5 reasons why people abandon their smartwatches

Over the past decade, Apple has helped popularize the smartwatch market with the Apple Watch. However, this type of watch didn’t start with Apple, as popular athlete watch brand Garmin has been making smartwatches for over two decades. Smart watches add value to your life as you can get the best information about your health, workouts while staying connected to your phone. You can decide whether or not to take a call or respond to a notification, right from your wrist. However, these are also the reasons why people abandon their smartwatches, as they can also make you even more addicted to your phone, exhaust you from this hyper-exposure to data, and much more.

Ditching smartwatches is not a one-time phenomenon, as there are several threads online where people explain why they switched from a smartwatch to a regular watch. I also decided this year that I would be more careful with my use of the Apple Watch. I own an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and I’m the type of person who tracks my workouts, my sleep, and even the amount of water I drink per day. This over-reliance on my watch also led to frustration whenever I failed to close my rings, reach a goal, or when something went over schedule. On top of that, there’s something terrible about going to a nice party or date and having your Apple Watch buzzing the whole time.

Have you heard of or experienced phantom vibrations? It’s the feeling of your phone buzzing in your pocket even though it’s on a table. Well, this happens with smartwatches too. Sometimes I’m just lying there without my Apple Watch and I feel a buzzing sound.

When I first started using the Apple Watch in 2019, I remember how I thought it was the perfect tool to get me away from my phone. After all, I could get a glimpse of what was happening without actually picking up my phone. Over the years, I realized that I usually picked up my phone as soon as I got a notification on my watch, because it always felt urgent. Worse yet, every time I needed to focus on an article, a task, or anything that didn’t involve picking up my phone, I only needed a single notification buzzing on my wrist to distract me.

While you might argue that it’s more about me than the smartwatch, it’s also important to understand that these products were designed to get you addicted. For example, the “Close Your Rings” movement created by Apple has been great in helping me live a healthier lifestyle, but years later I know exactly how I run, how my workouts impact me, and even if I had a good night’s sleep, and not because I read the data, but because as a person I can also evaluate myself.

A simpler problem with smartwatches is that they are gadgets, and gadgets get old. Truth be told, you could still get by just fine with an Apple Watch Series 4 in 2026, provided your watch’s battery health is good. However, if you want a sharper display, longer battery life, and the latest health sensors, you need to spend money on a new generation. Even though the old model may be reused for a family member or friend, it ultimately has to be thrown away, generating e-waste. Meanwhile, ordinary watches can be worn for a lifetime, if you take good care of them.

As a tech journalist, I’ve tested most Apple Watch models since Series 3. Unfortunately, many of them ended up on a shelf. Others have been damaged by accidental drops, worn down from sweat, or simply life’s events. For the two regular watches I currently own (a big collection, I know), they’ve been around for three years and they’re simply amazing. These are timeless pieces that I can have with me forever.

There is a saying that anything too much can be harmful. I guess sleeping, showering, working out, and just wearing the Apple Watch for most of the day can be classified as “too much.” Like many other people, I also had to stop using the Apple Watch regularly because the top of my wrist was slightly red, irritated from prolonged times of wearing this smartwatch.

This Apple Watch rash got particularly bad when Apple introduced sleep tracking, which meant I would then start sleeping with my Apple Watch for a better understanding of my health data. Although simply taking the smartwatch off for a few hours or even a day is usually enough for my skin to return to normal, some people have worse experiences even with Apple Watch bands.

It’s unusual for someone to have these issues with a regular watch because you usually wear it to go out to dinner, work, or any other outdoor occasion. However, by the time you got home, you would delete it. With the Apple Watch and other smartwatches in general, you keep them on all the time because you need to remember to get up, have an important meeting, check your heart rate during a stressful Zoom call, etc.

Smartwatches still look like gadgets from the future. After all, having a touchscreen on your wrist that can help you make payments, open doors, track your workouts, and listen to music wirelessly is just super cool. Apple, in particular, releases regular updates bringing new watch faces with beautiful complications to help users find the perfect balance between looking good and having useful data. The company offers artistic, minimalist, feature-rich and classic watch faces, in addition to an incredible number of straps with the most different colors and fabrics.

However, as I began to view the Apple Watch as a fashion accessory, in addition to a health data collection tool, I embarked on a journey that most people face with watches in general; I went from not caring at all to really noticing different brands, styles, and how to pair them with my outfits.

Now that I try to take a break from my Apple Watch whenever I don’t need it, I switch between two classic watches. One of them is that of the fashionista brand MJW from London. He offers some unique watches, and the one that caught my attention the most is called “A Perfectly Useless Afternoon”. Every time I wear it and look at the time, it gives me complete joy to see this person relaxing in a swimming pool. I would say life should be more about that than loud notifications.

Again, as a technology journalist, I surround myself with technology and sometimes I don’t even realize how much one product overlaps with another. Yet I’ve come to realize that one of the biggest reasons to ditch a smartwatch is that a phone already does most of what watches can do. For example, I can see the time, check my walking distance, receive notifications, and most other smart features right from my iPhone.

With the latest iOS updates, Apple has even improved the iPhone to help you work out. For example, Apple Fitness+ now works without Apple Watch, and the other day, for the first time in my life, I went for a run with my iPhone and my AirPods Pro 3. While the phone followed the route thanks to its built-in GPS, the AirPods Pro took care of tracking my heart rate and measuring my calorie expenditure. When I finished the run, I wondered how different it would have been if I had had my Apple Watch handy. And, to be honest, not much.

While I still think my Apple Watch is great for emergencies because I can still pay for things, get directions, and call people if my phone dies, I’ve also realized that I don’t need an Apple Watch to remind me to pick up my phone to do certain tasks, and that’s what so many people have realized as well. Smartwatches are cool, but touching grass can be so much more.