When my husband and friends first got their Apple Watch (Gen 1 at the time) I was not convinced. I didn’t want a big old clunky thing on my wrist. And I didn’t like the idea of being reachable 100% of the time (the idea felt like being on a leash). Well fast forward 6 years and I absolutely love my Gen 6 Apple Watch. Why do I love it? Let me count the ways:
Well I first wanted to get it because I wanted to keep track of my activity levels (and hopefully increase it). From my friends, I’ve heard about “closing your rings” (your activity rings). There’s one to keep track of calories burned while doing general movements, one for exercise, and one for making sure you stand up at least once an hour for 12 hours. And I have to say, it works (to a degree). The watch dings me to stand up so I at least close that ring everyday (sitting is like the new smoking doncha know). I only sometimes close my general activity ring and exercise ring, though in the beginning I used to be more motivated about closing them. I would even pace around the room at the end of the night just to close my activity ring lol. Also with a new purchase of an Apple Watch you get a free 3 month subscription of the Apple Fitness app. This app has various workout videos (yoga, dance, core, HIIT) that you can follow along and your watch syncs with it to show you your heart rate, calories burned, etc. It’s a neat feature and my favorite is yoga with Jessica. But once the free subscription runs out I’m pretty sure I’ll just go back to my youtube yoga. You can still go to your fitness app on your Apple watch to designate that you’re working out (and thus getting credit with your exercise ring). I also use that app to designate when I’m doing a dance workout (aka dance party with my toddler), going for an outdoor walk, or going for a swim (yep the watch is waterproof). Trying to close the rings is a fun way to gamefy getting active.
Ok whew, moving on from exercise. The second reason I wanted the Apple watch is that I’ve always wanted a remote shutter for my iPhone pics (especially when doing insta or blog shots). I love that you can see your phone screen on your watch with the camera remote app so it’s super easy to set up my shots. Now it takes me less than half the time it used to for my self-timer photos.
Those were the two reasons why I wanted the watch, but once I got it I found even more cool ways to use it. If you have an Apple computer, the watch can automatically unlock your computer when you sit in front of it. I also like accessing Spotify from my watch to change the music during our toddler dance parties. I find I use the timer function often for toddler time-outs or timed play (ie when I tell Emi “ok you can play with your toys for 3 more minutes and then you have to take a bath”—she hears the timer go off and knows playtime is over). And I think the O2 pulse oximeter and ECG functions to be neat (though I rarely use them). I had mentioned before that an O2 oximeter (which measures the amount of oxygen in your blood) is especially useful if you ever get Covid. I also use the watch to check off items in my habit tracker. And last but not least, I find replying to texts by talking to my watch to be super convenient. I find the dictation from the watch to be about 97% accurate and much better than the iPhone’s dictation capabilities.
I also look at my phone less (and whenever I do I’m a little more conscious about it), because I no longer use my phone to check the time or my texts and then get sucked into staring at social media or email. Anyway I was doubtful whenever people raved about their Apple watches, but I have to agree it’s a pretty amazing tool. I guess it was no coincidence that pretty much everyone who’s ever had an Apple Watch say they love it (including all of you guys on Insta who persuaded me to get it lol). And nowadays I don’t mind being reachable 100% of the time because I have kid and need to be reachable. Also I should note that my husband still loves and uses his Gen 1 Apple watch daily. He decided to use it until it dies, and well his is still going strong 6 years on. So much for planned obsolescence!
P.S. I should note I was influenced by Eva Chen (yet again lol) and got a stainless steel Milanese Gold Loop strap to go with the watch. But I did not get the stainless steel gold watch body (which is quite pricey), I got the aluminum one in the gold color (which costs much less). But unfortunately it’s not the same colored gold. The stainless steel gold is more of a yellow gold while the aluminum gold is more of a rose gold. So together, it doesn’t match. It bothered me when I first got it, but I just got used to it. It doesn’t bother me anymore. But just letting you all know in case you want the get the milanese gold loop strap. I also got the sport band in navy from Apple since I wanted waterproof straps for swimming.