How I Stopped Myself From Buying An iWatch

   

This past Sunday I was doing what I do every Sunday in the fall…..watch football! During the evening game between the Packers and Vikings, a commercial came on about the new Apple iWatch. The main feature of difference between this watch and the previous apple iWatch is that this new one is waterproof. So in the commercial, they were showing athletes swimming, diving, sweating all over the watch, spilling sports drinks on it and all this aquatic stuff to show you that it’s waterproof.

 

I thought to myself how cool would it be if I bought this then I can be like these people playing all these sports with my watch still working. So I said to my wife I’m going to get the iWatch and she said ok (she’s usually fine with me buying most things, which is sometimes scary).

 

The next morning, I revisited the thought in my head and the commercial I saw. The difference I quickly came to realize is that my lifestyle probably wouldn’t really change if I bought it. I wouldn’t be playing all these sports because I never did and I can’t come up with the time right now in my life.

 

So then what good would it do for me if I bought this iWatch? I can sync it with my phone so I can call and answer calls without reaching into my pocket and grabbing my phone if I felt like being lazier than I already am. Here are some of the iWatch’s features that I pulled from Apple’s website and the reason I don’t need them right now:

 

Built-in GPS – my phone already has one plus I have the old AT&T unlimited internet plan which I’ll NEVER let go

Heart Rate Sensor – the treadmill and elliptical I use at the gym already has one

Water resistant 50 meters – I don’t need a watch if I’m at the pool or beach, I just ask someone the time or check for my phone in my bag – after I use my towel J

Comprehensive workout app – not sure what this is, but I’d rather have a “comprehensive workout” instead; I already waste some time during my workout to skip slow songs on my iPhone

 

Don’t get me wrong, I love Apple and have owned an iPhone since it first came out in 2007. I tried Samsung but didn’t like it because it was not intuitive enough and many of the features they marketed didn’t really work, at least with the phone I had. But back to the watch; I already own plenty of watches and don’t really need another one in my repertoire.

 

Old Rule, But it Works!

One suggestion here is that when you are contemplating a medium to large purchase, it’s better to SLEEP ON IT – the decision to buy or not buy. Because the next morning I was able to successfully justify to myself why I don’t need the watch. According to Brandon Gaille’s article, Marketing Expert, “The average person, over the course of a lifetime, will spend over $110,000 on impulsive purchases” – Brandon Gaille. That is crazy! He further states that “Impulse buying is heavily influenced by the smells, sights, and sounds of a store rather than the needs a person may have.”

 

Usually, when I go to the store, it is because I need a particular item that I’ve already researched online and compared prices. If I come across something else, I first usually say to myself that let me go home and look into this a bit on the internet to see if it’s worth buying. This rationale exercise can help you stop impulse buying…..or make sure you hang onto the receipt so worse case you can just return what you originally thought was awesome but a few days/weeks after you bought it, it’s just, eh.