113: Why I Quit the Apple Watch After 10 Years…

MK: Hey folks. Welcome back to the Primer Shift Podcast. Today I want to talk about something that might sound trivial at first. My watch, you know, specifically where after almost a decade of using the Apple Watch, since the first one dropped back in, I think it was 2015, I finally decided to ditch it a couple of months ago, and I replaced it with something that honestly surprised me.

I didn't really think I would ever do this. Welcome to the Primer Shift podcast. And so this isn't a tech review, it's more a story about aligning technology with health, simplicity and ancestral principles to a degree. You know this stuff we talk about here all the time, and so I've been an Apple Watch user from day one.

I have owned nearly every version, including the first generation Apple Watch Ultra. That's when I finally. Cut Apple watch out of my life. And I thought when I got the ultra, you know, that's gonna be the one, you know, the ultimate wearable for active people. And in some ways it was, it was reasonable battery life, at least compared to the other models, a rugged design and all the data you could ever want about your workouts, heart rate, sleep, et cetera.

But over time, a few things really started to bother me and. The number one issue I had with the Apple watch was EMF exposure. You know, you've been following me for a while. You know that I'm not anti-tech, but I'm pro awareness, and once I realized that you could not turn off Bluetooth on the Apple Watch, that was a red flag.

So whenever I set my Apple watch, uh, to airplane mode or turn off the cellular service and wifi, I still got notifications. In real time. And I'm like, how is that possible? And I realize that Bluetooth is still on. There was no toggle to turn off Bluetooth. I dunno if by now it's been a while. Apple has added that feature.

But at the time, Bluetooth could not be turned off on the Apple watch. And so that means, you know, my wrist, which sits close to. A major artery and you know, the nervous system is constantly exposed to radio frequency radiation. And I'm not saying it's gonna fry your brain or anything, but when you're trying to minimize unnecessary EMF exposure like I do, wearing a constantly connected device 24 7 makes no sense.

The second problem was battery life. Even though the Apple Watch Ultra. Had much better battery life than the Sirius X. Um, at the time, and that's still the case. The Apple Watch Ultra because it's bigger, has a larger battery, lasts longer. But I was still recharging or thinking about recharging it more often than I wanted to.

Every couple of days I needed to recharge the Apple Watch and, you know, if I forgot to plug it in and I went on a trip or whatever, that took longer. I had to pack my charger and I felt like, you know, I const constantly being tethered to the charger. Almost like an invisible, invisible leash. And that's exactly the opposite of what I want from technology.

So I finally said, okay, enough, I swapped out the Apple Watch Ultra for an analog watch, you know, simple, timeless, and beautifully disconnected. And I wore that analog watch for a couple of months, and at first it, I felt really good with it. No notifications, no updates, and no charging. I mean, I could just wear it without even thinking about having it to plug in at some point.

But I realized that for a couple of months that there were a few features that I was missing that actually made my life easier. Like for example, a reliable stopwatch and timer, because I used it all the time when I go into the cold plunge or when I have. You know, to get a, an audible reminder of something that, oh, in five minutes I need to do X, Y, Z.

Or, you know, I was cooking steaks. There are so many cases where I needed a timer or a stopwatch. And the one on my analog watch, it had a timer. It was a chronograph, but it, you know, the display was fairly small. It didn't, it was just not working the way I wanted. And, and then the other thing was because my re, my cell phone is always.

In silent and often in airplane mode. You know, I wasn't getting. Notifications. I mean, it's not, I, I, whenever I'm alone or whenever I'm away from home, you know, I try to keep my phone on because if PE kids or my wife needs to reach me, they, they can't, if it's in airplane mode, but it's always in silent for sure.

And so I missed a lot of notification. I'm like, why didn't you pick up? Why didn't you? I'm like, well, I didn't hear it, didn't feel it, you know, and so back in the days with the Apple Watch, I used at least get a vibration notification on my, on my wrist. And I would notice, I have to look at my phone because someone, um.

Needs something from me and it's important. So I was looking for something or started looking for something that would strike a balance, you know, not a mini smartphone on my wrist, but also not a total step backward. And that's when an old friend coincidentally reached out to me that I used to work with in the past.

Um, you know, I, you know, I was an affiliate of the brand that, that he used to work for. And he said, Hey, I have this, uh, new, uh, watch that I wanted to. Uh, introduce you to, it's called the AMS FITT Balance two. And honestly, I, I had never heard about ams fitt, and at first I thought it was made by Amazon. Uh, it is not, you know, I trust that am kind of, for me, immediately associated with Amazon.

I'm like, Adam, don't wanna have a product from Amazon. You know, I'm not a fan of Alexa and those kind of things. And because of privacy reasons, but turns out it's not related to Amazon at all. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna look at the specs, you know? And the first thing I noticed was the incredible battery life.

You know, it says up to 21 days, and I'm like, okay. Up to, you know, sometimes means probably less, but even so, even if it's only half, that's significantly better than the Apple Watch. You could turn Bluetooth off and wifi off completely, so completely disconnected. It had all, or it has all of the fitness tracking VO two max sleep recovery, hardware ed variability readiness or recovery in the morning.

It has a bright emulates display that's easy to read outdoors. It's got a ton of. Really, really useful watch faces that show you the information you want to see with the Apple Watch, since Apple was the only one, I think the only company, uh, being allowed to create watch faces, there was always, I never found the one that I truly wanted.

There was always something missing. Uh, the atmosphere balance too, has a ton of watch faces. I don't know if you can create your own. I haven't looked into this because I found one from the, the library that works for me, uh, very well. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna give this a try and. I've been using it now for a couple of months, and I have to say I absolutely love that watch.

