Xu Jialu

May 30, 2023

5 Years with a Want: Apple Watch Series 4 Long-term Review

Almost 700 dollars.

Every conversation regarding the Apple Watch always seems to pivot back to the same point – price. It’s been over 8 years since the first Apple Watch was released. 8 years of grueling soul-searching progress that saw the Apple Watch evolve from a fashion accessory to a fitness tracker, to a … life-saving device? No idea what they’ve been trying to get at in recent years.

Let’s get something out of the way. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, the Apple Watch is almost never a need – and always a want. Since its introduction as a fashion accessory to the outdoor-focused Ultra, there was never any necessity for the device, nor did it create any in the years it has existed. Unlike the iPhone which has proven to the entire world that smartphones have a place in this world, the Apple Watch never did the same for watches. 

After almost 5 years with the series 4, that is a point I’m going to stand behind.

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A recap of what the Apple Watch is: Coming in 2 sizes, 38mm and 40mm screen diameters (as opposed to lug-to-lug stats, these tech specs show how Apple couldn’t care less about the “smArTwAtChEs aRen’T WaTchES” gang), it is a glass slab wrapped around your wrist with a multitude of sensors: gyros, pedometers, heart rate sensors, spO2, EKGs, aimed at helping you understand your body more and in turn, create a healthier lifestyle. You can also take calls, send messages, use it as a walkie-talkie, set timers, and more. It was also supposed to be the ultimate conduit for companion applications. All of our full-fledged apps on our phones were supposed to have a shortcut-rich app on our watches. 

Oh, and it pushes notifications to your wrist as well, on top of being a media controller for those days when even the side pocket feels too far away.

And therein lies the problem.

Ask around and you’ll discover, like me, that those “also” functions end up being the most used ones out of entire lifespans of the device family. What was supposed to be quality-of-life sidenotes, end up being the most useful parts of a device an eighth of the size of a phone, but costs more than half of one.

In many ways, the Apple Watch fell into the same strange limbo as GoPros; those devices that are overly equipped for specific use cases that for many, only happen once in their lives. The watch never achieved the same ubiquity its siblings have. Elderly people call all phones iPhones and all tablets iPads, but not all smartwatches Apple Watches. 

Looking at the Series 4 on my wrist, and comparing it with tech products, it’s easy to spot just how much of an identity crisis it’s in. Despite its intricate designs, traditional watch lovers still consider the innards of a smartwatch to be too simple, and too cheap, as compared to its dumber, mechanical equivalents.

And yet, on the other end of the spectrum, the tech heads and digital purists end up having just as much trouble justifying it as well. Despite all its features and hardware excellence, this same crowd has also long ruled out the need for something else on their wrists when a device in their pocket can do everything the watch can, and better. The friction to move one’s hand towards their pocket isn’t nearly high enough to justify splurging half of the cost of a phone on an Apple Watch.

Thus, in my opinion, the Apple Watch represents less of the advent of wearables technology, but rather the shift of Apple as a company. What started off as a technical pursuit now needs enormous amounts of marketing and absurd arguments to keep itself relevant. First, it’s the ultimate fashion device to show how cool and techy you are. Then it became a magical device for you to slim down and stand up once in a while, but only if the buggy software remembers to remind you to do so. And now, before every watch release, there’s always a “thank you Tim Apple” moment where people thank the watch for saving their lives. I’m sure those stories are true, but the chances of you surviving something because of your Apple Watch is still almost astronomically small.

All these contribute to the less-than-ideal revenue numbers of Apple Watches. The entire suite of watch offerings netted Apple 14 billion USD out of a whopping 394.3 billion in total. For context, the services department, with Apple Music, TV, and Fitness, earned Apple 5 times as much revenue as an entire watch hardware division. AirPods alone earned Apple a comparable 10 billion dollars in revenue.

What’s Wrong? And What’s Next?

A common problem with wearables is almost always finding a good enough justification for one. Consumers feel a great deal of mental friction and reluctance when something needs to be fixed or wrapped on one of our few, and very limited, appendages that we have. That is the very reason why smart glasses, smart rings, smartwatches, and more always seem to end up either on shelves, in development hell, or in the possession of a limbo of niche consumers. 

The question then becomes: what would Apple do next? How can we bring the Apple Watch to a more elevated level, on par with the products it was supposed to work perfectly in tandem with?

Personally, I am always of the view that Apple did what I tend to do. Overcomplicate things. (See, self-awareness.) If the Apple Watch is called and “Watch” and not the Apple “Companion” or “Buddy”, then it should act like one and fundamentally first become a good watch. A good watch doesn’t need to be charged every 12 hours. (Please don’t mention mechanical wind-ups, you know what I mean.) A good watch doesn’t need a shake or two to tell the time. A good watch doesn’t distract you with a ton of real-time notifications and updates. It’s supposed to do the opposite – a good watch tells you when you should be doing a particular thing. A good watch keeps track of time in sophisticated ways and gives meaning to the passage of it. Forget the diamonds, the shine, the glitter. If the Apple Watch cannot first and foremost be a good “watch”, then and only then is it doomed to stay in limbo forever.

Until then, though, the Apple…Square will remain a vague question mark to me, to consumers, and to the revenue sheets.