I’ve been a watch wearer for most of my life. Even as I got older and knew that my phone could tell me the time, I’ve always opted for having something on my wrist. However, it took until I was in my 30s for me to think about a smartwatch.
I believe there’s a time and a place for a dress watch or an athletic watch. But having a smartwatch has completely changed the way I go about my day. I got an Apple Watch as a gift in 2019 and have had the same one since then. I’ve product tested other smartwatches as well. But I keep using my Apple Watch for one main reason.
My Apple Watch is an extension of my iPhone
It can do a lot of what my phone can do
I’ve always had an Apple Watch with a cellular plan, as I never wanted to rely on Wi-Fi to be reachable.
My wife initially got me my Apple Watch for one reason: so that I’d always be accessible. At the time, we were living in an apartment, and I frequently would forget to grab my phone if I was out on a run or out walking the dog. There were plenty of times when she’d want to know where I was on my route, and she’d have no way of knowing, in case she needed me to stop at the store or something of that nature.
Having an Apple Watch allowed me to forget my phone on those occasions and still be reachable. I could be wandering around my hometown with my dog or alone and still be reachable. This has been a big help from day one because I didn’t always want or need my phone.
My Apple Watch has become a mini iPhone in its own right, mainly because it can communicate with other people in the same way. Obviously, it doesn’t have the option to FaceTime video people, but I can still answer a FaceTime and tell people I’m on my watch. It opened up new possibilities for communication, and I’ve never gone back. I don’t need all the fancy metrics that Apple Watch can measure. I love it for these solid functions.
My Apple Watch offers a lot of controls that I love
I don’t need to have my phone with me always
I frequently go out on runs and leave my phone at home. The Apple Watch is great at tracking exercise and movement, and I prefer using it for health measurement compared to other fitness trackers. Having to strap it to my arm, toss it in my pocket, or just carry it is annoying to me. As a Spotify user, I love the Spotify app on the Apple Watch for many reasons.
The Apple Watch makes my iPhone a non-essential device. Not only can I turn something on to listen to on my iPhone and then control it from my Apple Watch, but I can also download songs directly to my Apple Watch.
This is what makes it so helpful when out on runs. By adding Bluetooth earbuds like AirPods into the mix, I can listen to my downloaded Spotify tracks and go out on a run without needing my phone. But if I am listening to songs on my phone that I haven’t downloaded, I can skip, go back, pause, play, and turn the volume up and down. I can even look at the queue to see what songs are up next.
My Apple Watch has become a mini iPhone in its own right, mainly because it can communicate with other people in the same way.
Having the playable controls on my Apple Watch is its best feature, in my opinion. I use them all the time for all kinds of reasons. Not only is it for running, but I’m frequently listening to all kinds of audio on different devices, and my Apple Watch can control them.
I’ll connect to a smart speaker via Bluetooth with my iPhone to play a podcast while I’m doing the dishes. If I hear someone yelling my name from upstairs, I’ll turn my watch upward to me and press the pause button. I don’t have to go reach for the phone or touch the speaker to stop it. These aspects of the Apple Watch have paid for themselves many times over in my mind.
Get songs on demand fast
I don’t even have to play them through a smart speaker
I don’t always have my phone with me to decide what music to play. But I do almost always have my watch on, meaning the fun and music doesn’t have to stop. I can go into the downloaded songs I have saved on Spotify and look through my library. Whatever I’ve decided to save to my Apple Watch is on there and can be played at any time.
A great thing about an Apple Watch is that it has mini speakers inside it. The speaker varies in size based on the size of your watch case, so it’s not one uniform size for all Apple Watches. This guarantees that your sound is better based on the size of your watch case.
If I want to listen to music without my phone, I can play it through my watch. Audio coming through the watch isn’t the strongest, but it’s better than not being able to use this feature.
The same goes for answering phone calls. If I pick up on my watch, the audio comes through the speaker. Because of that, I do usually have to hold my watch up to my ear a bit better. But this also improves the call quality because my mouth is closer to the microphone. While using your Apple Watch does not deliver a top-notch phone call experience for you, it is serviceable in the moment if you need to pick up while you’re out.
The built-in controls of the Apple Watch allow you to answer, decline, and turn up the volume of your call. So, whether you’re using the speakers for a phone call or to listen to music, neither of which is an underrated feature, you can do them easily and use the Apple Watch’s interface to control the function.
My favorite Apple Watch feature is simple
Being able to control so much from my Apple Watch is why I keep wearing it. Using it as an extension of my iPhone makes it worth owning. While a lot of what I love about the Apple Watch is in large part due to having a cellular plan for it, the same principles would apply if I were using it hooked up to Wi-Fi. Controlling Spotify, my phone, and answering calls are features I’ll never get tired of.