“I was lucky enough to be included in the first group of folks outside of Apple to get an Apple Watch. I’ve been wearing the watch all day, every day since April 1st,” Ben Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “Since April 1st, I have deeply integrated the Apple Watch into my everyday life. I decided to run an experiment and see what a week would be like without the Watch after 85 days of living with it.”
“The first thing I noticed was my heightened awareness of where my iPhone was at all times,” Bajarin writes. “I was irritated by how often I’d get a buzz of a message, reply to it, put my phone down or in my pocket, get another buzz a minute or two later, reply, put my phone down, get a response a few minutes later, reply, put my phone back down, ad infinitum… Living without the Apple Watch for a week showed me how much I took this one experience for granted before the Apple Watch.”
“Interestingly, the same sentiment is noticed by other Apple Watch wearers,” Bajarin writes. “I’m working with a company doing research on existing Apple Watch owners called Wristly (if you have an Apple Watch please consider joining our panel) where 32% of respondents said they spend much less time on their iPhone and 58% indicated they use their iPhone somewhat less.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Going a week without our Apple Watches is unthinkable! We shudder at the thought of the time wasted. Going back to pre-AW days would be a nightmare. Thanks for subjecting yourself to that experiment, Ben!
You can have our Apple Watches when you pry them off our cold, dead wrists.
SEE ALSO:
The Inquirer reviews Apple Watch: ‘Undoubtedly the best smartwatch’ – June 26, 2015
Newt Gingrich reviews Apple Watch: ‘Very helpful and surprisingly natural’ – June 19, 2015
One month with my Apple Watch: Why I’m loving it – June 17, 2015
Dalrymple reviews Apple Watch: ‘My most personal review ever’ – June 16, 2015
Apple Watch: 45 days later – June 8, 2015
Computerworld’s deep-dive Apple Watch review: ‘After a month of use: Very positive’ – June 8, 2015
Living with Apple Watch: One month in – June 3, 2015
Apple Watch: The early adopter’s take – June 1, 2015
Jean-Louis Gassée: Five weeks with Apple Watch – May 31, 2015
Ben Thompson: Apple Watch is being serially underestimated – May 20, 2015
BGR reviews Apple Watch: ‘A major technological achievement; you won’t want to take it off’ – May 7, 2015
The Telegraph reviews Apple Watch: Object of desire – May 7, 2015
Cult of Mac reviews Apple Watch: ‘Futuristic, fun and fan-flipping-tastic’ – April 28, 2015
PC Magazine reviews Apple Watch: ‘The best smartwatch available’ – April 28, 2015
Apple Watch owners shame so-called professional reviewers – April 27, 2015
Tech.pinions’ Ben Bajarin reviews Apple Watch: ‘Powerful’ and ‘completely new’ – April 8, 2015
After 66 days I had to take in my Apple Watch for repair (it would repeatedly ask for pin unlock). The Apple Store did not have any replacements but did have retail stock of the same watch. Since the repair was quoted as two weeks and return policy is 14-days, I bought a replacement while mine being repaired. Apple is not prepared for repairs at this time.
Don’t worry about not having it. Everyone says AppleWatch is a flop and that’s why Tim Cook isn’t reporting any sales numbers. It’s also being said consumers would rather have new iPods instead of AppleWatches.
/s
Well said.
At the price of those watches and being first generations, the novelty is wearing off fast.
Bring down the price and focus on simplifying the choice to three models, plus untether the watch to a device of its own – without the need for an iPhone and then Apple will see sales soar.
I have a similar experience: after several weeks with my Watch, I had to go without it for a couple of days while my luggage caught up with me while traveling (the cable was in my suitcase). Painful! I didn’t realize how much I had already integrated it into my lifestyle, and how useful it had become.
Oh, right, I shouldn’t be saying this, according to the media I should be reporting on how I decided to stop using my Watch. Then again, I do wonder how much Samsung paid these media “channels” for writing such reports…
Note to self: when traveling, always carry the WATCH charge cable and wall charger in a pocket on my person.⌚️
Hey and don’t forget your iPhone charger too.
Traveling starts to look heavy – enjoy… sh_t when I travel, the phone is last on my list. Just my Macbook pro is enough. Oh and its charger. Here is power to real computing.
Good observation – yesterday it came to light that Samsung’s numbers are weak and today “nobody likes the Apple Watch” articles.
I’ve gone a year without one and don’t
miss it at all. In fat, it might be more than a year.
Because you don’t have one. Yea, I know, no shit. It’s the same crap I heard about smartphones, and computers (especially Mac’s). Your device can only do so much, so you can’t picture yourself doing anything else. In the early 90’s I told my Dad that you had to have a computer to go to college and very soon you will need one for high school. He said “I did not need a computer when I was in high school”. I said “that’s because no one else had one.” He had a blank look on his face and said “now I understand”.
Don’t be so quick to judge people because you can’t see yourself doing something. People, my self included, are already seeing it change how they communicate in less then three months. Hundreds of apps were available on day one. It is very bleeding edge and I have strangers asking me about it. No, you don’t need one today. In 10 years your job could depend on it.
Don’t be so defensive on another persons choice to not include a watch in their computing needs.
Its a good point you make.
If my job requires one, one day, perhaps I shall get one.
Or better, have my office provide it.
Otherwise the negative ions I am absorbing for my phone is enough for now. The idea of wearing these computing devices leads to one day embedding them in to ones’ skull.
If your job one day requires you to be surgically implanted with a device – I will let you be the beta tester.
I suppose if you need a gatekeeper to prioritize your phone calls and emails and messages, there is a value to the Apple Watch.
Maybe Apple made their watch for themselves first, to deal with all the interruptions every day.
But I”m not wearing any kind of watch right now. I’ve got five Apple devices that do the job nicely – except for my iPod Shuffle. Very poor timekeeping device.
I did not buy an Awatch. I figured it was an unnecessary accessory… that is, until an employee of mine found one and offered to sell it to me. I did buy it and am very impressed with how elegant, well designed and useful the dang thing is.
However, I am wearing someone else’s watch and I feel compassion for the person that lost it.
Does anyone know how I can locate the original owner? There was no way to do it via the Awatch.
I appreciate any suggestions…
Go to Settings, scroll the wheel down to, locate my Apple Watch, enter the appropriate Appel ID info… and your iPhone will always locate where the Apple Watch is. Oops right its not yours… so just give it back to me. THx
Just imagine if MDN not only lost their Apple Watch but also their iPhone. I guess life just wouldn’t be worth living for the poor souls, lol.
Now if I lost my MacBook Pro and the internet I’d have to off myself. Guess we all have our priorities.
If I want to do smartphone stuff I will use my smartphone.
As far as a watch goes, I will keep using my Citizen Eco-drive and never worry about charging it or fighting a way too small display for anything useful.
Interesting experiment. Would also be useful to know how his iPhone usage prior to Apple Watch compared to his week w/o one. Did his use of the iPhone increase or decrease? Is he responding more immediately to texts/notifications now than he did then?
I wonder if the competing smart watches, many of which have been around for a couple of years, are just as indispensable as the Apple Watch has become in such a short time?