A watch first, smart watch second

My dad bought me my first watch when I was 15. It was small, silver, and fit perfectly on my wrist. It was also one of the few gifts I received from him before he passed, so I cherished it. Every time I looked down at that watch, it acted as a small reminder of him. It fell off about 10 years later, but to replace the watch felt like I was moving forward without him.

This year, I decided the time was right, and opted for a smart watch. What I found was that most smart watches seem to be a watch second, and ‘smart’ first. The Apple Watch for example is saddled with apps that are hard to select (fat finger syndrome) and buzz constantly. The original intent of it being a watch felt lost, irrelevant.

I came across the Withings watch (pictured below) and instantly fell in love. Why I felt this way was clarified by the Dourish reading, where he posits “tangible computing is exploring how to get the computer ‘out of the way’ and provide people  with a much more direct – tangible – interaction experience.” (p.16). The Withings watch’s UI is all watch. It tells time. Yet, the unobtrusive second circle tracks my steps and works with an app behind the scenes to store data about my sleep and health. It is minimalist, simple, elegant, yet powerful.

Tangible interaction, as Dourish writes, is a means of exploiting “the ways we experience the everyday world” (p.17). My new watch is the embodiment of an analog user wanting more, without giving up the ability to look at my wrist and instantly know the time.

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