What keeps them addicted to their watch?

I've never found a compelling use case where I'd willingly buy another Apple watch.

Exercise tracking is a biggie for me.

Integration with Fitness on Apple TV is extremely slick for HIIT and yoga.

Also, the third-party Intervals Pro app has been my go-to running app. I started with Apple+Nike since 2010 and a Fitbit Charge in 2015, but nothing let me customize my workouts as much as the Intervals app.

Do you really need it though, or is it some sort of placebo effect in place? I can bet most professional athletes don't use such devices.

you'd bet wrong. A lot of them use chest strap/HR variability monitors to guide training/track illness + fitness

Keeps them addicted to their phone by not allowing them to just go watch only.

My best use case for the apple watch is I can keep it on everywhere. If I constantly have to think of the thing it’ll get annoying enough I want to get rid of it.

I own a Concept 2 rowing machine; I have detailed stats on every workout going back 19 years, and for the last 7 years or so I have heart rate info as well.

I have cognitive issues from treatments following an incomplete spinal cord injury and autoimmune problems. Managing my care is complex, with multiple drugs, appointments, symptom tracking, and scans required by a large team of specialists. My short-term memory is poor, though my long-term memory remains sharp. The drugs and chronic pain make it even harder to stay focused and manage these responsibilities.

My watch is essential in helping me keep up. It’s on my wrist from the moment I wake till the moment I sleep, ensuring I miss nothing important. I’ve restricted notifications to medical needs and use it to log symptoms or adverse effects immediately, preventing forgetfulness which was a problem previously.

Outside of my unique use case, many people I know with a watch have stopped carrying a phone altogether. They find it freeing, as the watch gives them essential tools without the distraction of a larger device. Its limitations are a benefit, allowing them to focus on the moment and carry less.

Super cool the Watch can be so beneficial to someone like yourself with actual important use cases, unlike most of us (read: me) where it's mostly gravy.

RE not carrying a phone, I think what mostly makes them something people need to detox from is notifications and social media fomo. Take those away and it's just a pocket computer.

For that reason I've leaned heavily into Focus modes and limiting notifications and have left most social media. Those have really helped a lot with being present.

You can probably get fairly close to do this by using an apple watch with a sim card

I used to leave the house with just my watch and it was great - I could read and send text messages, email, even take calls on my watch and have everything synced up to my phone at home. You can even download music to it and pair it to your airpods.

The missing piece here is just having a dumb phone - somehow I think that with some ingenuity you might be able to something that serves 80% of your needs here or something like that.

My closest solution would be to piggyback off my partner’s iPhone using family watch pairing, and use my own dumbphone.

It is the smallest, most annoying things that keep Apple Watch from being an actual phone killer for me - like getting an Uber.

I wonder -- does the iPhone have to be on a service plan? Or is wifi good enough?

Wifi is good enough. Actually, might not even need WiFi.

>…addicted to their phones by making Watch support exclusive to iPhone.

Buy a Garmin watch, battery life measured in weeks, and you’ll never have to re-enter your pin again because it moved on your wrist. You’ll still get great fitness tracking though and also notifications of you choose to sync them.

I would love to buy a Garmin watch but Garmin Pay doesn't support a lot of banks yet. It's a shame because their battery life is on a league of its own.

> and you’ll never have to re-enter your pin again because it moved on your wrist.

Is this a problem for others? I’ve never had it happen to me.