I almost bought an Apple Watch, then changed my mind

For years I've been thinking about buying an Apple Watch. It came up again while I was putting together a spreadsheet for a full hardware overhaul. An Apple Watch almost made the list.

For a second it felt logical. I've been trying to pay more attention to my health, avoid back pain, and stay active while spending long hours building software and writing.

A smartwatch promised stand reminders, health tracking, and seamless integration with everything else I own. I mean, I am so deep into the Apple ecosystem that almost my entire workflow and professional life depends on it.

I went to the Apple Store, tried one on, went home, put it in the cart, looked at the checkout button, and stopped. I deleted it. I'm not getting one, and the reason comes down to how much of a fan I am of digital minimalism.

Digital minimalism

My entire work process is a constant fight for focus. I write ninety percent of my posts on an iPad specifically because it strips away distractions and keeps me dialed in.

That's the same reason I ditched most of my subscriptions and built my own custom dashboard instead of relying on someone else's tools full of someone else's notifications.

Strapping a screen to my wrist, one that buzzes, taps, and demands micro-attention all day, is the fucking opposite of what I'm trying to build. I don't need another stream of notifications, and I certainly don't need my wrist asking for a software update.

My biggest realization was that waking up should be peaceful. I pictured myself with an Apple Watch, opening my eyes, and the first thing I see is a digital screen full of notifications. No fucking way. I stick to my analog watch.

The battery tax

I'm already glad I'm not a heavy iPhone user. I barely have twenty-five apps on my phone. But even with "just" an iPhone, iPad, and MacBook, I'm so fucking exhausted by devices that demand a daily ritual just to stay alive.

Between a phone, a laptop, wireless headphones, and an iPad, my environment is already a maze of cables and charging pads.

Adding another device that dies in twenty-four to thirty-six hours and needs its own dedicated puck isn't a feature. It's a goddamn chore. A watch shouldn't come with a battery bar that gives you low-grade anxiety before you've even left the house.

That's the battery tax. Every device you add doesn't just cost money. It costs a small daily obligation: charge it, check it, remember it. Multiply that by five or six devices, and you're not managing tools anymore. You're managing a fleet of hardware that starts to drive you crazy.

I love classics

There's something irreplaceable about looking down at a mechanical or traditional timepiece. When I check my wrist, I want to see hands moving across a dial in physical space.

It pulls me into the real world for a fraction of a second. It tells me what time it is, then it gets out of the way. A digital screen showing synthetic clock hands or glowing pixels pushes you back into the matrix. A real watch pulls you out of it.

Mine is imported, number 168 out of 1999 produced. 168 means good fortune, or the road to wealth, which is also where my $168M challenge gets its name. I think about that a lot: that this lucky number is strapped to my wrist and doesn't need charging to mean something.

An Apple Watch would feel like a burden next to that. Owning things that don't need a charger is a decent philosophical counterweight to carrying around a ten-thousand-dollar hardware bag.

Boundaries, not rejection

This is probably also why I've hesitated to turn my home into a full smart home with a hub dictating what happens and when. That's a separate subject, but the feeling is the same: I don't want to be led by my tech. I want it the other way around.

I'm not against Apple Watches. I know they've saved lives and helped a lot of people improve their health and their habits. I still don't want one, not because the product is bad, but because I already know what my limit looks like.

I remember being genuinely excited back in 2014 when the original Apple Watch was announced and released in April 2015. This isn't me being anti-smartwatch. It's me deciding what earns a place in my day.

I'm fully willing to spend serious money on high-utility hardware and software for deep work and productivity. What I won't do is spend my mental bandwidth on top of that.

Drawing a line somewhere is what keeps the rest of the setup sustainable. In the last two and a half decades, we've absorbed more technology, faster, than any generation before us has had to.

Detaching from a piece of it here and there isn't a rejection of tech. It's just how I stay sane inside it.