I love my dumb watches

13 Mar, 2026

I've always liked wearing a watch. It seems redundant at first, since we're perpetually glued to our phones these days, but it's really not.

A smartphone is like a Swiss Army knife. It can do a lot of things, but if I'm assembling some cheap furniture, I'm not doing it with the tiny little Phillips head screwdriver that flips out of the side. I'm using a screw gun.

Maybe that's not the best analogy; your phone keeps perfect time, sure. But when you go to check it, you notice you've got some new notifications. Reply to a few texts, check Reddit, tumblr, watch some TikTok for six hours straight...

I'm obsessed with my iPhone. I'm on it too much as it is because I have terrible impulse control. I use it like a time machine. I get to work, it's a slow day, so I decide I'll completely dissociate and fast forward from 10am to 8pm through the power of brainrotting. I don't remember half of the shit I've read, or the videos I watched.

I'm trying to get better about that...

I had an Apple Watch for a minute, and I remember reading this post by Kev Quirk about why he doesn't like smart watches:

Whether it’s Apple, Samsung, Google, Garmin, or any other smartwatch brand—they’re all utterly pointless as watches, in my opinion. Let’s call them what they are: not smart watches, but wrist phones.

The first time I read this, I was like wtf mate. I love my wrist phone. How could Kev be so behind the times on this obviously great, life-changing piece of tech? If I don't wanna reach in my pocket and check my phone phone, I can just use my wrist phone✨

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