I finally ditched my Apple Watch - here's everything I'm going to miss about it

After four months with the Apple Watch, I have decided to pack it up and throw it to the back of a drawer. It just wasn't working out for me (and I gave it a good go).

Here's why: the Apple Watch really stands out. And not in a good way. Wearing an Apple Watch shows that you spent at least £300 on a relatively ugly watch that flashes up text messages and measures your heart rate. There just aren't any killer apps that make me want to keep using it.

I was there when the Apple Watch arrived in the UK. I even queued up to be one of the first people to try it on. But the Apple Watch got boring fast. I haven't worn my Apple Watch for a week. After wearing it every day for four months, it really feels different not to have it on my wrist. But I've been surprised at how much I miss it. I don't miss everything, though, just a small selection of things that the Apple Watch did well:

Notifications

The Apple Watch can vibrate or make noises to notify you when you receive a text message or other notification. This is the best thing about the watch. I filtered notifications so only important things got through (no Twitter), and set my watch to silently vibrate. That way, I knew when something was happening, even in meetings when my phone was in my pocket, or if I wandered to another part of the office.

But the issue I had with Apple Watch notifications was that they always felt like a prompt to pick up my phone. If I received a text message, it's far easier to pick up my phone and type a reply than to attempt to shout it at my watch. Taking calls on the Apple Watch is downright embarrassing. I eventually realised that it was just easier to carry my phone around with me.

It's a great conversation starter

I have lost track of the amount of times that someone has asked to have a go on my watch. It has happened at work, in bars, on the train, even up a mountain. People are genuinely curious about the Apple Watch. I went to a friend's wedding in Switzerland, and none of the bride's family spoke English. But they all wanted to try on my Apple Watch (and they all knew what it was, as well). I'm going to miss having a conversation starter strapped to my wrist all day long.

Fitness data

I miss scrolling through the fitness app on my phone and seeing regular measurements of my heart rate. I didn't find the fitness data useful, but it was cool to see the measurements that the Apple Watch took and try to match them with what I was doing at the time.

Touch messages

Owning an Apple Watch grants you exclusive entry into a virtual gang of fellow Apple Watch wearers who send each other small drawings. You can't view or send these little touch messages if you don't have an Apple Watch, and it's actually quite good fun to send them to each other. It got boring pretty fast, though, and I ended up sending rude drawings to the same friend every evening.

Weather

You don't realise how useful it is having the weather on your wrist until it's not there. I used a watch face that included the temperature, and it was super useful. I also have the Dark Sky app on my phone, so my watch would regularly flash warnings about what the weather was going to be like. Now my watch just shows me what the time and date is. Lame.

The sports band is super comfortable

The sports band is the cheapest Apple Watch strap available, but it's also incredibly comfortable. It's made out of fluoroelastomer (which is like a fancy rubber), and it's far nicer to wear than any normal metal watch strap. It's comfortable, easy to clean, looks cool, doesn't wriggle around, and it folds neatly inside itself.

It doesn't scratch

It's really tough to do lasting damage to your Apple Watch. I might not like the software, but these things are really tough. After four months of use my Apple Watch only had a very slight scratch to the screen - the rest of the device looked brand new. Normal watches don't hold up to everyday use quite as well.

But it's just not enough

These things all sound awesome, right? Well, they are! But they're not enough to keep me on Team Apple Watch. The notifications are great, but my phone can do it too. Sure, it's nice having an unusual watch, but I'm not sure how much of the attention I got from wearing it was actually positive. Touch messages and fitness data are gimmicks (albeit cool gimmicks). I'm not selling my Apple Watch, instead I'll keep it and wait to try out future versions of the operating system. Sorry, Apple, but it just wasn't working out.

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