It's like the Apple watch on steroids, but without the EMF baggage and the constant need to recharge it, the battery life is amazing. Now, the 21 days that the watch promises is if the display is not set to always on. I have mine always on because I wanna see immediately, you know, what the time is and, and all the information without having to tap it or anything.

Or maybe flick my wrist. So that reduced the battery life to practically, I think it's like 11 days, 12 days or so. I don't even pay attention to, because I feel like I never have to charge it every. Once in a, in a while, I sit at my desk, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna plug it in for an hour. Um, and, and that is it.

So I've, my, the watch face that I found shows me the time, obviously the date, sunrise and sunset, which for me is important because that gives me an idea of when our animals are gonna be active in the morning or go to the sleeping quarters in the evening. So it helps with kind of chore. Time and, and, and planning my morning walk with ribeye and letting the turkeys out before, you know, those kind of things.

So that's helpful for me. I can see the temperature, air pressure, elevation, steps, heart rate, calories and battery life, you know, all of this on a single easily to read display. It's, to me, it's, it's amazing and I'm like, why has Apple never, you know, why have they not been able to come up with this in addition to having that, that great battery life?

And I'm gonna be honest though, I use maybe 10% or less of the features that the watch has. I don't use it to its full capacity because I don't need to, for me, it's not a, a training buddy or anything, you know, it has like high rocks features and, and uh, golf course maps and all kinds of stuff that I'm like.

Good that it has it, but I, I don't really need it. But the stuff that I need very often, like the stopwatch, the timer, the weather forecast, you know, the sleep mode that dims, that display, that do not disturb, being able to turn off Bluetooth quickly, uh, with just a flick. All of those things are immediately accessible.

The battery lasts forever. It's easy to read. It looks nice. It has a sapphire, um, glass that doesn't scratch easily. I mean, I haven't scratched it so far and I'm pretty rough with my stuff. So it comes with two silicon straps and the magnetic charger, and it retails for 2 99. That's significantly less than the Apple Watch Ultra.

It's also, I guess, the display bigger. It looks more like a regular watch because it has a round. Case. I, I have to say I, I love it and I, I don't, you know, I've, up until my body reached out to me, I had never heard about am fitt. Um, and now I have, you know, I have to watch the balance too. They also sent me, um, a strap, which looks like, you know, the, the WHOOP strap, but has the same, you know, kind of capabilities.

Um. Less expensive for that matter, but this watch does it all. I don't need a separate fitness tracker because this is a watch, it's a sleep tracker, it's a fitness tracker. It has all the information that I need, so it's, you know, all in one, basically for 2 99, and I can. Even during the day, turn off Bluetooth if I want, if I don't wanna receive notifications and just have maybe the weather and stuff, you know, sink in the morning for a few minutes, you know, turn on Bluetooth, let the weather forecast sink in, let the, you know, sunrise, sunset, all of that stuff gets updated.

Then I can turn off Bluetooth and I'm, you know, not exposed to any EMFs, but I still have all the capabilities. This thing even has a voice, uh, assistant like Siri, but better. And it worked the other day. I'm like, you know, start a timer and flawlessly immediately worked very quickly. I, I really like it Now.

I don't use that, you know, on a daily basis. I typically don't, uh, because everything is so easily accessible just with a swipe. But it's, it's amazing. You know, I honestly, looking back now, I'm like, I, why, why would you ever wanna, you know, get an apple or watch? I mean, yes, I know the ecosystem integration, all of those things, but this thing also integrates and I get my text messages, I can respond to them.

I could even take phone calls the other day. I, I didn't even realize, but I, I must have, I had that phone app still installed and it rang on my, my wife called me and it rang on my, my watch and I picked up and I had a conversation with her, much like on the Apple Watch. You know, all of these things work.

All of the things are there if you want them. Again, I don't use most of the features because I just wanna focus on, on simplicity, on the things that I really need and don't get too, you know, dragged, uh, down with, with technology. But it's all there. It's a nice app that it integrates with where you can see then all your sleep data and your breathing rate and all of the things that you would expect from a fitness and sleep tracker and recovery tracker.

So all of the things you get from, you know, some of those other devices that I've been reviewing for a very reasonable price. There is no ongoing subscription, anything. You paid it 2 99 once and you have a really nice looking watch that is incredibly feature rich and I love it and I'm glad I well.

Thanks Tim for, uh, for pitching that to me because that was, uh, it's really useful. And that's the watch I've been using and I think it strikes the balance between, you know, a, a regular analog watch. As nice as they are, I still have my, uh, my, uh, my analog watch. It didn't, uh, give it away or sell or anything, but this one for me is like the, the, the sweet spot where I can make intelligent use of technology without feeling.

Overwhelmed by, you know, no constant notifications or all of the things, and without being exposed to more EMFs than I care to. So with that, we're gonna wrap up this episode. Let me know if you, what, what do you think, you know, what watch do you have? Do you find it useful? Do you wear a smart watch or an analog watch?

What's your, what's your sweet spot? Let me know if you leave a comment if you're watching this or listening to this on a platform that supports comments. Otherwise, you know, shoot me an email. I'd like to hear from you. Um, I'm gonna have a link down to the. Emma Fit Balance too, if you're interested. They have a couple of other products and, and, and trackers, uh, that you can look at as well.

But I personally, just from hands-on experience, really like this smartwatch in the way I use it. Great, great, uh, balance between, you know, a watch and some of the other features that I wanna have access to without exposing myself to stuff and without being tethered to a charger all the time that we're gonna wrap it up.

Stay tuned. Until next time.