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'Battery life will make or break the Apple Watch'

For all the high-tech features mentioned in Tim Cook's Apple keynote event, the battery life of the Apple Watch was notable by its absence, says Sophie Curtis

Apple's forthcoming Watch will have a sapphire glass Retina display. Apple said that it uses a very thin diamond-cutting wire to harvest the crystal. The sapphire is then machined into its final form and polished for many hours to produce the desired finish.
Apple's forthcoming Watch will have a sapphire glass Retina display. Apple said that it uses a very thin diamond-cutting wire to harvest the crystal. The sapphire is then machined into its final form and polished for many hours to produce the desired finish. Credit: Photo: Apple

Apple announced its first foray into wearable devices last night, with the unveiling of the Apple Watch. The smartwatch features a square face and iOS-based user interface. It is tightly integrated with the iPhone, allowing users to receive and respond to notifications and messages, and make payments using Apple Pay.

However, one of the issues that Apple skirted around was the battery life of its new smartwatch. Despite making explicit reference to the significantly improved battery life of both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, the closest Tim Cook came to doing the same for the Watch was saying that users would "charge it at night."

Battery life has been a key differentiator of the smartwatches released to date. While devices like the Pebble and MetaWatch tend to last up to a week on a single charge, thanks to their black and white LCD displays, colour touchscreen smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Gear and Motorola’s Moto 360 tend to run out of charge within a single day.

Early adopters have complained that having to charge a smartwatch every night – or in some cases multiple times during the day – is a pain. Indeed, for many people, the only reason for wearing a watch in the first place is to have a means of telling the time once their mobile phone runs out of charge.

Battery life becomes an increasingly important issue over time. When people buy a Swatch or Rolex, they do so in the knowledge that they are making a long-term investment. A traditional watch battery can last up to four years, and after that it can be replaced. Many of these watches are passed down through generations as heirlooms.

The Apple Watch, like other Apple products, appears to have a sealed back, meaning the battery cannot be replaced. As the device ages, battery life will inevitably deteriorate, and it will need to be charged more frequently. Eventually the battery will burn out and the whole watch will need to be replaced.

Given the Apple Watch's starting price of $349 (£216), consumers will be wondering if this is a wise investment. Most iPhones last between two and three years before they become sluggish and need to be replaced – and the Apple Watch's battery is significantly smaller.

Apple's failure to address this issue in its announcement is therefore troubling. If the company had come up with some new innovative way of extending battery life, Tim Cook would surely have said so. Instead, the company focused on the Watch's charging system, which combines Apple’s MagSafe technology with inductive charging.

Of course, Apple isn't launching its Watch just yet – Cook said the device would become available in early 2015 – so the company still has some time to tinker with the its specifications. However, given the lukewarm reaction to smartwatches thusfar, battery life may end up being the thing that makes or breaks the Apple Watch.