Do you think the Apple Watch is worth it, if you're not into fitness?

[The Cockney Rebel]

I live a very sedentary life.

I do very little (mental health issues) and find my Apple Watch a bit redundant.

I did start walking when I first got the watch, but got bored of it so stopped.

Now, it just tells the time and alerts me to notifications (which most of the time, leads me to picking up my iPhone, anyway.)

Not slagging the watch off at all, as it's a lovely device, but I just don't know if it's worth it for me. My only gripe being that I've bought quite a few official straps for it, so if I stop wearing it, it's a fair amount of money down the drain.

Am I alone, or are any of you in a similar situation?

 

[PackerBadger]

I have worn Garmin for a long time. Tried a AW8 last fall for the first time. took it back within a week due to the battery life and got an Ultra which I still wear daily. The Ultra is sure a great watch a bit big for my liking for a daily driver. I probably would have switched back to a Garmin full time except for one thing that is very important to me. The SOS on the Ultra. is That is the biggest reason I still am wearing it.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I have worn Garmin for a long time. Tried a AW8 last fall for the first time. took it back within a week due to the battery life and got an Ultra which I still wear daily. The Ultra is sure a great watch a bit big for my liking for a daily driver. I probably would have switched back to a Garmin full time except for one thing that is very important to me. The SOS on the Ultra. is That is the biggest reason I still am wearing it.

Is the SOS important to you, due to medical reasons?

It’s not something I ever think about.

 

[PackerBadger]

Not so much medical reasons as getting older reasons. I live alone am 59 in reasonably good health. One fall down the stairs could be a big problem, its a bit of insurance certainly not foolproof but could help. I guess there are other options but this is super easy and my watch is on always except for charging and moving about the house I am always connected to phone. I hike for recreation and have a Garmin inreach as my primary emergency device.

 

[Indianwin2001]

Not so much medical reasons as getting older reasons. I live alone am 59 in reasonably good health. One fall down the stairs could be a big problem, its a bit of insurance certainly not foolproof but could help. I guess there are other options but this is super easy and my watch is on always except for charging and moving about the house I am always connected to phone. I hike for recreation and have a Garmin inreach as my primary emergency device.

I wore a Garmin for 8 years, from 2012 until 2019, when I switched to AW5. I bought the Ultra 6 months ago and realized it didn’t have the integrated fitness metrics I needed, even with 4 different apps to track my training. 1 month ago, I traded it in to Best Buy and switched back to Garmin. Garmin still had my metrics from all those years ago and I picked right back up. I am a very active person for my age.

 

[akash.nu]

Personally I feel if you’re not using the notifications or feel like you’re not really benefiting from the Apple Pay setup etc, may be because you don’t go out much, then you potentially don’t want to buy the next generation but if you’ve already got one then there’s no reason to stop wearing it since the resell value for these in the second hand market is really crap.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

Personally I feel if you’re not using the notifications or feel like you’re not really benefiting from the Apple Pay setup etc, may be because you don’t go out much, then you potentially don’t want to buy the next generation but if you’ve already got one then there’s no reason to stop wearing it since the resell value for these in the second hand market is really crap.

And I have quite a few straps.

 

[PatrickNSF]

I don't always wear an AW, but when I do I think my most used app is Siri. I find Siri commands much better on the AW than on any other Apple Device I have (iPhone, HomePods, iPad, MacBook).

Also, the resale value of AWs are terrible so you might as well keep it.

 

[Howard2k]

I know it's not the question you asked, but there is a direct correlation between mental health and physical exercise.

Living a sedentary lifestyle is harmful not just to your mental health, but also to you physical heath, and remarkably exercise also appears to be one of the best defences again neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons from what I have read (I am not a doctor).

I'm not suggesting that you go out and start training for that ultra marathon but absolutely any exercise is good, and any improvement in an amount of exercise is good. The health benefits are staggeringly undeniable, both short term and long term. Sure people die doing triathlons and stuff, that happens, you could get hit by a bus while out for a walk, but all the same, it's worth it outside of those sorts of outliers

If you find walking boring, maybe you need to change why or where you walk. I make a habit to walk to the coffee shop in the morning instead of driving. That's free exercise right there. Takes me longer than driving but I'm also not putting wear and tear on the car and not spending money on gas. It would be cheaper to just make coffee at home, and I do that for my second cup, but habitually a morning walk for coffee works for me. It doesn't have to be a 10km hike, or a 5km run or anything like that. I listen to music or podcasts while I walk.

