Apple Watch Series 6: A review that no one needs but may potentially be helpful to some of a device that no one needs but may potentially be helpful to some

I’m not exactly what you would call an early adopter. I like the idea of cutting edge tech and software, but I’m typically deterred by the risk. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve almost joined a beta software release and then chickened out after reading the “you may experience data loss as a result of joining this beta” disclaimer. No thanks.

Five years after its first release, I’m finally wearing an Apple Watch, and I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon. More important than any fitness, sleep tracking, or productivity function, the watch is helping me use my iPhone less, and that alone is making it worthwhile.

It was recently pointed out to me that I’ve gotten into the habit of pulling out my phone in the middle of conversations, something I was largely unaware I was doing. Buzz. Might be a message. Quick check. Quick work question — better to answer now than to forget. Quick answer. Quick back in the pocket. Now, what were those last few words of the conversation?

Then I realized how frequently this was happening. It’s somewhat like the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon (where something you recently learned suddenly appears everywhere). As an aside, I love and loathe that to find the name of this phenomenon, I opened Google and started typing “once you notice something,” which was auto-completed with “you see it everywhere.” The call and response sophistication of modern search engines is at once brilliantly useful and deeply unnerving.

Until recently, I always thought a smartwatch would be an unnecessary distraction. Pre watch, there’s at least an additional step in having to take the phone out of my pocket or pick it up off the table — would I be able to resist if all I had to do was peek at my wrist?

Apple has a knack for creating devices that adeptly fill needs you didn’t know you had. When the iPad was first released, I remember well the description that the device was meant to fill a “niche.“ What niche, I wondered? I couldn’t imagine some void in my life between my laptop and phone that needed to be filled by some poor compromise of the two. And yet, starting with a hand-me-down iPad a few years ago, I was hooked.

Before long, I found myself justifying the usage of an iPad Pro, which quickly became an indispensable gadget. Coupled with the pencil, this tablet helped me bridge the gap between my disability-imposed limitations (in short, an inability to type extensively due to busted tendons) and the demands of a full-time-and-then-some job. With the right applications, the iPad allows me to take handwritten notes and seamlessly catalog them in a cross-platform, digital filing system, making it essential for meetings, conferences, and phone calls. It’s also great for watching YouTube in bed.

I’m two weeks in to watch ownership now, and it’s…actually great. It strikes the right balance between technological utility and lacking enough sophistication to serve as a complete phone replacement, especially if you turn most notifications off (which you should do). Thanks in part to the cellular model, I can get away with long stretches separated from my phone without worrying whether a message has come in that requires my immediate attention. During those stretches, I’m reachable but lack the capacity to open an app and kill time. It’s true that I still get some haptic feedback when I get a message in the middle of a real-world conversation and that I still may check the message, but it’s annoying enough to respond on the watch that I’ll typically ignore it.

I’m reminded of one of my favorite Shark Tank pitches: The Kitchen Safe, which allows you to keep items like cookies locked in a clear “safe” until a timer goes off. I could, of course, still respond to messages on the watch or take out my phone and respond, much like someone could obviously smash this clear safe or override the timer to access the cookies before the anticipated amount of time expires, but the barrier to entry is what matters. By the way, the sharks didn’t invest.

There is one unresolved tension that I haven’t quite worked through. I’m a fan of the Getting Things Done principle of “closing the loop.” In essence, when you identify a task that needs to get done, you should either handle the task immediately or feed that task into some type of tracker that you know you will return to later, or else some part of your subconscious will be distracted by that open task loop. So there are times that a message comes in, I glance at my wrist and know that some type of response will be required at some point, but I’m actively deciding not to do anything about it. I don’t have an answer for this one, but I’ll think of something. Productivity is iterative, and I’ve barely tapped into the watch’s potential of trackers, timers, and calculated notifications.

I’m aware that Apple didn’t invent the smartwatch or the tablet. But for someone like me who is already invested in their ecosystem, the Apple Watch is a nice complement to other devices that you may be spending a bit too much time on. And like me, you may find yourself admitting, however begrudgingly, that Apple has found and filled another niche you didn’t know you had.