Is Apple Saying Goodbye to Fashion?

I regard the Apple Watch as " A giant step for mankind " . I cannot do without so many of its functions. Albeit, haven't even scratched the surface of all it can be. I am techie lazy. I wish I could get rid of two Rolex ( oyster and Celine (for attending funerals ) Omega antique diamond bracelet watch(weddings) antique '40's Rose gold watches with diamonds and rubies ( ALA Crawford) Cocktail Watches (drag events). Even on eBay the market is soft....I deem them "relics" of the past.

Can someone pls explain the Graham Greene reference?

Fashion and technology will converge whenever one can help the other sell more. It seems clear that fitness/health-enabled tech will be increasingly woven into clothing, fashionable or not. And tech that can help fashion brands create unique and visually compelling items is certainly on the way. If YSL could make a dress that changes with your mood, whim or surroundings, you can expect to see it on the red carpet worn by the next up-and-coming actress or YouTube celeb. The only relationship that matters is the ability to sell stuff and make money - the two things that matter most to Silicon Valley and the Fashion industry.

I’m 65 years old. I didn’t know I was using a ‘wearable’ . But as soon as Apple added a function to call 911 if I fell, I traded my Apple Watch 3 for the Apple Watch 4. It’s not fashion-it’s planning ahead.

What Apple needs is true vision and Tim Cook seems to have none. Trying to position an Apple product like a fashion item is a profoundly wrong move – Steve Jobs' Apple products have always occupied a unique category of their own, a category of tools that would make people work, play and interact differently. Hiring Angela Ahrendt, partnering with Hermès, launching at Colette...none of this was necessary before... The Apple Watch is the only Apple product I have never owned because I truly don't need it, never found it fun and mostly it never felt like an innovation I needed to integrate into my life. Having been an Apple fan for 20 years, I am seriously appalled at what this company has been doing lately – Outdated iTunes, unstable Mail, unnecessary iPhone launches, mingling with movie stars and fashion types to give products credibility... It's sad, more so because right now, no other company seems to be doing any of it right either. It's technology for the sake of technology and launches for the sake of launches. Sad and useless. What Apple should do is start to Think different again.

The Apple watch is the ultimate "fashion=function" object. I find I use it more than ever for more things than I ever expected. The band and the color of the bezel play second fiddle; black always in style.

It's lipservice for the fashion industry (and consumers) to talk about sustainability when everything is throwaway in 1-2 years' time.

another good column-thoughtful and articulate. Glad you decided to"hop over the pond" and write for the Times.

The Apple watch changed my life. As an educator who has timed meetings with students, the Apple watch has allowed me to create reminders and timers that vibrate on my wrist to let me know when I have only a few minutes left in a session. I don’t have to check my phone, look at my watch or view the clock on the wall- making the student feel like I’m trying to speed up a session. I can check and adjust my hearing aid settings from the app on my watch, pay for my purchases with apple pay or the Starbucks app and I can go for moonlit walks with my child at night knowing that if I need it-I can make a call from my watch which is harder for someone to remove from my wrist than to take a cell phone from my hand.

My favorite was the prediction that Apple will put the Swiss watch industry out of business .

How much would they pay me to wear one? People have too much money if they view this as a worthwhile purchase.

I have always combined wearables and fashion, long before Apple had the idea. I still do. I have many wearables that I use every day. I'm wearing one now. It covers my torso and arms and is very fashionable. I haven't even buttoned the collar buttons just to make a statement. I have two wearables, mirror images of each other, covering the lowest parts of my support limbs. I also have others of them, some very fashionable Gucci versions. I also have quite a few - too many, actually - wearables that cover the top of my head. Many of them feature the brands of particularly fashionable sports teams. Oh, the list goes on.

Kids used to go to the mall and get cheap clothes at chain stores small and large. Now my fashion is direct communication by messaging my friends with my phone or watch or whatever. A lot of those stores have closed, why go into a store? It costs nothing to make a photo of a beautiful flower I don't have to buy a shirt with that on it. Peace and no straw in my drink please.

