Lemme start out by saying that I love Apple as a brand (not necessarily as a company) and have never once had a problem with their products or even their notorious genius bar. Out of probably 20-30 different devices that my family has purchased (Macs, phones, tablets, accessories, etc) from Apple, only one has ever had a problem that wasn't caused by user error, my iPad Air 4 with a backlight issue, which the genius bar at my local Apple store replaced without a second thought! (Even though I bought it secondhand off eBay making me by extension not the original owner of the device through which AppleCare was purchased, but that's a different story.)

Their watches are no exception–I love my series 3 38mm. It allows me to quickly count my calories burned and hit fitness goals throughout the day. I can sync that data with myfitnesspal and other fitness-related applications after to track my progress, all the while streaming music from it and keeping track of important notifications sent to my phone throughout the day. I've used the same Series 3 watch which was given to me from my parents as a birthday gift from around 2018 til now, when I purchased the same watch for a steal from a friend who needed to borrow some money (new aluminum series 3 42mm for $50).

My problem arose when I decided to pair my watch to my iPhone. My friend hadn't removed their Apple ID information, so I contacted them and they removed it from their account the next time we met up. I decided to pair my watch again, however another problem arose. I am on my parents' Apple ID (Dad is a techie graphic designer and website designer who manages a family account that I am on) and I have no idea what the password is, so I'm again unable to sync my watch to my phone. On the weekend, I went to my parent's home and got my dad to give me his password, and, success! I could now finally get to use this device after about 2 weeks of waiting on the "pair this watch" screen.

This got me thinking; what's gonna happen to all of these watches say 10 years from now when the original Apple watch becomes completely unsupported by apple? Every watch Apple has ever made requires that:

1.) They be connected to an iPhone before they can be used. (No android allowed.)

2.) All watches and iPhones must be running the latest OS before they can be paired, meaning all watches are forced to update to the newest firmware every time they're connected to an iPhone.

3.) Unlike any other Apple product, all watches must be tied directly to an Apple ID before activation.

The apple watch 0, the original apple watch, is already unable to receive the latest updates, being stuck at WatchOS 4. What happens when Apple decides that the device in question is too old and stops them from being able to contact Apple's pairing servers? Jailbreaks for the Apple Watch are practically nonexistent, which means that no sort of custom OS has existed for these devices. Unless some talented hacker develops an alternative OS for the Apple Watch like RockBox for the iPod Classic, one day, even a collector's item like the steel 42mm Apple Watch zero will be nothing more than a wearable paperweight. As a watch collector and Apple fan, this presents a major problem. I want to be able to use my watch whenever and however I want, now or 15-20 years in the future. Although I wouldn't be able to count my calories, I guarantee that even my most basic g-shock doesn't suffer from this same sort of planned obsolescence.