As I sit here contemplating how to start this retrospective article, I glance down at the Google Pixel Watch on my wrist and realize it’s down to 13% battery. I shrug; time for the daily top-up, I guess. So I take it off and put it on the charger knowing I will likely leave it there way longer than necessary because I’ll just forget to wear it again after 90 or so minutes.

And therein lies my biggest issue with Google’s first smartwatch. It doesn’t matter how much I like the glass dome design and how smooth it is to interact with as long as I can’t actually use it to its full potential. Like my colleague Aamir recently expressed, I end up using this smartwatch in all the dumb ways because I just want to get to the end of the day without a dead battery. And despite my best efforts, I’ve had many, many empty batteries over the last six months.