6th July 2015: The big purchase.

After many weeks of trying to convince myself that I didn’t actually want an Apple Watch, today I ordered one. I’ll make no bones about it, I was intrigued when the watch was first announced and my interest was piqued once it was revealed that it would in fact have a variety of accessibility features built in; the most relevant of these for me being VoiceOver. I’m completely blind and rely on VoiceOver to use my iPhone and iPad, so understandably it being included on the watch made me sit up and take notice. Then when you consider that I’m a real tech geek and love playing with and learning about cool new gadgets, it’s no great surprise that my willpower failed. In fairness the number of positive comments and reviews I’ve read from the visually impaired community since the watch release in April of this year also make it difficult to dismiss as a gimmick or toy. Having said that, the price of even the cheapest Apple Watch doesn’t really scream “TOY” to me. I decided to go for the 42mm Sport model in space grey as although the stainless steel version is apparently very nice, it just sounds too shiny for my tastes. I went for the 42mm as I’m a pretty tall guy at 6’ 1” so felt the larger size would suit me better, not to mention that it reportedly has a considerable edge over the 38mm model when it comes to battery life. By all accounts the Sport model is very light indeed and this has put some people off. But in all honesty the rather old and battered speaking watch I currently wear weighs next to nothing anyway, so I’ll be interested to see how it compares. The email I received after placing the order tells me that my watch will be with me sometime between 20th and 27th July, so now all I have to do is wait!

I will be back once I’ve received my watch to tell you more about my Apple Watch experience.