Why the Apple Watch is the perfect study buddy

Every month it feels like a shiny new electronic device arrives that our kids swear they need…or their lives simply won’t be worth living. Parents must also navigate a tricky path around deciding whether to expose children to smartphones early on in life or keep them away from these addictive devices altogether. In short, being a parent in 2025 isn’t easy! 

However, if you’re feeling sheepish around the idea of your little one [or teenager] being exposed to a smartphone too soon, and this potentially disrupting their development, there is an alternative around: the Apple Watch. First launched in 2015, Apple’s smart watches have excellent tracking options [due to the cellular option, which doesn’t need Wi-Fi to be connected to the internet] as well as the kind of fitness and well-being apps that make them a help rather than a hindrance to your child’s growth. 

To celebrate an October where Back Market will be spotlighting the Apple Watch, we’re taking a deeper look at the ways these fitness devices can be converted into the perfect study buddy. 

Less social media 

Although it is possible to access native social media apps on the Apple Watch, the device has a screen too thin to make them anywhere near as dynamic or distracting as their smartphone and desktop equivalents. Therefore, the Apple Watch Screen is too small for kids to develop any serious addiction to social media, giving parents more assurance their child isn’t simply spamming pics of the family dog onto Instagram during maths class. There’s also a SchoolTime Mode on the device, which turns off notifications, restricts non-educational apps, and lights the phone up yellow to alert teachers that their student is 100% in focus-mode. 

Health benefits 

The Apple Watch and its Timers app are a great way to get your child organised, allowing them to set daily reminders around things like after school clubs and looming homework deadlines. You can even set the Apple Watch up so it rewards your kid for maintaining a healthy schedule, with “Activity Rings” giving friendly prompts to users and rewarding them with colourful animations as prizes whenever they take a positive action. Furthermore, there’s workouts [Outdoor Walk, Outdoor Run, and Outdoor Cycle] on the Apple Watch specifically tailored for kids and keeping them active, with the ability to share fitness achievements on leaderboards with friends.  

Reminders, money management and dictionaries 

Thanks to Apple’s screen time reports it’s easy to keep tabs on how much time your child is spending on their Apple Watch and to make a more informed decision on whether it’s worth giving them a break from using it. The Apple Watch is also compatible [in some regions] with Apple Cash, a service where you can send your kid their allowance or pocket money. They can then spend it by utilising the contactless technology on the device, starting to learn valuable money management skills in the process. There’s also apps including dictionaries and translation, which means the Apple Watch can assist your child in real time whenever they run into any difficulties at school. 

Excellent tracking 

The Apple Watch is blessed with deep parental controls and the cellular versions let you call, text, and locate your child. The “Find My” app allows you to track your child’s live whereabouts on a map, while you can also manage and lock features on your child’s watch through linking it up with your iPhone. You can even set up an Apple Watch so it gives you an instant notification whenever your child has left school for the day; yes, bunking off is harder than ever before! That’s not even mentioning the sleep tracking options, which estimate the time spent in each sleeping stage (REM, Core, and Deep), subsequently allowing you to check if your child is really telling you the truth about turning off Fortnite and going to bed early. Getting sleep health drilled into your child from a young age will be a valuable thing later on in life, trust.  

The right moment 

With increasing school restrictions on smartphones in classrooms across the US and Europe, parents are looking for safe, minimal, and non-addictive alternatives to stay connected with their children. This makes 2025 the right moment to get on board the Apple Watch train, a device which can offer kids a more focused, distraction-free experience and ultimately limit their exposure to harmful social media content.

Here at Back Market we sell Apple Watches that have been inspected and refurbished by industry professionals, meaning you can buy the device while feeling assured about its performance and the positive environmental impact. By converting an Apple Watch into a study buddy for your child you can make tech feel more like it used to be: built around the essentials for you and your family, freeing you all up so you can spend your time on what really matters.