The new Apple Smartwatch

The Apple Watch is real: after months of endless leaks and speculations about an 'iWatch', Apple unveiled the new Apple Watch to a crowd of tech and fashion journalists. The Apple Watch is a tech gadget with silicon humming under the hood, but it’s not one made for geeks - it has the stylish and fashionable looks that will appeal to ordinary people.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook made it abundantly clear that the Apple Watch is "an entirely new product ... We believe this product will redefine what people expect from its category."

First, let's break down the essential characteristics of the Apple Watch:

• Rectangular display (with no round option) uses a bendable AMOLED panel
• Comes in two sizes: 42mm and 38mm (diagonal)
• Three editions: stainless steel, anodized aluminum, and 18-karat gold
• "Digital Crown" jog dial on the side allows easy navigation
• Brand new Watch OS with user interface tailored to the smaller screen size
• Siri is on board
• Sensors: infra-red and visible-light LEDs, along with photosensors, capable of detecting your pulse rate
• A wide selection of bands

Touchscreen and navigation

The Apple Watch features a touchscreen that can also sense force via a new 'Taptic Engine', so it knows how hard you touch it and reacts differently. Apple calls the harder touch Force Touch and it basically acts as a right mouse click, showing otherwise hidden options. 

A lot of the navigation also happens via the new Digital Crown that is particularly useful for quick zooming in and out. It also acts as a button - press it and you go back to the main menu.

Functionality

While we are used to smartphones and the benefit they bring to our daily lives, smartwatches are a brand new category that actually first has to convince us in all the added value it brings over a classic watch. Here is what the Apple Watch can do, and it's up to you to decide whether this is enough of a reason to make you switch to a smartwatch.

First, you have plentiful watchfaces that are hugely customizable and can be animated, you have quick access to your contacts that you can text with customizable emoji, plus if a contact of yours has and with gestures (but there is no on-screen keyboard), there's even a photos app with your latest pictures (and you zoom in and out using the crown). Next, you've got maps with navigation, so you can find your way around just by using the timepiece. Mapping and navigation are actually an area where Apple brings a lot of value with the taptic engine that vibrates differently to alert you discreetly when you need to turn left or right, so you know the correct direction without having to even look at a screen.

Apple is opening up access to the Watch via an SDK it calls 'WatchKit', so by the time the timepiece arrives, chances are that it will have some great third-party apps. Developers have already made use of it, and the major apps from services like Facebook and Twitter will come built right in the watch. Others have also jumped in: you have American Airlines, for instance, City Mapper, BMW, and many more.