Do I ACTUALLY need an Apple Watch?

[dawnrazor]

This is a question I have been grappling with for some time now, longer then I care to admit… Is the AW on my wrist actually necessary in my life, does it make my life better, would I miss it if it were not there?

How to go about ascertaining an informed personal answer is what I have been grappling with. I could have gone cold turkey ages ago, but that seemed like a waste of a perfectly decent watch so I never entertained that as an option, then a set of events presented the perfect opportunity to do just that…

So my wife and I both have similarly aged 2019 Series 5 Aluminium Apple watches, hers is 40mm and mine is 45mm. I always felt the 40mm was too small to be any use but she liked it. These are our 3rd AWs.

Anyway, her battery has been acting up, had been above 80% capacity for ages then all of a sudden its now at 75% and wont last a day, no apple care and they are too old anyway… might look at getting a new battery put in but thats a different days work. The battery in my 45mm is 83%… so not exactly all that much better, basically these watches both need new batteries but at least mine lasts all day.

So we have unpaired both watches and retired my wife’s 40mm and she now has my 45mm AW. I have dug out an old digital alarm clock and my old G-Shock Mudman…

I am Apple Watch free for the first time since the Series 1…

Let the experiment begin!

The two questions we want answering are, one, whether my wife should really be rocking the larger AW and would get more use from it, she actively uses her AW and is looking at getting a series 9. Two, whether I need an Apple Watch at all, whether I can get by without one or if there are aspects of it that are so ubiquitous that I have utterly overlooked them and will find myself desperately missing my Apple Watch…

I have no idea what the answers will be… but we are doing this 😛

watch this space

see what I did there…..

 

[Brent0n]

Don’t think you’ll find that you need it.
I think you’ll find you want it back. Little things like staying connected when moving about the house, the feel, and overall experience.

I know I don’t need it, but I love having it.

 

[dukebound85]

nope

 

[rKunda]

I like mine. Honestly I’d prob go without though if not for two things:

It’s more convenient at the gym than tracking a workout on a phone.

But my favorite feature is the silent alarm for not waking my wife.

Other niceties are part of it but invoke abstain. But that second one has become a big deal.

 

[bricktop_at]

I wouldn’t want to be without it anymore…

Silent alarm, Apple Pay and I‘m a sucker for all that health data it provides.

 

[cubodado]

For what concerns me, I had two AC+ interventions, and in the time between the shipment and having it back (around 1 week) I missed it a lot. Maybe I didn’t really need it when I bought it, but now I wouldn’t go without it. Sometimes I considered switching to Garmin for better training insight (at least perceived) but with some external app and OS improvement and attention to battery I am satisfied with my AW6 also on this aspect.

 

[Beards]

I think part of your answer lays in your background…..
Are you a tech savvy user who has a background revolving around tech?
Do you find ‘any’ enjoyment from setting a digital piece of equipment?
What would you do if your phone was suddenly not available?

If you answer NO to the first two and Not really bothered with the last one, then go watch free.
However, if you can’t make up your mind then that shows you still have a desire of use with the watch.

 

[mk313]

Interesting thread. I'll be following to see how this turns out for you.

 

[Howard2k]

Nobody really "needs" an Apple Watch do they?

 

[dawnrazor]

I’ve decided to make a list of all the ‘instances’ I find myself going ‘oh the Apple Watch did a thing I miss’…

So far I have 4 things on that list

 

[BeatCrazy]

Silent alarm and ability to not need your phone on your 100% of the time (in case you miss text/call from family member) is why I need mine. The other stuff are all nice to haves, but I can't give up those two in particular.

 

[xraydoc]

Nobody needs an Apple Watch.

Nobody needs an iPhone. A flip phone can make calls and send text messages, too.


But an Apple Watch makes my life easier. It tracks my workouts (I try to do 45 min of moderate exercise at least 5x per week), heart rate and other health information, and I can do a quick ECG and see if I'm in sinus rhythm or not. I have minor health issues and this information is useful to me.

It reminds me to stand throughout the day, which I find useful -- otherwise I'd be sitting at a desk for a significant amount of the day and I'm amazed at how often I will say, "wow, it's been an hour already!?" I'm sedentary enough, so any little bit helps.

I'm a doctor and the Apple Watch ensures I don't miss important messages during the workday. Yes, my phone is usually in close proximity, but if it's on silent (like it is most of the time), I can't tell the difference between certain incoming notifications. A quick glance at my watch and I'll know.

