 So, you think you want a smartwatch. That's cool. They're actually pretty neat now and they can save you from pulling your phone out of your pocket as much. Most smartwatches are good at giving you notifications, they're good at controlling your music, counting your steps, and giving you little snippets of information like the weather. A smartwatch still won't replace your phone and I should tell you that most of the apps are going to be slow and kind of annoying. And a lot of them are actually not that great at just showing you what time it is. But hey, you're sold. You want a smartwatch. Well, you should get the best one. The one that gets all of the basics right and has a pretty good chance of getting the advanced stuff right too. Plus, oh yeah, it should look good and it should work really well with your phone. That last part is a tricky one. That's why if you have an iPhone, you should get an Apple Watch and if you have an Android phone, you should get the new Moto 360. Let's talk iPhone first. There are actually a lot of different smartwatches that work with the iPhone, but the one that Apple makes is the best. It looks good, it lasts a full day, and it has a lot of different choices for watch faces and style. Since Apple makes it, it's able to hook into all those Apple-y things like iMessage, Maps, and Calendar really well. It's especially improved since Apple updated the software. More and more apps are available now for the Apple Watch, which means that you can get custom information like the weather or whatever on your watch face and you can get custom widgets and apps when you need them. Most people should just go for the cheapest Apple Watch, the Sport. It does all of the same stuff that the more expensive ones do and if you want, you can find a nice band on Amazon to spruce it up. On Android, it's a similar story. You want a watch that runs the same software as your phone does. There are a ton of Android Wear watches out there and most of them are basically the same. So you can just pick one that looks the best to you and doesn't cost too much. Of them all, the one that I think will feel to the most people is the new Moto 360. It comes in two sizes and it can be easily customized with different bodies and watch bands. Yes, it does have a weird little flat tire on the display, but it's not as chunky or as slow as the other options. And there are a lot of options. Basically anything that's made in 2015 will be fine, except the ZenWatch 2, which is really slow and pretty cheap looking. But what you're really buying with the Apple Watch and the Moto 360 isn't what they can do today, but what they're more likely to be able to do in the future. Both Google and Apple are trying really hard to make sure their phones work really well with these watches. They also have much better voice input support, so you can make reminders and search for stuff. And more importantly, they're pushing developers to release apps that you actually might want to use on them. But the truth is, very few third party apps on either watch are any good. Now both of these two watches last about a day, but if you think you need more battery life than that, take a look at the Pebble smartwatch. Pebbles handle the basics. They work really well on both Android and iOS, and they last several days on a charge. They also have some apps, but overall it's a much more bare-bone smartwatch than the other ones. And here's another thing to think about. Using a smartwatch can actually be kind of hard to figure out. The Apple Watch has like five different new interactions and a button to learn, and Android Wear can get a little confusing with its taps and swipes and long presses. If you want something simple but still full featured, Samsung's Gear S2 has a really nice dial on the top that you can just rotate. It's great, but it only works with Android, and I don't think it's going to get as much third party support as the other watches. But here's the bottom line. Get the watch that looks good on your wrist, and accept that you're going to have to spend a few hundred dollars to make that happen. You'll get notifications, you'll be able to count your steps, and maybe get directions to the local coffee shop. But if you want all that, and you want a watch that still has a pretty good chance of being supported in a year or two, go with the watch that has the right software. For the iPhone, that's the Apple Watch. For Android users, it's the Moto 360.