On the eve of Apple’s watch event, the eyes of the technology world are gazing upon Apple with the intensity of a fiery sun. There are so many questions we hope to have answered: how much will the different models of Apple Watch cost? What new features will it have? How’s the battery life? Who the hell needs a goddamned Apple Watch anyway, you elitist bastards?! Can’t you do something better with your money?!

I’m confident we’ll get answers to all of these tomorrow. Including those last two. Of course, there’s plenty of people out there for whom no answer to these questions will be sufficient. For them, no matter how Apple spins it, Apple Watch is just a useless gimmick, a fashion accessory for the clueless, the wealthy, and the clueless wealthy. The more charitable of the curmudgeons think that Apple will sell millions, despite it, but plenty are convinced it’ll go over like an 18k Rose Gold alloy balloon.

Fine. Only one way to find out, I suppose, and that’s to wait.

I’m cautiously bullish. After my experience using a Pebble smartwatch for a few weeks, I feel that the smartwatch is a viable form factor, and a potentially powerful new way to think about our day-to-day relationship to technology. More importantly, I feel like Apple Watch is the best expression of that potential I’ve seen yet. [1] The integration on the hardware and software that Apple can bring to a smartwatch, even if the first version isn’t all the way there, it’ll be closer than anyone has gotten. If anyone can get this right, it’s probably Apple.

That said, a smartwatch isn’t for everyone. I don’t mean that in a financial, Veblen Good sense, either. Smartwatches aren’t necessary for how a lot of people relate to their technology. They might get some benefit, but it also might not be enough to justify the cost. If someone doesn’t see the need, well, nobody’s holding a gun to their head and forcing them to buy an Apple Watch. There are no blue t-shirted thugs demanding that mothers choose between food for their children and Apple Watches, ripping the Casios, Timexes, Rolexes, and Bullovas off people’s wrists, slapping a fluoroelastomer band on like a handcuff, and charging their credit card for the privilege.

In other words, chill.

If you think Apple Watch is useless, don’t buy it.

If you think Apple Watch is too expensive, don’t buy it.

If you think Apple Watch is ugly, don’t buy it.

If you think Apple Watch is an elitist fashion accessory, don’t buy it.

But don’t go around judging the people who do buy an Apple Watch, or would buy one if they had the money to blow. Whatever the reason, someone buying an Apple Watch has one, and it’s no less valid than your reason not to. Whether they’re spending $349, or $19,999, it’s their money, their choice, and you don’t have to do the same if you don’t want to.

On Sunday, I took my Pebble off my wrist, put it on its charging cable, and forgot about it after three straight weeks of constant use. It’s been a week of going back to my Casio for daily wear, and… I don’t miss the Pebble. This is not how I expected the Great Smartwatch Experiment of 2015 to end.

Actually, it’s entirely how I expected it to end. What I didn’t expect was for my opinion on wearables and smartwatches to perform a complete 180, and to drop wearing my Pebble like a bad habit.

Part of the problem is that the Pebble, at least when paired up with iOS, can only do so little. It works great for informational notifications on my phone: the morning weather forecast, subway delays, meeting and task reminders. It’s useless for anything that requires action: like Due.app timers, and messaging. Guess which of these I do more of on my phone. Here’s a hint: I turned off a lot of “informational” notifications a while ago.

John Cross Neumann on Medium puts it best:

If the watch shows you a notification that is important, you need to act on that notification. In fact, that need to act is what makes the message important in the first place! …

And here in lies the paradox. In order to respond, you need to take out the phone. But when you take out the phone, the value promise is again broken!

A combination of iOS limitations, Pebble OS limitations, and hardware limitations breaks this value promise over, and over, and over again. The new Pebble Time and OS has potential to be a new interpretation of what a smartwatch can be, but they’re moving their focus more towards Android, which doesn’t help me. I hold out some small, almost microscopic hope that Apple will expose more functionality in iOS 8.2 for other smartwatches, but it’s not likely.

It’s a shame, because I like my Pebble. The novelty hasn’t worn off, I suppose. I think it’s a good-looking piece of gear, though my standards are hardly universal. [1] When it’s doing something useful, and letting me keep my phone in my pocket, it’s great. The limitations mentioned above, however, make this a rare occurrence. I’m certain to give the new Pebble 3.0 OS a try once it’s released for the original Pebble, that is unless I’m lucky enough, or crazy enough, to get an Apple Watch before then. The timeline UI looks like an exciting new way of thinking about what a smartwatch is for, and it excites me in a way Apple Watch doesn’t.

The thing about smartwatches is that they haven’t become their own thing quite yet. The first devices we could call a smartwatch were just glorified, wrist-mounted Personal Digital Assistants. Even Palm got in on the action with a Palm Pilot watch in the early 2000s. The next idea, pre-Android Wear and Pebble, was just a smartphone on your wrist. We’re finally getting somewhere close to a defined idea of what a smartwatch is, and perhaps after Apple’s event on March 9th, we’ll almost be there. I don’t know, however.