I've always worn a watch, so an Apple Watch seems like a natural extension of all that connects me. I also wear modern hearing aids and likewise, they connect with my digital environment (Siri reads my incoming texts and time-critical calendar alerts into my head).

If I walk away without my iPhone -- like if I need to go down the hall and speak to someone at work and I leave my phone at my desk -- I'm still connected.

I drive a Tesla, so my phone is my car key. If I'm out and about and I drop & break my phone or somehow lose it, my watch can act as a car key as well. Yes, I can carry a Tesla keycard in my wallet, but since I've got ApplePay and other items in Apple Wallet on my watch (and phone), I don't really need to carry an old-fashioned wallet full time.

If someone runs past and snatches my phone out of my hands, I still have communications (cellular watch).

So, no, I don't need an Apple Watch, but I find it quite convenient.

 

[ScubaCinci]

So go a few weeks without it and see what you think? The biggest perk for me is I can be away from my phone and still get important notifications. Most everything else is gravy.

 

[MarkNewton2023]

This is a question I have been grappling with for some time now, longer then I care to admit… Is the AW on my wrist actually necessary in my life, does it make my life better, would I miss it if it were not there?

How to go about ascertaining an informed personal answer is what I have been grappling with. I could have gone cold turkey ages ago, but that seemed like a waste of a perfectly decent watch so I never entertained that as an option, then a set of events presented the perfect opportunity to do just that…

So my wife and I both have similarly aged 2019 Series 5 Aluminium Apple watches, hers is 40mm and mine is 45mm. I always felt the 40mm was too small to be any use but she liked it. These are our 3rd AWs.

Anyway, her battery has been acting up, had been above 80% capacity for ages then all of a sudden its now at 75% and wont last a day, no apple care and they are too old anyway… might look at getting a new battery put in but thats a different days work. The battery in my 45mm is 83%… so not exactly all that much better, basically these watches both need new batteries but at least mine lasts all day.

So we have unpaired both watches and retired my wife’s 40mm and she now has my 45mm AW. I have dug out an old digital alarm clock and my old G-Shock Mudman…

I am Apple Watch free for the first time since the Series 1…

Let the experiment begin!

The two questions we want answering are, one, whether my wife should really be rocking the larger AW and would get more use from it, she actively uses her AW and is looking at getting a series 9. Two, whether I need an Apple Watch at all, whether I can get by without one or if there are aspects of it that are so ubiquitous that I have utterly overlooked them and will find myself desperately missing my Apple Watch…

I have no idea what the answers will be… but we are doing this 😛

watch this space

see what I did there…..

The need of Apple Watch depends on one’s use

This is a question I have been grappling with for some time now, longer then I care to admit… Is the AW on my wrist actually necessary in my life, does it make my life better, would I miss it if it were not there?

How to go about ascertaining an informed personal answer is what I have been grappling with. I could have gone cold turkey ages ago, but that seemed like a waste of a perfectly decent watch so I never entertained that as an option, then a set of events presented the perfect opportunity to do just that…

So my wife and I both have similarly aged 2019 Series 5 Aluminium Apple watches, hers is 40mm and mine is 45mm. I always felt the 40mm was too small to be any use but she liked it. These are our 3rd AWs.

Anyway, her battery has been acting up, had been above 80% capacity for ages then all of a sudden its now at 75% and wont last a day, no apple care and they are too old anyway… might look at getting a new battery put in but thats a different days work. The battery in my 45mm is 83%… so not exactly all that much better, basically these watches both need new batteries but at least mine lasts all day.

So we have unpaired both watches and retired my wife’s 40mm and she now has my 45mm AW. I have dug out an old digital alarm clock and my old G-Shock Mudman…

I am Apple Watch free for the first time since the Series 1…

Let the experiment begin!

The two questions we want answering are, one, whether my wife should really be rocking the larger AW and would get more use from it, she actively uses her AW and is looking at getting a series 9. Two, whether I need an Apple Watch at all, whether I can get by without one or if there are aspects of it that are so ubiquitous that I have utterly overlooked them and will find myself desperately missing my Apple Watch…

I have no idea what the answers will be… but we are doing this 😛

watch this space

see what I did there…..

Based on your post, you do not need an Apple Watch. It is just a nice thing to have. You might miss it because you wore it often and it became a habit of having it on your wrist. We are a creature of habit. Once habitual thing suddenly disappears, it is very common that we miss it. 😊
If you decide to be Apple Watch free, try to despise any missing on AW thought and focus on something else that can take your mind of it. Good luck and wish the best 😊

 

[MacNut]

If you have to ask the question the answer is no.

