Hold on a sec.

There’s a bunch of hype around the release of the Apple Watch, but there’s also just as much misunderstanding around it and smart watches in general.

Are you really excited about the Apple Watch or any other smart watch? Why? How long does it take you to answer that question?

It seems there are plenty of people who are fortunate enough to jump onto the new and exciting smart watch market as soon as new watches are released, but they often don’t have a real answer for that question. They often explain how the experience was “underwhelming” and how the watch just “didn’t do that much” and probably wasn’t worth the money. The truth is that they just didn’t know what they were buying. Don’t be that person.

The consumer electronics industry is very much like a toy industry in a lot of respects. People buy new phones, laptops, and gadgets for the same reason that we as kids loved to buy new toys and video games. We all just want new things to play with. However, we don’t really play with watches do we? Even as a kid, how much fun was that Buzz Lightyear or Princess Cinderella digital watch really? We thought they were cool and cute but we couldn’t go on a kid’s adventure with just the time on our wrist. Smart watches are no different. Plenty of people are impressed or awestruck by my Motorola Moto 360 all of the time. This thing is round and lights up! It must be so cool. However, in practice the watch itself isn’t that exciting.

Google’s purpose for Android Wear is to minimize interactions with your smart phone by adding a wearable device that can direct information to you more quickly and easily. Apple’s vision for the Apple Watch is a bit more broad, but their watch will cover the same functionality that Android Wear devices do. Does all of that sound as exciting as buying an iPad and playing Angry Birds for the first time?

THE WATCH ISN’T EXCITING LIKE THAT

Do you already wear a watch? Do you think wearing a watch would be stupid because you can already tell time on your phone anyway? If you don’t wear a watch, what do you think about spending $50 on one you thought was nice? What about $550 (the starting price for the standard Apple Watch)? If you don’t think spending a lot of money on a nice watch is a good idea, don’t think differently about a smart watch either. They are both superfluous and unnecessary. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful.

Here’s what I’ve typically used my watch for over the past 6 months:

Checking the time

Checking the weather before I head out

Checking messages and judging whether I should even bother responding.

Checking emails and deleting/archiving them immediately if they aren’t important. (Do you know how satisfying deleting annoying emails in just 3 seconds is?).

Picking up or ignoring a call without having to pick up my phone.

Styling the watch face to match my outfit. Basic digital watch faces, classy analog faces and everything in between.

Getting reminders and count downs for calendar events.

Buzzing my wrist when I leave my phone and ringing it if it’s lost.

Seeing how unhealthy I am on a daily basis

Skipping tracks and adjusting volume while i’m walking around, listening to music.

Sending messages while I drive: “Hey are you home? Can I come by?”.

Starting GPS navigation while driving without having to bother with my phone.

Gently waking myself up from midday naps with just a buzz on my wrist.

There’s even more functionality that I don’t personally use very often, like going on a run and listening to music without having to carry anything but a pair of headphones or tracking that run using GPS and checking the details on your phone later. Hell, you can even facilitate your Tinder addiction on your watch if you feel so inclined.

Does all of that seem exciting to you? There’s obviously a ton of useful functionality you can get out of smart watches that can be genuinely exciting to people. However, don’t let that impressive list lead you astray.

You’ll only be using the smart watch just a bit more than a traditional watch. You won’t be playing with it for 2–3 hours a day like you would going through your new phone honeymoon. Instead, you’ll be greeted with a few moments of bliss as you painlessly ignore those frequent calls from your mother and delete the daily emails your superiors just love to send you.

If you’ve had the chance to ask the generic “That’s cool! What does it do?” question, you probably noticed that its kind of hard to answer that question well. Its hard for anyone who enjoys smart watches to answer this question because its best uses are random occurrences throughout the day. I can’t show you how nice having a smart watch can be because no one is messaging or calling me right now and I won’t really remember how I saved myself the walk to class yesterday because the cancellation email showed up on my wrist instead of in my pocket. These watches are passive by design so you can’t just make them interesting or exciting on demand. The benefits are just so subtle and natural that its hard to explain.

If you’re interested in smart watches you just have to understand that this isn’t quite the revolution we had with the advent of the original iPhone. These things won’t completely change how you connect to your friends and family everyday like smartphones do, but there’s still plenty of beauty in the small stuff.