Apple Inc. released the Apple WatchKit SDK in November and since then developers have been hard at work readying their apps for the wearable. Some high-profile developers were even invited to a secret Apple Watch lab to finish their apps.

At yesterday’s special Apple event, we got to see some apps demoed on stage and there are a whole lot more in the works.

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Control your smart home devices from your wrist

Image via Alarm.com

In the first demo of a smart home app on the wearable, Apple showed how a wearer can use the Apple Watch to open their garage door via the Alarm.com app for Apple Watch. The app can also be used to control other connected devices in a home, such as locks, lights, video, thermostats, water shut-off and more.

If you happen to leave home without closing your garage door or arming your security system, the Alarm.com app will let you know via Actionable Notifications on your Apple Watch and you can close the garage door right from your wrist without having to turn around.

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Salesforce for Apple Watch

Salesforce for Apple Watch

Salesforce yesterday announced Salesforce for Apple Watch which has three components:

• Salesforce Analytics Cloud App provides access to data via dashboards and lenses on the Apple watch. It features the ability to use Handoff to switch between and Apple Watch and an iPhone and Voice Search to access reports.
• Salesforce1 Mobile App support will deliver notifications directly on the Apple Watch, for example, sales managers can receive a discount approval request and take action from the watch.
• Salesforce Wear Developer Pack for Apple Watch is open-source and allows Salesforce1 developers to build enterprise apps for Apple Watch that connect directly to the Salesforce1 Platform.

Starwood Hotels

SPG App for Apple Watch

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is one of the companies that were working on their app in Apple’s secret lab and yesterday the company unveiled the SPG App for Apple Watch. The app enables mobile check-in, access to reservation details, directions to the hotel, access to booking information, the ability to lock and unlock a hotel room door and more –all from the user’s wrist.

Apart from the apps demoed at the event, there are hundreds of others available or launching soon. TechCrunch did a roundup of Apple Watch apps, and here are our favorites in their respective categories:

Productivity

BetterWorks: Real-time goal data.

Mailbox: Perform email triage with a simple swipe.

Todoist: Check off your to-do items and use the microphone to assign due dates for tasks.

Travel

Uber: Call for an Uber and track its arrival time.

American Airlines: Check in to your flight, see if it’s on time, and see how far away your gate is and more.

Shopping and Dining

Daily Bread: This grocery list app keeps track of stuff you buy often and lets you know when you need to stock up.

OpenTable: Check your dinner reservation and find the restaurant with a map.

Social

All the usual suspects such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, WeChat and more.

Health and Fitness

Nike+ Running: Track your distance and pace from your Apple Watch.

Runtastic: Track your speed, distance, duration, pace, and how many calories you’ve burned on your wrist.

Main image via Apple Inc.