I had worn an Apple Watch from 2015 through to 2025, when I just stopped putting it on after feeling it was giving me anxiety. It was all the incessant notifications, which I know I could turn off, but it would bloody annoy me to no end. I used to track my steps, heartbeat, sleep, and all that, which at one point I loved doing. I then realised how pointless it was and just another screen to pull me in. After I stopped wearing one on my wrist very soon after Mum passed, I felt less on edge and those constant dopamine hits or watch taps as a notification came in stopped. I still wanted to know the time, so I looked into analogue and digital watches, but this past weekend whilst at my father-in-law’s, he showed me a Casio watch he’d found on the farm. Someone must’ve dropped it, and I asked him if I could have it. He said yes. It’s a pretty simple Casio quartz watch that tells time and beeps at the top of each hour. I think that’s all I really want a watch to do.

As I was writing this blog post, Hans Zimmer - Time began to play.