I have owned my Apple Watch Series 5 for almost five full years now and while it is not the newest of new Apple Watches on the market, it still does enough to get the job done.
However, while the Apple Watch can be an elegant looking watch, even for a smartwatch, I’d say there are still times when I do not want to wear a smartwatch out in public.
This past weekend made for a curious experiment since I recently bought a regular analog watch and wanted to see if I could go a little while without wearing my Apple Watch.
The analog watch itself is a rare promotional item from the “Fantastic Beasts” movie series. I thought it looked pretty nice considering the fact that I got a pretty great deal on eBay for it.
As for what I usually use my Apple Watch for is primarily for text messages, checking the weather via CARROT Weather, and more recently, checking on package deliveries through the Deliveries app.
With all of that said, I drove from Des Moines, IA (my current home city), down to Kansas City, MO last Friday to see my cousin and go see musician Cody Fry perform with the Kansas City Symphony. I was expected to be back in Des Moines by early afternoon the following day, so this was just a quick jaunt to and from.
One thing that I noticed while making gas station purchases before I left both Des Moines and Kansas City was that I could not use my Apple Watch for Apple Pay since I was not wearing it. That might not be a big deal to some, but for me as someone who uses Apple Pay regularly from their Apple Watch, this was a major change for me.
Still, I was clearly still able to use my iPhone 15 Plus to get all of my Apple Pay purchases done whether it was at a gas pump (thank you, Kwik Star and QuikTrip for having tap at the pump) or any other store I found myself at.
Another big part of this too was using the Wallet app from my iPhone to scan my concert ticket from said Wallet app instead of my Apple Watch. This was not too big of a change for me since I usually pull out my iPhone for concert and event tickets just in case.
If I had to say the most important part of not wearing my Apple Watch during this trip, it was that I was not getting a plethora of notifications on my wrist. This was especially important during the concert since I did not have to worry about turning on Theater Mode during the show since…well…the Apple Watch was simply not there.
All in all, while I do still love my Apple Watch, it is nice every now and then to not have it on and wear something a little old-fashioned every now and then.
I’d highly recommend wearing a regular wristwatch just to mix it up with your Apple Watch every so often. It can give you a break from the bombarding of notifications of the world for a moment and give you some inner peace.
