Instead of an Apple Watch there's always Schwarzenegger's

By Dian Vujovich
Special to the Daily News

I still have my first Apple computer purchased back in the early 1980s for 2,500 and something dollars. It's the brand I learned how to use a computer on, the only brand I've ever used and will probably ever buy. I've also got an iPad. So while I'm typically a fan of some Apple stuff, the Apple Watch doesn't move me.

The older I've gotten, the simpler I want things to be and when it comes to time, there's less of it rather than more it in front of me. Consequently, getting a new watch that I have to employ a 15-year old Appleista for to train me on how to use it holds absolutely no appeal.

Sure that watch is supposed to be able to do everything from monitor my heart rate to count the day's caloric intake, allow me to read the news, show my daily appointments and the weather, go email and text crazy, pinpoint my exact location and that of the nearest French bakery, talk to Siri, comparison price shop and report my REM sleep cycle I don't want any of that.

All I want is to know what the heck time it is. And to be able to find that time out in a nano-glance that requires no pushes or taps on anything.

I don't want to see colorful bubbles or have to scroll through a menu . All I want is the time. Time revealed in numerals and hands big enough for my aging eyes to see and mind to quickly identify. Time that doesn't come with a song and dance. If I want a song and dance I'll go to the Colony on Friday nights.

Most of all I want a timepiece that shows the time for a good amount of time--as in a continuous amount of hours, days and weeks. Not a timepiece that has to be charged every dozen or so hours.

The Apple Watch comes with a magnetic inductive charger that's a wireless charger. While the technology is oh-so needed word is it's not yet perfected. That means the truth about how long this watch will hold its charge falls into the "we will see" category. Look for more to come once the Apple Watch does arrive, is purchased by the gotta-havers and gets used.

Talking heads report that purchasing Apple stock one month before the company brings out a new product has, in the past, come with a reward: A bump up in per-share price in the 4 percent range. Those same heads didn't report how the stock fares in the month following the product launch.

Whatever, Apple (AAPL) stock has certainly not disappointed many of its investors in the past and given the humongous size of the company's cash pot, isn't likely to do any time soon unless something un-dream-up-able happens. By the way, AAPL closed yesterday, 4/24/15 one month before its debut, at $126.54. Today, 4/25/15, it was down $3.31 a share. If a must-have status watch is on your wish list, and telling time is all you expect from it, the Terminator has muscled his way into the watch business.

At the Baselworld watch and jewelry fair in Switzerland earlier this month, Arnold introduced his own brand of oversized manly man watches that will go on sale in September. Working with the Brazilian watchmaker Magnum Group, the Swiss made Schwarzenegger timepieces will be priced from $565 to $2790.

Arnold fans will have the choice of three watches. The entry-level Legend Collection has a compass and leather bodybuilder strap; the Hero Collection has a second time-zone display with a bullet-hole designed strap; and the top end Heritage Collection comes in rose gold and winds itself.

While strapping one of these babies on won't put you in the same league as wearing an Apple computer watch on your wrist, Arnold's sure will tell time in the old-fashioned way and like those Timex commercials used to tell us, they no doubt will "take a licking and keeping on ticking".