José Adorno/BGR
During the past decade, Apple has helped popularize the smartwatch market with the Apple Watch. However, this kind of watch didn’t start with Apple, as the popular athlete watch brand, Garmin, has been making smartwatches for over two decades. Smartwatches add value to your life, as you can get the best insights on your health, workouts, and still be connected with your phone. You can decide whether or not to take a call or reply to a notification, right from your wrist. However, these are also among the reasons why people are ditching their smartwatches, as they can also keep you even more addicted to your phone, exhaust you from this hyper-exposure to data, and more.
Ditching smartwatches isn’t a one-off phenomenon as there are several threads online where people explain why they moved from a smartwatch to a regular watch. I also decided this year that I would be more mindful about my Apple Watch usage. I own an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and I’m the kind of person who tracks workouts, my sleep, and even how much water I drink in a day. This overreliance on my watch also brought frustration whenever I couldn’t close my rings, meet a goal, or when something went off schedule. Besides that, there’s something terrible about going to a nice party or a date and you just have your Apple Watch buzzing all the time.
A smartwatch keeps you connected all the time
José Adorno/BGR
Have you heard about ghost vibrations or experienced them? It’s the feeling that your phone is buzzing in your pocket even though the phone is on a table. Well, this also happens with smartwatches. Sometimes I’m just lying down without my Apple Watch and I feel a buzz.
When I first started using the Apple Watch in 2019, I remember how I felt it was the perfect tool to keep me away from my phone. After all, I could get glimpses of what was going on without actually picking up my phone. As the years went by, I realized that I was usually picking up my phone as soon as I got a notification on my watch, as it always felt urgent. Worse than that, whenever I needed to focus on an article, a task, or anything that does not include picking up my phone, I only needed one notification buzzing on my wrist to get distracted.
While you could argue that it’s more about me than the smartwatch, it’s also important to understand that these products have been made to addict you. For example, the “Close Your Rings” movement created by Apple was great to give me some help for a healthier lifestyle, but years later, I know exactly how I run, how my workouts impact me, and even if I had a good night of sleep, and not because I read the data, but because, as a person, I can also assess myself.
You need to replace smartwatches
José Adorno/BGR
A more straightforward issue with smartwatches is that they’re gadgets, and gadgets get old. Truth be told, you could still be holding up just well with an Apple Watch Series 4 in 2026 — as long as your watch’s battery health is fine. However, if you want the crispier display, the biggest battery life, and the latest health sensors, you do need to spend money on a newer generation. While the old model can be repurposed to a family member or a friend, eventually it needs to be discarded, which generates e-waste. Meanwhile, regular watches can be worn for life, if you take good care of them.
As a tech journalist, I have tested most of the Apple Watch models since the Series 3. Unfortunately, many of them just ended up sitting on a shelf. Others were damaged by accidental drops, worn off due to sweat, or just life happening. For the current two regular watches that I own (big collection, I know), they have been around for three years, and they just look amazing. They’re timeless pieces that I can have with me forever.
You might suffer from skin problems
José Adorno/BGR
There’s a saying that everything that is too much can be harmful. Guess that sleeping, showering, working out, and just wearing the Apple Watch for most of the day can be classified as “too much.” Like many other people, I also had to stop using the Apple Watch regularly because I would get the top of my wrist slightly red, irritated by the prolonged moments of wearing this smartwatch.
This Apple Watch rash became particularly worse when Apple introduced sleep tracking, which meant that I would then start sleeping with my Apple Watch for a better understanding of my health data. While just removing the smartwatch for a few hours or even a day is usually enough to make my skin go back to normal, some people do get worse experiences — even from Apple Watch bands.
It’s unusual for someone to have these issues with a regular watch, as you would usually put them on to go out for dinner, to work, or any outdoors occasion. However, by the time you’d get home, you’d remove it. With the Apple Watch, and other smartwatches in general, you just keep them on all the time, because you need to be reminded to stand up, about an important meeting, to check your heart rate during a stressful Zoom call, and so on.
There’s something about timeless designs
José Adorno/BGR
Smartwatches still look like gadgets from the future. After all, having a touchscreen display on your wrist that can help you make payments, open doors, track workouts, and listen to music wirelessly is just super cool. Apple, specifically, releases regular updates bringing new watch faces with nice complications to help users find the perfect balance between looking good and having useful data. The company offers artsy, minimalist, feature-heavy, and classic watch faces, in addition to an incredible number of bands with the most different colors and fabrics.
However, as I started seeing the Apple Watch as a fashion accessory, in addition to a tool for health data, I embarked on a journey that most people face with watches in general; Going from not caring about them at all to really noticing the different brands, styles, and how to match them with my outfits.
Now that I’m trying to take a break from my Apple Watch whenever I don’t need it, I’m switching between two classic watches. One of them is by the fashionista brand MJW from London. It has unique watches, and one that caught my attention the most is called “A Perfectly Useless Afternoon.” Whenever I wear it and I look at the time, it just gives me utter joy to see that person in a pool chilling. I’d say life should be more about that than buzzing notifications.
Your phone might just do exactly what you need from your smartwatch
José Adorno/BGR
Again, as a tech journalist, I surround myself with technology, and sometimes I don’t even realize how one product overlaps the other. Still, I’ve come to realize that one of the primary reasons to ditch a smartwatch is because a phone already does most of what the watches can do. For example, I can see the time, check my walk distance, get notifications, and most other smart features right from my iPhone.
With the latest iOS updates, Apple even made the iPhone a lot better to help you work out. For example, Apple Fitness+ now works without an Apple Watch, and the other day, for the first time in a lifetime, I went for a run with my iPhone and AirPods Pro 3. While the phone tracked the route with its built-in GPS, the AirPods Pro was responsible for tracking my heart rate and measuring my calorie expenditure. When I finished the run, I was wondering how different it would’ve been if I had my Apple Watch around. And, to be fair, not much.
While I still think that my Apple Watch is great for emergencies, as I can still pay for stuff, get directions, and call people if my phone dies, I also have realized that I don’t need an Apple Watch to remind me to pick up my phone to do some tasks, and this is what so many people have also realized. Smartwatches are cool, but touching grass can be a lot more.
