With the Apple Watch going on sale this week, Andrew Hennigan speaks to some of the early adopters – British Airways, Hotwire and HotelQuickly

In less than a week, anyone with an iPhone and the new Apple Watch will be able go to the app store and download an app provided by British Airways. Its handy wrist-mounted display has been developed to bring critical trip information to the screen of your watch without having to dig into your pocket or bag and unlock your phone.

The British Airways’ watch app will keep travellers constantly updated through the ‘glance screen’ – the watch equivalent of the iPhone’s lock screen – where a summary of key flight information is always displayed: departure time, flight status and countdown to departure. A swipe across the watch face opens the full watch app which then displays more detailed information for the next flight, including flight number, route, departure time, flight status, a countdown to departure and weather at the destination. There are also notifications about check-in times and gate assignments, and in lounges at Heathrow Terminal 5, watch app users will also be welcomed using iBeacon messages.

One of the reasons BA has decided to be one of the first adopters of the Apple Watch is that the company anticipates strong demand. “iOS is the most popular platform with our customers,” says Kevin McQuillan, head of ba.com, “and given the expected popularity of the Apple Watch we think many of our customers will be using it before long.” 

The popularity of the iOS platform also encouraged last-minute hotel booking service HotelQuickly to be an early adopter. “40% of our customers use iPhones,” says founder and CEO Tomas Laboutka. “We are open to experimenting, to staying on top of new trends that will make booking fast, enjoyable and rewarding. We want to ensure that the product is always current and compelling.”

We want to ensure that the product is always current and compelling

Tomas Laboutka, CEO, HotelQuickly

A watch app gives HotelQuickly opportunities to do this, bringing all the key information to the user’s wrist, helping travellers identify quickly a nearby hotel; it also works seamlessly with the existing iPhone app. One handy feature of the HotelQuickly app is the ‘handoff’ where a user looking at booking details on the watch screen can open their phone and automatically see the full details of the same booking.

Discount travel site Hotwire is also ready with an Apple watch app, though this isn’t the first for the company which introduced a Google Android Watch app last summer. Through the Hotwire app travellers can access hotel information, upcoming trips and present and past itineraries. The hotwire app also features alerts for hotel check-ins and rental car returns.

Less work than it appears

Consumers are clearly more attracted to the new Apple Watch than previous gadgets, and usefulness for travellers is also evident. But does this justify the effort required to develop a watch app?

Creating Apple Watch apps might be less work than it appears because they always operate as an extension of an iPhone app and cannot work without it.

I’d typically budget about 10% of the time it would take to create the phone app

Ryan Matzner, director at the New York app developer Fueled

“For a watch app, I’d typically budget about 10% of the time it would take to create the phone app,” says Ryan Matzner, director at the New York app developer Fueled. “Most of our projects take eight to 24 weeks of development and we’d allocate a separate two to four week block for the watch app components.”

Some developers complain that the possible features of Apple Watch apps are limited by the rigid framework and interface rules applied by Apple. “Anyone wanting an Apple Watch app needs to understand this limitation, but this is most easily understood when you accept that a watch app has to be recognised as an extension of the iPhone app,” says Matzner. He adds that: “It supplements and extends functionality already offered by the app by introducing the possibility of new interactions.”

For companies that don’t have a watch app available for download later this week, there is still time. After all, most people are still on the waiting list to get a watch.