The built in EKG is actually pretty nice. You do a 30sec reading by holding your finger to the crown and it will actually give you the entire reading as a printable PDF saved to your phone that you can share with a doctor. I think it gives you the option to email it straight away, too.

I've used it once or twice for that purpose and it really is pretty handy if that's your every day watch. I'm sure there are other devices that do this, but I haven't seen them. Do they give you a timestamped PDF of your EKG chart? I don't doubt they exist, but this is on your watch which you possibly wear every day and extremely convenient if you ever think your heart is doing something it shouldn't be. I'm sure an Android answer is on its way if it's not here already. It's nice to give that many people the ability to spot-check not only their heart rate, but their sinus rhythm. Of course if you ask my doctor it's also a curse, turning people into hypochondriacs by the score.

You mention Swatch as a cheap brand, but not a lot of people know that Swatch owns a LOT of high-end watch brands, and makes the movements for many brands that they don't own. Swatch is a powerhouse in the Swiss Watch industry.

I gained a whole new respect for them when I'd learned that. I still don't OWN a Swatch, but Swatch has gotten my money a couple times.

Companies like Patek Philippe pride themselves on their watches being passed down from generation to generation. The type of person who would appreciate an heirloom like this could possibly be the type of person who would want another piece at a little lesser value for a daily wear, so you end up with your $30k dress-up watch, and your $6k daily watch, it's still another sale, possibly a couple extra sales. PP is an extreme case where just getting your foot in the door will run you $20-30k.

Omega, Rolex, Tag, IWC, Breitling, if you want to get into a nice entry level watch with any of these companies it's going to set you back about 6k. The entry level AW5 is 400 bucks. So if Omega can sell me a new watch every 15 years they'll keep pace with Apple, if I want one every 10 years (some people are much more passionate than me) then they'll outpace Apple just fine. Or say I already have an Omega and I want an IWC because it's different and just as nice, the Swiss Watch industry is getting way more out of me than Apple would even if I upgraded my AW every year, and every single one of these watches that I've bought will keep perfect time for generations.

My two main go-to watches are an Apple Watch 5 and an Omega Seamaster. I've had the Omega for years before Apple Watch was a thing. Whichever one that I wear on a particular day depends on my mood and whichever one I feel like wearing. I use my Apple Watch as a watch, I very rarely use any other part of the watch (I do dig the heart rate, and moreso the EKG built in, but I wish I could remove 90% of the 'apps' on there), I just like the way it looks, and it's incredibly light and comfortable. The biggest thing for me was the fact that they FINALLY got an always-on screen, though I wish it had the battery life of my Garmin. They've all got their pros and cons, which is why I have multiple pieces.

I'm a diver and a runner as well as a watch lover. As a diver I would never trust my Apple Watch to survive 100'+ beneath the ocean, nor as a runner would I ever use it for a running watch, I've got other, much more accurate and purpose built watches for those things. It's kind of a right tool for the job situation for me.

If I want something light with a nice custom screen, I wear the Apple Watch, if I want a beautiful mechanical piece of art on my wrist, I wear the Seamaster. Also I'm sure the Omega could take a beating that none of my 'smart' watches could ever endure while looking amazing before and after.

I'm not sure if I'm misreading what you're saying here, but, after watching the Netflix series on the Star Wars toys it was told that Kenner, in order to make the toys for the original trilogy (at the time, one single movie) had to pay Lucas and Fox $10k/yr and a 5% royalty to be split between themselves. Kenner made out very well in that one, taking 95% of each toy sold. Sure, Lucas' pockets fattened up a bit, but at the tune of about 2.5% per toy? Lucas took a serious beating in that deal. When Hasbro bought Kenner and missed their yearly $10k payment they had to renegotiate up to 18%, much better for Lucas' end.

That is to say, I don't think Lucas' share of the merchandising is initially what brought him success. I'm sure Disney's cut a much better deal for the merchandising than Lucas had in the past.

"Maybe they think you deserve that, for talking on your phone while driving."

Hopefully someday they invent a way to pipe your phone through your car's radio in order to make it safer for you to drive while on a call.

"Names for the fix may vary. I call the fix "Nexus One"."

Even meant as a joke, you're right. AT&T drops my calls like I'm on the Unlimited Dropped Call plan. I've lost a call twice on a 2 mile drive just the other day. I'm convinced that AT&T could drop a call made with 2 tin cans and a string and it's infuriating and I've had enough.

You'd think with an influx of millions of new customers due to the iPhone, and the fact that they charge and extra ($30?) charge for iPhone users, they may try to sink some of that cash into strengthening their networks to support their customers. Instead people are told that a 30% dropped call rate is 'acceptable'. Even if they picked up 1M iPhone customers, that's $30M/mo that they didn't have before. What're they doing with this cash?

I left AT&T about 6 or 7 years ago for Verizon, was impressed with the iPhone after the price became reasonable, and begrudgingly switched back. I wish I hadn't. The service has sucked ever since, and I'm going to leave them a second time for the same reason (and this is in two different states.) If the Incredibles weren't back-ordered for so long AT&T would have have lost me again already.

So actually, you're right. The solution for me is going to be one of the Verizon Droid phones.

"Fuck the Rule Book. -- Help some random stranger you really don't care about, who really doesn't care about you or the crap you put up with on a daily basis, which in turn places your job and livelihood at risk."

See, I'd hope that wouldn't put someone's job at risk. Stuff like that *really* matters to me when dealing with a company. Stuff like that *keeps* me with a company. Sure when someone at a company helps me I'm very thankful to them though I can't remember any of their names by the end of the day, but they're part of what makes that company good (in my opinion) and thus the reason why I stay with that company.

Obviously some people are going to have horror stories from companies that I deal with that I think are top-notch for customer service. When you've got that many employees, a lot of people are going to make you look bad whenever someone talks to them, hopefully you've got even more people that make you look GOOD when people talk to them.