Ars Technica Goes Close Up With the Pebble Smartwatch

Ars Technica takes a close look at the crowd-funded Pebble smartwatch. The reviewer had to put up with repeated delays in production as a Kickstarter backer, but seems happy with the watch and optimistic about the future of third-party apps; an SDK is due later this month. "It currently ships with three default watch faces, as well as 12 others that you can load onto the watch with the companion app (free on iOS and Android). By far my favorite custom watch face is 'Fuzzy Time,' which rounds the current time to the nearest 5-minute interval and translates that number to what you might say if your friend asked you the time. While seemingly trivial, I love this rough approximation of time. Rarely do I need to know that it's 5:13:23pm, but seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesome."

Comments

fuzzy time eh?

[rubycodez]

those of us who have "analog" clocks and watches are amused; also we'd probably have that smart watch just display analog clock face

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[rubycodez]

those of us who grew up with mechanical clocks do. also, nothing artificial about using a quartz regulated electronic time source to kick mechanical hands around; even my quartz clocks go tick tick tick....

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Cow Jones]

You know what?
Fuck fuzzy time.

This is one of my pet annoyances in most "web 2.0" products. All those forums giving the time of a message as "a year ago" are driving me mad. Some of them at least have the actual date and time in the title attribute, but that doesn't help much on a mobile device. Let the software be exact, and leave the fuzziness to me, please.

CJ

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

if you set the pebble to display one of its builtin analog watch faces the battery life goes from ~7 days to ~3 due to the second hand.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

I've noticed the past decade or so that people who grow up with much more exposure to digital clocks seem to have a bit of difficulty with interval and passage of time.

If it's 10:11 am and I've got to be somewhere at 10:45, a glance at my old-fashioned* watch and it's a no-brainer to grasp that I've got about a half hour to get there. It's almost funny to ask a digital kid how long we've got to the appointment and watch him stop to do the math.

Analog approximation, one side of brain, done. Digital, one side of brain to the other and back.

Years ago I came across a good article on testing done to help choose analog or digital output for certain kinds of data when designing gauges and displays in cockpits and nuke plants, e.g. The folks who did the study referenced, among others, much of the same material used at PARC when designing GUI. I sure would not mind if people designing our current 'digital experience' displayed more awareness of these kinds of studies.

*Well, not so old-fashioned; it's got solar cells on the watch face keeping charged a battery which powers a quartz-oscillator and motor which drives the hands. I will say the pebble looks pretty neat, but I'll keep with what I've got.

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[Concerned Onlooker]

I've never really understood why they call it the second hand when it's really the third hand if you ask me.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[flimflammer]

All of my rage when I see a timestamp on something that says "5 months ago" or "1 year ago". All. Of. My. Rage.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[isorox]

You know what?

Fuck fuzzy time.

This is one of my pet annoyances in most "web 2.0" products. All those forums giving the time of a message as "a year ago" are driving me mad. Some of them at least have the actual date and time in the title attribute, but that doesn't help much on a mobile device. Let the software be exact, and leave the fuzziness to me, please.

CJ

At that level, yes.

When it comes to recent posts though, it's handy to avoid time zone confusion.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[servognome]

I'm also a watch geek and I like the functionality of electronic and modern tech watches (I own a meta watch that I like to mess around with).
However, I have a special appreciation for classic mechanical watches. I think it's the mixture of art and engineering that intrigues me. They are also much more stylish, though I think smart watches will eventually catch up in this regard.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[rtb61]

Watch, I've stopped wearing one for most of the time and I am finding quite surprising how uncomfortable they truly are. I can't imagine what require me to put one back on all of the time, world war three and the disabling of the internet and all telecommunications? Once you carry a smart phone why carry a watch?

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

*looks at Slashdot's timestamps on every post*

Huh? Timezone confusion? I don't care if it says "an hour ago" or "11:23" when it's 12:23, I'm not going to get confused by the time zones at all. Unless the interface doesn't translate the times to the timezone you're in so you can reference it well. Then, that's a whole additional issue with the interface. And all of them that do the fuzzy bullshit have the timezone issues down already anyhow.

(I am not the original poster. I am just a lurker)

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[wonkey_monkey]

it's really the third hand if you ask me.

What if we don't ask you? Does it remain the second hand then?

Hey, you started it...

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[drkim]

I've never really understood why they call it the second hand when it's really the third hand if you ask me.

You too?
Also:
Why do they call it the 'minute' hand - when it's the biggest hand?
And, why do they call it 'our' hand, when it is really a hand on 'my' watch?

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[isorox]

As I understand, there's no common way of getting the timezone or offset of a given browser. Slashdot times are displayed in Europe/London (for me), as i'm logged in, but I'm in south Africa this week, israel and Italy after that, then on a multi stop tour of the far east.

Now I know the offset to home, however if I'm not logged in slashdot displays one of the American time zones - not sure which. Central rings a bell.

If I look at a random airs, it claims a time, no idea on the zone unless it specifies it. I then have to work out if GMT means GMT or Europe/London. If its in EST it usually means America/Eastern, but is that GMT-4 or -5?

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[tehcyder]

Watch, I've stopped wearing one for most of the time and I am finding quite surprising how uncomfortable they truly are.

Well aren't you the precious little snowflake? I don't even notice mine (until I want to quickly find out the time without fishing around for my phone in my pocket).

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[tehcyder]

What's that got to do with telling the time on a watch?

I agree about the web 2.0 thing.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

Belt and suspenders? Dunno, man, started wearing a watch in '61 or so, didn't get a cell until '06. Don't have (nor can afford) a smartphone, have just a phone that gets and makes calls and serves as an alarm clock.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[neokushan]

I would say that I was one of those people that grew up fully exposed to "digital clocks". My first watch was a digital watch (I guess I was about 6 or 7?), that good ol' casio model that everyone knows. If I wasn't wearing it and I wanted to know the time, I would check one of the many digital clocks around the house - the VCR, Teletext, the Stereo, rather than any of the analogue wall clocks. Even today, I've moved on from plastic watches (at least until my Pebble arrives) to "proper" watches with metal straps, but I still have a digital watch (Which are surprisingly hard to find, most tend to be plastic).

