The Apple Watch is here, and with it come the first true commercials for the device. And they're less about the nitty-gritty of product features and more about how the watch will fit seamlessly into your life—and improve it in innumerable ways.
Three grand 60-second spots rolled out on YouTube early Friday. They bear little resemblance to the early iPhone ads, in which Apple felt the need to give a product demo. Indeed, they're much more like more recent iPhone spots, offering montages of life scenes in which the device is seen offering immediate and seamless value to the user—making things like commerce, exercise and even love that much easier and more rewarding.
The spots are themed that way, in fact. The first one is called "Rise," and it's all set in the early morning, as people are beginning their days—with help from the watch. (That's a really nice idea, by the way—setting a commercial in the morning to herald a new day for technology.) The other two ads are "Us" and "Up," focusing on the watch's impact on human connections and exercise.
There are lots of product features on display—we see the watch do things like open hotel doors and get scanned by cash registers. (Funnily enough, one of the spots actually features—gasp—a QR code on the watch. Did Apple not get the memo about those?)
But these glimpses of product features are somewhat problematic, as they tend to make the viewer want to decipher functionality in every scene—when some of the footage is clearly meant to be more atmospheric and less informational. (Also, frankly, it's tough in some of the scenes to see what's happening on the small watch face.)
The ads are very nicely shot, though, and they cover a ton of ground. Which means you're likely to find some reason in these 180 seconds to want an Apple Watch for practical reasons—even if you don't already want one for emotional ones.
