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I gave up my Apple Watch after 9 years and feel free.

xxFoxtail said:
I occasionally go back to my old mechanical watch. I spent $100 on it maybe a year or two before the original Pebble smartwatch came out (maybe '09 or '10?). Wasn't much of a watch wearer before then. It still looks as beautiful today as it did the day I bought it. Over the last decade or so, I probably spent anywhere between $2500-$3000 on various Pebble and Apple Watches, though I've sold each one as I upgraded to a new one. Some of those watches lasted as little as a year before upgrading again. I appreciate my current AW Ultra for what it is. But, at the same time, it's just a computer strapped to my comparatively small wrist. There's nothing on this Apple Watch that's a must have feature to me. Though, I like knowing my health and fitness metrics, but I think I'd be perfectly fine without them.

I don’t entirely mind the daily charging as it gives my skin a break from the device for a while. Obviously, I'm in full control of what I do with the watch, but I agree that I feel like a slave to it sometimes. I feel like I need to close my rings daily, make sure I stand up when it tells me to. Always start a workout whenever I go out for a run or ride my bike.

I took a break from my AW for a few weeks, and then again when I was in labor and after. Mentally, I felt much more at ease and happy not having to worry about any of that stuff I just listed. I strived for simplicity in my life, and putting my old mechanical watch back on helped a lot with that. I'm coming back to this thread again as I'd like to see others' opinions on it. Your comment stuck out to me as I feel exactly the same way.
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I took mine off recently too and am enjoying it. Wearing my Omega mostly and spontaneously bought a Tissot chronograph last week so I’m enjoying that now.

I put my AW on each night to track my sleep data and I put it on for any workout, so I’m still getting the important data about my heart health. I will put it on as an all day watch again at some point but it’s nice to rotate, and I agree it’s much nicer mentally to have a device that does nothing - even with notifications turned off, the AW will let you know it needs charging at some point.
 
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I get it. I have 4 nice mechanicals and they are special, but my ultra is so much mor e useful.
 
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I’ve had at least four versions of AW. I get the aluminum case and a cloth band. I can barely feel it. Sometimes I look at my wrist to make sure I have it on. Mostly I really like it. I can get a lot information at a glance without pulling out the iPHone. I could do with a few less notifications but I’m too lazy to edit them.
 
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Using an AW for features the iPhone can’t provide is the key to satisfaction and appreciation for it.

And it’s why the Omega is so satisfying.
 
Today’s combo!

IMG_6305.jpeg
 
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CheffyDude said:
Decided to part ways with my Apple Watch Ultra 2. From owning the original 9 years ago and wearing one on my wrist up until now, I felt it was time to try and see just what it feels like to rid myself of it.
I purchased a Omega as my new wearable.
Sold the Apple Watch on eBay.
Now, I feel comfortably free and, for some reason, clear headed.

Give it a try.
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If you used as a watch and not a second phone you wouldn’t have these problems.
 
lol, I don't get it? I'm pretty addicted to my phone, but I have never ever felt tethered to my apple Watch. I wear it only to go to work. I take it off when I get home. I literally treat it like a regular watch. Don't get me wrong, I do use some of the smart watch features like notifications and heart rate monitor. But otherwise it's more or less just a watch to me. I guess like How some people regard the iPhone is a phone, when to me it's literally a miniature powerful computer that communication is one of it's primary functions. I dislike it when people dismissively just say it's a phone.
 
eltoslightfoot said:
I have really thought about this as I went to about age 35 without a watch at all. LOL.

Yeah I just shut off most of the notifications I don't want on my watch or phone. That way only the ones I really want get through.

This way I don't have to get my phone out to skip 30 seconds in a podcast or to check the time. Or see where I am navigating to. But when I don't want to be bugged, it doesn't bug me.
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It surprises me whenever I see people whose devices are constantly getting bombarded with notifications. I wouldn't last five minutes. All of my devices have very minimal notifications on. It's the way it should be.
 
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MacDaddyPanda said:
lol, I don't get it? I'm pretty addicted to my phone, but I have never ever felt tethered to my apple Watch. I wear it only to go to work. I take it off when I get home. I literally treat it like a regular watch. Don't get me wrong, I do use some of the smart watch features like notifications and heart rate monitor. But otherwise it's more or less just a watch to me. I guess like How some people regard the iPhone is a phone, when to me it's literally a miniature powerful computer that communication is one of it's primary functions. I dislike it when people dismissively just say it's a phone.
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I do get it.
If you "only" use it as a watch, an Apple Watch is overkill since it bombards you with stuff that you do not need (filling circles, steps, agenda, message notifications, etc. etc.). And in return you need to juice it up everyday. In that case, please buy a nice mechical watch, or a solar powered Citizin Ecodrive or Casio Gshock (i.e. what I will do). And as a bonus: you do not get sucked in by notifications on your phone when you only need to check the time.
But I do see the usefulness of the AW: a senior colleague of mine has so many meetings and calls that she relies heavily on her AW to help her throughout her work day.
Others love filling circles and not having to check the phone for notifications. However, for the latter category, I can imagine that replacing the AW with a traditional personal watch can feel liberating, since you will realize you found these notifications, filling circles or counting steps actually becoming a burden. Or nagging habit.
 
