Is The Apple Watch SE Worth It?

Last spring, I bought myself an Apple Watch SE (after watching Emily Cooper close her rings in Emily In Paris). I bought it because of the one thing Pilates doesn’t provide: a cardio workout. I wanted to use the watch to stay accountable to getting cardio in every day, whether that meant taking the stairs, going for a walk, going for a swim, or just turning up Billie Eilish and dancing around my apartment in my underwear (spoiler alert: I did all of those things, especially the dancing to Billie).

I’ve used the watch for nearly a year now and, many times I’ve found myself wondering if it was worth it, especially when I accidentally erased four months of data, proof of weeks and weeks of hard work. After that data was wiped and I couldn’t get it back, I nearly sold the watch. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to continue using it. Now, I’m glad that I kept it and that I wear it every day, especially since I’ve recently moved to a new city and I wanted to track my patterns of exercise, especially since, with the milder climate, I can walk a lot more. Being in British Columbia inspires me to be healthier.

I would say the watch is worth it if you need the accountability to work out every day, even if just for fifteen minutes. I definitely haven’t spent much time exploring all the watch’s features, and I’m sure that I could do a lot more with it, but I’d like to break down the pros and cons, from my own experience.

Cons

You can feel bad when you don’t close your rings

Sometimes you just don’t feel like working out and, personally, I feel bad if I want to miss a day of exercise. I took my watch off last year while I recovered from surgery and was literally banned from exercise, and I took it more personally than I should have. It’s okay to have a rest day.

It sometimes doesn’t count your ‘stand’ hour, even when you’ve been on your feet

A few months ago, at the hairdresser, she and I both received notifications from our watches that it was time to stand up and move around a little, which the watch reminds you to do every hour that you wear it so that you don’t sit around for five hours straight. It made sense for me, since I’d been plonked in her chair, but she’d been standing the whole time while she coloured my hair. A few weeks later, it didn’t count my ‘stand’ hour when I’d been on my feet teaching Pilates for an hour.

You end up constantly talking about your Apple Watch and driving your family members bonkers

Pretty self explanatory.

Pros

You get more exercise

Last summer, because I wore the watch, I swam for at least thirty minutes every day at the cabin. My mum was amazed at how I’d put on my bathing suit every single afternoon, run down to the dock, and jump in the lake, swimming until all my rings had closed.

You don’t stay sedentary for six straight hours

We all love a good scroll through TikTok until we find the funny video that we watch fifteen times in a row, but it’s good to make sure you move every once in a while, even if it’s just to get another cup of tea.

You challenge yourself

Last summer, while swimming every day, I pushed myself to stay in the water for longer, burn more calories, and swim to different places. I’d spent years swimming the same beat over and over again, sometimes twice a day. With the watch on, I swam to other places and challenged myself to outdo my calorie count from the previous day. I definitely wouldn’t be as strong as I am now if the watch hadn’t forced me to work out every day.