I quit wearing a smartwatch
In January 2026, I quit wearing a smartwatch. Previously, running 5K informally, I used a Garmin Forerunner 235; when I finally updated, and hadn't run in years, it was to a Garmin Venu Sq. (The Venu Sq 2 was available, but offered very little for the premium.)
The Garmin app expected me to do an awful lot. Even if one chooses not to participate in formal Challenges, the auto step goal expects every day to be "better" than the last. That's not how humans work; that's an illusion of capitalism. I think my longest step-goal streak was 11 days, because it reaches a point where there is too much walking and not enough doing life. I cannot suspend my chores in service of a number.
In the last months of watch usage, I also tried Gentler Streak (iOS) which at least has the concept of rest days. That was nice, and I liked it overall. However, Garmin doesn't really share much data into Health, which reduces the effectiveness of Gentler Streak compared to using it with an Apple Watch. I definitely didn't need to buy more planned obsolescence.
The crucial problem with collecting numbers on my wrist was that the numbers aren't important. At best, they would fall victim to Goodhart's Law: I would be doing things to improve the numbers, not the actual "state of health" that was supposedly behind them. Simply targeting a number was a great way to get injured for a week or two, actually. Beyond that, giving me a stress score produces more stress, even when it's "good" and about 30.
Beyond that, there lies the question of how accurate these numbers are. Garmin can claim I'm at 80% or 10% energy, but I didn't always feel that way. Similarly, auto activity detection would usually generate a bike ride on my timeline when I used anything with a small engine, like the snow blower or riding mower.
I had been collecting data for years, and I had so little to show for it. There wasn't any insight to be found.
I decided to take the watch off for a week. One week slipped into two, then four or five, and I finally decided that I wasn't going to wear it again.
The only thing I really had to change was to set my morning alarm on my phone, instead of my wrist. That was more of an adjustment for the cats than for me. A ringing phone makes the human scramble, which is scary, but they've gotten a chance to learn the alarm sound now.
Perhaps the largest piece of evidence against the smartwatch is how easy it was to quit. It was hard not being able to check it for the first couple of days, but after that, it faded. I wasn't itching to have it back. Being away from the numbers was a relief.
(I kicked around the idea of a traditional watch, but never got around to it, before learning that ticks could attach under the band if one isn't vigilant enough. Yikes, no.)