Is it an Aye-Watch?, Nicola’s £600 Apple gadget
THEY have become a must-have accessory for celebrities such as Beyoncé and Katy Perry, with costs reaching up to £13,500.
Now First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been spotted keeping up with the latest technology trend.
She was wearing an Apple Watch on Tuesday night as she took part in the STV leaders debate, although her model was a lot more modest than some, costing a mere £ 00.
The gadget was a gift from her husband, Peter Murrell.
As well as telling the time, the device, which was launched in March 2015, allows users to make phone calls and check their Facebook, email, texts and calendar.
Smartwatches and bands connect to smartphones and also allow wearers to pay for items by waving their wrist over a till terminal, open an electric door and even turn on other devices via voice command.
But the watch needs to be ‘paired’ to the user’s phone for anything that requires access to the internet or pulls data from applications.
Miss Sturgeon normally wears a more traditional chain watch but the battery for it has run out.
Suspicions were raised yesterday that Miss Sturgeon might have been receiving prompts on the watch from a team of spin doctors, but she has denied this.
She wanted to wear a watch to ensure she could monitor the time during a segment of the STV debate in which leaders had two minutes to cross-examine their opponents.
One of her spin doctors had her phone in a separate room, so the watch would not have been able to receive messages.
Miss Sturgeon wrote on Twitter: ‘It had no reception in studio – was merely for timekeeping!’
One in seven people now owns wearable technology, with 3 per cent of wrist-worn devices sold last year being fitness bands. Devices such as the Apple Watch, the Fitbit, and the Microsoft Band can measure the pulse, steps and calories burned during the day, as well as tracking workouts.
The Apple Watch has received mixed reviews and Apple lost £40billion in value in only three minutes one day last year after it refused to say how many of the internetconnected devices it had sold.
Miss Sturgeon is not the first senior politician to have denied receiving messages during TV clashes.
In 2004, US President George W Bush faced claims he had been ‘wired’ in to receive advice from spin doctors after a bulge was spotted on his back during a debate with Democratic candidate John Kerry. The allegations were dismissed by the Republicans.
Miss Sturgeon has a fondness for hi-tech gadgets. Famously, she was filmed last year with a DeLonghi Prima Donna Avant cappuccino and espresso machine – which sells for £1,395 – on display in her home.