People sometimes asked me if I didn't know how to read analogue clocks, but I did, it's not hard. However, the reason I preferred the digital clocks was that I could read them a lot faster than analogue ones. Perhaps that's just down to a lack of experience with them, but nonetheless a quick glance at my wrist and I would know exactly what time it was. This is important, as although I could glance at an analogue watch and immediately know roughly what time it was, it took too long to figure out what time it was down to the second and I'm pedantic enough to want to know that every time I check the time. To me, there is a world of difference between it being 12:53 and 1 second and 12:53 and 59 seconds.

Even today, when someone asks me what time it is, I rarely give a fuzzy time but prefer to be exact - "It's Twelve Fifty-Three", I would say, rather than Five-to-one. I don't like rough estimates, I don't like saying "this will take about 15mins" if I know it'll take exactly 13 mins. If I'm running late, I will quickly calculate roughly how late I'm going to be, to the best of my ability (sometimes you're running late in such a way that it throws you off completely and you simply can't estimate it - traffic jams, for one). If I need to be somewhere at 14:15 but I'm running 7 minutes late, I will say "I'll be there at about 22 minutes past" rather than saying "I'll be 10mins late" or, heaven forbid, lying and saying I'd be 5mins late. I have absolutely no trouble working out the difference between two digital times, but if you showed me to analogue clocks, it'd take me a good few mins to work out the time difference there. To me, digital is just simple mathematics, it's the "fuzzyness" of analogue that I find slow.

I have always been like this and as far as I'm aware, I'm not autistic or anything like that. I'm just odd, I guess.

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

EST: eastern standard time (-5)
EDT: eastern daylight time (-4)

Daylight saving time is from roughly March to roughly October when clocks are advanced an hour.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Smart watches produced en masse at some Foxconn factory by slaves vs a mechanical watch hand crafted by artisans. A lot of catching up to do.

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[isorox]

EST: eastern standard time (-5)
EDT: eastern daylight time (-4)

Daylight saving time is from roughly March to roughly October when clocks are advanced an hour.

Yes. It's the "roughly march" that makes the problem, especially as the U.S. changes at a different time to Europe. People also write "EST" when they mean "EDT". Fortunately more people write "ET", which means an almost non-ambiguous time.

Beats the situation with GMT, which depending on the user can either mean GMT or BST

Time is unambiguous as long as people use it correctly, however trying to guess if people are using it correctly is the problem.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am the same way, at least the part about preferring digital to analog. I had many digital watches throughout my childhood, and when pagers and cellphones came out, I stopped wearing watches altogether. It wasn't until about a year ago when my girlfriend bought me a nice analog watch that I started wearing one again, and I still find it takes me a couple seconds to figure out the time on the watch. I often times find myself pulling out my phone and looking at that rather than looking at my wrist to find the time.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Kelbear]

I'm not a watch owner, and despite owning a smart phone, I want a watch.

  1) As the new father of a five-month old, I've found that when out and about, typically one or both of my hands are occupied with a baby carrier, car seat, shopping bag, my son, whatever it may be. I hadn't noticed it before, but there is definitely utility to be found in being able to check the time without needing one of your hands.

2) Getting to your phone can take a few moments. It may require standing up to pull it out of a pants pocket, unslinging my shoulderbag and unzipping a pocket, undoing a wintercoat to access an inner pocket, etc. These are not onerous obstacles, but there is still opportunity for efficiency to be gained here.

3) It's an accessory, one of the few afforded to men in the traditional office environment. As silly as it might seem to you or I, there are other people who interpret the attention paid to your personal appearance as a signal for the attention you pay to your professional work. There's little to lose by dressing up a little.

4) Skeleton watches are fuckin' cool. Seeing those gears move, and thinking about the complexity and craft behind those movements tickles my inner nerd pretty fiercely. It'll be tricky finding one that looks tasteful enough to incorporate into an everyday appearance though.

But as I've mentioned, I don't own a watch. Never have. Perhaps once I do have one I'll find watches to be just as uncomfortable as you do.

But returning to the topic at hand...I'm totally uninterested in this "smartwatch". I'm just not in the target demographic. Seems to be most useful to those who constantly check their phones for updates on something.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[farble1670]

Belt and suspenders? Dunno, man, started wearing a watch in '61 or so, didn't get a cell until '06. Don't have (nor can afford) a smartphone, have just a phone that gets and makes calls and serves as an alarm clock.

i'd be really surprised if your "just a phone" phone doesn't also have a clock. check out your manual.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[farble1670]

I don't like saying "this will take about 15mins" if I know it'll take exactly 13 mins

how about if you know it will take 13 mins and 27 seconds? do you include the seconds? would you include tenths of a second? i'm curious how you decide how much precision to include. as much as possible?

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Speare]

The timestamp here on Slashdot says "Mon 08 Apr 12:46AM". Hm, what year? What timezone? From what I've seen, when it archives, it still misses what year it's in.

It's already fuzzy, but it gives the impression of being very specific. Which is worse?

And I'm glad that all your rage goes to something so trivial, rather than something meaningful like fighting oppression at the local, national or global levels.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

Wow, guys, thanks for the peek into how it is for you with time-telling. I've tried to guess about it, but had no way of knowing. I find it both interesting and just for me a wee bit troubling without knowing just why. When I stop to think about it for a while, I can maybe sneak up on how it is for youse - but it's still only a better-informed guess. Gives me something to think on, so thanks again.

I've had the same need for exactitude but only for particular cases, so I think I can understand that part of it. For me, though, a bit of slop is fine and comfortable when it's reasonable in my judgement. Reminds me a bit of the Russian saying, "Better is the enemy of good enough." (The Russians got it many centuries ago from the Chinese, which I've read and would dearly love to remember because the Chinese saying is elegantly subtle.)

So I'm thinking that, as with many things, it's a matter of what one grew up with, and one's mind makes whatever accommodation is needful. I think one reason analogue appeals to me more is that it reminds me of geometry, which I prefer to arithmetic.

