After 11 years of wearing an Apple Watch almost daily, I stopped cold turkey, swapping my Ultra 3 for a relatively cheap automatic-movement Timex to get a sense of the kinds of problems Apple’s smartwatch is solving and where it falls short.
As a technology journalist and creator who’s constantly evaluating gadgets, I didn’t use this time to question whether the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch. For iPhone users, it’s really the only option. Instead, I spent just over a week seeing whether wrist-based notifications, fitness stats, and other smartwatch features are critical to my daily life or just nice-to-haves.
1. Critical: Notifications
Before I started this experiment, I knew that I would miss getting notifications on my wrist. But would I miss being constantly notified? It’s a small, but important distinction.
Whenever my son and I play wiffle ball in the backyard, a nearby motion-activated camera sends a flurry of alerts to my watch, which I check and dismiss. It’s enough that my son has commented on how often I peek at my wrist, so I’ve enjoyed getting a break from those interruptions while wearing an analog watch.
However, not wearing an Apple Watch meant that I often returned to an iPhone full of notifications. The timely texts were particularly unfortunate to miss. After a couple of days, I made sure not to leave my phone in far-flung corners of the house so I wouldn’t miss anything pressing. If you want to stay on top of incoming messages, reminders, and alerts, an Apple Watch is a must-have.
2. Nice to Have: Battery Life
The number of times I picked up my phone went way up when not wearing an Apple Watch. (Credit: Tyler Hayes)
One area I wasn’t expecting to evaluate was battery life. As I started carrying my phone around the house more, I checked it more frequently—43% more than the week before, according to my Screen Time data—and my iPhone’s battery life took a hit. Using an Apple Watch would improve your iPhone’s battery life to some degree, but I wouldn’t recommend buying one just for this reason. It’s an added benefit but not a critical use.
3. Nice to Have: Live Activities
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
Live Activities and persistent widgets are still relatively new to watchOS, but I’ve grown pretty accustomed to them, and I missed seeing quick updates on MLB games, the World Cup, and F1 Grand Prix when I glanced at the Timex. That said, muscle memory only took a day to overcome, and I hadn’t relied on Live Activities as I did with notifications. So, unless you’re a sports professional or very eager to track your DoorDash order in real time, I don’t think this should be the sole reason to buy an Apple Watch.
4. Nice to Have: Apple Pay, Homekey, and Carkey
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
One day, I held my wrist up to my smart lock when arriving home. Nothing happened, of course, and it took a few swipes to realize I wasn’t wearing my Apple Watch and would need to use my phone or enter the code to get inside. I could imagine a similar scenario when using tap-to-pay with my Apple Watch. Both scenarios, however, are more a convenience than a critical feature.
5. Critical: Workouts
(Credit: Tyler Hayes)
This was a tough one for me. The Apple Watch has become so critical to my fitness routine that I had to break this experiment on my daily 35-minute run. All 8,000 miles I’ve run over the last six years have been captured on my Apple Watch and stored in Apple Health, and I didn’t want to break that streak. My strongest argument here is that I run without my phone, which offers a lightweight way to track my distance, heart rate, and location, make calls, and stream music.
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Even if you aren’t trying to close your exercise rings every day, the Apple Watch may be worth it for the health tracking alone, from alerts about high or low heart rates and falls to ECG readings and data about VO2 max and blood oxygen levels.
The Verdict
This experiment helped solidify how much I need and like using the Apple Watch. Notifications have changed how often I mindlessly pick up my phone, while the Workouts app has become an integral part of my fitness regimen. Everything else can be classified as a nice-to-have, but all those niceties add up and could push you into the Apple Watch camp if you’re deciding among a smartwatch, smart ring, or budget fitness tracker.
So, I’m not ditching my Apple Watch. But my biggest realization is that I don’t need to wear it all day, every day. Apple needs to keep innovating (ahem, battery life for sleep tracking) if it wants its wearable to remain on top.
One way Apple could make its Apple Watch feel more necessary to more people is to deeply integrate its new Siri AI and make the watch a fully capable personal assistant. Stay tuned for the watchOS 27 launch this fall to see if Apple can deliver.
About Our Expert
Experience
I’ve contributed to PCMag since 2019, covering Apple, electric vehicles, and lots of other consumer electronics. If a gadget plugs into a wall or uses a battery, there’s a good chance I’ve tested it and have some thoughts about its place in our daily lives. I write featured articles, how-to guides, and daily news.
I got my first taste of writing about technology for Fast Company in 2013, mostly how it intersected with the music industry. Since then I’ve written for dozens of publications and explored all other facets of service journalism, from reviews to buying guides. At one point, I took a break from journalism for a few years to work at a technology startup and then an industry Goliath, both valuable experiences in understanding how the business of tech works from top to bottom.
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