Apple

I love this watch, it tells you to log your feelings, to stand up, tells you good morning 😃 it’s a wonderful wrist companion!

No. It's just convenient access to information without pulling one the phone.

For me it's almost exclusively a hedonistic luxury as you put it. It made some very specific things a bit easier (Checking messages/calls, authenticator app, siri, the occasional sports session...) but has almost no real impact on my life as a gadget. I still like it though.

Helps me track more accurately the steps and you could argue I'm a little bit healthier if I aim for 10k steps / day instead of sitting on my butt all day

It's nice to track my resting heart rate, especially before and after betablockers.

More convenient when looking at my notifications when phone's away / I'm driving.

Once when I was boxing it asked me if I took a fall and wanted to call 911 :)

So pretty much just a luxury , haha

I should have just bought the cheap Amazfit BIP again instead of my Apple Watch series 8.

(M23YO) Not super useful in everyday life, I can always use my phone instead. I'd say if you're not doing sport, it's just a gadget. If you are though, it's a great piece of gear, totally worth it for training.

It has definitely been an important part of my health. I use it for working out and although the Fitbit does the same, I genuinely love my Apple Watch.

Yes my Apple Watch tracks my health activities- I love having the metrics. It motivates me to exercise and be healthier.

It encourages me to do more on the days I might not want to. So I suppose that is an improvement.

Honestly, I rarely use mine. It doesn’t add much to my day. I do use it when I exercise because it makes me feel like I’m getting credit for it 😆

It’s just an expensive toy for me. I was hoping it’d be more useful but it’s just not for me. Clearly I’m in the minority though so it’s a me problem not a watch problem.

Massive health benefits for me

Exercise everyday, track bike workouts, strength training, walking

Tracking Hrv trends, resting heart rate and sleep

To say nothing of productivity

Other watches are hedonistic luxuries, not the Apple Watch

For me it started by alerting me of atrial fibrillation. Confirmed during an ER visit. Now 2 years later I’ve had an ablation and am AF free.

Since then I’ve used the watch to significantly improve my cardiovascular health. It’s helped me improve my sleep, VO2 max, strength and endurance. I started walking, then after a few months began running and lifting weights regularly. I’m now in better shape than ever and more doubled my VO2 level. Just did my first ever (half) marathon 2 weeks ago.

I ended up buying the AWU when it came out and I love it. The extra battery life is worth it alone, especially for longer workouts where it tends to rapidly drain the battery.

Ties it all together. I like that it works well with my phone, Mac, etc. Honestly it doesn’t stand on its own but holistically, yeah it’s an improvement.

For health data it’s been nice. Had heart surgery in ‘21 to replace an aortic valve / install pacemaker. My heartbeat has been weird to me and recovery hasn’t been perfect. It gives good enough data to keep me either less worried or to inform a discussion with my docs. (I’m also a lab rat and have a yet to be approved valve).

I am sometimes on-call for my work at night. The watch wakes me by tactile feedback instead of an audible ring would wake my family.

I gifted my Apple Watch Ultra to my dad and luckily set up his emergency contacts and crash detection. He recently had a motor vehicle collision, and it was bad enough that his phone went under his seat while he was profusely bleeding from his head. Fortunately, it alerted us and possibly saved my father’s life. That in itself is worth it for me.

My watch informed me that I have AFib. I went to urgent care and got hooked up to all the monitors….definitely AFib. So I’m gonna say my watch might have saved my life.

Going from an S5 that I bought on the outset of the pandemic to an S8 in June that I actually used, I’ve lost 35lbs using it.

Apple Watch is not luxury, if I want luxury I'll be rocking my mechanical watches instead (which I do when I go to a more formal event/gathering).

That said, I use my Apple Watch for Apple Pay and as a filter for notifications to see if I need to respond immediately. Just these 2 features have already improved my life. The added bonus is the passive health tracking features that encourages me to move more.