Funny, that, the geometry. The only time I ever made a bank shot was in '76 under the influence of a pitcher of dark Pabst and a hit of acid. I saw all the shots as colored lines of laser light, won seven games in a row down at the local pool bar in a neighboring town. (And I'd won maybe three, four games in my life until then.) Even laboring under an almighty thirst from working stone quarry, with seven pitchers in hand my buddy and I were giving the stuff away. Oops, sorry, nothing to do with watches but it was one helluva piece of time.

Oh, yeah, one thing you can do with an analogue watch: if you can see where the Sun is, you can find North. (Or South, in the Southern Hemisphere.) I once used that method on a short eight-mile pioneering hike and it worked OK, not as good as a compass, but I made the rally point; there were other clues besides headings that helped, also.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[flimflammer]

I agree; I've been frustrated by slashdot submissions a number of times in the past, needing to look to the sourced articles to figure out what year it was written in. Omitting the year of a date is pointless and only serves to frustrate those who actually need or want to know just as other instances of fuzzy time.

Sorry if you feel my rage misplaced. If you wish, I'll toss oppression a bone here and there.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[mattack2]

There's little to lose by dressing up a little.

Except for time (buying the fancy clothes, picking out which fancy clothes to wear that day, some/most(?) fancy clothes can't just be washed in the regular washer, putting on the fancy clothes (likely takes longer than a Tshirt & shorts), and money (fancy clothes cost more and the aforementioned possible dry cleaning).

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[neokushan]

As much as possible, yes, with allowing for some variation. If I know something will take an additional 30s, I'll mention it (I'll say two and a half minutes rather than 2, 3 or 5 minutes). That's not to say I don't use "fuzzy" time at all, sometimes all I can do is offer a range ("It'll be between 10 and 15minutes") or a ballpark ("About 20mins, give or take") but depending on the situation, I may keep them more up to date.

I realise this isn't particularly normal behaviour either, my wife has told me off for telling her that the train is running 3mins late ("I don't care unless you're running massively late"). However, upon thinking about it, it's not just time that I do this with, it's a lot of things. When I'm programming, I will comment to be as exact as possible in what it is I'm doing, or at least attempting to do. When people make an ambiguous statement, I will immediately ask for clarification. Sometimes my wife will ask me to pass her a particular bathroom product and she might say "pass me the blue one" but what she calls blue, I might call purple - rather than just passing her that one, I'll ask her to clarify ("The one next to the toothpaste?"). I much prefer to be absolutely sure I'm on the same page as everyone than just assume things.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[farble1670]

my wife has told me off for telling her that the train is running 3mins late

Sometimes my wife will ask me to pass her a particular bathroom product and she might say "pass me the blue one" but what she calls blue, I might call purple

good luck with your marriage.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[rtb61]

Advantage of smart phone don't need to look for my glasses to read the larger display. So just looking at the watch was about quite a few years ago.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[dontclapthrowmoney]

...needing to look to the sourced articles to figure out what year it was written in.

For future reference, the year is in the URL:

hardware.slashdot.org/story/13/04/07/2147246/ars-technica-goes-close-up-with-the-pebble-smartwatch

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

If you read what I wrote you might have noticed that I stated that my phone serves as an alarm clock. I'd long thought that the term "alarm clock" carried with it the notion of clock by virtue of that word being in the term, which word I've taken to meaning an apparatus for displaying time of day.

Until now.

However, I then remembered that in '06 and '07 there was a website up in Canada that I went to that would call me at a specified time of day either once or more often according to a schedule I could set up.

Perhaps you were thinking of that or similar service, such that I wouldn't have the time of day available to be displayed on my phone but could still have it do as an alarm clock.

I have indeed read the manual, which I found on-line; thank you for mentioning that. My phone is old enough - a Motorola 408g, I think, and reconditioned to boot, such that a manual was not sent with it.

It's a real marvel of a phone, truly. I'm sure that is has far more computing power than my old slide rules, although I don't know what it does with it all. Comes with a camera which takes what I hope are decent pics but I don't really know about that. Although I've taken several, I've no way to get them elsewhere. No second storage chip, although I think there's room; no cable, nor Bluetooth anything to send to (hmm, should look to see if my laptop has that...); and although I did fail miserably once trying to email a pic to myself, that's not an option either because it's a costly thing. One day I should try to take away enough meaning from the manual to try again, perhaps when I get around to enabling voice mail, a thing I hope is still as simple as it was on the previous phone.

Any road, I figure you meant well and were trying to be helpful; I am sorry that I'm jumping on you. I'm confess to testy due to pain keeping me up for 36 hours and am very tired, with an hour to go to take the last of the day's pills. You're innocent but in the line of fire, so to speak, and your post set me off a bit. Plus, trying to write anything even minimally coherent is sufficient challenge to try my attention for another few minutes.

I'm going to try to be more clear in phrasing things. And no, I will not use that abominate hack phrase beloved by the thoughtless, "going forward", which I find even worse than the already bad "in future" - although the latter has by now some historical precedence and maybe, possibly, a legitimate usage somewhen.

If one can't tell a future tense when one stumbles over it, perhaps we need think anew on the meaning of literacy. But I'm hardly literate myself, floundering in a lake of tenses unidentifiable by me, being able to use them not through any knowledge apart from that gotten through reading and learning how to speak. I can just manage keep past, present and future in place.

So then, since one lives in present (where else, pray?), and cannot go backward except in mind's memory (unless Mr. Peabody is alive and well), perforce the only other direction available is the one which we move towards even if only by inertia, the future. Which arrives instanter by the instant as we all proceed graveward, plucking each delicious bit of living from the quantum frothy sea.

Cheers, and thanks. I'm off to Nod.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Hognoxious]

As the new father of a five-month old

Be careful, the previous one didn't last long.

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[Hognoxious]

Beats the situation with GMT, which depending on the user can either mean GMT or BST

GMT means Greenwich Mean Time. Without daylight savings. BST (British Summer Time) is GMT+1.

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Beats the situation with GMT, which depending on the user can either mean GMT or BST

GMT means Greenwich Mean Time. Without daylight savings. BST (British Summer Time) is GMT+1.

From the exact same post that you replied to, evidently without bothering to read:

Time is unambiguous as long as people use it correctly, however trying to guess if people are using it correctly is the problem.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

World Hunger - Important.
Fighting Fuzzy Time - Top of the list!