Not trying to be preachy; I do hope you find the right motivation to get out of the sedentary mode.

Aside from fitness on the watch, I use it for setting reminders, setting timers, controlling my Spotify stream, and controlling my AppleTV. All things I could do on my phone but if I don't have my phone handy but do have my watch then that's an easy victory. OMG, and ApplyPay of course.

All the same - your watch and straps are depreciating in value every day, so if you think you're not going to be using them then it might be better to sell sooner rather than later. Once the S9 comes out you'll see further depreciation. But I hope you keep them and get more active, even if just a little.

 

[MisterSavage]

Even if I didn't work out it would 100% be useful to me.

I'm constantly setting timers and reminders by just raising my wrist.
The stand alerts let me know when I've been sitting to long.
Paying with Apple Pay is glorious.
I don't have to carry my phone around with me at home.
etc etc

 

[Momof2.1107]

My job requires me to have an active lifestyle. Without my job, I would still wear an Apple Watch. I use my Apple Watch mainly for emergencies. Besides the notifications, health metrics and an alarm clock, I have to wear my watch primarily for fall detection. I have a medical condition, which causes me to lose my balance and after suffering from PE in both lungs, losing consciousness and falling, my Ultra called 911, after I didn’t respond, saving my life, so yes I think the Apple Watch is beneficial for alerts from my iPhone as well for health reasons.

You have to really think if it’s worth it for you to use your Apple Watch. In your situation, since you have bands, I would keep using the Apple Watch until you can’t use it anymore and during that time, it should help you to determine if you should keep using Apple Watches.

 

[ForkHandles]

I live a very sedentary life.

I do very little (mental health issues) and find my Apple Watch a bit redundant.

I did start walking when I first got the watch, but got bored of it so stopped.

Now, it just tells the time and alerts me to notifications (which most of the time, leads me to picking up my iPhone, anyway.)

Not slagging the watch off at all, as it's a lovely device, but I just don't know if it's worth it for me. My only gripe being that I've bought quite a few official straps for it, so if I stop wearing it, it's a fair amount of money down the drain.

Am I alone, or are any of you in a similar situation?

The most useful thing on the watch is that it reminds you of your lifestyle choices. If you no longer wish to be reminded I would return it.

Obvs mental health issues are horrible. Some symptoms can be alleviated through regular movement/exercise.

If it was a choice between getting up to return the watch and getting up to close my circles, the best advice would be to do the latter.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

I know it's not the question you asked, but there is a direct correlation between mental health and physical exercise.

Living a sedentary lifestyle is harmful not just to your mental health, but also to you physical heath, and remarkably exercise also appears to be one of the best defences again neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons from what I have read (I am not a doctor).

I'm not suggesting that you go out and start training for that ultra marathon but absolutely any exercise is good, and any improvement in an amount of exercise is good. The health benefits are staggeringly undeniable, both short term and long term. Sure people die doing triathlons and stuff, that happens, you could get hit by a bus while out for a walk, but all the same, it's worth it outside of those sorts of outliers

If you find walking boring, maybe you need to change why or where you walk. I make a habit to walk to the coffee shop in the morning instead of driving. That's free exercise right there. Takes me longer than driving but I'm also not putting wear and tear on the car and not spending money on gas. It would be cheaper to just make coffee at home, and I do that for my second cup, but habitually a morning walk for coffee works for me. It doesn't have to be a 10km hike, or a 5km run or anything like that. I listen to music or podcasts while I walk.

Not trying to be preachy; I do hope you find the right motivation to get out of the sedentary mode.

Aside from fitness on the watch, I use it for setting reminders, setting timers, controlling my Spotify stream, and controlling my AppleTV. All things I could do on my phone but if I don't have my phone handy but do have my watch then that's an easy victory. OMG, and ApplyPay of course.

All the same - your watch and straps are depreciating in value every day, so if you think you're not going to be using them then it might be better to sell sooner rather than later. Once the S9 comes out you'll see further depreciation. But I hope you keep them and get more active, even if just a little.

Thanks, Howard.

Means a lot to me that you took the time to reply with such detail.

You’ve given me some thoughts & ideas.

Wishing you well.

