Smart watches are cool. I know they are cool, because people tell me they are cool. You get everything you ever wanted — and a lot of what you never wanted — pushed directly to your wrist so you can lift your arm and look at the screen to see the important things you might need to see. Sort of like using a smartphone ...
One thing that's a dead-solid-lock-of-the-week is that Google, with Android Wear, leads the pack when it comes to wrist-wearables. Android Wear has had time to mature and we all see the things that work and the things that don't work when we're using a tiny display to interact with apps and people. And I don't (necessarily) mean Google here. Developers have figured out how to use Android Wear and the way we use apps on our wrist is getting better and better.
When I want to use my watch to communicate or do other "stuff" I do it on a Moto 360.
There are two reasons why I choose the Moto 360 over the rest of the current crop of Android Wear watches. Some of you will probably agree with me, while plenty of others won't. The same goes for my feelings of data overload that comes with Android Wear (sometimes too much is just too much) as well as the whole concept of a smartwatch. We're pretty divided here, and that's OK. One size does not have to fit all. Anyhoo, back to why I would pick the 360.
The look
I love the well-constructed body and leather strap of the Moto 360. The perfect circle is smooth and seamless, the beveled "crystal" is flawless, and the plastic bits are hidden where you won't see them. I don't care if my phone is metal or plastic, but my watch needs to look and feel good.
I don't care about the flat tire, because with a black watch face you have no idea it's there. If the next version does away with it, that's great — the people who complain about it will be satisfied. But for me, it's there and I don't worry about it.
The strap gets its own paragraph. The leather is beautifully worked, and gets softer (and better) the more you wear it. That's how good leather should act, to me anyway. The more I wear the 360 — in the shower, while fishing or while doing anything — the more I like it. And I'm not much of a leather strap guy on my wrist watch.
I'm not saying the other Android Wear watches look bad, but to me the 360 looks the way I want a smart watch to look.
Qi charging
Yes, you can get more than one day of battery life from your Android Wear watch. But chances are you're charging it every day. I charge mine in the morning when I'm in the shower (I wear a watch while I sleep because dream-Jerry needs to know what time it is) and when I'm done I grab it and put it back on. I could do this with any smart watch — as long as I'm home and doing my normal routine.
When I'm not at home, and close to my shower and watch charger, it's nice knowing that the 360 can use the same charger as my Nexus 6 — which it's paired with most of the time.
I'd prefer every Android Wear watch to have a microUSB port and use a cable to charge. I like standards. But I understand that you need room to put things like a microUSB header in a tiny circuit board and it ain't easy. At least the 360 uses the same Qi-standard wireless charging that plenty of phones use so I don't have to worry about keeping track of a tiny proprietary charging dock.
I'm still waiting to use a new Pebble Time to see if it can bridge the gap and give me the information I want on my wrist, not give me the things I don't want, and do it all for days at a time. But for right now, the Moto 360 is my favorite smart watch and the one I would recommend to anyone asking.
