Rolex

Joe Thompson:

“I haven’t met with anybody [in Switzerland] yet who sees this [downturn] as anything other than a slump,” he told me in March. “They don’t see the threat from the smartwatch.” Apple will continue to perfect the smartwatch, he says. “By version 3 or 4, everyone will be thinking this is a good thing to have. Forty to 80 million people will want this.”

I got used to having my most important notifications on my wrist rather quickly, so much so, that when I take off my Apple Watch to wear my mechanical one, I forget to check my phone.

The problem with the Apple Watch is that it’s not special — visually or otherwise — which is the exact opposite of wearing a mechanical watch that you love. That doesn’t mean the latter has to be expensive either — I’m currently wearing a €400 Xicorr FSO M20 which I simple adore and love to pause throughout the day just to look at. Despite having a Space Black Series 0, those feelings passed very quickly.

And that’s the problem with the Apple Watch for people such as me — I love its functionality, but it still competes for my left wrist with a classical piece of precise machinery. But I also wear a Fitbit Alta on my right wrist. If Apple chose to fight for that with a sport-band-type device, which offered Siri, Messages, and LTE, it could easily win the fray.