The watch is dead

The watch is dead.

The wristwatch is a burden

Okay people, i've never really been into (pseudo)macho bullshit related to the fact that "the only piece of jewellry a man is allowed to put on is his watch,  so it better be something good". If you ask me, i really do not give a damn if someone wears a Rolex or a Seiko or a Casio or a Vacheron Constantin or a cheap plastic little mermaid 2,99 euro worth toy watch or no watch at all. I for one, stopped wearing a wristwatch when i was 14 years old for two very simple reasons:

1) I really did not actually care what the time was at the time.

2) The God damned Casio i was wearing

was forcing me to look at it more than 20 times for every hour of class at school and this is by no means an exaggeration.

It was a conscious decision. I got rid of the watch and magically class sessions became shorter and more interesting.

So i stayed away from wristwatches mainly because i could not (and of course still cannot) justify the existence of a device that i am forced to carry on my wrist all the time that only (or at least basically) tells the time. If i want to see the time i can look on my computer screen or on my cellphone screen or on the wall where a clock is hanging or at the town square with the big clock tower or make a fuzzy estimation that cannot be too wrong or ask someone condemned to wear the burden (ala Frodo the ringbearer). Even worse, the more masculine a male watch the heavier the burden. Simple laws of the jungle. If you can carry that 200 gr slab on you all the time you can compete for the alpha male of your corporate subdivision (after begging -on all four- your female supervisor for a little strech of that deadline, that is). Yeap. 

This is a purely personal opinion, but i really cannot understand why someone would/should pay 200k USD for the deep space turbillon, aside  from the fact that he needs to have a way to feel special for worthing 20 bil USD.  (Second thoughts: Okay, that particular timepiece is God damned impressive in a geeky kind of way. I'll have one. Nah, better make it two to be on the safe side.) But even down to earth watches (within my mediocre financial grasp) are not appealing to me. Not at all. I can only forgive divers (maybe pilots and astronauts too) for wearing such a thing, although i suspect that even they don't wear their Citizen when they are in the deep blue sea but specialised equipment in the form of a wristwatch.

So basically yes, i do hate wristwatches. The tech behind them is essentially 145 years old and they are still more or less doing the same thing, which is uhmmm telling the time. I do not need them and i do not like them. I cannot understand people who love them and collect them, but i have no problem with that. Case closed.

I must now confess that 13 years (of wrist freedom) after the second grade of junior high school i bit the bullet and bought a watch to adorn my tiny wrist. It was the unforgettable Fossil Abacus (Fossil Abacus), which could very well be the ugliest watch ever. Uhmm scratch that, maybe the ugliest thing ever created/conceived by man. Period. But it was not just a little time ticking box on a strap. It was one of the first ever (horribly flawed) attempts at a smartwatch. Yeap you had it right, if i did wear this monstrosity in public (any kind of intimate interaction with women was totally ruled out at the time, of course - no sane woman would offer me the benefit of doubt after glancing at my watch) then i am a total fanboy for smartwatches. My next steps, as well as the final one in this particular tech saga are already known to you dear readers of this fine (notjust)hitech blog.

Welcome to the future

And then came the 4th of Spetember 2013 and Samsung presented to the world the Galaxy Gear smartwatch. Welcome to the future ladies and gentlemen. That's what Mr. Pranav Mistry said and you know what? I believe this guy. Yeap Sammy was there first. I totally expect Apple to present a more polished product in the next six months, but it's like the space rally of the 50s. The Americans landed (if you are not into conspiracy theories) on the Moon first, but the Russians are the ones who first made it to space. So if you want to be a Russian pioneer you have to fork out the 300 USD and go get yourself the first smartwatch from a BIG player out there. Otherwise you can be an American and wait for Apple's iWatch. You'll be late of course but the Moon will be yours. 

Samsung Galaxy Gear

Enough with the space race. The Gear is big news and it is excellent news (mostly). Expect another post on this one, but wearable computing is the next big thing to take off and the Gear is truly the first big caliber weapon in this battle. 

