Hi! My name is Apple Watch and this is my story. You may have heard of me. Tim Cook, Apple‘s CEO, unveiled Apple Watch on September 9, 2014 at a special event in front of an elated crowd. I was introduced as the most personal device the company had ever developed. Later that year, Time magazine listed me as one of the best inventions of 2014. What an honor. Then on April 10, 2015, a few a minutes past midnight, Paul pre-ordered me from his iPhone. He was so thrilled that he barely slept that night.
It was about a month later that I made it to my new home and around Paul’s wrist. The unboxing took place just a few miles away from where I was originally conceived by Jon Ive and brought to life by some of the most talented engineers in the world – and possibly beyond! It’s been remarkably busy ever since. Believe me when I say being an Apple Watch isn’t a nine to five job – I know a thing or two about keeping track of time 🙂
Talking about time, Apple recently announced that I’ll be able to time travel starting this fall. How awesome is that! I can’t wait to wake up from my watchOS 2.0 upgrade with new super powers. Will I be able to better forecast weather or predict stock prices? Time will tell.
My day often starts when Paul wakes up at the crack of dawn to the beautiful sound of my alarm and ends when I no longer need to remotely control Apple TV in the evening. I always make it through the day, albeit tired, and get some well deserved downtime at night to recharge my battery.
I’ll support Paul with a number of tasks throughout the day, reminding him what to do and where to go. I’ll emit a gentle pulse to have him glance at a recent message he received during a meeting and let him respond with a short message without anyone noticing. I’ll help him find his misplaced iPhone, suggest he stand up every hour, and so much more.
At lunchtime, he’ll often use me to pay when shopping for fruits at Mollie Stone’s, picking up a sandwich at Subway, ordering a decaf mocha at Peet’s Coffee, or enjoying a Big Mac at McDonald’s.
We’ll take a few walks throughout the day, where I’ll help track his workouts and reward him with beautiful achievement badges whenever he sets a new personal record. We’ll sometimes check the price of homes we walk by with help from Zillow. See below what $1.4 million will buy you in Palo Alto for about $1,000 per square foot!
In the car, I make sure Paul’s hands never leave the steering wheel – with a little help from Siri. Hey Siri! He may want to check the weather, ask Siri to flip a coin, make or accept a call, or skip a song iPhone is playing on the car speakers.
Paul has also taken me on a few trips to New York, Montreal, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, where I helped him get through airport security, board planes, purchase train tickets, request an Uber car, pay for taxis, recommend a great restaurant, get him there, and even pay for the meal – especially in Montreal where contactless payments is available in most restaurants.
I like Paul’s friends and family and want to make sure he can easily contact them. So calling or texting them is just a click away. He can also just say, “Hey Siri, call Jenna” or “Hey Siri, text Hannah” and I’ll do my best to get through. I particularly like Paul’s friends that have an Apple Watch. Hi David! Hi Michael! Hi Tom! That’s because we can exchange heartbeats, send colorful circles to each other, and share drawings that magically disappear.
All in all, it’s been an exciting and rewarding few months. Sometimes I wonder what Paul would do without me. But I suspect my time around his wrist is short lived as he’ll most certainly upgrade to the new and improved version of Apple Watch when it’s released in a year or so. I also know that very much like his first iPad, I’ll be re-boxed and thoughtfully stored along his other Apple cherished collectibles. Just like Woody from Toy Story would say, he’s got a friend in me.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License by Paul Tocatlian.
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