A Man, His Dog, and a $300 Smartwatch

I never really understood the appeal of smartwatches until I had a bag of dog poop in my hand.

It was a weekday evening. I was alone walking Winston (please follow him on Instagram) so he could do his business. Business taken care of, with one hand holding his leash and the other hand carrying a healthy bag of poop, I received a Google Hangouts message from my girlfriend. "Stuck on E. Train ahead has an emergency. Blah. Reminder that I'm stopping at Key Food on my way home."

"OK," I replied.

But instead of having to whip out my phone, then unlock it, and then launch the Hangouts app to type "ok, send," I instead held the Moto 360 to my mouth and spoke "ok" into it. Done and done.

The smartwatch was on my leash hand, if you're wondering.

It's scenarios like this in which smartwatches like the Moto 360 really sing: they're probably not vital to your existence like a smartphone is, but they do help alleviate the tiny inconveniences that accumulate throughout the day, like trying to answer a text message when your hands are tied or discreetly glancing at an email during dinner.

This Moto 360 is Motorola's second attempt at an Android Wear smartwatch, and follows last year's identically named Moto 360. This year's model comes in two sizes, 42mm and 46mm (there's also a 42mm model that's aimed specifically at women that has slight cosmetic differences, such as a smaller band), and can be customized with a variety of different materials and design accents at different price points. (Motorola loaned us a base model and accompanying Moto X for this review.)

Android Wear, the operating system that powers the Moto 360 (and a whole host of other smartwatches made by companies like Asus, Huawei, LG, and Samsung), can be thought of as Google Now for your wrist: timely, context-sensitive notifications pop up to alert you, via a gentle vibration, when you should leave for a meeting, when the next train should arrive, or when your favorite soccer team is about to kick off.

There's also robust third-party app integration: audio apps like Spotify and Pocket Casts let users pause/resume and skip tracks, and transportation apps like CityMapper let users plan a quick route home or to the office with just a few taps. And if you want, you can configure the smartwatch to vibrate every time you get a new Gmail message or receive a retweet.

It tells the time, too. The Moto 360 ships with several different watch faces, with a robust selection of third-party faces available on the Google Play app store. (One popular face is straight out of GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64.) And when not being directly used, the Moto 360 switches to a battery-saving mode that leaves a low-power watch face visible at all times.

Google added limited iOS support for Android Wear smartwatches like the Moto 360 last month, but iPhone owners will still probably want to spring for the Apple Watch: paired to an iPhone the basics, like notifications for incoming email and text messages, are all there, but you'll miss out on extras like being able to control third-party apps like Spotify or CityMapper from your wrist, or download additional watch faces from Google Play. (There's of course a whole host of third-party apps that boast Apple Watch compatibility.) Both the Moto 360 and Apple Watch should last you about a day, keeping in mind you'll need to charge them overnight.

One chief difference between the platforms: you can make mobile payments with the Apple Watch using Apple Pay, but Android Wear does not currently support Android Pay, Google's recently launched mobile payments service. In truth, the question of whether you should get an Android Wear smartwatch like the Moto 360 or the Apple Watch merely depends upon what smartphone you have, with core functionality largely the same.

Overall, I can't help but feeling torn on smartwatches like the Moto 360: while I certainly appreciate the ability to respond to incoming messages while my hands are tied, or see when the next bus is coming without having take out my phone (the horror!), I'm not sure that justifies an outlay of $300 (or more, depending on your configuration). It's a "nice to have" that, for the moment, will likely remain a luxury good for a little while longer.