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[servognome]

Mechanical watches are really just fancy pieces of jewelry. Their value has more to do with fashion and limited supply than quality or precision.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

As an old-timer that grew up with watches being an assumed part of one's daily kit, congrats for recognizing that they can be useful, and also not assuming a stance but rather making a conscious choice.

As you may guess, I'm going to recommend an analog display. However, for timing formula or eggs, one might want an added digital display that includes seconds, rather than having to pay attention to the seconds hand. Having used both, I don't have much problem with either one, and watching a seconds hand can be easier than setting a count-down timer or alarm, if that's needful.

So, go to your local clock shop or mega-mart, pick something. Suggest going with a 'name' brand and selecting what suits your needs for least cost. Get a size and band (I still favor strap instead of bracelet, but whatever works) that fits your wrist comfortably. (I have to have good stainless alloy or titanium to avoid probs with severe 'nickel' allergy.) After a while you'll just get used to it, and it might even feel strange if you're not wearing it.

And wow, man, congrats on bambino, all that entails. For all the adjustments and "it's _your_ turn" the whole schmeer is fascinating. Your life is enriched in ways unknown before - but you know this and are discovering. Best wishes.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

Being on same page is good. Fewer assumptions can be good. Fetching the correct object is definitely good. Making a mistake is often not earth-shattering, tho, it's only an iteration to success.

Precision can sure be needful. A titration requires a certain kind and degree of precision, a hard-boiled egg, some, yes, but much less so. And so it goes.

If you don't mind, as one buddy to another, kicking back on the front porch on a sunny Saturday afternoon with a brewski and a bit of lazy conversation, consider, maybe, giving a glance at the range of "precision" and work from none to what's actually operationally needful. You ready for another beer? Is your can half-empty or half-full? (Hint: don't matter; you're ready or not, and "yeah, in a bit" works just fine. Trust me on this.

'Cuz sometimes "the train's running a little late" works easily as well as "the train's five minutes late". And "five minutes" in this case might easily handle plus or minus a minute. Or two. More precision might be useful if you want to go buy a paper and it's two minutes each way and a minute for the transaction and allow x minutes for traffic or dropping your change. Otherwise, fuggedaboutit. Turn off, relax, float downstream. Look about you. Marvel at the people, the way things are put together. Breathe. Ah, nevermind me, different strokes, go with the flow, however that is for you.

So my suggestion, just for grins, is from time to time as you have a spare moment, please consider the approach of lazy -> some degree of precision instead of the other way round. But either way, you may discover some interesting things - about you, and about the world around you. It's a trip, man, and I wish you well on the journey.

For descriptions? Oh, yeah, been there, no foolin'. To extent possible, given operational needs, looser is usually easier so long as the job gets done; or another term in the request will serve for making the distinction. Discovering color differences with your other can be fun when the pressure is off. I still get razzed for thinking peanut butter is green.

Please, good luck, travel well. As Bugs would say "unlax, Doc."

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[neokushan]

Thank you. We've been happily married for a couple of years now. We're also a polyamorous couple, so while you might think is an "extreme" level of communication is actually healthy as you can never have too much communication in a relationship like ours.

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[kermidge]

Oh, jeez, yes.

But I've been wearing glasses longer than having any kind time-teller. First thing upon waking is don glasses. Luckily for me, as myopia lessens with age, not quite so imperative for simple stuff. Find these days that I'll reach for my phone about as often as watch; it's a matter of which is closer/easier to grab, or some coin-toss my mind makes unawares. (Worse, having a choice of which to look at can slow things down because of the time it takes to choose. Funny how things can work, eh?)

Re: fuzzy time eh?

[rubycodez]

so my month and day dials are the fourth and fifth hand? when do we get to the hand that the watch is on? I've been jacking with the seventh hand?

Re:fuzzy time eh?

[rubycodez]

just wait till his little one variously pisses, shits, barfs, snots, spits and whatever else onto his fancy clothes, that'll kill that line of thinking. yes, I have children and experience.

seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesome

[Nutria]

Why aren't you, a geek writer for a tech site, clever enough to do that approximating in your head?

Waste of money.

[Anonymous Coward]

The iWatch will issue a quick and decisive butt kicking to this useless bauble.

Priceless

[roman_mir]

Kickstarter pledges: 99 bucks.
Pebble watch in retail 150 bucks.

Having a watch that will not tell you exact time an instead tell you 'fuzzy' time in 5 minute increments (in words, not numbers) and doing it at 5atm pressure under water?

You see where I am going with this.

Re:Priceless

[Goaway]

Actually, no, I don't.

Re:Priceless

[Stumbles]

Yeah I see where your going; approximately in a fuzzy amount, 165 feet.

Re:Priceless

[tftp]

Having a watch that will not tell you exact time an instead tell you 'fuzzy' time in 5 minute increments (in words, not numbers) and doing it at 5atm pressure under water?

I'm sure when you are 165 feet below you don't want to know the exact duration of your dive. Plus or minus ten minutes is just fine :-)

(Well, otherwise you'd use a proper dive computer, and you'd be alive back on the surface.)

Re:Priceless

[AK Marc]

From the description, it's no more than 3 button presses to get exact time. If you are too stupid to work a watch, you'd be dead at 165 feet from something else anyway.

prior art

[Tastecicles]

I still have a copy of SuSE Pro 7 somewhere, that has a fuzzy time clock on KDE.

Re:prior art

[Animats]

I still have a copy of SuSE Pro 7 somewhere, that has a fuzzy time clock on KDE.

I built a standalone clock like that, using an AtMega CPU with an LCD display. The original idea came from a New Yorker cartoon decades ago, showing such a clock in the window of a clock shop.

Re:prior art

[Carewolf]

Yeah that was pretty cool. You could even adjust the level of fuzziness. I loved setting it high and have it tell me "late afternoon" or at the highest level "the middle of the week".

Re:prior art

[femtobyte]

Yep, I remember seeing that on KDE under Mandrake Linux in the late '90s. You could even adjust the level of "fuzziness," varying from readouts to the nearest minute through "mid-afternoon," "tuesday," "spring," or "20th century".

