E
Editor’s Note
Steve Lundin
[email protected]
accept this call – how hard could it be – this is Apple after all! I
answered, and took the call through the watch, not the phone’s
receiver, as I had thought/hoped would happen. The damn thing
worked. I just conducted a phone call through my watch. I was
How I learned to
shut up and wear
the Apple watch
Dick F**king Tracey, James Bond and Austin Powers all rolled into
It felt weird at first. I ordered my Apple watch online, then trucked
that has been on my bedside for the past five years. I found
myself down to the local mall to the Apple store, with all the other
myself reaching for it when I headed out for a meeting, knowing
common folk, to be moved through a series of greeters towards
that it would discreetly alert me to incoming emails. I could sense
my new gold cased, blue strapped toy. It was on my wrist within
the dust gathering on my Rolex, Breitling, Dodane, Ulysse Nardin,
ten minutes of arriving. No white gloved hands tried to intimidate
Tudor and the rest of their Swiss cousins in my safe. At least I
me into buying the latest mechanical Swiss marvel; my chaper-
didn’t have to see their glowering dials, which collectively spelled
ones on this experience were a group of spikey haired, tattooed
out “traitor.”
millennials who couldn’t tell you the difference between an escape-
It has been four months since the Apple became an almost
ment and a deployment strap, and would never have to. I was
daily wear companion. And while I haven’t worn it to that many
determined to hate it.
“important” business meetings, it has been on my wrist more than
I couldn’t bring myself to take my Girard Perregaux off my right
any other watch in the collection. Its allure, for me, is its ability
wrist, so I defiantly left the store wearing two watches. I instinc-
to track my progress through the day. If I’m walking without the
tively checked the time on my GP as I walked out into the night,
watch I feel that that I’m missing the opportunity to notch my belt
and found it uncharged and unreadable. So I slipped up my left
with miles logged. I have gotten used to relying on its Swiss army
sleeve to look down at the ready, brightly glowing dial of the
knife collection of features, and I even like the way it looks. My
Apple. Its digital face actually looked like an automatic watch, with
one creeping regret with the Apple is not having purchased the
an evenly flowing second hand. Imposter. “I hate you,” I said to
gold edition, but maybe I’ll wait for the next iteration before biting
myself, somewhere, trying to push aside the little tiny bit of admi-
that bullet. After all, $10,000 is Rolex Daytona territory, and in ten
ration I felt for this interloper. It felt like being sexually aroused by
years the Daytona’s still going to hold its value while the Apple will
the Mona Lisa.
be no more than another piece of scrap gold.
one. It was magical. Now I really, really hated it.
The commitment to actually wearing the Apple grew slowly over
the next few days. It began with a review of the apps, and the
watch became a tool. I brought it to the gym with me and tracked
my running. I used its alarm features, instead of the Omega X33
On the way home something happened that spelled the beginning
of the end of my resistance: the watch rang. That’s right, a call
came through. I rapidly jabbed at the watch face, attempting to
4 FASHION | AboutTime Magazine
Steve Lundin,
Editor