What I do know is that the value of a smartwatch is extraordinarily hard to communicate. For ages, I viewed them as little more than a “second screen” for a smartphone. It’s a dismissive idea, and it took putting my money where my mouth is, and trying one, to dismiss my skepticism. I’m now cautiously bullish on the smartwatch as an idea, even if I can’t articulate exactly why. I still maintain that the fashion-focused pre-marketing of Apple Watch is a result of the difficulty in explaining why a normal person—let alone a technology person—would want a computer on their wrist. That’s also why it’s annoying the nerds. They don’t care about fashion, only utility.

I want to be clear. There is a utility to a smartwatch. Even if the Pebble doesn’t have all of that utility, it had enough to make the scales fall from my eyes. I can even see an evolution of the smartwatch as a context-aware device, showing relevant and timely information at a glance. Imagine this: you have your work schedule on your calendar. It’s almost time to wrap up for the day, you check your watch, and see that it knows it’s quitting time, that there’s road construction on your usual route home, and not only tells you it’ll take you longer to get home, but offers to find an alternate route and text your partner that you’ll be home late. That would be incredible.

We’re not there yet, and, yes, that could just be an alert on your smartphone. But an alert is an external interruption. It requires not only pulling out your phone, but also shifting into a different mode of thinking. A glance at the watch is natural, and doesn’t pull you out of what you’re doing. It’s ambient, contextual and timely information that you can see on demand. There’s a huge difference, and until you have even the slightest experience of it, it’s hard to grasp just how useful it could be.

So, to wrench this back around to my Pebble. The goal of my experiment was to see if my skepticism on smartwatches was justified. That such a limited device was enough to prove me wrong is success enough. It’s a shame the Pebble doesn’t succeed for me as an iOS user, but that’s the risk I took. At least I’m only out $99, and have a device that will at least give me a chance to try something new and interesting in a couple of months when Pebble releases their new OS. For now, I’ll stick with my dumbwatch, and wait.

Andy Ihnatko has filed his column from Mobile World Conference, the playground where all the biggest, shiniest, and priciest mobile gizmos are announced, save for the ones from Apple. Unlike most of the other reports from MWC, Andy is focusing on something beyond the glitzy: really good, really cheap consumer technology. Why? Because some of it is surprisingly good, and also because

“[T]here are so many people in the US and around the world who just flat-out can’t afford the stuff with top-of-the-line specs, or even the midpriced stuff. The fetishization of the premium market often makes it seems as if there’s a sign hanging on the door of the consumer tech world that reads ‘Go be poor somewhere else.’ That’s immensely troubling.”

All the talk about the $5,000 to $20,000 (or beyond) Apple Watch Edition seems to have awoken a dormant populist streak in some tech folks—myself included. It wasn’t that long ago when the rhetoric around technology was that of liberation, and the goal was to get it in as many hands as possible. While the price of useful, and reasonably long-lasting computer hardware has dropped, even the mid-tier is priced too high for huge swath of the world… or just the United States. All the profit is at the high-end of the market, though many companies still offer “cheap” models. And, of course, to make up for the cheap prices, you often end up with privacy-ruining crapware on your new machine.

There’s nothing democratizing about super-expensive consumer technology, and I say this as someone who has happily shelled out the money for Apple hardware, and will do so again in the future. Yet, I have no qualms about suggesting to friends who need new phones and computers to get cheaper, equally functional products. [1] The WinBook TW700 tablet Andy mentions is fascinating, and I’m almost curious enough to drop $60 just to try a Windows 8.1 tablet that I don’t even need. (Almost.)

The accusations of elitism thrown at certain Apple fans are not off the mark. A lot of us love our expensive, shiny, Apple hardware. There’s nothing wrong with that. When we continue to insist that the expensive, shiny Apple hardware we own is the best solution for everyone, and to attack the taste of people who deign to use Android, Windows, a Chromebook, or run Linux, we add nothing to the conversation. As technology journalists and writers, when we act as though our personal choices are the only correct choice, either by direct statement or implication, we’re failing at our job. I can’t put it better than Andy does, which is probably why he’s made a career out of his technology writing: “technology is supposed to improve and elevate everybody.”

Let’s not lose sight of that before the next major product announcement.

Mobile computing analyst Brian S. Hall, of Apple Boo Boo makes a good point about the pricing talk around Apple Watch: [1]

As Tim Cook’s Apple has gone even more upscale, emphasizing high-fashion and literally gold adornments, eagerly adopting the Vertu business model and taking it global, I have noted a rising tendency by the cheerleader blogs to sneer and mock those who don’t choose Apple.

Thing is, Apple may not necessarily be the right choice for everyone.

Oh, AND ALMOST EVERYONE ON THE PLANET CANNOT AFFORD APPLE!

