FOR a company that sells arguably the best smartphone on the market, the Apple Watch comes with a curious proposition.

People will choose wearable technology for many reasons, including something as fickle as fashion, but if you wear an Apple Watch you won’t need to use your iPhone as often.

If you look at your iPhone countless times a day, you’ll probably see this as a good thing. Surprisingly, Apple agrees with you.

Apple calls the Watch its most personal device yet. In part, that’s because you wear it on your body every waking hour.

Also, it’s because you personalise it in several ways, from the size, model and band style you buy, to the watch face you use.

PERSONALISE

First you choose the size, either a 38mm or 42mm face. Then you choose the model of the watch — the aluminium Apple Watch Sport, the stainless steel Apple Watch, or the gold Apple Watch Edition, be it yellow or rose. And you choose your band, be it silicon, leather or stainless steel.

And the thing about all of those decisions is that if beauty is on the inside then every single Apple Watch is a thing of beauty.

People will select their Apple Watch on personal style but in terms of functionality, the most expensive Apple Watch is no better than the cheapest.

It’s an important point worth noting if you’re on a budget.

FEATURES

The Watch is the first all-new device from Apple since the iPad.

It has an IPX7 water resistance rating, meaning you can wear it in the rain but shouldn’t submerge it.

Apple says it is fine to wear while washing your hands but it is not recommended for wearing swimming or in the shower.

Apple says you will get 18 hours of battery life a day from one charge. While it depends how long your screen is active, my experience is 18 hours is accurate.

It is powered by what Apple calls the S1 chip, has a speaker and microphone opposite the Digital Crown, and its sensors include a heart-rate monitor, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

I reviewed the 42mm Apple Watch Sports model with silicon sports band. One thing with all Apple Watch models is that there is a push-and-release lock that lets you easily slide out one Apple band and replace it with another.

There are some things about the Watch that will be improved through software updates. You can receive a phone call on the Watch but you can’t receive a FaceTime audio call. Apple may not want to add that feature but, if they do, it seems likely they could do so with a software update.

There are other features likely to be added in the next generation Watch.

From the moment you get up, to the moment you go to bed, you can expect the battery in the Apple Watch to keep going, but extending that battery life in the future seems an obvious path for improvement.

The Watch has a heart-rate monitor but the early rumours of other health monitors may come to fruition in later generations.

In America, people will be able to use Apple Pay on their Apple Watch. That mobile payment system is not offered in Australia.

There are other ways the Apple Watch might be improved in the future but the same can be said of any piece of technology.

So, instead of wondering what is to come, assess the Watch on what it is now.

And what it is now is an excellent device that will replace your smartphone for much of your communication. Or at least replace the need to remove that smartphone from your pocket or bag.

The Digital Crown, when it comes to navigating your Watch, is your best friend. But when it comes to communicating with your best friends, the “side button”, or “friends button,” as some people call it, is even better.

Tap it and you find your friends displayed in a wheel. Select one and you can ring or message them.

Forget about making calls, messaging is one of the killer apps of the smartphone. The Apple Watch makes that messaging quicker and easier.

When the iPod came out, I was one of many who dismissed it as yet another MP3 player. At the time it was. History shows it wasn’t.

The reason the iPod had such an impact was partly one of physical design, with the iconic wheel making navigation a simple experience.

But it took more than reinventing the wheel for the iPod to become what it did. Apple made its own software (many MP3 makers didn’t) to make it easy to move your music on to your device. Also, critically, it made it easy to buy digital music.

The Apple Watch sets out to reinvent the wheel yet again, with the Digital Crown the key to navigating the device.

But that alone is not what will make the Watch Apple’s next big success.

PACKED WITH APPS

Apple is late to the smartwatch market but when it arrives, it comes with an app store full of third-party apps.

Some app companies have travelled down this road before, making smartwatch apps but for many, the launch of the Apple Watch is the motivation to try a smartwatch app for the first time.

When you compare one smartwatch with another, you need to compare the depth of the app store for each.

Some apps will struggle to adapt to the smaller screen. Flipboard on the Apple Watch shows “top stories” with a paragraph on each and the option to open the article on the iPhone if you want to read more.

Others seem a more natural fit. Citymapper has detailed how its app will use glances to give you step-by-step navigation to public transport locations, with information on the wait time for the next bus or train, and it will “tap” your wrist when it’s time to get off.

How many apps will be in the Apple Watch store at launch? Apple promises more than a thousand.

