I Say To-Mah-To

Om Malik feels differently:

What blew me away was the exceptional attention to the details. The way you could slide on and off the bands from the watch was smooth and slick. There wasn’t a need for any special tools — a tiny bit of pressure does the job of sliding the bands on and off. The sliding has the smoothness of silk Then there is the quality of the leather. Just as Hermes’ leather has a unique feel to it, I bet you that soon we will talk about the Apple feel when it comes to mass-produced leather products. I touched some leather bands and was extremely blown away — thin, supple and yet you could feel that the leather could take the abuse of running with the watch, the sweat and the dirt. It was sublime. And there are magnets that allow one to clasp and unclasp the bands. It might not mean anything to many, but for me these details are enough to overlook the software shortcomings that have started cropping up in Apple products.

Functionality aside, I think one of the biggest innovations in Apple Watch is the band-swapping mechanism. It took me a few tries to get the hang of it, but once I did, I was convinced it was as easy to do as Apple says. There’s never been a watch with this sort of feature. People are going to find it fun to swap bands, and Apple is going to make a tidy sum selling them.

★ Monday, 13 April 2015