If there’s one thing that’s rubbed me the wrong way about the endless speculation over the high-end of Apple Watch pricing, it’s the subtext that the absurd sticker price for gold Apple Watches is some sort of boon to Apple in its competition with the other smartwatch players, if not the industry as a whole. Shame on Motorola for not offering some multi-thousand dollar Android Wear smartwatch in gold, right? Even John Gruber’s written eye-rolling over a covered micro-USB port on the back of Sony’s latest smartwatch comes from that same smug place. There’s something very useful about being able to charge your device with a standard cable you can get for a couple bucks at the gas station, even if it’s less elegant than a magnetic charging cable.

The griping over Apple having the audacity to sell a multi-thousand dollar watch is just as obnoxious. Remember, Apple’s entry level price for the Watch, $349, is only $100 more than the Moto 360. Of course, even a $99 Pebble is out of reach for many people, too. But, Apple’s not in danger of becoming Vertu any time soon. If the iPhone 7 comes in a $40,000 18-karet Rose Gold option to match the Apple Watch 3, with a $10,000 alligator leather case option, then I’ll worry. Apple Watch is one product, it’s untested, and it’s unknown. It’s a big, expensive experiment to see if Apple can use fashion to put a (potentially) useful gizmo on people’s wrists, and we don’t know how it will turn out.

I don’t agree with Brian’s assessment in a separate piece that Apple Watch is “a showpiece. And you buy it to show it off.” Having used a Pebble for the better part of a month, I find there’s something to this wearables/smartwatch thing, even if it’s difficult to articulate. (And even if the Pebble’s functionality on iOS is crippled.) The functionality a smartwatch provides isn’t essential, but it is useful. How do you communicate the utility of a new kind of device to a new audience who neither knows, nor cares, about it?

I know it’s hard to explain why I haven’t yet shoved my Pebble in a drawer until the new OS comes out. I’m trying, though, and hope to have something to say about it in a future essay. It’s hard to understand the utility of a wearable device until you’ve tried one. This is the hurdle that smartwatch makers need to overcome. The fashion-focused marketing of Apple Watch might end up clever in retrospect: putting something of great, but hard to explain utility on people’s wrists through the sheer power of fashionability. It’s a crazy move, and who knows if it will work? It’s possible, though, that once someone straps Apple Watch on their wrist, no matter what model, they’ll find their reasons to keep it on there change from fashion to utility.

Or, they’ll take it back to the store in a week and get their money back. We don’t know yet.

Whatever happens with Apple Watch and it’s crazy price tags, Brian’s fundamental point remains:

Pull back any judgments you have on those who don’t have the same as you.

Whether someone has a $10,000 Apple Watch Edition, a $349 Apple Watch Sport, a $199 Android Wear gizmo, or a $99 Pebble, or a free-with-contract prepaid flip phone and no smartwatch, they probably have a valid reason for their choice. Us Apple people need to stop being such jerks about how good the company we give money to is, and how terrible everyone else is. It’s helping nobody.

Today, Pebble announced Pebble Time, a $199, color e-ink smartwatch, and an associated Kickstarter, that earned over $5 million within the first six hours. Pebble Time looks like a nice piece of kit, but what really intrigues me about the new Pebble is the UI. Instead on focusing on notifications, Pebble is focusing on a timeline, with the ability to scroll ahead to what’s coming up, or scroll back to see what you may have missed. As The Verge describes it:

Move down the timeline, and you might see an upcoming calendar appointment or flight information. Move back, and the timeline can show how many steps you took yesterday or the score of last nightís playoff game. The “present” or default setting of the timeline displays things like stock information, current weather, and, of course, the current time.

It’s a clever rethinking of what a smartwatch can be. Supposedly the timeline UI will be coming to the older Pebbles, but there’s no timeframe. Suffice it to say, whatever my decision is about keeping or dropping Pebble after a month, I’ll be keeping the device around so I can try the new interface when it’s available. There’s value of in providing context-sensitive and time-sensitive information, and a smartwatch is a platform well suited for that. Having your wrist buzz instead of your phone beeping with every notification you get, not so much.

The three main smartwatch platforms are differentiating themselves on the roles a smartwatch could, potentially, play in out lives. Android Wear is focused around notifications, especially ones from Google Now. I’ve had bad luck with Google Now, but Andy Ihnatko, whose judgement I trust, swears by it and his Moto 360. Apple Watch is positioning itself as a communications and lifestyle device. Over on Twitter, Zac Cichy, and @OhmDee seem convinced that Apple Watch will usher in a new era of voice messaging to replace SMS and other forms of text chat. [1] It’s too early to tell, and we might get a bigger, clearer picture whenever Apple holds their Watch event.

Pebble’s timeline interface a very compelling alternative to both of these concepts. I’ve long maintained that context awareness is the future of computing. Rethinking the notification-based, interruption-based paradigm of smartwatch—and smartphone—interaction as a temporal stream is a sound one. My hope is that they’ll be able to execute on it, and have the third-party developer support needed to get the right data in there at the right time…

..And that they can make it work with iOS, which may be the biggest hurdle.