I’ve recently responded to several people asking variations on the question of whether they should get an Apple Watch. It has been a thought provoking exercise as I face a dilemma on whether to replace mine.
I have a series 0 Apple Watch. When the AW[footnote title=“…”]Apple Watch[/footnote] was announced I was lukewarm but ended up having major orthopedic surgery with a long recovery period. I really felt a fitness device would help motivate me to recover as quickly as possible and was most interested in the AW since I felt if I was going to spend money it might as well be on something multifunction[footnote title=“…”]instead of something like a Fitbit[/footnote]. The AW completely lived up to my expectations in this regard and definitely aided my recovery - enough to justify the cost on this basis alone.
Before I got the AW I had stopped wearing watches altogether even though I have a few nice ones[footnote title=“…”] including some with sentimental value but these days having a clock on a wrist seems redundant[/footnote]. On the few special occasions I’ve worn one I always scolded the old-school watch for being nearly useless. It’s basically a piece of static jewelry rather than a useful device[footnote title=“…”]I’m not much into jewelry…[/footnote]. I glance at my AW and immediately see a very clear display of the date and time[footnote title=“…”]no matter the lighting conditions[/footnote], the status of my 3 fitness rings, an at-a-glance view of upcoming meetings, and the current and forecast weather for the day. Some of the situational features I find very useful are the abilities to answer (often reject) phone calls at a glance, to quickly make simple responses to text messages, and to control my music selections and volume during workouts. I value not needing to pull my phone out of my pocket to keep up with life.
Here is what’s bothering me - the battery situation. Mine is degrading to the point it is iffy if it will last the whole day. A couple of days ago it went into power reserve mode before 8pm. A battery replacement would cost $80 nearly 25% the cost of a replacement watch. Do I really want to pay to replace the watch every 3 years[footnote title=“…”]I consider the battery replacement a bad investment because the series 0 is so friggin slow…[/footnote]? It’s not a matter of affordability so I am not sure why this bothers me so much nor do I know what I’m going to ultimately decide. I guess it is a techie’s dilemma and partly a holdover based on an outmoded idea of watches.