

      What's the point of selling me a tool with maps, documents, journal, compass, comms, camera,voice recorder, train and tube times, etc if the whole package only lasts half a day in real use. It's exactly the same at work when I survey a site, use GPS to mark pics, record client discussions, etc - I wouldn't start a day like that without a full phone and a notebook and pen.

      If they'd kept the 6 as thick as the 4 - or even thicker - and made the battery last 24 hours in real use with poor GSM and non-existent 3G signal and a standby of a few days then I'd have been the twat at the front of the queue in Covent Garden. It's not just Apple - Samsung are worse; I need a charger on each step of the stairs just to get a Note 8 from the living room to the "office" upstairs. On a pub-crawl the Note 8 lasted less than 4 hours before it was useless - well not completely useless because it gave my mates loads of entertainment taking the piss out of it. It's amazing how many times a drunk can find it funny calling a beer mat a tablet.

      So this weekend I'll be heading off to town with me mates and a sheaf of maps printed off Google (and isn't that a pain), written directions, tour notes and a notebook and pen. The phone will be carefully conserved for emergencies and booking a cab for when I stumble off the train (although I'll make sure I've got some change for the payphone).

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    only 1 milion signups?

    I thought they had more followers? :)

  27. russell 6

    Any patent experts out there?

    Reading this article gave me an idea I would like to discuss in private. I think I have stumbled upon a genuinely interesting idea/solution regarding the possible future of wearables. El Reg, would you be happy to be a go-between/moderator of any patent people who might be interested and respond to this post?

    Maybe my idea is already covered elsewhere but it is worth looking into. Part of my idea is a rollover of my experience with battlefield communication tech.

    1. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: Any patent experts out there?

      I'm interested, but if you want to apply for patents your post is far to precise. Could you word it in a fuzzier way? Something along the line of

      "innovative solution to shape in some ways the future and/or present and/or past of hardware encompassing, but not limited to, wearable and/or mobile and/or transportable technology and/or art piece, in any or all ways (fig.102 to 195)" etc...

      1. russell 6

        Re: Any patent experts out there?

        My sarcasm detector is a bit wonky today. Not sure if you were being serious or not.

  28. Bill M

    My Rolex is automatic, as in it winds itself a bit every time I move my wrist. Just use the same method to charge the battery.

    1. Headley_Grange Silver badge

      It's a great idea but clashes with Apple's number one requirement that all its products must be as thin as possible and this requirement overrides any utility or user needs.

  29. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Daily charge? Sure. IWatch? Hell no.

    Would I object to a watch having to get a daily charge? Well, it sure doesn't help anything... but, sure, if there's a good reason to.

    Would I object to a very overpriced piece of kit that requires charging every day while providing no discernable benefits? Yes. I don't see the point of seeing like half a text or a portion of an E-Mail subject line on my wrist (while still AFAIK relying on the phone to supply the watch this information.) And I certainly wouldn't pay Apple prices for the privilege! Of course, if I want a watch that just tells time, I can get one with significantly better battery life (5 years is pretty typical. Oh and the watch battery is replaceable -- given Apple's track record, what are the odds the IWatch will have a replaceable battery?)

  30. Petalium

    will never replace a real watch

    My 60 year old seamaster recharges in seconds every morning, keeps the time within a few seconds/ year, is probably more environmentally friendly and will most probably be working exactly as advertised 100 years from now. Beat that Apple and maybe I will consider an upgrade...

    1. JamesPond

      Re: will never replace a real watch

      I'm not sure an iWatch will ever count as an upgrade!

  31. Mage Silver badge

    Woman's Hour R4

    More Women than men wear watches

    Women prefer watches with numbers on them

    Many Women prefer chunkier watches, similar to traditionally worn by men.

    Perhaps the Apple Watch is for Women?

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