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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