The missing man The big problem with Apple is that it lost its founder: Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was unique in that he could think of things that had never existed before and almost by sheer force of will bring them into existence. Steve Jobs knew a computer that would fit inside your pants pocket would change the world. It was his idea to marry a pint sized personal computer with a cell phone that really changed everything, such a thing didn't even exist in sci-fi, even on star trek that ideal vision of the future a device like the iphone is absent, even in 2001 a space odyssey that meticulous look into the near future, even Kubrick never envisioned an entertainment center that would fit inside a purse. The idea was hatched by one solitary man. A man who created pure magic. Into this grubby world singular genius like Job, Edison , Bell, Newton, etc is very rare. These are the people who change the world. All else is just imitation and the slow evolution of things. Jobs created one giant leap forward for the human race..

My wife and I both have the Series 0 (original) Apple Watch Sport (the least expensive model). We bought them when Target had them on sale, $50 off each, and this was before the Series 1 was released. When the watch was released, I was one of the many who said, "why do I need that?" After all, I abandoned my Seiko self-winding watch when I found myself looking at the clock on my Nokia cell phone for the time. And yeah, the $10,000 version grabbed the headlines, as the most expensive things always do, and who knows, maybe Apple sold a bunch of them. So, the watch. Others talk about the fitness features. Whatever. The watch really shines in two ways: a) Apple Pay. Don't take your phone or wallet out of your pocket at the store. Just put the watch face next to the point-of-sale terminal, and ding! Payment made. Watch and wallet remain secure in your pocket or pocketbook. b) Navigation. Say you are walking in an unfamiliar city. The map app on the phone is brilliant, right? Except when that Bad Guy bumps you and takes the phone out of your hands. The watch will buzz you when you need to turn. So you just glance down at your watch, see what you need to do next, and go on. Are those features worth $300? That's your call. Worth $1,000? No. Do you need the newest version with the cellular data connection? No. But I think that when people decry it and say "it's for status-conscious fools," well, that says more about the person criticizing the product than the product itself.

I don’t think a product that makes no sense can really ever take off and be successful. And a digital watch no matter who produces it is exactly such a no sense type of thing. What exactly can you do with it’s tiny screen other than check the time (🙄) and getting (mostly inaccurate) heartbeat data. It’s nonsense. While I’m never wearing a watch to begin with if I ever would it definitely would have to look different than this tiny version of an iPhone (aka ugly rectangular shape) attached to my wrist. I also noticed on Apple Watch users that the screens on their wrists are constantly lighting up. Walking Christmas tree came to mind.

Perhaps some are beginning to grasp that having EMF signals bouncing through your body at all times isn't a good thing. Or that wearing your addiction only intensifies it.

Fitbit had, and still has, the right idea with wearables. This is a passing fancy for others. My money is on fitbit - still the best product out there for health/fitness without a bunch of nonsense/noise.

All these fashionistas went wild over ... a watch?!?

Wearables was always a dumb idea. Ditto driverless cars. And much of "AI." When are we going to see the hype that manufactures "interest" around untested, futuristic tech ideas?

Nah, things are fine.

Face it, the Apple watch is unattractive no matter its utility. You can put an Hermes band on it and it still doesn't improve what is an ungainly and cheesy looking watch on your wrist. It really is just a silly attempt to put lipstick on a pig.

Walking down the street just now, in DUMBO, a little girl sulkily trailing her nanny was talking into her Apple Watch, a la Dick Tracy. Maybe she was 8. A woman's voice was coming out of it, tinnily asking about school. You cannot get more fashionable than that, right?

