Smartwatches. The most demanding product for not only tech enthusiasts but also people from various age groups who want complete functionality and access to their phones on their wrists while tracking health, fitness, and whatnot. With the conventional analog wristwatches that appreciate in value with time and are passed on from generation to generation, you might feel like they are a major enhancement to your personality, but they certainly lack one thing — the ability to connect with the digital world while having access to a plethora of safety and other features.
The question related to whether smartwatches are worth it has been a long ongoing debate where critics from both the analog side as well as the smartwatches side advocate for their usability, features, and ability to hold value with the passage of time. However, it is crucial to understand what expectations you might have from your wristwatch is a fundamental aspect that helps in understanding whether smartwatches are actually worth their price.
Identifying What Expectations You Have from Your Watch
While I was reading about the latest Rolex and the Montblanc watches, their design, looks, and overall appearance fascinated me but there is one thing that was very surprising. Their price. The fact that people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase luxury watches is mind-blowing since these watches are simply a construct of precious metals and offer little to no functionality apart from viewing time.
In contrast, smartwatches like the Apple watch series or the Samsung Galaxy watches bring the world to your fingertips with access to all the apps that work on your smartphone. All you have to do is connect your watch with your smartphone and you have access to all the features you need in your daily life whether you’re a fitness enthusiast, a gym lover, or someone who wants constant health tracking to ensure a great lifestyle.
With the ongoing evolution of technology, smartwatches not only offer cool features — but they also offer features that can save your life, such as the crash detection feature integrated into smartwatches by Apple and other brands. Now, it’s on you what expectations you have from your wristwatch and how you view it as a product that offers functionality or is just a mere showoff to impress the people around you.
Understanding the Value You Get Against the Price Paid
With the value-seeking behavior in today’s competitive world, more and more people are now adopting smartwatches, be it in any price segment for the value and functionality they have to offer. Whether you want to send a message to someone, take a call, or simply monitor your heartbeat and blood pressure, smartwatches can offer a lot more than you can imagine.
While luxury wristwatches based on analog systems can be purchased for a hefty amount, most people view them as an investment that will yield a good return in terms of value appreciation with time. However, this is completely different in the case of smartwatches. With the changing technology, a watch available today will definitely lose its value in the future due to the availability of newer models that support the latest software updates. But here’s the catch. While smartwatches depreciate in value with the passage of time, they offer you amazing value in real-time in terms of the safety features, their functionality, and the ability to mirror the features of your phone available at a single tap on your wrist.
While the classic craftsmanship and build quality of luxury watches capture the attention of all types of people, the world is now transitioning into a phase where people want to interact with technology and explore its dynamics and what else could be best to do this apart from smartphones. Smartwatches, for sure, aren't they? The fact that smartwatches are available in a plethora of price ranges, every individual has a different value-seeking perspective according to the price they pay for a product.
While most people tend to buy smartwatches, thinking they last forever and tend to hold their value, I could not find any reason to advocate for this choice since technology is in the process of constant evolution and smartwatches become redundant in terms of handling software updates.
On the other hand, analogue luxury watches tend to appreciate in value, smartwatches have totally different dynamics as they must get constant software updates to keep up with the technological improvements.
Having said this, I feel that smartwatches are given a tough time in terms of the real-time value they create; however, the future of wristwatches is definitely smartwatches due to the technology access and features they provide at a single tap on the screen. What smartwatches offer in terms of value advocates for their mass adoption by people from all age groups if their price is justifiable even if they do not last forever.
