Wearing an Apple Watch on your ankle is a seriously bad idea: Here are 8 reasons why

Not having an Apple Watch is better than wearing it around your ankle. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. A new Apple Watch trend has emerged in the last few weeks, one that should give anyone with tech or wearable knowledge serious pause to question all of their life choices – and indeed, the trajectory of humanity. A New York Times article has recently revealed that some people prefer to wear their Apple Watches on their ankle.

“What would possess someone to do this?” you might ask. There are a variety of reasons. The NYT report cites medical professionals who can’t wear anything on their wrists, people with skin conditions, people with wrist tattoos (Apple acknowledges these tattoos impact heart rate sensor performance), people with small wrists who can’t get a good heart rate reading, and people who (mistakenly) believe wearing your Apple Watch on your wrist gives you less accurate step tracking.

On the face of it, this seems like harmless fun or a quirky way to get the most out of your best Apple Watch. Apple won’t comment on the issue, presumably because it thinks its above all of this, and instead pointed us to its guidance on how users should wear their Apple Watch. As you might expect, the answer is “on your wrist,” but just how important is it to wear your Apple Watch properly? I’ve been a user for over 10 years, and I’ve got more than half a decade’s experience in tech journalism, before which I used to work for Apple. Here are some of the reasons I would never wear an Apple Watch around my ankle, including some really important ones.

Your Apple Watch is designed to securely sit on your wrist, and you’ve likely bought a watch band to suit your wrist size. Personally, I don’t think I own a band or strap large enough to get my Apple Watch around my ankle, and even if I did it would be a squeeze. Putting your Apple Watch on your ankle is way less secure than putting it on your wrist. Because your ankle is generally going to be a lot bigger than your wrist, the band will be under a lot of strain, if it even fits at all.

Depending on the clasping mechanism, you risk your band snapping or coming loose under that load, meaning your Watch is much more likely to fall off. It might not have as far to fall if its on your wrist, but you still risk dropping it and damaging it. If you’re crossing the street or out hiking on a trail, you risk dropping your Watch in traffic, down the nearest drain, or over the nearest cliff. Of course, if you’re not used to wearing the Watch around your ankle, you might not even notice it’s missing, which could be even worse.

This feels like an obvious one, but wearing your Apple Watch around your ankle is going to look pretty stupid. I’ve seen at least one article reference this, so I don’t feel bad about saying that it could also be mistaken for an ankle monitor, indicating to onlookers that you’re under house arrest or a curfew, which is probably not the vibe you’re wanting to give off. Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.

Criminality aside, you are definitely going to get some funny looks from people as you walk around with an Apple Watch on your ankle. Of course, you’ll need it next to your skin to get at least some data (more on that later), so you also have that fun problem to figure out. Do you go over sock? Under sock? Under trouser? Who knows?. I don’t stub my fingers very often, but I stub my toes all the time. Wearing your Apple Watch on your ankle exposes your $200+ smartwatch to all manner of hazards including bumps, scrapes, mud, dirt, and more that simply aren’t a concern on your wrist.

Apple Watch models like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 are designed to be rugged and durable, but that doesn’t mean you should try and expedite their demise by wearing it as close to the ground as possible. An Apple Watch wrapped around your ankle is much more exposed to the elements and to collisions that could dent, scratch, or even break your Watch’s display or damage the casing. Again, I feel like this should be really obvious, but your Apple Watch is designed to be worn, looked at, and touched. It’s not really of any use if you can’t see the display, which is used to deliver vital information like notifications, heart rate, exercise tracking, incoming calls, turn-by-turn navigation, and more.

Not only can you not see any of the helpful data you’ve paid through the nose to view on your Apple Watch, you also can’t use the touchscreen. Unless you’re stopping to scroll through your songs while you pretend to tie your shoeless, the premium display and touch inputs on the Apple Watch are rendered useless by wearing it around your ankle, so you might as well have not paid the premium for it in the first place.