August, the beautiful Yves Behar-designed smart lock received quite a bit of press last year when it finally launched around October. Although reviews are something of a mixed bag, most agree that it's one of the simplest such devices to install and use yet. Now the company is hoping to make things even simpler – at least for a portion of its users – by adding support for the Apple Watch.
While unlocking your door from your smartphone eliminates the need for a key, in its default configuration it still requires you to pull your phone out of your pocket, as you would your keys. Now, the process should be technically smoother since it's just a swipe and a tap on your watch to achieve the same goal. The watch also gives you the ability to review the log of who has unlocked the door previously, based on the unique codes that can be assigned to users and notify when you whenever the door is unlocked.
It should be noted that August already has an Auto-Unlock option that will detect you nearing the door and open things up even if your phone's in your pocket – which makes the Watch app a little superfluous. The smart lock also allows you to use a standard key, which not all smartlocks do, so that if there's a Bluetooth connection problem, or a dead battery, you can still unlock the door the old way.
App adoption for the Apple Watch has been a slow process because developers are waiting for a wider market, but things are building in the right direction for Apple. At least at the moment, this functionality is not available for Android Wear so Apple has one point in their favor against their competition.