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twdawson said:
Yeah I love it. It’s nicknamed “skydiving” after the ice blue cocktail.
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I very nearly bought one of these many years ago before the prices shot up but it was a bit dressy for me, beautiful watch though. I ended up getting a Seiko sarb033 which have also seen a rather substantial price increase since they ceased manufacture of them. I have a number of Seiko watches and wear them on ocassion, although my Apple Watch is my daily these days due to the extra functionality.
 
CheffyDude said:
Decided to part ways with my Apple Watch Ultra 2. From owning the original 9 years ago and wearing one on my wrist up until now, I felt it was time to try and see just what it feels like to rid myself of it.
I purchased a Omega as my new wearable.
Sold the Apple Watch on eBay.
Now, I feel comfortably free and, for some reason, clear headed.

Give it a try.
Click to expand...
I really have been giving this some thought. I am on my second AW over the years and have recently started killing off notifications, as I always have my phone in DND mode or work focus mode just so I am not bothered. The changing of notifications in and of itself has been quite liberating.

The other week I dug out my Citizen Eco Drive and put it on, and that felt so great to wear. I may look to wear that more often now. I bought that watch when I finished grad school and turned 30 at the same time. Its definitely a sentimental time piece in my eyes.

My last thought here though has been to move on from the AW completely to a dumber smart watch, a Garmin instinct, which has crazy battery life, a basic black and white screen, and is as utilitarian as it gets. Tracks all of my health info and seems to get more detailed info than Apple does. Plus its not super into the notifications on my wrist.

Perhaps I'm just hitting a mid life crisis or trying to find a purpose in my life, I dunno.
 
Jussy13 said:
My last thought here though has been to move on from the AW completely to a dumber smart watch, a Garmin instinct, which has crazy battery life, a basic black and white screen, and is as utilitarian as it gets. Tracks all of my health info and seems to get more detailed info than Apple does. Plus it's not super into the notifications on my wrist.
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You could purchase the Garmin with Apple Pay, using your Apple Watch.
 
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Jussy13 said:
My last thought here though has been to move on from the AW completely to a dumber smart watch, a Garmin instinct, which has crazy battery life, a basic black and white screen, and is as utilitarian as it gets. Tracks all of my health info and seems to get more detailed info than Apple does. Plus its not super into the notifications on my wrist.
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It depends what data you want to track. Garmin will collect fitness stuff, but Apple is way ahead with actual health data like alerting you to irregular heart activity, crash and fall detection etc.
 
To each his own. It's good to hear the OP feels more free, that's always nice.

My experience is the opposite, I feel much more free with the AW than without it. I am self-employed and work from home so it's important to me to be available on my phone. Many times I would stop in my tracks when I think I heard my iPhone ring somewhere so I'd go looking for it. Now I don't have to keep making sure my phone is next to me and I have peace of mind that my watch will vibrate if I'm getting a phone call and I won't miss it even if the iPhone is in another room or on a charger or I forgot to turn off silent mode etc. I can tell you that years of this makes a massive difference in how relaxed I am throughout the day.

Even in times when I know my phone got a notification, I don't have to go over to it, I can just flick my wrist and see it if it's one of the more important notifications that I didn't turn off.
The same goes for any other info I may need throughout the day, like the temperature before heading out, I just glance at my wrist instead of going to my phone, waking it up and sliding to the side to see the weather widget.
Not to mention being on crowded public transport and getting a call, I don't have to squeeze my hand into my pocket to get the phone, I just tap the watch and take the call through my AirPods.

My only form of exercise is going on 90-minute walks and carrying an iPhone with me is inconvenient, much more so during hotter days when I'm wearing light shorts that sometimes don't even have a pocket. With the AW, I feel lighter and more free leaving the phone at home and using my AW to listen to music, makes the walk that much nicer to not feel the phone weighing my wardrobe down.

I would never go back to a traditional watch because it could do zero of these things. My AW is extremely useful to me because it makes doing some everyday things far faster and less cumbersome, and I'm not even using it for Apple Pay. Then there are other things, like fitness tracking, I'm not one for exercise but I enjoy the fact my watch enables me to follow my average resting bpm trends.

You just turn off any notification that annoys you and keep the ones you want to get, done. It's incredible to me to read that people get annoyed by notifications, there's a setting for that.
 
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zkap said:
Not to mention being on crowded public transport and getting a call, I don't have to squeeze my hand into my pocket to get the phone, I just tap the watch and take the call through my AirPods
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if you've got AirPods, you can answer the call directly from those can't you?
 
zkap said:
My experience is the opposite, I feel much more free with the AW than without it. I am self-employed and work from home so it's important to me to be available on my phone. Many times I would stop in my tracks when I think I heard my iPhone ring somewhere so I'd go looking for it. Now I don't have to keep making sure my phone is next to me and I have peace of mind that my watch will vibrate if I'm getting a phone call and I won't miss it even if the iPhone is in another room or on a charger or I forgot to turn off silent mode etc. I can tell you that years of this makes a massive difference in how relaxed I am throughout the day.
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100% me also. I can have a quick glance at my watch and decide if a notification is important or not. I don't have to look at my iPhone or carry it around. I love it.
 
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