Re:prior art

[folderol]

The first fuzzy clock I saw was in the late 1980s on an Acorn Archimedes. The wording was pretty good anyway, but you could also edit the text file it was taken from. The look on people's faces when they saw "It's just gone quarter past three" was priceless.

Re:prior art

[Rick Richardson]

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/202/fuzzy-clock/

Re:prior art

[KugelKurt]

Yeah that was pretty cool. You could even adjust the level of fuzziness. I loved setting it high and have it tell me "late afternoon" or at the highest level "the middle of the week".

You can still do that. This clock just became a separate applet since the introduction of Plasma Desktop. It's in the plasma-addons package.

Re:prior art

[Tastecicles]

*that's* where I've seen it before! RISC OS 3 had it!

Incidentally, it is also an option on RISC OS Open for the Raspberry Pi :)

Re:prior art

[NoMaster]

The first one I saw was a program on a CP/M system in the mid-80's. Later in the 80's I had a similar program for PC/MS-DOS. Both were called "realtime", IIRC.

Around the same time I also had a talking watch - from Tandy / Radio Shack? - that spoke the time in the same fashion. I'd set the alarm for 4:25pm & play it over the PA at work when it went off - "Attention please! It's almost four thirty PM".

It could also be set to give a reminder 5 minutes after the alarm time - "Attention please! The time is now four thirty PM. Please hurry!"

Re:prior art

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh God. Visioneers. If you have not seen that movie, I recommend it.

The Jeffrey's Corporation, where the main character works, has a PA system that every minute goes like, "There are now five thousand minutes of productivity remaining" and such.

Your post made me think of that.

Re:prior art

[Tastecicles]

streaming it in about ten minutes... Windows Time...

Or, "Sometime before the Universe dies a heat death, thank you!"

Re:prior art

[tehcyder]

Yeah that was pretty cool. You could even adjust the level of fuzziness. I loved setting it high and have it tell me "late afternoon" or at the highest level "the middle of the week".

Alternatively, you could stop taking so many drugs and you'd know things like what year it is without having to ask a computer.

Re:prior art

[tehcyder]

The first fuzzy clock I saw was in the late 1980s on an Acorn Archimedes. The wording was pretty good anyway, but you could also edit the text file it was taken from. The look on people's faces when they saw "It's just gone quarter past three" was priceless.

Some people are really easily impressed.

Re:prior art

[tehcyder]

I'd set the alarm for 4:25pm & play it over the PA at work when it went off - "Attention please! It's almost four thirty PM".

Why?

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Anonymous Coward]

Why aren't you, a geek writer for a tech site, clever enough to do that approximating in your head?

The writer of the article probably is clever enough to do the approximation in his head. The type of person who's going to wear that watch? Maybe not.

Do you rememeber when...

[Anonymous Coward]

..watches ran on a battery lasting several years without recharging. That was awesome.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Arancaytar]

And phones that lasted for weeks, too.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[ColdWetDog]

And sex lasted ...

Well, I've got nothing.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[folderol]

I've got a solar powered watch :) The only annoying thing is it doesn't do daylight saving, so I have to set it twice a year.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Anonymous Coward]

A solar powered device that can't save daylight? Kind of ironic!

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Anonymous Coward]

I imagine this is where the fuzzy time clock face comes in useful.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you remember when watches just gave the time and nothing else?

Traditional watches aren't going away, and for those of us that like the functionality that these smart watches offer, we'll adapt.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[antdude]

Yep, my Casio Databank calculator watches did that. I still wear one (150 model). :)

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Anonymous Coward]

A strange choice for a slashdot user unless the glow of display is enough to charge it. I would recommend a automatic watch which winds the main drive with a weight as you move your arm. On second thought, a typical slashdotter might break it from over winding...

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Richy_T]

If it's like mine, you also have to manually set it for each of the timezones. So most of them are wrong for 1/2 of the year.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[kermidge]

Yup, I do. The battery was replaced, not recharged. Somewhere I've got a fine $20 Timex that was usually good for about two and a half years between batteries.

I remember watches that had to be wound every day. I also remember when self-winding watches came into the consumer market. So long as you moved around a bit every day they worked fine. The arm you wore them on got a little bit stronger as well.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[green1]

I have one of those from about 60 or 70 years ago... a Birks "Eternamatic" I really like it, unfortunately it's taken to not telling time too accurately any more (gains about 20mins to an hour and a half a day) so I've stopped wearing it.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[isorox]

If it's like mine, you also have to manually set it for each of the timezones. So most of them are wrong for 1/2 of the year.

As soon as I step on a plane I set my watch for the destination time zone. Really helps with jet lag (not that I've needed it recently - not been more than 4 hours off home since January)

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[tehcyder]

..watches ran on a battery lasting several years without recharging. That was awesome.

They still do.

In the last ten years I have replaced watch batteries 4 times over 3 watches

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[AK Marc]

Traditional watches aren't going away,

Right, they aren't "going away" they are gone. I don't know anyone who wears a wristwatch. Where I am now, I can see about 100 people, not all have visible wrists, but I see exactly zero watches. I also see zero watch chains as well.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[gblackwo]

My Vostok can be adjusted for accuracy. Yours might have an adjuster also.

Re:Do you rememeber when...

[Richy_T]

Ok, I see I was a little ambiguous. My watch has each timezone which makes it really easy to switch. Heading to England? Dial up LON, hit both buttons and watch in amusement as the hands spin around. It has at least 12 different timezones however and no way to know which is supposed to be in daylight savings (or whatever the local equivalent is called). Typically I only bother to set them correctly if I know I'll be needing them. What would be nice would be to plug in the watch once a year and have it programmed for all the upcoming changes. It's not quite that level of technology though (I still like it a lot).

I would buy one.

[p00kiethebear]

Looks like a fun novelty. I'll wait to see what kind of third party apps start coming out before I make my purchase. That will make or break the sale for me.

Re:I would buy one.

[hcs_$reboot]

..if it was "retina"

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[retchdog]

anyone is clever enough to do that approximating in his head. some people find different versions of presentation to be aesthetically pleasing.

More interesting than "quarter after five"

[Arancaytar]

"[n] seconds until your appointment/train departure/etc."

While approximate time of day is a useful gimmick, you don't really need a watch to keep track of that.

