Juha Saarinen: Apple's latest certainly one to watch

The Apple watch ranges in price from $1049 to $21,000. Photo / AP

Apple Watches have been on sale in New Zealand for the past two months, and I was finally able to try out the wearable device that everyone's talking about.

My review watch was the 42mm Space Black model with a stainless steel case and black sports band, which retails for $1049. Yes, the watch really is a premium priced product, especially when you factor in that you need an iPhone (at least the model 5) to set it up and manage the device. It's not even the most expensive variant of the wearable: the yellow gold case watch sells for $17,500 and the rose gold one for $21,000.

Being a cheapskate, I'm always reeling at how much people are willing to spend on gadgets. However, analysts reckon Apple sold 4.2 million watches in the second quarter (they were only released in April) so anyone saying they're overpriced and nobody's interested in them is clearly ... wrong.

Anyway, the money buys a nicely designed watch that feels built to last, with a sharp, bright display that's readable even in NZ's harsh sun. It's comfortable to wear, although I hope the next version, which is rumoured to be out next year, will be slimmer.

I didn't think of pausing the watch upgrading its software so I could try out the first version of Apple's WatchOS operating system, to contrast it with the recently released WatchOS2. WatchOS2 combined with the watch hardware passed the "will I wear the device without thinking about it?" test, however, and it doesn't take very long to figure out how to drive the device.

Creating a functional user interface for tiny wrist-worn wearables is a formidable challenge; Apple's concept of navigating apps and features with just one button, and a pushable, multi-function digital crown coupled with a touch screen works well once you get used to it.

There are multiple, customisable watch faces available, some of which are animated, with digital and analogue style clocks - they're tastefully done and present information quite well.

It's early days and I'm still figuring out what the watch can do - apart from checking time and date, and getting notifications from apps (you want to dial these down and not have too many buzzing your wrist when you set up the watch), the remote control for the iPhone camera is useful, ditto the activity app which keeps tabs on how much you stand, walk, exercise, and counts calories.

Using the watch as a not quite hands-free device for calls and navigation works well too, although I'm not sure what the cops would say if they spot you talking to your wrist in the car. Or watching your heart rate spike while avoiding Auckland's kamikaze drivers on the motorway, with the built-in sensor in the watch.

I know only one other person with an Apple Watch so wasn't able to test things like sending a recording of your heartbeat to be played back on a remote device. That's probably a good thing, actually, as the person in question is quite a strange character.

Siri, Apple's personal digital assistant, is available on the watch. It can do quite a bit like make phone calls and fire up apps on the iPhone like maps, but I'm still trying to persuade it to successfully send texts and iMessages instead of saying it will do that and then stop. I'm obviously poking at the watch a lot to start with, but even then it goes through two days before needing to be attached to the magnetic charger.

Two days is fine and much better than the competition, and the watch charges fast (Apple's being straight up with the battery performance http://www.apple.com/watch/battery.html), but I had hoped for a bit more power innovation from Apple, so to speak. It's a pity that the photovoltaic technology isn't good and small enough to charge the battery, for instance.

That said, the Apple Watch is a first-generation device and work in progress, but nevertheless polished and a tribute to the company's engineers as the best overall wearable out there. It'll be interesting to see how far - and where - Apple takes the wearable concept in the future with different display technologies, improved batteries and charging and user interface tweaks.

Watch this space (OK, I apologise for that one.)