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From smartwatch to mechanical or battery watch

circatee

circatee

Contributor
Original poster
Nov 30, 2014
4,552
3,092
Georgia, USA
Honestly, I am curious.
Have you owned and used an Apple Watch for a while, then gave it up and started using a mechanical watch?

I own a few mechanical / normal watches, and I am considering getting rid of my Apple Watch, and using only my mechanical watches.
Hence, my above question...
 
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Absolutely yes! I am not against Apple Watch because I think it’s very useful especially if you’re trying to get in shape. This being said mechanical watches can be a lot of fun.


Don’t be too disturbed about the scratches. IMO watches are meant to be worn so regardless of the watch, I’m going to wear it. The picture is just a quick shot I took so not perfectly in focus.


IMG_1571.jpeg
 
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For me no. On the handful of occasions when I've worn a nice mechanical watch to a fancy social event because I wanted to compliment my outfit with a nice piece of jewelry, I really missed the smartwatch features.

Stanza.richi mentioned wearing two watches but that just strikes me as odd looking. I don't own an Oura ring, but it seems like it might be a suitable option to replace at least some smartwatch features (e.g., health, fitness and sleep tracking), though I'd still miss my Apple watch for tasks like responding to two-factor authentication pushes, dismissing unwanted phone calls and using Apple Pay.
 
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When it comes down to it, there’re only two things that a traditional watch can do that a smartwatch can’t:

  1. remain glued to your wrist for more than a day or two at a time; and
  2. look pretty according to a certain aesthetic.
I take my first-gen Ultra off when I take a shower (something I’d honestly do with any watch, smart or otherwise) and put it back on when I get in bed. I think I might once have run out of charge towards the end of an intercontinental trip that included an unscheduled several-hour delay, but I don’t remember if it actually went into low power mode or just warned me that it would soon. So battery life really truly isn’t something I care about.

And I like the looks of the watch. There are lots of cool-looking traditional watches out there, to be sure — but not so cool that I’m even remotely tempted to give up all the things that a smartwatch can do that a traditional watch can’t.

… and that “all the things,” begins with being a far superior smartphone than the original iPhone, includes all the health and fitness stuff, keeps going through all the navigation / compass / diving stuff that the most cool of traditional watches can only dream about, and so much more …

But, to be sure. If you really, truly can’t charge your watch for a few minutes every day or if you really love the look of a particular traditional watch, all the rest might not matter as much to you as it does to me or most other Apple watch users. In which case, of course, wear the traditional watch! The choice is yours, and all yours.

b&
 
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I moved from expensive mechanical watches (still have them but don’t wear as much) to AW. As I got older and also renewed interest in fitness, I needed the health metrics. Yes I have tried oura ring thinking I can still wear my mechanical watches but oura ring provides poor activity data.
 
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tom2517 said:
I moved from expensive mechanical watches (still have them but don’t wear as much) to AW. As I got older and also renewed interest in fitness, I needed the health metrics. Yes I have tried oura ring thinking I can still wear my mechanical watches but oura ring provides poor activity data.
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I’m finding myself going in the other direction. I’ve worn an AW since 2015, but the constant 24/7 health monitoring, sleep monitoring, etc. was causing me a lot of stress and anxiety. It began to feel more nagging than beneficial. I still wear my AW when exercising six days a week, but once I’m done I go back to a traditional watch. For my use case, I don’t want a phone on my wrist. I have a desk job, so my phone is on a stand always within reach, so I rarely respond to texts on my watch. Same with notifications, I get them on my phone and respond on my phone or MacBook Pro.

With that being said, if someone has a health condition (and other cases) the AW watch can be a lifesaver. There are plenty of stories where the watch saved a life. This is my personal take, and I’m not trying to apply it universally. What we wear on our wrists is a personal choice and one should wear what best suits their needs. If we all wore the same thing, life would be boring!!!
 
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I don't wear any watch much at all these days. The AW requires too much attention and feeding and is distracting from long periods of focus I need. Casio F-91W it is when I need to tell the time (usually up a mountain/travelling somewhere).

The safety features as mentioned are unreliable from experience. They went off when doing activities a couple of times and didn't when I fell down the last three steps of the escalator at kerameikos metro station. Useless.
 
cjsuk said:
I don't wear any watch much at all these days. The AW requires too much attention and feeding and is distracting from long periods of focus I need. Casio F-91W it is when I need to tell the time (usually up a mountain/travelling somewhere).

The safety features as mentioned are unreliable from experience. They went off when doing activities a couple of times and didn't when I fell down the last three steps of the escalator at kerameikos metro station. Useless.
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Really, the F-91W is all the watch anyone needs. It’s a lot tougher that it appears. I agree about the safety features being unreliable as well from experience. My mother-n-law fell and broke her arm. Even though fall detection was enabled it never went off. That really gave me pause about the safety features.
 
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The health and safety features have indeed saved many, many people. Are they always 100%? No. But most of the time they work and are extremely helpful.
 