Re:More interesting than "quarter after five"

[Arancaytar]

(The nice thing about this watch, of course, is that you absolutely could make it do that while looking up your calendar or time table.)

SDK coming soon???

[xombo]

They still haven't released an SDK and they won't do so for a while after it ships?

What are people going to do with it while they wait for developers to receive their device and build apps?

I owned a much more feature rich device in a similar watch form-factor, the WiMM One. While the device was nice, there was never a good enough set of apps with addictive utility to me that justified the constant battle with battery life. It launched with a complete app SDK and was built on Android so it was trivial to develop apps for. This device doesn't have an SDK available and isn't as conventional. I suspect it will meet much the same fate once these initial orders are fulfilled.

Re:SDK coming soon???

[Anonymous Coward]

They still haven't released an SDK and they won't do so for a while after it ships?

What are people going to do with it while they wait for developers to receive their device and build apps?

Let's ask everyone who bought the original iPhone :)

Re:SDK coming soon???

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, it's a watch. They'll use it to TELL THE TIME.

If you say so...

[Kjella]

Rarely do I need to know that it's 5:13:23pm, but seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesome."

Perhaps not in seconds, but I rather like to know how many minutes I've left to catch the bus since three and eight are quite different. I guess I really only look at the seconds if I'm trying to time something, which is rare but unless it's spoken I'd rather have it with numbers... how often do people really write "quarter past three" instead of 3:15 pm (or actually 15:15 around here)?

Re:If you say so...

[Anonymous Coward]

Watches for sailing have things like a high contrast pie-chart that shows the count-down time to a race start in a very nice analog fashion that you can read at a glance while jumping around your boat riggings. They even have ones with a series of pie charts indicating the three minute count down... as each one finishes, it stays one solid color while the next one starts showing a fractional sweep.

Re:If you say so...

[tehcyder]

Rarely do I need to know that it's 5:13:23pm, but seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesome."

Perhaps not in seconds, but I rather like to know how many minutes I've left to catch the bus since three and eight are quite different. I guess I really only look at the seconds if I'm trying to time something, which is rare but unless it's spoken I'd rather have it with numbers... how often do people really write "quarter past three" instead of 3:15 pm (or actually 15:15 around here)?

I've never lived anywhere where you could time buses down to the nearest minute, do you live in Switzerland or somewhere?

Meh

[Intrepid imaginaut]

I thought it would look like a pebble. That would have been cool. Instead it just looks like a standard issue watch.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Nutria]

That wasn't the tone of the original quote.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[aaronb1138]

Ars has been bringing in new writers, most of whom are turning out to be low grade hacks ever since The Verge started taking chunks of marketshare. Doesn't help that post Apple / Samsung lawsuits, Apple has been getting a much more public backlash for being trendy arrogant bullshit and marketing. Ars' heavy pro-Apple slant is starting to cost them readership there too.

Still, editorially out of touch with both technophiles and the public, they put out articles like this:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/04/i-was-an-ipad-skeptic/

The Pebble article was put out by someone completely new, doesn't even have a writer's bio on the site yet.

Then there is this new hack who is completely incomprehensible:
http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/inside-science-selling-and-upsizing-the-meal/

All Apple product has shrinking market share

[tuppe666]

The iWatch will issue a quick and decisive butt kicking to this useless bauble.

Why? In fact there is a big question whether anyone wants an iwatch at all. Currently I see many manufactures with smart watches coming Sony; Samsung; Google to name a few. Apple unlike its incredible run of iPod, iPhone, iPad has no advantages (Large American Fanbase!?)...and several disadvantages; vertical integration a past advantage has been squandered for short term profits (admittedly vast profits)...and is now a disadvantage. The [as yet vapourware] iwatch is launching into a very hostile, highly competitive *mature* market, with many major players...and products like this are already below $100 [and its very appealing].

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[ColdWetDog]

and products like this are already below $100 [and its very appealing]

You are just missing one small detail here. The presumed price of the iWatch (presuming it even exists) will be MORE expensive than everyone else. Thus, Apple will have a built in differentiator from the crowded field. One that they've used before to good effect.

Whether we think it's worth the added price is irrelevant (and I point out that Slashdot's long term ability to predict the popularity of various Apple products is a bit limited).

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[green1]

That has never stopped them before. Apple is very good at taking existing products, removing features and usability, putting their own spin on them, doubling the price, and selling millions of them to people who think that Apple makes the only one and refuse evidence to the contrary.

Before the iPod there were cheaper, and more functional music players.
Before the iPhone there were cheaper, and more functional cell phones.

I predict this will be the same. There will be all sorts of smart watches on the market first, and that will do more than the Apple version, but Apple will still come in and sell millions of their version to their blind followers.

Either that, or people will just not buy in to the smart watch thing at all... I'm still sort of split on this one, I think I'm waiting for a "killer app" for it.

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoken like a true hater engineer.
The success of these Apple products is not about the sum of functionalities, but about engineering them in a way that is much, much nicer to use than what people were used to.
Let's face it, you don't have ot be a fanboy to admit that before the iphone smarphones sucked. And the original ipod was so much nicer to use than the horrid competitors before it, where you typically had to browse files.
But, yes, here at slashdot where many people love typing vowel-less commands in a console such efforts are not appreciated.
I am curious what they'll do with a watch. If they do it well, it could be the start of the next step in truly personal/wearable computing (eventually even replacing the phone altogether). The current offerings (pebble, G-shock and a few more) are not that inspiring.

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[isorox]

The iWatch will issue a quick and decisive butt kicking to this useless bauble.

Why? In fact there is a big question whether anyone wants an iwatch at all.

Like most people, I rely on my phone telling me the time. However its a right hassle getting it out just to glance at it.

What would be awesome is a slimmed down device which just tells me the time (and maybe day of month), which I could wear on my wrist.

I trust apple will make something that fits this market that people don't even realise exists.

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[backslashdot]

The reason the iWatch will kick this things butt is because the iWatch will:

1. Have a speakerphone
2. Allow you to answer/defer/pre-ring silence calls
3. It will have a speakerphone
4. Will let you respond with canned texts using the touch UI or text back using the Voice UI, when you don't wish to answer in speakerphone mode that is.
5. Did I mention the iWatch will have a speakerphone feature?
6. It will have voice activation.