 

[The Cockney Rebel]

My job requires me to have an active lifestyle. Without my job, I would still wear an Apple Watch. I use my Apple Watch mainly for emergencies. Besides the notifications, health metrics and an alarm clock, I have to wear my watch primarily for fall detection. I have a medical condition, which causes me to lose my balance and after suffering from PE in both lungs, losing consciousness and falling, my Ultra called 911, after I didn’t respond, saving my life, so yes I think the Apple Watch is beneficial for alerts from my iPhone as well for health reasons.

You have to really think if it’s worth it for you to use your Apple Watch. In your situation, since you have bands, I would keep using the Apple Watch until you can’t use it anymore and during that time, it should help you to determine if you should keep using Apple Watches.

Cheers, Stacey.

Hope you’re well, now.

Regards.

 

[Indianwin2001]

I don't always wear an AW, but when I do I think my most used app is Siri. I find Siri commands much better on the AW than on any other Apple Device I have (iPhone, HomePods, iPad, MacBook).

Also, the resale value of AWs are terrible so you might as well keep it.

Cheers, Stacey.

Hope you’re well, now.

Regards.

Keep the watch. Change your ring goals to something you can do everyday, like 5 minutes for each ring and try to close them every day. Eventually, you might get the motivation to increase the goals. As long as you do what you can everyday, that’s all that matters.

 

[Sweet_Caroline]

I think so. I work out and it’s handy, but I see how it can be helpful in others ways. My sister in law has one and doesn’t work out, and she loves her Apple Watch And uses it a lot for work.

 

[Night Spring]

I did start walking when I first got the watch, but got bored of it so stopped.

Very sorry to hear that. I'm so lucky I live next to a beautiful park, with another big park within walking distance. Between the two parks, there are many walking paths for me to explore, so I've never become bored of walking.

I think @Howard2k makes a very good suggestion about giving yourself a destination to walk to. My Mom tells me she tries to walk to the grocery store instead of getting grocery delivered so she gets some exercise. Personally, I've found it extremely beneficial to my mental health to motivate myself to get out of the house once a day. I use a habit-tracking app to check off each walk, and I find it very satisfying to build up the daily streak.

Unfortunately I had to break the streak when the air quality got so bad in NY from the Canadian wildfire, I had to skip a day. But I'm hoping to build it back up! I hope you find some way to motivate yourself to leave the house regularly. For me, it's made a ton of a difference.

 

[BenGoren]

I know it's not the question you asked, but there is a direct correlation between mental health and physical exercise.

Living a sedentary lifestyle is harmful not just to your mental health, but also to you physical heath, and remarkably exercise also appears to be one of the best defences again neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinsons from what I have read (I am not a doctor).

I'm not suggesting that you go out and start training for that ultra marathon but absolutely any exercise is good, and any improvement in an amount of exercise is good. The health benefits are staggeringly undeniable, both short term and long term. Sure people die doing triathlons and stuff, that happens, you could get hit by a bus while out for a walk, but all the same, it's worth it outside of those sorts of outliers

If you find walking boring, maybe you need to change why or where you walk. I make a habit to walk to the coffee shop in the morning instead of driving. That's free exercise right there. Takes me longer than driving but I'm also not putting wear and tear on the car and not spending money on gas. It would be cheaper to just make coffee at home, and I do that for my second cup, but habitually a morning walk for coffee works for me. It doesn't have to be a 10km hike, or a 5km run or anything like that. I listen to music or podcasts while I walk.

Not trying to be preachy; I do hope you find the right motivation to get out of the sedentary mode.

Aside from fitness on the watch, I use it for setting reminders, setting timers, controlling my Spotify stream, and controlling my AppleTV. All things I could do on my phone but if I don't have my phone handy but do have my watch then that's an easy victory. OMG, and ApplyPay of course.

All the same - your watch and straps are depreciating in value every day, so if you think you're not going to be using them then it might be better to sell sooner rather than later. Once the S9 comes out you'll see further depreciation. But I hope you keep them and get more active, even if just a little.

Hear, hear!

Eat well, move well, sleep well. The three combined are a necessary (but not sufficient) element of good mental health.

You’ve got the watch. If you let it, it’ll “gamify” the exercise part. Consider shamelessly leaning into that. See if you can find somebody with whom to do weekly competitions (maybe there’s a forum for that sort of thing here on MacRumors?). Collect every badge you can. That sort of thing.

