For three years, I wore an Apple Watch SE. And for three years, it was an impressive device. It lived on my wrist where I could play music, fire off texts, take calls, check my email, my calendar, and track my steps without even looking at my phone. By every measurable standard, it was a remarkable piece of technology.

But I have to come clean and say that along the way, it started feeling exhausting. I really got sick of it. The buzzing never stopped. All the notifications, news headlines, reminders, and even the watch telling me to breathe, all came through right to my wrist. I just couldn’t do it anymore, so I stopped wearing my watch less and less.

You might say, “Matt, why didn’t you just try the Do Not Disturb modes or the Focus modes?” I did. I shuffled through every setting Apple gives you to reclaim peace, but none of it stuck. The interruptions just crept back, and I always let them win.

Additionally, there are already so many screens around us. My phone, laptop, TV, computers at school, work; they are everywhere and they are relentless. I began to question, ‘Why am I willingly choosing to strap one more screen directly to my body?’ We humans weren’t built for this level of consumption and stimulation. My dopamine receptors were fried. I needed out.

So I bought a Casio.

For less than thirty dollars on Amazon, the A158WA was mine. The silver retro styling makes it seem way more flashy and classy than it actually is. It tells me the time without asking me anything in return. There are no notifications, pings, and no text messages. Just the time.

It also does not need to charge every single night. It sounds like a small thing, but not having to forget to charge your Apple Watch and having another plug competing for outlet space is an absolute dream. It has a battery that lasts for years. It is also water resistant, so that means I’m not panicking or the awkward wrist guard when washing my hands at the sink or getting my hand near any sort of water.

It does come with some bonus features like an alarm clock and stop watch and a small backlight for reading the time at night (though the backlight is extremely underwhelming, barely illuminating the face to read the time). But I can’t complain. I bought this watch for the lack of features.

And that absence of features has been a relief. Without the access to headlines, messages, emails, and prompts at every second of the day, I noticed my stress settling. It wasn’t life changing, but just calm — a calm I had been longing for. The watch does not ask anything from me, it just sits there.

The Apple Watch can’t compete where it doesn’t compare, because there is no competition for what the Casio was designed for. The Apple Watch is an incredible device, but it’s not always what I needed. I needed something that respected my attention, something that exists in the background instead of something that constantly pulled me out of the moment I’m actually in. 

Sometimes simplicity is the whole point.