Re:All Apple product has shrinking market share

[tehcyder]

Like most people, I rely on my phone telling me the time. However its a right hassle getting it out just to glance at it.

Why, apart from fashion, don't you wear a watch then?

What would be awesome is a slimmed down device which just tells me the time (and maybe day of month), which I could wear on my wrist.

If you can't be bothered to wear a wristwatch now, why would you bother wearing a "smartwatch" just to tell you the time and do a few other things, when to do those things comfortably you're going to need to have your smartphone with you anyway?

Does it have a Daliclock mode?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd consider buying one if it did.

Re:Does it have a Daliclock mode?

[cduffy]

Part of what makes e-ink awesome is that it only sucks battery while it's updating.

Daliclock means it's updating all the time. That would suck.

Re:Does it have a Daliclock mode?

[javispedro]

Np, it does not have an e-ink display.

Re:Does it have a Daliclock mode?

[wonkey_monkey]

It has a "memory LCD" display, also described as "epaper," which suggests it similarly uses less power while static.

Maybe better for android?

[fermion]

If I had been proactive and ordered in the first few days of the Kickstarter, I might be on the Pebble bandwagon. As it was I really did not get over to Kickstarter until it was over and at that point my impression, which has been played out, it that there was no date for shipping.

In a way I am glad I did not go in. Apple, as we can all agree, is not very open on the interfaces to iOS, which is why there are so many cool gadgets for Android and so few for iPhone. From what I can tell from the site, the battery life is not so good when used with iPhone and the only thing that really works with a stock iPhone is the messaging, and I don't even know if that includes imessage.

it will be interesting to watch this evolve over the summer. If the battery life improves. If they interface better with the iPhone. If they can ship quickly.

Re:Maybe better for android?

[The Wild Norseman]

As it was I really did not get over to Kickstarter until it was over and at that point my impression, which has been played out, it that there was no date for shipping.

Sure there was. It was just set to fuzzy time: "Ships sometime this century!"

Re:Maybe better for android?

[DaveOrZach]

Apple supported Bluetooth 4 (low energy) before Android and as a result several useful and cool gadgets were released for iOS before Android (Fitbit One, etc.) I think developers had to write custom drivers/interfaces for each low energy Android device before the latest version of Jelly Bean. There is no doubt Android is more open than iOS but it is a lie to say their isn't cool gadgets for the iOS devices.

I have one, and really like it.

[gerardv]

I have one, and while it is a bit rough and clunky in some ways, there are three things about it that really work well for me: 1. Caller ID and SMS messages displayed. My phone is now always on silent and often left in my bag, because the watch alerts me better than a ring tone does. 2. Music play functions, so I can change tunes easily while driving (I have a borrowed car so not worth installing a kit). 3. The big watchface with big numbers because without my specs my eyesight sucks. So all in all I am a happy customer.

Re:I have one, and really like it.

[MagusSlurpy]

I liked mine for the three days it worked. Seeing who was calling, seeing text messages and FB messages without having to pull my phone out was great.

The fact that it would not charge, or that I've been waiting a week since I emailed tech support (from in-app, which I have to admit was nice) and got the robo-response below is something I like less.

"Pebble | Apr 01, 2013 07:33AM UTC

Hello,

Thank you for supporting Pebble!

We are currently experiencing a higher-than-average amount of emails as we start shipping more Pebbles to our Backers.

Please do not send multiple messages about the same issue, as it will only delay responses further. We’ve prepared a list of answers to common questions, so please take a few minutes to check if your question has already been answered. . ."

Re:I have one, and really like it.

[epine]

I've had mine for about 5 days now. So far it's worked pretty much flawlessly. It was a bit thicker than I anticipated, fairly large in the frame, and maybe not suitable for a woman's wrist, although the screen itself is small enough if the frame were a bit more compact. I've got a second one on order, in one of the colours they are not yet making.

I was surprised to get a notification this morning with my phone in one corner of the house, and my watch in the opposite corner (on the sill in the bathroom while taking a shower). I really didn't expect the BT to work at that range with a 90 degree bend from a large room into the hallway and then through a closed door at the far end. Perhaps it was a bit of fluke. Not enough data yet.

The vibration is surprisingly audible on the wrist, and even more so when the watch is left lying on a flat surface. This partly makes up for not having a beep.

Features are pretty limited as it stands, but the interface is dead easy to use with the four buttons provided. On the plus side, one can program a large number of distinct alarms. On the down side, there's no way to disable an alarm without deleting it completely.

I have two LCD screens on my desk. One is polarized horizontally, and the other vertically. With my polarized shades one display goes so dark I wonder if it's turned on--until I tip my head to either side. This causes the watch display to look a little funky when there are not other lights on in the room: different regions go darkish as I tilt my hand. For two puzzled seconds earlier today I thought the e-paper display had leaked.

It's super visible in bright light and a little hard to read in early dusk before you reach for the light switch. I turned my backlight off to better monitor battery life without accidental backlight activations. The wrist flick works, but it works too often if you have busy hands. No, I don't mean typing. No, I don't mean stereotypical activities, either.

I would never have bought one without the promise of an SDK to allow me to make customizations. There are aspects of my life not tied to a 24 hour clock, and I want my watch to display these other relationships as well as standard time. I'm happy enough with it, but it's just a silly toy for me until Pebble releases their SDK.

Re: I have one, and really like it.

[cerberusss]

Kickstarter is not a store. As part of your backing/pledge, you got a gift. That gift is a first run of the product, and warranty is not the same as a product you buy in a store. Or so the party line goes, I'm not necessarily agreeing or disagreeing.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Demanufacture]

I wouldn't say that the website as a whole as a pro-Apple slant, although some of the individual writers certainly do. My biggest complaint is just the sheer volume of Apple-related pseudo-articles. They need to add some kind of filtering feature which allows articles with certain attributes (e.g. author) to be hidden, otherwise the signal-to-noise ratio is in danger of dropping too low.

Can anyone here suggest sites that are "like Ars was back when it was good"?