 

[drew0020]

I like my Ultra, but Apple Watch has gotten very stale over the last 4-5 years. Very little improvements and unlike a mechanical watch they do not hold their value at all. Lately I am wearing mine less and less and I don’t miss it one bit.

 

[Howard2k]

I like my Ultra, but Apple Watch has gotten very stale over the last 4-5 years. Very little improvements and unlike a mechanical watch they do not hold their value at all. Lately I am wearing mine less and less and I don’t miss it one bit.

You didn’t expect it to hold value though right?

 

[dawnrazor]

If you have to ask the question the answer is no.

Well it’s not that easy is it, often with this kind of thing you can think one thing and discover another… simple assumption is not an analytical approach to problem solving…

Okay we are 24 hours into “Operation Apple Watch Freedom” snappy title I thought.

Here are the things I’m missing so far…

• DAILY MEDICINE ALARM REMINDER
• COVER AW TO SILENCE A CALL
• MORNING ALARM - AND THE EASE OF SETTING DIFFERENT ALARM TIMES
• BEING ABLE TO HEAR A PHONE CALL WHILST OUT OF EARSHOT OF THE PHONE
• VARIOUS COOKING TIMERS
• CHECKING THE WEATHER AND IF IT’S GOING TO RAIN

Only 24 hours mind, I’m pleasantly surprised I have identified so many things to be honest… There will be other things, like when I exercise I will miss recording workouts, but I typically don’t do anything with that data other then its nice to know you walked that last kilometre in 11 minutes or whatever…

But after 24 hours… I don’t think the answer is as straightforward, I mean my phone will all those things other than the quick and stealthy covering the AW to silence a call… I do miss that as I don’t like running my phone on silent…

Lets see what the weekend throws up… I’ll report back next week

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

You didn’t expect it to hold value though right?

I think they probably meant the Apple Watch loses a lot of its value in a very short space of time, more so as a percentage than an iPhone or an iPad would.

Just looking around the selling sites there are Series 8's going for under £230, stainless models at £300. There were people on here claiming they are letting their Ultra's go for as little as £450 even, and these are barely 12 months old. With the Apple Watch I think you need to realise its a fast depreciating item and probably the reason it is uncommon to see people upgrading them every year. Perhaps this is because it is a wearable and some may not want to buy something that someone else has worn and sweated with? Who knows, but at least it is one Apple product that makes a great secondhand buy.

 

[xxFoxtail]

There's been times where I just tried to not wear it anymore and go back to my old mechanical watch. I always went back to the Apple Watch. I have a couple oddball uses for it though that make it much more convenient to me.

• I use it at work! I work at a warehouse for my family business and pack orders that usually come in through email or text message. Normally I print them all in the morning, but I will get some one by one through out the day. Instead of printing one at a time, or pulling my phone out every time, I can just glance at my wrist.
• Opening/Closing Garage door. If I'm home alone, and outside doing yard work or have another reason to not be eyeing the garage door when it might be open, it's easy enough for me to open and close it right from the watch. I usually don't like mowing the lawn or weeding with my iPhone on me, it's fallen out of my pocket on more than one occasion.
• Same thing with walking the dog around the neighborhood. I don't need my iPhone on me unless I'm expecting to take pictures. My cellular AWU keeps me connected just fine.
• Other little things like sleep tracking, working out, checking my HR, ECG, Blood oxygen, etc. My partner and I have regular workout competitions every week. I like to think it keeps us both motivated.

I suppose I don't really need my Apple Watch, I lived just fine without one for most of my life. It's just so ingrained with everything I do now, losing it just kind of feels like losing a part of me. I've personally tested the Microsoft Band and Pebble before the AW, they just really didn't do much for me at the time. Good luck with your test! I'm curious to know how it works out. I might experiment with it again as I might be job shuffling at some point (my parents will be selling their business soon and retiring), this will cross one thing off of my list.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

One thing I enjoy when I go on holiday is leaving my Apple Watch at home. It is nice to disconnect and unwind away from notifications sometimes.

 

[dawnrazor]

Well it’s been about a week of being free of the AW and given my wife is now rocking my old watch there was no chance of me just putting it back on.

So how has it been?

