ldstephens

Re: I Don't See the Point of Smartwatches

Kev Quirk

Iā€™d still think smartwatches are one of the dumbest tech trends out there.

I bet Kev got a lot of responses to this post with differing opinions. As he replied in a post this morning:

Lots of butthurt people responding to my wrist phone post (lots of good dialogue too BTW). Remember folks, opinions are like arseholes. Everyone has one.

I get where Kev's coming from. He's a watch collector, so he's viewing this through a different lens than most people.

For years, I didn't even wear a watch; my iPhone was my watch. I always had it with me, so I never saw the point of strapping something to my wrist. Then, in April 2019, I bought an Apple Watch Series 4, primarily for its fall detection feature. I still wear that same watch today. It looks rough beat to hell, but it still holds a full day's charge.

That fall detection feature? It's been kind of a letdown. I've had a few falls where it should've triggered but didn't. Yet it goes off with the slightest jolt when I'm stacking firewood or cleaning up after a storm. Just the other day, I was trimming trees, and it went off four times. Each time, I had to stop what I was doing, take off my gloves, tap the screen, and tell it I didn't fall. It gets annoying really fast.

These days, I mainly use the watch to track my steps and set the occasional timer. That's about it. All my notifications are turned off.

Now that it's nearing the end of its life, I'm not sure I'll replace it, especially at $429. For what I use it for, I'm not sure it's worth it.

That said, I know plenty of people who swear by theirs. Lisa, for example, basically runs her life from her Apple Watch. She uses it instead of her iPhone for a lot of things, though, of course, the phone still has to be nearby for it to work.

Anyway, different strokes for different folks.