In an age when you can always check the time in your phone, a mechanical watch is just jewelry. Which is fine—lots of people like jewelry—but other than the fact that they bear a superficial resemblance, there’s almost no overlap between a smart watch and a mechanical watch. So for me, the choice is between a smart watch and nothing, not a smart watch and jewelry.
 
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I have a number of G shocks, a mechanical watch and Ultra 2 and series 7. While I do use G shocks when outdoor, Ultra 2 now mostly replaces G shocks too for a short trip. For week outdoor trips, G shock is probably better.
 
QCassidy352 said:
In an age when you can always check the time in your phone, a mechanical watch is just jewelry. Which is fine—lots of people like jewelry—but other than the fact that they bear a superficial resemblance, there’s almost no overlap between a smart watch and a mechanical watch. So for me, the choice is between a smart watch and nothing, not a smart watch and jewelry.
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Yes, exactly. I used to wear an analog watch, but stopped when I got an iPhone, because I found I could tell the time by looking at my iPhone. I then didn't wear any watches until the Apple watch came out.
 
The challenge I see, is if one owns a handful of analog watches and an Apple Watch, it is 'hard' to completely switch to Apple Watch only.

I almost feel guilty in a way, for not using some of the analog watches in the box. Then it all seems excessive. If my Mum was around, she'd certainly have a go at me for having so many watches. She'd probably start spewing "greed this..." and "greed that..." Ugh!

Yep, personal issues 😭
 
No, no need for a regular or mechanical watch. I've always worn a watch and have several mechanical watches but why would I wear them?

Key function of a watch is the time, and they're less accurate.
Also have fewer features.

Even as a fashion statement the AW is more flexible.
 
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My Apple Watch is mostly just a fitness tracker now and a critical notification alert. I noticed in my Apple Watch-free stunt a few months back before my child was born, it was very easy for me to miss important messages or phone calls if I left my phone on silent in my pocket or bag. And I started to get a little more lazy with my workouts. With the former, an easy solution is to just take it off silent mode.

So, it helps motivate me health and fitness-wise and keeps me connected for emergencies. I don’t need it, but I at least have a few years left with my AW Ultra 1 to really decide if I'd want to buy another one or not.

It's also just extra peace of mind if I lose or break my iPhone, I have a cellular connected watch I could use temporarily before I’m able to replace the phone.

But yes, I have a beautiful analog watch that I love wearing. Unfortunately it only comes out for very special days and moments in my life.
 
I have a nice mechanical watch. An old pilot's chronograph, today even sort of some collector's item for some. But since the iPhone I don't wear it that much as I always have super accurate time on the phone. The thing I like the most on the iPhone is the time zone adjustment for local time and daylight saving time or similar. You just have the official time on your phone right away. The other big advantage is the alarm. I use it very often and often at different and exotic times to wake up.

Still mechanical watches are fascinating to me and the better ones were very expensive back then and not available to everyone.
 
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This has remained hidden and out of site since my first Apple Watch. It is a bit outdated and way too conspicuous, drawing attention of the wrong people.

After Polishing.jpeg
 
stanza.richi said:
I was serious
View attachment 2478334
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Wrists tend to be uniform enough to stake several up each arm... and bigger band lengths can probably do the same on the legs. "Collect them all!!!" ;)

Joking aside: I never even went AW. Almost all of the same functionality is in the iDevice generally with me at all times anyway. I much favor solar charging, traditional watches if I wish to wear one at all. My favorite has a pinch of bluetooth to make it sync with iDevice time when traveling and auto-adjust.
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
I never even went AW. Almost all of the same functionality is in the iDevice generally with me at all times anyway.
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That statement is way geralizing and quite frankly simply false. You are basically ignoring the health and fitness tracking that AW provides (and for the most part iPhone doesn't provide either), which is the main selling point for a lot of users:
. heart tracking
. irregular heart rhythm detection/AFib
. ECG
. sleep apnea detection
. Wrist temp
. Vitals summary
. SpO2 (pre-Jan 2024 AW 6/7/8/9/U/U2)
. fitness/exercise tracking
the list goes on.

I understand you might not care about these features, but none of the ones I've listed are available on the iPhone leave alone an iPad (I understand from many of your posts you do not have an iPhone).
 
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I love the versatility of the AWU. I run a lot, do a lot of cycling and additional sports. I care about my health. The aesthetics of the watch appeal to me. I have a nice Garmin too, but I don't like the look of their watches (anymore) and the lack of Afib/LTE frustrates me, so I only wear it for sports (with my AWU). Hence, my Rolexes remain in the drawer, unfortunately (never will I wear 2 watches).
 
I wore a Rolex for 27 years and gave it up for a nice Timex quartz watch that I wore until I got my first Apple Watch. I went back to the Rolex for a month and missed the features of the AW (mainly Apple Pay and health monitoring). I’m sticking to AW for the foreseeable future. I mostly ignore the nagging (I won’t be a slave to my watch). That’s me. You be you.
 
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