I bought another Apple Watch. Mind you, i still believe wearing a constantly vibrating fear-mongering data-collecting computer on your wrist is a fantastically bad idea. But turning off (almost) all notifications goes a long way towards turning it into… a digital watch. And a good one at that.

For once, i bought the base model with a simple Sport band. The aluminium case is far lighter than the steel one of my original Apple Watch, despite the far bigger screen, and the ‘jet black’ colour way reminds me of my dark titanium Series 5. The synthetic rubber band is as comfortable as ever, but with the sweltering heat that descended on Europe these last few weeks, i haven’t worn anything else than the lightweight and breathable Sport loop.

I’ve become quite fond of the shifting numbers and the changing colours of the Flux face, and i might have spent more than a few minutes mesmerized by the Reflections face. Nothing beats the sheer utility of the Modular and Infograph faces when i’m out and about, though. And i have to say that i absolutely love knowing than i’m ever closer to my deathbed thanks to the hourly haptic chime.

I can concentrate on all of that because i turned off pretty much every notification, apart from the silent alarm, phone calls and my VIP’s messages. I’m treating my Apple Watch as an incredibly precise digital watch first, a passive health monitoring device second and a wrist computer last. It’s weird how much nicer it is when it’s not inviting me to go for a run when it’s 36 °C outside or to stand up when i’m already on my own two feet.

I can still use the apps, but they’re not pestering me; i can still look at the data, but it’s not injected right into my pupils. I don’t care about breaking my ‘move streak’ because it essentially doesn’t exist. The Apple Watch is just another watch and i don’t feel bad when i pick another one in the morning. In dumbing down my smart watch, i made it into a rather smart digital watch.