Why I Abandoned my Apple Watch

And why you should, too

The Lawn Club Squash Watch.

After three years of wearing my Apple Watch, day in and day out, I gave it up for a traditional watch: solid, with no digital electronics, no battery, nothing, powered by the simple motion of my hands as I went through life. 

The Apple Watch first appeared on my radar when I started my doctoral studies, right after the pandemic. A year of pandemic-induced lethargy and catastrophism had taken its toll on my body and my brain; I had neither a healthy body nor a healthy mind. So, I did what adults usually do and reverted to a childhood obsession with squash. I was tired, frustrated, puffy, and quite out of shape, and I thought serving up numbers and gamifying the process of getting fit would keep me on the straight and narrow.