Why I Stopped Wearing My Apple Watch

Go to the Dictionary.com entry for "early adopter" and you're likely to see a picture of me. I love playing with new gadgets, and my job as tech stocks editor at TheStreet gives me an excuse to spend even more money on the latest gizmo ("It's for work," I tell my wife).

I bought the first iPhone as soon as Apple Inc. (AAPL - Get Report) dropped the price $200 shortly after its launch, the iPad the day it came out, Amazon's (AMZN - Get Report) very first Kindle in 2007 and the Echo (relatively early) in 2016. Needless to say, I can't wait for the iPhone X to come out.

So it was a pretty safe bet that I would get an Apple Watch, the company's first major new product since the death of Steve Jobs, soon after it debuted in 2015. Sure enough, my colleague Brian Sozzi and I went to visit an Apple Store in Soho one night to try out the new devices, and we both wound up ordering Apple Sport Watches on the spot -- Brian even got multiple bands.

In the two-and-change years since then, I've been a bit underwhelmed by the Watch -- as many have noted, there doesn't seem to be any killer app for it yet, nor much you can do with it that you can't with your phone. But, I did like being able to quickly glance at texts and other notifications without having to take my phone out of my pocket. And I've been optimistic that Apple would continue to improve the Watch (and eventually find that killer app) in that inimitable Apple way.

As a result, I've been watching the Apple Watch 3, which has its own cellular connection, with great interest. Maybe adding connectivity and untethering the Watch from the phone would open up a whole new set of possibilities and somehow make the former as indispensable as the latter, I thought.

But a funny thing happened on my way to the Apple Store. After a recent trip to China, I misplaced my Apple Watch somewhere in my bags. Heading into work my first day back, I needed something to put on my wrist, so I rifled through my drawer and found the old, analog Burberry watch that my wife had bought for me ten years ago as a gift -- and the watch I used to wear most often before getting the Apple Watch. Using the clever butterfly clasp to secure it, I was immediately reminded how much I liked the elegance and weight of the silver watch. Off to the office I went.

During the day, I realized I could keep up with various notifications as well as I needed to with just my iPhone in my pocket or otherwise close-by. And not having the Apple Watch on kept me from being too easily distracted by all the buzzing and information being sent to my wrist. Fairly quickly, I realized I was more relaxed and focused without the Apple Watch on, and I liked the way that felt.

The original article can be found at https://www.thestreet.com/story/14325441/1/why-i-s...