Using an Apple Watch with Cellular as Your Only Phone

What happens when you ditch the iPhone entirely and live with just the watch.

Willem ditched his iPhone and lived with just an Apple Watch Ultra on cellular for months. Calls, messages, maps, music — all from a screen the size of a postage stamp. Here's what worked, what didn't, and what you learn about yourself when the big screen disappears.

The experiment was simple: remove the iPhone from daily life entirely. Keep the Apple Watch Ultra with its cellular connection. Can the smallest Apple device replace the biggest?

The answer is nuanced. What works: phone calls are surprisingly good on the watch speaker. Messages via dictation are fast. Apple Maps gives haptic directions on your wrist. Apple Pay works perfectly. Music streams to AirPods.

What doesn't: typing anything longer than a sentence is painful. Group chats become unmanageable. Some apps simply don't have watch versions. And the battery needs daily charging.

The deeper insight: removing the big screen doesn't just change how you communicate — it changes how you think. Without the ability to endlessly scroll, you're present in a way that a smartphone prevents.

Read the full experiment with all the details.