I am a late adopter of the Apple Watch. I use it for personal feedback and view the watch as a conduit for internal feedback vs my phone which is a conduit to the outside world. I don’t have my watch linked to cellular service as it is sketchy in our rural area. My husband and I do use the Bluetooth Wilkie-talkie feature on our property. When it’s raining, much easier to connect on our watch than pull our phones out in the rain. I love the activity feature and find it motivating to be more active. I downloaded the WaterMinder app and am now drinking more water, which I needed to do. When using the mindfulness app three times a day, I use that minute to focus on someone I know is struggling, sending them a quick prayer or thought. Maybe it only makes me feel better, but most people I’ve told I was thinking about them were genuinely touched. I found the heart rate monitor very helpful after recent surgery. I really didn’t want to take opioids for pain and could manage it by seeing when my resting heart rate was creeping up, despite minimal activity. Time for Aleve, ice and rest and I could mostly avoid the stronger stuff. I can see so much opportunity for other health applications. It is much easier to be an active participant in improving a function when you get immediate feedback.

This article is funny, and some of these comments, even funnier. Because it's a wearable item, there is naturally a fashion element to the Apple Watch, but it wasn't created with the intent of primarily being a fashion item. As is evident with this article, fashion has at its very core the attention span of a gnat. Apple's business model is the antithesis of that. When the Apple Watch was first announced, the peanut gallery pronounced it DoA, because nobody was even wearing watches anymore. "Who would need it?" they said, "everyone can already tell the time by glancing at their phone!" Now, four and a half years later, notwithstanding the deniers in these comments, you can't go anywhere without seeing people wearing Apple Watches or their competitors' devices. While the fashionistas can gossip amongst themselves about whichever way their wind is blowing this week, they'd have to be visually impaired to believe the Apple Watch is 'so four years ago.'

Ms. Friedman never liked the Apple watch ("Why I'm Breaking Up with the Apple Watch" 6/10/15) and pretty much predicted a flop when it first came out. Now that the watch is on every fourth wrist (or so it seems), I guess she thinks that everyone who would buy one has one (also wrong). I can appreciate the tremendous negative impact the Apple Watch has had on the fashion watch industry. It's not too surprising that a fashion writer would be offended by this development.

Apple lost me a long time ago with its over-pricing just to make it appear to be a luxury brand. Even if the hardware in Apple products may be more expensive than comparable Windows products, are they "that" more expensive to justify the huge costs of, say, an iPhone or to Apple computer and/or monitor? I don't think so. Some Windows pro photographer monitors and computers have caught up to Apple. I've used both high-end Apple and Windows monitors and computers. I've had more trouble with Apple by far. In terms of wearables, my FitBit Ionic is perfect for my needs. Why overspend with Apple? As far as fashion, the Ionic's silver matches my class ring and it doesn't look much differently than some watches I've had in the past. It keeps track of my exercise, gives me the time, and the interface on my Android phone and/or on my computer browser shows me all the info I need. And, for a lot less than an Apple watch with bells and whistles I don't need. Kind of like buying a new iPad or just going with a tablet running on droid. Our two pro iPads sit unused now because they can no longer be updated by all our apps. We overpaid once, but not twice. Overpriced iPads that are soon obsolete lost Apple our business.

I owned an Apple Watch 4 for all of 3 months before I gave it away to a friend. What I remember about it was that it had the worst UI / UX I have ever used on an Apple product. An experience more reminiscent of using Windows 95 than Apple.

I never got on the Apple watch bandwagon - still have the same watch I have had for the last 20 years. I really did not want to be "connected" any more than I already was, between laptop and cell use. But I think Apple watch's biggest competition has been Fitbit - it has a lot of useful wellness related features, and it's a lot cheaper. I am surprised this article did not mention that at all, since it's supposed to be about wearable tech.

I'm not an early adopter by any stretch, but I've used fitness trackers for the past six years, and they have kept me mindful and motivated to stay in motion. After cracking the plastic chassis from extensive use, I replaced my 3 year-old Fitbit with an Apple Watch. Once I shed it of most of the unnecessary distractions, it does everything else just fine. My expectation is that it will serve me well over 4 or so years until I've worn it into the ground. If Apple has done its job well, I'll keep my fitness tracking within this family. IMO, the pivot away from fashion and/or tech toward health and fitness might be the greatest reason the device has maintained success.

Apple’s just not cool anymore. The struggle to remain relevant trumps emphasis on innovation.

