Taste and technology
Wearable technology may be the phrase of the moment, but only a few individuals are creating pioneering pieces that have truly life-enhancing features. With its polished marketing, channel and brand, Apple aims to be the exception, willing to lead this emerging category of personal accessories with embedded sensors and displays. When the iPhone maker hired the award-winning Australian designer Marc Newson ahead of its Apple Watch launch, it confirmed that the wearables market, once a niche concern, is going big time.
While Apple’s latest device, which can monitor the wearer’s heart rate as well as keep time to 50 milliseconds, will not go on sale until early 2015, Citi predicts that Apple will sell 14 million units in its first year and 15 million in its second. The figure is greater than all the other manufacturers of wrist-based wearables have sold to date, including Nike’s Fuelband fitness tracker, a product it subsequently abandoned to focus on software applications.
IMAGE PROBLEM
Wearables have always had a bit of an image problem. Google’s glasses — called Glass, confusingly — house a mini-computer and camera which allow users to film or photograph whatever they are looking at and upload whatever is recorded to websites. At $1,600, the clunky device is neither cheap nor flattering, earning wearers the nickname “glasshole.” To work around this, Google has commissioned the well-respected Diane von Furstenberg to give Glass a chic makeover. The updated version is available on Google and Net-a-Porter for $1,800.
Tech group Intel and fashion label Opening Ceremony came together to create MICA (My Intelligent Communication Accessory), a bracelet with a 1.6-inch, curved sapphire glass touchscreen display and semi-precious gems. As part of her spring/summer 2015 collection, American designer Rebecca Minkoff collaborated with mobile accessory manufacturer Case-Mate on a line of bracelets, including one that charges and syncs your smartphone. At the US Open, the ball boys wore Ralph Lauren’s new line of Polo Tech “smart” shirts that, thanks to conductive silver-coated thread, help track the number of steps taken and calories burned.
OBSOLESCENCE
The Apple Watch appears spiffy enough, feeling more like a piece of jewelry than a typical gadget, but whether it catches on remains to be seen. As someone who is now wary of getting caught up in a fad, I don’t get it. Why glance at my wrist to see who texted, called or emailed when I could spend just a few more seconds to grab my actual iPhone from my pocket? I may be busy, but I’m not that lazy.
Then there’s the question of obsolescence. Due to the technology within, smartwatches will age quickly. The Apple Watch’s $350 price tag does not justify its limited battery life, which suffered as a result of the product being packed with so many features. If I’m going to wear a timepiece, I won’t bother with one that will be passé in a year’s time. I’ll stick to the traditional Rolex, Cartier or Patek Philippe.
Of course, what etiquette there is when it comes to wearable computing will be set by the early adopters who, by definition, are likely to choose the new. But recall that Apple already made a watch of sorts with the sixth-generation iPod Nano in 2010, only to discontinue it the year after. It turned out that no one wanted to sport an ugly hybrid watch-music player on their wrists. So buyer beware: when it comes to the fate of the Apple Watch and its fiercest rivals, only time will tell.
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