I'm in San Francisco this week for a conference, and it was only when I was getting off the plane from London that I got another reminder of just how helpful the Apple Watch can be in daily life.
When I first started using my Apple Watch, I used to set my Watch face to whatever Apple's marketing shots showed – usually one of the analogue faces because they visually look great.
But in recent months I have been more comfortable with setting my watch exactly how I want it to work for me, even if that means it doesn't look like a minimal Dieter Rams watch on my wrist.
I've found I've settled on the "Modular" face as the most practical watch face for my daily life.
Modular
The density of information on the face is exactly the right balance for me – any more information and everything would be too small to see. Anything less and I need to dive into the OS of the Watch to find what I need – nobody's got time for that.
With the Modular face, everything is just a tap away. I find myself jumping into my Activity Rings far too often every day to check on progress (the screenshot above was taken just after I woke up – I promise).
This face is perfect for anyone who travels a lot. Being able to switch on a secondary time zone in just a few taps is incredibly helpful. Sure, analogue watches have had the ability to set secondary timezones for decades upon decades, but the ability to say "I want to put the time in London down here now" makes it so easy and so effortless that you actually make use of the functionality.
The Apple Watch is a great watch
There's a lot of pressure from the tech media to push the Apple Watch to replace the iPhone in some way. That's not the Watch I want to see any time soon.
Right now, the Apple Watch for me is a really versatile timepiece, an addictive fitness tracker, and a handy way to check notifications on the go. If it keeps getting better in those three areas then I'll continue to be a very happy customer.