Imagine trying to explain this to your grandmother: if you want to get back home, press this button, unless you’re reading an email or listening to a voicemail, in which case you should press the same button three times, but slowly. (But not so slowly that you accidentally launch Siri, which is triggered by pressing and holding the Digital Crown button.) My hunch is that most of the confusion navigating the Watch comes from Apple’s decision to overload the Digital Crown with too much functionality. You press it if you want to check the time, launch an app, re-orient the app view, or go back in a nested set of screens. Once you get the hang of it, there is some logic to each action on its own, but as a group it’s far too muddied. The side button, by contrast, is the very picture of consistency: no matter where you are in the Watch interface, if you press it you launch the “friends view” where you can call or text your favorite contacts.

Good piece by Steven Johnson on the somewhat confusing Digital Crown options available on Apple Watch.

I was initially confused by the behavior of double-clicks and zooming to launch apps, but I got the hang of it relatively quickly. It’s undeniable, though, that the combination of click and zoom input in a single knob can be tricky to explain.

Compare that with the beautiful simplicity of the side button: it always brings up the Friends UI, even in views such as Notification Center and Glances. When these types of modal views are shown on the iPhone, for instance, not even the Home button can immediately go back to the Home screen (it’ll dismiss Notification Center and Control Center, but it’ll remain in the foreground app, requiring another click).

This says a lot about the importance of communication features in Watch OS 1.0: the hardware and software of the Friends interface can supersede everything else with a single click.

Your Apple Watch becomes the most discreet way to stay connected when at fancy events, or anywhere really. My wife and I no longer need to check if the babysitter is trying to reach us — our Apple Watch will tap us if she is. There’s essentially no reason to use our iPhones, and no anxiety felt for fear of missing something “important”.

Ben Brooks (via Shawn Blanc) makes a good point about the discreet nature of Apple Watch. While I have a bunch of first impressions I want to let simmer before rushing to write a “review”, one thing is already clear to me: not pulling out my iPhone every few minutes helps me be less rude to people around me.

It’s not that I’m shutting off notifications completely; rather, I’m letting the important ones come to me on a device that doesn’t block me from the outside world.

I’ve been wearing my Apple Watch for a couple of weeks, and while I’m still churning on my review, I wanted to share my thoughts on the ten watch faces that come with the device. While having so many options is great, many of the faces have frustrating limitations in the ways they can be customized or used.

Stephen Hackett has a nice rundown of the watch faces included in Watch OS 1.0. I’m still experimenting with my Apple Watch Sport (which I received a few days ago) and playing around with watch faces and complications.

Here’s Stephen’s take on the Modular face:

On the face of it (sigh), Modular seems like a huge winner. Why take up space faking being a real timepiece when the watch is digital?

Pros: Big, easy-to-read text with lots of flexibility.

Cons: The time is locked to the upper-right corner; I’d love to have it be the biggest thing on the Watch face. Having three complications across the bottom is nice, but can feel a bit cramped.

While I can read an analog watch, it still takes me a second of parsing, and I don’t want that on a device I’m supposed to quickly look at every day. Even if small, the cognitive load required to understand time on an analog face adds up over time, and, more importantly, I need a watch to show me the precise time (down to the minute) for work purposes.

That said, I do wish that Apple offered more personalization for the position of complications on the Modular face. It’d be nice to have time in the middle of the watch face and a smaller calendar complication in the upper right corner.

Last night, Apple published a webpage detailing the ‘Made for Apple Watch’ program, which will allow third-party companies to make custom bands for the Watch.

Apple Watch bands are easily changed with simple release buttons and lugs that secure the band to the Apple Watch case. When creating your custom bands, refer to the band design guidelines and lug profile. Apple Watch lugs will be available soon through the Made for Apple Watch program.

In two documents available on the page, Apple has detailed band design guidelines and the Apple Watch lug profile. If you’re curious to know more, the band design guidelines include some interesting tidbits on the materials, measures, and design Apple recommends for third-party bands.

Also, Apple posted an update to the Apple Watch Human Interface Guidelines first released in November 2014. If you’re a designer or developer making apps for the Apple Watch, make sure to check out the updated document (and downloadable PSD/Sketch files) here.

Molly Watt, who has Usher Syndrome Type 2a, published a unique, personal series of Apple Watch first impressions unlike anything I’ve read to date.

I am fortunate to have a few friends who also have the Apple Watch and together have devised ways of communicating in ‘Code’ when out, particularly when out at night and in dark situations when I am completely blind.

Useful codes in the event I need help of any kind, for instance if I am in a badly lit and noisy environment and struggling to be included in something I can get message to friend I’m uncomfortable or I need assistance or help of some kind or “I’m bored” can we do something else!

Many have reviewed Apple Watch as a gadget or a fashion companion. And that’s fine, but make sure you also read Molly Watt’s take for an idea of how wearable technology can truly impact other people’s lives in meaningful ways.

Following Christy Turlington Burns’ blog on Apple.com has been a fascinating and educational experience. After setting a new personal record at the London Marathon last week, Apple has published the final installment of Christy’s blog posts with her thoughts and photos from the event.

They also produced a new video, which you can watch below. And, check out Every Mother Counts here.

With the Apple Watch now in the hands of customers, some smart people have started commenting on the device and sharing their first impressions.

A recurring theme in my RSS feeds today has been the wish for third-party additions to complications and watch faces.

Jason Snell writes:

The third-party story is going to be huge as time goes on. Current third-party apps are okay, but they’re incredibly limited. With some of Apple’s built-in apps, you can get a better sense of what might be possible on this device. But I have to admit, I’m most excited by the idea of third-party watch faces or, at the very least, third-party complications for existing watch faces. I’m not convinced that developers will make pretty watch faces—I’ve seen all the awful third-party Pebble faces—but I do want more variety in my watch faces. I’d be fine if Apple took a strong hand with faces and only approved a very small number that passed a very high bar. But I’d be okay if Apple kept tight control of the faces… if developers could provide data from their apps as complications on existing faces. I’d love to plug in my Weather Underground temperature, for instance—today Apple’s standard temperature widget was a full ten degrees off of the actual temperature in my town.

Casey Liss shared similar thoughts:

Like third-party watch faces, I think third-party complications could take a turn toward awful. However, with a light hand and an eye toward brevity, allowing third parties to create their own complications could make an already impressive information appliance even more useful.

And here’s Abdel Ibrahim:

I still believe that apps on Apple Watch are mostly meant to be repositories. The idea of pressing in the Digital Crown and tapping a tiny icon to get to the home screen and launch an app still makes little sense to me. As of right now, the future of the Watch seems to me to be in meaningful Glances, Notifiations, Faces, and Complications (provided Apple allows the latter two). In some cases, like with Uber for example, I can see the need for launching an app. But in most cases, I still don’t see why I should bother.

Between WatchKit and the lack of personalization in some areas of the software, initial limitations of the Watch are creating a whole crop of low-hanging fruit for the next few years.

Luma Labs’ Greg Koenig, writing for iMore:

It’s no surprise that questions are being raised about just how durable each variant of the Apple Watch will be, given that people are now considering putting down real money for them. The best way to answer such questions is to wait and see how the first wave of watches do in the hands of real people. Yet it’s not unreasonable for potential early adopters to want at least some idea before they buy. Lucky for us, Apple is using materials and techniques that have been standard for wristwatches going back a few decades, so we can make some educated, experience-driven assumptions about how the watch variants will fair on our wrists soon.

Fascinating read on the materials and processes used by Apple. See also: Koenig’s analysis of Apple’s promo videos from March.