If you’ve got a serious mental health condition, it won’t cure you. But it will significantly improve things … and lay a necessary foundation for effective treatment.

Also: rather than think, “I’m not moving, so what’s the point of the watch,” frame it as, “I have the watch, so why aren’t I moving?”

b&

 

[stanza.richi]

I’m another one that use Apple Watch to motivate himself. Two months and half ago I wanted to try to regaining a little bit of physical condition and loose some weight. Started running and downloaded strava app. My first run was 4 km, with at least two stops during it. Now I’m running regularly 2-3 time at weeks 8 km with a decent pace (for a 86 kg man).

As someone else wrote, improving physical health could help mental health: if you find a purpose for your AW about that, take advantage of it

 

[boswald]

I have mental health problems myself, and my watch actually motivates me to get up and go outside (barring extreme weather). The “time to stand” reminders and outdoor walking tracking really helps motivate me to continue going out, not only get some exercise but conquer some fears.

 

[ForkHandles]

Keep the watch. Change your ring goals to something you can do everyday, like 5 minutes for each ring and try to close them every day. Eventually, you might get the motivation to increase the goals. As long as you do what you can everyday, that’s all that matters.

This is the key. Zero to Hero is no solution to getting a healthy lifestyle.

Start small.
Call them ’Wins’
Get into the mindset of valuing those wins.

Then as you go on, win bigger.

 

[MauiPa]

The Apple Watch is definitely worth it. Turn by turn directions, music, emergency phone (yes I have cellular), afib tracking, ECG, heart rate monitoring, Siri to set alarms and timers. And exercise tracking, it even gets the correct side of the street I was on. Don't care if battery only lasts me 2 days, I recharge it while in the shower, not a burden at all, and well worth it for all of the features and the great screen. My running friends seem to go with Fitbits (they are so meh, by comparison, the watch - not the friends. They seem to like their watches, each to their own). I forgot to mention, it unlocks my Mac, lets me see what is playing on HomePods, and my iPhone unlocks my watch.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Apple fans are going to passionately rationalize purchasing Apple products. Apple Watch owners are going to have their own rationalizations for why they purchased one. They'll likely share THEIR rationalization as if it should be yours.

It would be like going into a political forum- either party- and then asking if their platform really makes sense. Passionate political fans will passionately argue the platform. Or going into a cigarette smoker forum and asking about the merits of smoking: they will definitely offer a rich pile of reasons why you should smoke.

If you struggle to find a good reason to own Apple Watch, you don't need one. The vast majority of the world gets by just fine with any other watch/fitness tracker or none at all. iPhone does just about every single thing Watch can do. If you own a phone, you probably have it with you at least as much as you would be wearing the watch. All Apple people got by just fine using iPhone to do Watch things before Watch.

All these health arguments can be met by many other (cheaper) devices you can buy & wear... or mostly accomplished without needing the tracking. Plenty of people in the world work on their health without a piece of technology strapped to themselves.

All of the "what if you fall down?" arguments can be met by using the phone in your pocket and/or someone coming to your aide and/or a dedicated device especially for that (which costs a lot less than Watch).

People buy Watch because they want it... or they have some individual reason to own one. Not everyone- not even every Apple person- must own Watch. Enjoy the one you own until the wheels fall off of it and then see how NOT owning one goes for a while. If you miss something it does enough to "need" one again, you'll answer you own question in the best possible way (first hand). And if you don't really miss it, that money can be better put towards other things.

 

[Night Spring]

All of the "what if you fall down?" arguments can be met by using the phone in your pocket and/or someone coming to your aide and/or a dedicated device especially for that (which costs a lot less than Watch).

Agree with everything you wrote, except for the above. The point of having an alert device is to cover instances when you are alone and unable to get to your phone. You may be right that there are dedicated devices for that that cost less than the watch, I haven't looked into the pricing for such devices. But my understanding is that dedicated medical alert devices require subscription to an alert service. Am I wrong?

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Not an expert on this topic but I have seen a fair number that very clearly pitch "no monthly fees, no hidden fees," etc. I would guess Medicare or similar may cover some cost (like "free phones", "free powered scooters", "free medical supplies" etc). On a quick search, I found one that very clearly touts no monthly or subscription fees and that the ability to connect in an emergency "falls under the FCC provision for carriers to support all 911 calls."