I picked up an Apple Watch Series 11 at Target for $300 yesterday after hemming and hawing (as I am wont to do) after seeing it on sale ($100 off) for the past month or so.

I’m upgrading from a stainless Series 7 so I’m looking forward to faster, on-device Siri and the bigger screen. I’m curious if the stronger glass on the aluminum model will hold up as well as the sapphire screen on the 7: that screen is still in pristine condition. I only upgraded because the battery was consistently hitting 10% around 6 PM — I wish these things had user-replaceable batteries.

During this battery drought I considered ditching the Apple Watch altogether for the Pebble Round 2 with its e-ink display, custom watch faces, open source software, and longer battery life. As I mulled this over I started thinking about how I use my Watch and it just seemed untenable to switch. Here’s my top uses for Apple Watch that wouldn’t be possible on Pebble:

  • Siri: while Siri sucks, I rely on it to set reminders, timers, and turn off lights with HomeKit.
  • Notifications: I disable most notifications and despise the remaining ones. Yet… it’s handy to pick up a call from my wife even though my phone is across the house. Live activities are fun way to keep track of a sportsball game while it’s going on.

You may be surprised to see that step counts or workout tracking was not mentioned. The rings and keeping a streak never appealed to me. I enjoy that this data is collected passively without effort on my end, but it’s not a killer feature for me.

At the end of the day I know I can’t get a better wearable experience elsewhere with an iPhone. I hope Apple will create more 3rd-party APIs so competing watches have a fighting chance in this market (as they’ve started doing in the EU).

Lastly, just a note on my upgrade pattern: I won the original Apple Watch in some raffle online and have been wearing one since 2014. I bought the 4, then 7, now 11. I bought my stainless 7 for like $300 on Woot shortly after the 8 was released. These watches do not change much annually and they frequently go on sale just a few months after launch. Be patient and wait for a deal.

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