Gwyneth Paltrow on getting her first smartwatch and how her children keep time

Gwyneth Paltrow won’t be getting an Apple Watch anytime soon (though her children are a different story). Paltrow partnered with Swiss watch maker Frédérique Constant roughly six months ago as their charity ambassador; the company has aligned itself with numerous charities over the years. On Wednesday, the actress was on hand to promote their horological smartwatch, which was celebrated at Spring Studios in New York.

“I love the actual watches, they’re really beautiful,” Paltrow said dutifully, from a private room at the event. “They’re really well-made and really classic. And the approach was charitable, so it was such an amazing opportunity to represent a brand that you believe in and that you feel aligned with, and then to have this amazing charitable part, where they really wanted to partner to do something and to make a difference. It’s such a dreamy partnership.”

The Frédérique Constant watch is her first smartwatch. “I mean, I didn’t think they were very good-looking,” she said of previous tech watch models. “So until I got this one…but, I mean, it’s great for me because I do a lot of fitness and so I just downloaded the app. I just got [the watch] today, so I’m very excited to sort of play with it and track steps and all the fitness stuff – it’s very cool.”

The notorious fitness fiend vowed she’ll be incorporating the gadget into future workouts. “This is my first sort of foray” into a more techy workout tool, she said. “There was something somebody gave me once that you put under your pillow to monitor your sleep, but it was completely wrong. I was, like, ‘This is not working.’ But no, this is my first. There’s never been something pretty enough to wear.”

The Frédérique Constant version makes the cut, though. “With watches, I’ve been more into it lately,” she said. “In my 20s, I wore a watch all the time, and then with the smartphone, it goes away. [My kids] have a watch, they have an Apple Watch, but they don’t really wear it, to be honest. Once you’re in the habit of wearing a watch, it’s so comforting, and it’s so nice just to check the time like that. It’s also far more subtle [than] if you’re in a meeting [and want to check the time].”

As for her first ever time-teller? “It was a Swatch, those plastic [ones]. I was a child of the Eighties and those were the rage when I was 11, 12 years old,” she said. “I used to ask for them for Christmas. Those were my first – a blue Swatch, that was my first.”