Although not previously a watch owner, I’ve been wearing my Series 0  Watch from Week 1. Have yet to feel a need to update. It continues to serve its purposes for me just fine. Meanwhile, here in Shanghai, the sight of the Watch on wrists has gone from rare to ubiquitous. It’s not about fashion; it’s about utility.

I replaced my earbuds with my Bose Soundwear, and there was no way I was ever giving up my Omega, Tissot or beloved Swatch. It's clear Apple needs to rethink their wearables strategy.

I shed my Apple Watch earlier this year (for a vintage Omega that does little besides look nice and tell the time—imperfectly—as a mechanical thing) because the smartwatch enslaves you in a world where there was an expectation to see and respond to notifications in real-time. Ultimately, I could have a greater luxury: to not see and respond to every beep and boop coming through my phone. That's worth paying for, let alone paying nothing for.

Apple bet on the wrong accessory. The utility of the Apple Watch was always too analogous to the iPhone. I don't own an Apple Watch, but I'd be happy for someone to enlighten me on what it does that my $1,000 iPhone doesn't already do. Other than being easier to take along for a jog. Just got back from SXSW where Bose was aggressively pushing their new AR sunglasses. These are sunglasses that replace your headphones/ear pods. This might be the first Bose product that I ever purchase.

Apple's decision probably has little to do with fashion. It has more to do with the functions of the timepiece, the camera and the laptop computer now being integrated into a smart phone. The market shares of all three technologies have dwindled because of it. The real question is: why didn't Apple notice that people stopped looking at watches, and started looking at their iPhones for the time?

I think this is more of a case of tech simply being integrated in to things more and more. Our music speakers can now tell us as much as Google and buy us whatever we want. Our EV cars are more computer then automobile. My home has so many smart devices now, I often forget about some of them! (and I am adding more this year). So it is not shocking that fashion and tech are simply a normal integration in our lives. The difference is that Apple is a technology company and, probably, wisely, is moving on from being seen as a fashion company. This begs the question: Is Apple now an entertainment company with Apple TV? or a financial company with Apple Card?

A key challenge is: there has to be an asymptote or ceiling to obsolescence, because there is an ongoing cost, and...most people can’t afford to keep upgrading. We are at $3,000 computers, lasting about 3 years, and $1,000 phones, lasting about 2 years. This is a significant expense, especially as the technology is certainly improving, but not dramatically improving productivity. A $400 digital watch is just another example, so it is quite interesting that despite its proliferation, many seem to either forgo a watch or pay several thousands of dollars for a Rolex, which can last 100 years.

There was a convenient coincidence when these wearable watches came out; there was a commercial push for watches the size of ships' compasses (Try the VICTOR!). But the problem with them was the necessity to have your phone on your person, in order to use them.. That predated the current ubiquity of phone possession, which has overridden that negative perception. A "smart watch" that needs a phone to function is, in my opinion, "not there yet". We all expected the WiFi vid-phone, but we didn't get it. It seems we should be close, as phone screens are now flexible, and the requisite hardware has been shrinking for years. I'm still waiting, but I will NOT wear something the size of a saucer.

itsmecraig is right. The big opportunity in wearable technology is the health and fitness market for folks who want more than step counts. Today's fitness "watches" are sophisticated computers on your wrist that offer meaningful feedback for multiple physical activites and integrate seamlessly with any number of fitness/health apps or programs. Whether aiming for a 5k or marathon, tracking your calories, or monitoring your blood sugar, this is the future of "wearables." Garmin is a real leader in this area - and you can also get your voicemail messages, phone call alerts, email, and texts if you so choose.

I will buy an Apple watch when it looks like a watch, round. An always on feature is also necessary. Right now it looks like an iPad shrunk down to wrist size. For all it's pride in design, Apple can do better and work with a round screen.

Beyond keeping track of how many steps I'd walked (which my phone already does), I could never figure out what useful role these electronic watches could perform for me. They're certainly neat looking but I think the same about the Lamborghini Veneno, and if I had money to spend on stuff like that, well... I guess I still wouldn't.