Apple Watch Will Be Available Early Next Year, Starting at $349

After months of speculation, Apple on Tuesday unveiled its first foray into wearables: the Apple Watch.
The smartwatch is available in two sizes (38 mm and 42 mm) and in a variety of different styles. You can send and receive text messages, take calls and monitor your health and fitness throughout the day, all from your wrist. You'll even be able to send something as personal as your own heartbeat to another Apple Watch wearer.

See also: 11 Things the Apple Watch Looks Like

The watch will launch early next year with a price starting at $349, but Apple didn't provide an exact release date or pricing information for the different models. The watch requires an iPhone to work; it is compatible with models as far back as the iPhone 5.
The device made an appearance at the company's iPhone 6 launch event in Cupertino, California, on Tuesday, marking the company's first new product category since the introduction of the iPad in 2010. The touchscreen device, with a Retina display, will work alongside the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
"We've been working on Apple Watch for a long time," Cook told attendees. "It's the most personal device we've ever created."
The device is extremely customizable, with 11 watch faces that include traditional analog options, a contemporary sundial and an interactive, real-time 3D model of the earth, sun, moon and planets.
Users will be able to scroll, zoom and navigate via Apple's digital crown, the dial click wheel on the side of the device. It also serves as the Home button. Meanwhile, a feature called Digital Touch lets you send a sketch, an audio message through Walkie Talkie or even your heartbeat to others.

Image: Apple

Apple Watch will also get a collection of apps include Starwood, Twitter, BMW and American Airlines, so you can board a plane or get into a hotel room or your car with just the swipe of your watch. Developers can use the WatchKit platform to create programs for the device that take advantage of the larger battery and processing power in the iPhone.
It also comes with an accelerometer, a built-in heart rate sensor, GPS and Wi-Fi from your iPhone to monitor your daily activity, essentially removing the need to have a fitness tracker on your wrist. Users can set goals and keep pace during session-based workouts, like running and cycling.

Image: Apple

At the event, Apple also revealed the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus, which will run on iOS 8. While leaked images and specs for the iPhone 6 have trickled out over the past several weeks, details about the Apple Watch (including the name) have largely remained a secret. Many believed the name would be iWatch.
The rectangular-shaped smartwatch can be personalized beyond the interface, with six different straps (made of leather, metal and plastic) and a mechanism that makes them interchangeable. It also comes with a custom-designed chip — the S1, which is below the haptic sensor, and it's built from custom alloys of stainless steel, aluminum and 18-karat gold.

Image: Apple

Like the iPhones, Apple Watch comes with voice-activated assistant Siri, which can be accessed by holding down the digital crown to activate. It will also work with Apple Pay, which allows users to pay from items from various retailers (including Macy's, Duane Reade, Walgreens, Toys R Us and more).
Tim Cook announced the product with the iconic ""one more thing" phrase used by Steve Jobs during special launches. It was the first he's used the saying since Jobs' death.
"It's the next chapter in Apple's story," he said.
The Apple Watch debuted at the Flint Center, the same venue where Steve Jobs first unveiled the Mac personal computer in 1984.