Fashion and fitness took center stage with today's official unveiling of the Apple Watch.
Calling it "a whole new dimension to personal time-keeping that's never been done before," Apple CEO Tim Cook showed off the industry's latest – and easily its most hyped – smartwatch with a flashy mix of videos and testimonials. He highlighted the device's many different looks and styles, and pointed out that it can be used to tell time, curate e-mail, send and receive phone calls.
"I've been wanting to do this since I was five years old," he gushed.
The Apple Watch, which comes with an 18-hour battery, will retail in three different styles, ranging from the Apple Watch Sport $349-$399) to the Apple Watch Collection ($549-$1,049) to the limited-edition, solid-gold Apple Watch Edition ($10,000). Pre-orders will be accepted beginning April 10, he said, and the watches will be on display at that time in retail stores.
By pressing a side button, Cook said, users can connect with friends via Digital Touch – and can send a sketch to another watch, tap on the watch to get a friend's attention, even send a heartbeat. It's "a whole new way to communicate," he said.
Cook then launched into the device's fitness capabilities, Calling the Apple Watch "a comprehensive health and fitness companion," he noted that it can track daily movement, including how long a user is exercising or getting brisk activity, and offer a reminder if you've been sitting too long. Those metrics will be illustrated in a three-ring graphic.
The watch, Cook said, will also send reminders "as a friend would," send reports on Monday of the past week's activity – and set targets for the coming week. "It's like having a coach on your wrist," he said.
As a workout device, Cook said, the Apple Watch offers detailed metrics on distance, time and calories, among other statistics.
It was used recently by fashion model Christy Turlington Burns, who ran the Mount Kilimanjaro Half Marathon in Tanzania and will wear it in eight weeks when she runs the London Marathon.
"I relied on it quite heavily," said Burns, a Harvard Medical School Global Health Council member and founder of the international Every Mother Counts organization, who noted the 13-mile distance of a half-marathon is roughly equal to the distance an expectant or new mother in a developing country travels for maternal healthcare.
Cook noted that Apple Watch users can pay through the Apple Pay app, view photos, play music, use Siri, get notifications that one would get on iPhone (such as keeping track of sports teams), connect to social media and track daily news. Pretty much just like the iPhone, he said, but "now it's on your wrist, not in your pocket or your pocketbook."
"Apple Watch can be an incredibly rich and integral part of your life," Cook concluded.