Many of them will be an extension to your favourite the smartphone apps. That’s a good thing. Some of them will be all-new apps by developers using the new device to create a new product. That is probably an even better thing.

FITNESS SMARTS

The Apple Watch by itself is not perfect. No first-generation device is. But when considered as part of the wider package, with a rich app store at launch, the product becomes something more than what it appears.

The Apple Watch presents alternatives to those considering more than just a new timepiece.

It’s an activity tracker but one that operates differently to many, and a sports watch.

It presents interesting solutions in both of those roles and has some key strong points but in both cases there is room for improvement.

It will be boosted in those roles by third-party apps and a final verdict of how it performs as a sports watch should be delayed until the extra apps arrive.

The strength, and otherwise, of any Apple device is in its design, both hardware and software. That might seem like a cop out but consider this: How can you judge the iPhone as an exercise and fitness device without considering apps such MyFitnessPal, Strava, Wahoo or MapMyRun?

Apple, in terms of shape and style, has got the hardware right. People buy a watch as a fashion accessory and the Apple Watch succeeds there.

Yes, there are sensors it could have but doesn’t, including built-in GPS.

BASICS

On the software side, the circle of app icons that looked somewhat messy when first unveiled turns out to be easy to use.

Navigation is simple. The Digital Crown is your button and scrollwheel. You swipe down for notifications and swipe up for glances.

When a message comes in, you lift your arm to turn on the watch display. If you don’t want to act on the notification, you just drop your arm.

The interface is impressive but there are always ways an experience can improve. Swipe for glances and the response is instant, but if you are looking for information that is online, such as maps or weather, there can be a second or more of delay which can seem longer.

CUSTOMISATIONS

The Apple Watch is many things but one key thing that can be easy to overlook is that it’s a watch.

And that is an area where telling the time just doesn’t cut it any more.

Apple has a range of watch faces you can easily customise, from colour to how many numbers you want around the ring of an analog display.

The so-called “complications” are a clever extra. Everyone will like a face for different reasons. I like the modular display personalised to show time, day and date, sunrise and sunset, temperature, battery level and activity app progress all in a glance.

VERDICT

Why would someone buy a $24,000 Apple Watch when there will undoubtedly be another generation in a year or two? Don’t ask me. Ask someone who has the money to spend on a $24,000 watch.

Should you wait for the second-generation Watch? Possibly. Every generation of technology is better than the earlier one, or at least it should be.

But, for iPhone users, is this first-generation Apple Watch something you will want to buy?

Yes it is.

How do you rate the Apple Watch, a first-generational device that is late to the market and will improve with time?

As a device, it would be four out of five. But it’s more than a device. It comes with a rich app store that will create an experience that goes beyond the bare device. And it will spark new interest in a wearable technology market that has struggled to break out of the early adopter phase.

Like the iPod turned out to be more than another MP3 player, the Apple Watch has the potential to be more than another smartwatch.

For that, we rate it five out of five.

The Apple Watch will be on display in Apple Stores from Friday 10 April, with preorders started at 5.01pm Friday. The Watch goes on sale on April 24.

Apple Watch Sport $499-$579

Apple Watch $799-$1629

Apple Watch Edition $14,000-$24,000

Five things to like about the Apple Watch

• Navigating the interface, using the Digital Crown, is brilliantly simple.

• The three-ring circle approach to activity tracking goes beyond the simplicity of “incidental exercise”. You aim to complete the three rings by burning a specified number or calories through general movement, have 30 minutes of exercise at a brisk walk or higher a day, and remembering to stand for one-minute for 12 hours a day. For many people, this device will meet all their exercise and activity tracking needs.

• The one-button approach to messaging means you will not be reaching for your smartphone as often.

• At launch day, Apple’s smartwatch comes with an app store of more than 1000 third-party apps.

• You can personalise the device, from choosing a style and size of body, a choice of band and a watch face that suits your mood.

Five things to not like about the Apple Watch

• It is water resistant, not waterproof. It’s okay for wearing in the rain but you won’t want to take it swimming.

• The time delay in launch apps that require information from the internet, such as weather and maps, can be slower than desired.

• You can answer voice calls on the Apple Watch but you can’t answer FaceTime audio calls.

• The native Apple Watch exercise app does not “smooth” spikes in running pace in the same way that GPS watches use. Keen runners might need turn to third-party Watch apps to meet their needs.

• This generation is missing some features we hoped for, such as extra health sensors, and GPS.

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