The sad reason many people love their Apple Watch

Technically Incorrect: The more I listen to Watch users, the more they tell me the same thing.

I’ve spent a year without an Apple Watch.

It hasn’t been difficult.

My wrist feels free. I never have to twist itaround to check the time. I never have toremember to charge it overnight.

I know quite a few people who bought one,however. I know quite a few who really, reallylike it.

Over the weekend, I encountered a winemakerin Sonoma, California, who was quite giddyabout her wristy device.

When I asked why, she gave me a version of thesame tale I’ve heard many times over the pastyear.

“It makes me feel more polite,” she said.

She said that when she used to pull out herphone all the time, she felt she was being just slightly insulting.

Now, she merely flicks her eyes to her wrist and all is well.

I first heard this explanation from PR man Curtis Sparrer, whom I spotted looking frightfully absurdtaking a call in a restaurant, shortly after the watch came out.

It’s more discreet, he explained.

The idea of a PR man being discreet or even knowing what it means is delicious. Sparrer insists that thewatch made him feel better.

If you’re in a meeting, he explained, your wrist can be subtly (oh surely not) placed on the table and onlyyour eyes have to shift from the fascination of what’s being said.

I don’t wish to besmirch these people’s intentions. They surely have at least a tinge of altruism — as wellas a dose of self-image management — in their hearts.

How many tech products, though, feature the reduction of shame as one of their finest attributes?

These Apple Watch wearers were ashamed of how often they pulled out their phones, how often theyplaced them on tables and how they continually glanced at or tapped them.

They feel they’re now being more subtle.

But aren’t we all attuned to every moment that others aren’t paying attention? Whether they pull phonesout or merely strategically position their wrists and flick their eyes in their wrist’s direction, everyoneelse can see, can’t they?

Don’t we always know a vacant stare when we see one?

There again, the modern style of bodies and minds meeting is very different from the pre-iPhone era.

People sit in meetings with laptops in front of them and talk over the top of them. They go to dinner, place their phones on the table and pick them up at least every five minutes to see whether something vital has happened in the(ir) world.
Does the Apple Watch really make it better? Or will it finally destroy any concept we have of eye contact?

After all, if you think you’re being subtle, your eyes will wander more and more toward your device.

That is until you don’t notice that your dinner companion has left the table. She got a notification on her watch about another date waiting in the bar.