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Sponge Bath]

Translation: aaronb1138 hates Apple, and assumes a popular tech site is doomed (DOOMED!) because they wrote something he disagrees with.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Nerdfest]

I stopped reading Ars as well, for the same reason. They turned into too much of a fanboi site. TechCrunch and Forbes as well.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[retchdog]

i disagree.

he seems to prefer knowing the time to the nearest 5 or 15 minutes or whatever, and this watch gives it to him without his needing to process it mentally. since he calls the process "trivial," i can only conclude that, yes, he could do it himself like anyone else on the planet, but why bother?

more likely, he just think it's cool and will get over it in a few days when he finds himself toggling to the standard clock mode for every appointment, but whatever.

You're going the wrong way!

[Anonymous Coward]

2. Music play functions, so I can change tunes easily while driving (I have a borrowed car so not worth installing a kit).
3. The big watchface with big numbers because without my specs my eyesight sucks.

Well, as long as you can change tunes easily who needs specs for driving?

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Nutria]

Maybe most people *want* to be dumbed down.... :(

Fuzzy time?

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean that python script I've had since 2009?
http://codepad.org/36fPqZoa

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[ColdWetDog]

Ah, well, welcome to Slashdot. We don't like nobody. You'll fit right in.

Even if we don't like you.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[retchdog]

jesus fucking christ. it's not dumbed down.

feynman has an anecdote where he tries to determine if people can count and read at the same time. his results were that half of the people he tested could, and the others could not. the ones who could, counted by imagining visually a clock face or such, and the numbers incrementing on that. the ones who couldn't counted by mentally counting verbally. there was no difference between the two groups in terms of IQ or other achievements. some people just think differently. (feynman's conclusion was that, if something this simple was that complicated, psychometry was totally hopeless.)

you know, a good analog watch gives more precision than an HH:MM:SS digital watch. is that dumbed down? no. some people like the digital readout; some people like the analog; and if you really need exact time you can get a watch with a millisecond timer.

Not Awesome

[SuperKendall]

Rarely do I need to know that it's 5:13:23pm, but seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesome

Let's say I want to seep my tea for five minutes. That means I want to know when five minutes is from the last time I looked at my watch. Even a few minutes window there is no good. Even just 5:15 showing as something non-numeric is not great as I have to mentally parse it. If I have any kind of clock, I'm in it for the time. If I can't have that why even bother?

Where I don't mind wording like that is on time-stamps of messages older than a day. Then I'm mostly OK with it. But current data, show me the data and not a layer removed.

Re:Not Awesome

[tehcyder]

Let's say I want to seep my tea for five minutes.

Then you use the stopwatch function on your watch, if it has one, or else just switch to exact instead of fuzzy time for that one particular act.

Forget the Metronome

[Epeeist]

Could you have a watch face like this one

Re:Forget the Metronome

[TheLink]

This might be easier to do: http://sillywalkclock.blogspot.com/

I'm assuming it's a monochrome display.

Yawn

[Horshu]

Microsoft called and wants its SPOT watch back. Oh, wait, no it doesn't.

I'm sold

[DrXym]

I've always wanted a watch which could tell me the approximate time and requires charging once a week.

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[TheRaven64]

I gave up on Ars when Jon Stokes left, as I realised that 95% of the articles they published that I actually read and then didn't come away thinking that the writer was an ignorant hack were written by him. They stayed in my RSS feeds for about a month without producing a single article worth reading, and then I removed them. Don't be too hard on their writers though. I responded to their last call for freelancers, but didn't end up doing anything for them because they pay somewhere between a quarter and a half of the market rate, so it's not surprising that they have difficulty getting competent people.

British English

[bob_jordan]

Hello,

Any chance of a British English option so "quarter after five" becomes "quarter past five"?

Thanks, Bob.

Misread

[nitehawk214]

At first I read this as "Pebble Sandwich", which sounds almost as distasteful.

ankara nakliyat

[Anonymous Coward]

ankara nakliyat
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ankara nakliyat

[Anonymous Coward]

ankara nakliyat
ankara evden eve nakliyat l
ankara nakliyat firmalar l
ankara nakliye l
ankara evden eve nakliye l
ankara nakliye firmalar l
ankara tamaclk
ankarada tamaclk
evden eve nakliyat ankara
ankarada evden eve nakliyat
ankarada evden eve nakliye
ankara evden eve nakliye
ankara evden eve nakliyat
nakliyat ankara
tamaclk ankara
ankara nakliye
ankara evden eve nakliye
nakliye ankara

Why should I have to?

[SuperKendall]

Then you use the stopwatch function on your watch

Which is way more involved than simply looking at my watch once, and then a few times more before five minutes has expired. There's no reason why the use should have to go to so much bother for something as simple as telling when it's been about five minutes.

Having a watch proclaim it is "quarter past five" is the ultimate case of form over function. It gives you nothing that is more useful in any way than the simple time - it's just there to look cool. Even virtual "hands" would offer actual function over a digital display (relative location within the hour).

Not necessarily an iWatch

[DrYak]

I am curious what they'll do with a watch. If they do it well, it could be the start of the next step in truly personal/wearable computing

No hard to guess: They'll probably go with a variantion of the current 6-gen ipod nano.
With a low power wireless com (imagine an apple proprietary extension of Bluetooth Low Energy) and a way to have a sufficent battery life with a always-on colour screen (probably colour epaper or newer li-po battery generation, whichever is easiest for them).

you can also bet that Apple *WONT* follow an openstandard like NFC, but instead they will expect every manufacturer to follow their own proprietary techology (Apple iTicket ?) for wireless tickets.

but overall, they'll play the same "wait'n'see" game they played with mp3-pleyers and smart-phones. Don't expect it now. Expect the iWatch to show up in future point in time when the waters have already been tested by for runners, and good use-case to sell to end customers have been identified and played with.
(Same got the probable iGlass).

The current offerings (pebble, G-shock and a few more) are not that inspiring.

Wait for the SDK to arrive and then the clever app start coming.
There are tons of interesting uses for an always-on device on the wrist beyond the "funny clock faces" and "alerts for incoming mails/messages".

Re:seeing that it's 'quarter after five' is awesom

[Hognoxious]

you know, a good analog watch gives more precision than an HH:MM:SS digital watch.

Bullshit.