For most of my life, I wore a wristwatch. It’s really only been the past few years, because of the constant availability of the time on my smartphone, that I stopped wearing one. It was never anything fancy, usually a Timex Ironman or something else durable and waterproof, and nothing that couldn’t be purchased at Walmart or Boscov’s. It also had to be something that when it broke, I had no qualms about pitching and replacing.

When Apple watches first came out, they didn’t check a single box on my watch requirement list, and although later versions of them added things like water resistance, I was still reluctant to take the leap. Going back to work, however, made me realize I needed to change things up a bit.

Over these last few months, I’ve become more than a little neurotic about always being able to be in touch with people, and always making sure the kids are able to get in touch with me. At the same time, constantly having my phone in my hand or pausing to check it repetitively was becoming a distraction I didn’t have time for, so I needed another solution.

A friend of mine who had been through a lengthy terminal illness with a family member and who is not a fan of technology surprised me by swearing by her Apple watch. Having a job that does not allow for her to have her phone in hand for most of the day, the watch allowed her to see who was texting her at a glance, and respond quickly in an emergency, and to ignore everything else.

While I was worried about spending more on one watch than I probably had on all the watches I’d ever owned combined, I was reassured by online reviews, as well as many actual reviews by my current swimmers, that these watches really could handle being submerged for the duration of a swim practice. I didn’t go all in. I still wanted a watch that was mostly a watch, so I didn’t need it to have its own cellular service or anything. I also didn’t want the most basic older model. Knowing Apple the way I do, I was sure that a later model would have more bugs worked out of it. So, with all that in mind, I finally settled on a relatively basic later model watch, and, it’s been an interesting experiment.

It didn’t take me long to fall back into feeling absolutely naked if I forget to put it on, which is a little bit more of a problem than with my old analog watches that went on and stayed on until they died. My watch needs to be charged every other day or so, and needs a good bit of time on the charger. I usually try to charge it when I charge my phone, but a lot of times I can remember to put my phone on the charger as I go to bed, but forget about the watch.

I also like to sleep with it on, because one of the many features it offers is sleep analysis. I knew I wasn’t sleeping well, but I really had no idea I was as restless and getting as little sleep as I was. Getting a better picture of when I was sleeping and when I wasn’t has helped me understand my patterns more and try to work on improving them.

Now, I know that there are people out there who worry about how much data these gadgets collect and who can access it and how it might be used against us in the future, but I don’t think you need a smartwatch to tell you that I’m a tired, middle-aged woman who’s fighting a losing war against her weight and gray hair. It hasn’t been all bad news, though. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that a few of my health metrics are low where they should be low or high where they should be high, and I’ll take any win I can get at this point.

One of the other semi-annoying and also semi-useful features of the watch is that it “gently reminds” you that you’ve been sitting still too long. I can also sync it to remind me to do a whole bunch of other things. One of the recommendations from my therapist had been to try guided meditation. I’m not sure why it wasn’t working for me before, but now, when I get the little reminder to get up and move, I will pop in my earbuds and put on a meditation and take a short walk. In the past, I would have broken up my work day with quick little text chats with Steve or even a five-minute phone call. It’s certainly not the same thing at all, but at least it keeps the rhythm of my day moving, and reminds me to take a break and focus on myself for at least a few minutes.

I am still not entirely sold on the whole smartwatch thing. The other day a friend laughed at me for checking the time on my phone and my messages on my watch, but it’s growing on me. I know I never would have made the purchase if Steve were still here. He hated the intrusion of technology in our lives. He didn’t have his first cellphone until almost a year after we started dating, and he only gave in because work wanted him to have one.

At the same time, all of the upheavals in our lives since he’s been gone have led directly to getting this silly watch, so every time I look at it, I am both reminded of him, and that he’s not here. It’s become a weird reminder of why everything needed to change, and how I’m doing the things I need to do to make those changes work for us now. So, is my smartwatch here to stay? Is this just the first small step I’m taking toward doing things my way instead of our way? I guess time will tell.

Liz Pinkey is a contributing writer to the Times News. Her column appears weekly in our Saturday feature section.