After a year with Apple Watch, it’s time for a frank appraisal

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Apple Watches
Time flies when you're having fun.
Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac

I’ve decided to take a step back and take a good, hard look at what I’ve been wearing on my wrist for an entire year. It feels like it was just yesterday the Apple Watch was revealed to the public, and everyone wanted one.

Has it become an essential bit of kit on my wrist, or is it another gadget for the junk drawer, left to gather dust?

Here’s my take on the year I’ve spent with Apple’s magical wrist computer.

As I mentioned in my Apple Watch review video, I don’t feel the device is essential at all. It’s not changed my life the way the iPhone did when that came out back in 2007. On top of that, despite many updates to watchOS, Apple has not sorted out a lot of the problems we noticed on Apple Watch’s release day.

It’s a great wearable, and I’ll continue to wear it every day. But if it got lost or stolen tomorrow, I wouldn’t panic the same way I would if I lost my iPhone. I wouldn’t be hassling my insurance company to hurry up and send me a replacement, either.

My Apple Watch review in a nutshell: nice to have, but not essential.

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