"My Day Without The Apple Watch"

Reddittor Nickehl has posted some interesting observations after going a whole day without wearing his Apple Watch. He accidentally forgot to put it on one Saturday morning, and are five significant ways that absence managed to alter his mobile habits:

• The AW helps me answer (or at least have the opportunity to) a lot of phone calls that I otherwise would have missed. I was trying to help someone car shop that day, and I missed 3 or 4 calls from them at various times despite having my phone on high volume and vibrate in my pocket.
• Similarly, the AW delivers texts to me in a manner that allows me to respond in a much more timely manner. My friends and family get replies from me instantly or a couple of minutes at the latest.
• I am much better at managing my time when it’s on my wrist. I realize this is a ‘watch’ thing and not necessarily an ‘Apple Watch’ thing, but I hadn’t worn a watch regularly in the last 15 years prior to the AW. I understand I could take my phone out of my pocket at any moment to check the time, but the point is that I didn’t. Having a more precise idea of the time made me more accountable to my deadlines. As with much of this post, YMMV.
• I was more sedentary One of the little health benefits of the AW has been in prompting me to get up and move around (or stretch). I work out in the mornings, but during the day I get fairly sedentary. This isn’t limited to just work day either. So when I didn’t have it that day, I didn’t move as much. Not a big deal for a single day, but I got used to those reminders.
• Little one-off tasks were tedious again. I’m kind of lazy. It’s why I’m so into gadgets. A little effort in setting one up at the outset can provide with hours (or more) of time savings. And so it was with the AW. Even though I could pull my phone out and calculate a tip, turn on my lights (perhaps unsurprisingly, I have Philips Hue at home), or send a quick text to my friend asking how close they were to arriving, I often wouldn’t. You see, I’m so lazy that even getting my phone out of my pocket, or up off of the table (where I’d often have to reach out into the icy cold abyss of my living room from the warm safety of my blanket, even gasp breaking contact with my back and the couch, instantly freezing me to the core) was too much effort. The watch allowed me to avoid these little inconveniences, even if I looked a little ridiculous ducking my head under the covers to issue a voice command.

All these points are pretty remarkable given that Apple Watch is less than three weeks old and that most of the few apps available haven’t come remotely close to useful fruition. I imagine that as time goes on, the Watch will be increasingly necessary to those who take the time to understand it. There is nothing in Nickehl’s list that makes logical, defensible sense to a non-user on the outside looking in. Everything cited is readily handled or alleviated by all modern smartphones, and iPhone most of all. But those tiny tasks take time, and as small tasks become more useful in our ever more automated world, they also become more sticky. Small tasks, done often enough, can add up to a pretty big nuisance if you have to dig your phone out of your pocket or handbag every time.

But just as those nuisances add up, so too do the use cases for Apple Watch. Small things here and there over the course of a couple of weeks make or break the experience. The Watch’s worth isn’t evident right away, and any valid critique has to take the long view before it’s worth a damn. Fortunately, it seems like a lot of tech writers are giving Apple Watch a fair shake.

And it seems like, when they forget to wear the thing, Apple Watch is giving them quite the rattle.