By Joanna Stern
Every watch I've ever owned has done just two things: quickly
given me the time, and looked nice on my wrist.
That's turned out to be too tall an order for the first wave of
smartwatches from Samsung, LG Electronics, Pebble and the like.
Sure, they do far more than the classy Tag Heuer and Michael Kors
watches in my collection. But the minicomputers that collect
fitness data and ping me with phone notifications are more apt for
a spread in Maximum PC than Vogue. Simply put: They're ugly.
That's not the case for Motorola's $250 Moto 360, which was
announced back in March and begins shipping today. Unlike the boxy
black models that have flooded the market, it's the first
smartwatch to look like an actual watch, with a round face and a
leather band.
The Moto 360 is a big step in the right direction--but it still
doesn't meet my criteria for a smartwatch due to hardware and
software shortcomings.
One Size Does Not Fit All
A stainless-steel frame surrounding its 1.56-inch circular touch
screen and a high-quality gray or black leather band from Chicago's
revered Horween tannery make Motorola's timepiece look and feel
like something you'd find at Tourneau rather than Best Buy.
And while the water-resistant watch has the specs of a sports
watch--an optical heart-rate sensor and pedometer--it really is
more for the everyday. The soft leather strap uncomfortably stuck
to my sweaty wrist during a spinning class. Motorola plans to sell
metal bands later this year for $79 and is exploring plastic-band
options.
But the beauty of the 360 isn't just its classic round screen,
it's that you aren't stuck with the same face forever. Motorola
offers an eclectic selection of eight faces, including a
chronograph layout, a black face with a bold red second hand and,
my personal favorite, a clean, white Tissot-like design with the
date. Even better, unlike LG or Samsung's models, those vibrant
faces are easy to read outdoors.
However, the round display isn't perfect. The bottom of the
circle is frustratingly chopped off. Motorola explains that it's
where the engineers had to put the display driver and ambient light
sensor. All I know is every time I looked at it I was reminded of
making construction-paper squircles in kindergarten.
And the problem for women like me, with thin wrists, is that the
watch may sound small--1.8 inches in diameter and just a half-inch
thick--but it almost looks like I grabbed a clock off the wall and
strapped it to my arm.
Of course, size wasn't an issue for everyone who tried it on. It
looked decent on my father's medium-size wrist, and just right on
my co-worker's extra-large one.
Motorola says it is working on smaller versions, but that makes
me concerned about battery life: Even this big, honking model had
to be charged twice a day. Most days, after charging it overnight,
I had to put it back on its wireless charging cradle by 4 p.m. If
only the large black circle could also work as a sundial so I could
still tell the time when the battery dies.
Software Still Underdone
When I wasn't looking for the time or matching my watch face to
my outfit, I glanced at my wrist to see what notifications were
awaiting me on my Bluetooth-paired Moto X Android phone.
As I wrote earlier this summer, the best thing about Android
Wear is Google Now --Google's timely and relevant alerts, which are
pieced together based on information from my Gmail, calendar, Web
searches and other Google interactions. Over the past week, my
watch told me to leave for my dinner reservation early because of
traffic, informed me my important package had shipped and reminded
me about the Yankees-Red Sox game.
As crazy as it seems, I've also gotten quite used to speaking to
my watch. It's now second nature for me to say into my wrist "Is it
going to rain today?" or "Remind me to move the car in the
morning."
But while those short spurts of information are useful, the
constant vibrating notifications about new emails, tweets or
Facebook friend requests aren't. If I wanted to see every
notification on my phone, I'd just hold my phone in my hand all
day. Google's director of Android engineering, David Singleton,
says his team is working on improvements that will allow for more
control over notifications. Bonus: Fewer notifications would mean
better battery life.
The platform's infancy also means a lack of really useful apps.
While support for some have been added in the past few weeks,
including being able to track a run with Runkeeper or call a cab
with Uber, there is still a dearth of what I believe are the killer
apps for this platform: health and fitness. There is the built-in
Android Wear Fit tracker but it's no match for Jawbone or Fitbit's
broad cross-platform fitness-tracking capabilities. Apps from Nike
and Adidas are on the way, Google says.
The company says the platform is a work in progress. New apps
are arriving by the day and, unlike on Android phones, Google is
pushing improvements straight to watches. During my first days of
testing, an update arrived on the Moto 360 that improved voice
recognition and navigation.
The Moto 360 tells the time better--and looks better--than any
other smartwatch. But right now it's telling me that it's not the
time to buy one. Smartwatches still need improvements, both in
hardware and software.
Apple is expected to unveil wrist wearables in two sizes next
Tuesday, while Google is promising a slew of Android Wear updates
before the end of the year. And the companies that make Android
Wear hardware are rapidly releasing new designs as they, too, start
to realize that one size doesn't fit all.
Eventually a smartwatch will be added to my collection, making
the others look like ancient Egyptian relics. But for the time
being, I'm sticking with a phone in my hand, and an old-fashioned
analog watch on my wrist.
Write to Joanna Stern at
joanna.stern@wsj.com
or follow her on Twitter at
@JoannaStern
.
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