Interesting with unexpected results. Firstly to address some of the more literal takes on this ‘experiment’ and I use that word very loosely as well, but to all those people that pointed out that no one ’needs’ and AW… yes yes this is true but not in the spirit of the question and I take some of that blame for the poorly chosen wording of the thread title, but the sentiment was more of ‘can I make do without it an AW in my day to day life’ but that’s a bit fo a mouthful and I needed something snappier…

Anyway moving on from the pedantic side of things, what where my every so unscientific findings…

As well as the instances listed above I did miss the AW on several other occasions, haptic responses when driving for instance was one I hadn’t considered until it happened. Setting timers was another as I had forgotten that when I park in a 2 hour zone, I set a timer so it alerts me to the end of the time limit and I need to move the car… there were others but as the week moved on it was less and less stuff…

I’ve been wearing either my Vitorinox Divemaster 500 or Casio Mudman G Shock. as a replacement and these have been fine but both are very old at this point and pretty beat up the Divemaster is also very heavy bulky and heavy… The times I didn’t wear any watch my wrist felt naked and I caught myself checking the time but no having a watch…

So the interesting to come out of that was that I began looking at other watches that I could buy and I keep looking at Casio DWG 1000 Mudmaster, a big old chunky analogue and digital watch made to be trashed… perfect for me, as one of the issues I have with the AW is that it’s very dainty…

Now a Mudmaster and an AW Ultra are about the same price, however a Mudmaster will still work in 10 years time…

Is it that simple is this just about value for money? I’m pretty disappointed that both of our series 5 AW are needing new batteries, seeing as the Series 1 has just been made obsolete you can make an assumption that the S5 will be made obsolete by 20227… which is 8 years which is pretty good for a piece of electronics… but that’s not how people buy watches is it… but then again this hi-lights that the AW is not a timepiece it’s an electronic wearable… maybe that‘s my probable with it, I want it to be a quality item that will last and they don’t last do they, they wear out get scratched up and become obsolete…

So what do I do now… Nothing yet… There has been nothing that I haven’t been able to live with, I mean that’s not a surprise, but there have been several instances when I really missed having this thing on my wrist that I could do stuff with, like control audio volume, stop start etc. I really miss the morning alarm feature and the easy of choosing from a list of different alarm times, instead of having to change your alarm manually each day they change… but is that enough to make me buy a new AW or AW Ultra for that matter… I’m not sure, I want to throw more time at this and see if the longer I’m AW free makes a difference… or I go yeah you know what I think I need to go back… it might be that simple… part of me still wants an AW and part doesn’t and I need to work out which side wins.

The added bonus is that my wife has come around to the idea that the bigger 45mm doesn’t look ridiculous on her wrist, in fact I thought it make her wrist look smaller then with the 41mm on, and she does prefer the larger screen… so that is one definite outcome. I am happy that I have eventually made the break and gone through this process, the things I miss about the AW are not the things I thought I’d miss about the AW so that was very surprising for me and that was good to discover…

So for now the experiment continues and we’ll see where is goes from here … watch this space… oh I did it again…

 

[circatee]

@dawnrazor how is the experiment going, any update(s)?

 

[SusieS]

As a moderately clumsy person, the more expensive my iPhones get, the more I appreciate having an AW when I‘m out an about. I can make and receive texts and calls without getting my phone out of my purse and fumbling it onto hard cement.

 

[dawnrazor]

@dawnrazor how is the experiment going, any update(s)?

Well I’m still Apple Watch free… as the days passed I figured out there was nothing that made not wearing an AW on my wrist a deal breaker… I did miss being able to tell the time at a glance haha… so on an overseas trip I bought myself a G-Shock Mudmaster watch that was on 45% sale in duty free… and I kinda love it, proper big watch, does what it does and nothing more…. I thought maybe I could use it for alarm functions but it’s too quiet… it is solar powered so never needs charging… and is very light for a big watch.

For those alarms I bought a Belkin magsafe stand to sit beside my bed, my iphone sits on it in stand by mode, so that takes care of that morning alarm and clock function over night. I bought a cheap kitchen timer off Amazon for timing of cookery stuff.

and thats about it, my wife is still using my old AW (S5) but the battery on it is beginning to not last the whole day, she still gets a lot of use out of her AW due to using it very differently to me, we now need to consider either getting the battery replaced or just pick her up a series 9 at some point soon…

I don’t see myself going back to the AW any time soon, although I‘m not ruling it out completely… but there would need to be a very very good reason, but never say never… for now I’m very happy with my “watch watch”