There are two schools in the smartwatch making fine art:

1) The Pebble school. Small, light, grayscale, screen always on, (comparatively) long battery life. These watches provide a "second screen" for notifications as well as 2-way communication with the phone that enables functionality such as remote music player, camera and fitness trackers control, alarm if the connection between the devices is lost, canned sms replies as well as http requests, call answering/rejecting and such.

2) The Galaxy Gear school. Not that small, heavy, color (OLED mainly), screen not always on, short battery life, These watches can do what the above can do, but also can make a phonecall as well. This means they have a speaker and mic. (Which rendered them 100% NOT waterproof in the past - see my i'm watch experience for some gruesome (better leave kids out of it) details on this epic fail proportions miserable attempt of an early bite at the smarwatch pie.)

Before the Gear came onto stage i would strongly advise anyone even remotely interested not to look at category 2. But times have changed. The Gear is supposed to be completely waterproof, it features a camera (BSI with autofocus for Christ's sake) and boasts a whole day battery life. Which means that you will have to charge your watch every night as well as your smartphone. No big hassle for me (as long as it can endure a full day's worth of heavy usage), but i know people who would not like that at all. The speaker and dual mic are on the strap and you can talk by lifting your watch to your ear without being a complete total propellerhead/dork shouting above a tiny loudspeaker. You are supposed to talk like you do on a normal phone. Or at least i think/hope so after viewing the presentation. The camera is placed on the strap also, facing outwards, which is a pretty good thing for capturing those "basic instinct" moments. Nah, just kidding. Even if you want to do that you can forget about it because the shutter sound cannot be deavtivated and that is a good thing for your privacy. And mine. And everybody else's. The watch comes in several colors ranging from "wannabe CEO" to "funky is my middle name". The build quality looks great, after all it is made of steel and weighs a ton. One unique, almost "magical" feature i noticed was that when you look at a notification (let's say an email one) on the watch and then take your phone out of your pocket then the same email is there waiting for you!!! The s-voice is also very interesting (that is an understatement -  it is actually a big step on the road to geek Heaven).

Is the Gear the perfect gear?

Is it perfect then? Nope, it is not. My main gripes are:

1) Battery life. Even it makes it through the whole day, it SHOULD be better. I am not saying it could, but is should. A week is the minimum for normal people.

2) No GPS included. This is a major flaw for all fitness tracking enthusiasts who will still be forced to carry their phones as well while running/cycling/etc.

3) No front camera. It is not a very big deal, but it would be nice to have a shooter (even a crap VGA one would suffice) up front, provided it could make videocalls. I bet that the iWatch will have that one.

4) Extremely limited (how does just two at the moment sound?) number of smartphones it can work with. Basically it works with Samsung Galaxy things with BLE AND Android 4.3 only. Galaxy S 4 and 3 as well as Note 2 are going to be supported soon. I suspect that it could work with all Android 4.3 BLE equiped smartphones regardless of the manufacturer but my guess is that Samsung is trying to force people into it's own ecosystem, like Apple has been doing for the past 23 million years. The power of developers out there (XDA comes to mind) is rather unstoppable though, so i imagine things may change, without Sammy's consent, that is. Of course the Gear will never work with an iPhone, i believe.

Should you get one?

If you (like me) are a gadget addict, then most definetely yes. It is your personal ticket to the future and you have had a burning desire for it from the first second you laid your eyes on it. (The song "baby don't go" suddenly popped to my mind especially that part of the lyrics which claimed that: "Got the feeling that i can't resist you, from the moment that i laid my eyes on you".) If you are not completely sold on the whole concept and don't feel like volunteering for an early adopter, maybe you should wait for it's next iteration or for Apple's proposition which may not be that far down the line. If you need to have a smartwatch right now and you don't want to buy a top range Galaxy phone then the Pebble is the only way.

I am definetely going to buy this, even if that means i have to trade in my HTC One for an S4 (which i particularly despise because of it's design and materials) or even a Note 3. Even if that means that i will have to skip the iPhone 5S (or whatever it is called) for now. Unless the next iPhone has something truly groundbreaking which i sincerely doubt but cannot completely rule out. Thank God, September 10 is just around the corner. I am checking the time left every half an hour or so i can't possibly miss that presentation, can I?