You Don’t Need a Smartwatch. You Need This $55 Timex.

Shop $55, amazon.comWelcome to the Esquire Endorsement. Heavily researched. Thoroughly vetted. These picks are the best way to spend your hard-earned cash.I’m not trying to run a marathon here. I just want to feel strong, feel healthy in my normal life. In fact, a flight of stairs was my tipping point. It was midsummer. I hit a jog up the stairs—for fun, just to move—coming out of my usual subway stop below the Esquire offices in Manhattan. Two long flights, maybe 50 steps total. I got to the top, step onto the street, and ... what the hell. I was gassed. Hands on my knees on a public sidewalk, gassed. I desperately needed to get back in the gym.Let me clarify before friends and family text me to call bullshit, I had not let myself go; I was just a little out of shape. No one could tell, except for my older brother—he has been my tiger mom since I was born—who made sure to tell me after he invited my wife and me out for a Fire Island beach day. He could tell, and my lungs could tell—that’s what matters. Prior to that 30-second jog, I’d tried all the smart fitness trackers that are meant to game you into working out. None stuck. Life was too busy, my willpower was too weak. I wasn’t hitting the gym.Then I bought a Timex Ironman. My thought, a stroke of genius in hindsight, was to have it within reach as much as possible. My workouts got idiot-proof, simple beyond belief: Manchester United’s 20-minute sprint test, kettlebell circuits, push-up and pull-up splits, or some form of lower-body lifting. Am I in the best shape of my life? No. But I could run a 5K right now, no problem. I’m back to basics and in good-enough shape. That’s all because of this watch.Florence SullivanYou Can Beat It Up Without WorryIf you are one of those high-achieving men that feels the need to run marathons, hike ultras, or cycle hundreds of miles, your qualm with a Timex Ironman won’t be the durability. “Ironman” does, in fact, come from the idea that this would be your companion over 140 miles of swim-bike-run. It’s water-resistant to 100 meters, plenty for swimming laps. It has a chronograph, alarm, and timer—the only things you actually need to track a workout. Want to know if your VO2 max is getting better? Or your lifts are paying off? Track numbers: Splits get faster, reps get higher. You don’t need all the heart-rate stuff.And, crucially, there isn’t much to break down on the inside.But suppose your Timex Ironman does break down. Unless you got an anomaly or wear it into literal war, this shouldn’t happen for about a decade; my dad has owned one Ironman since before I was born in the 90s. Even if you only hit five to seven years, that’s longer than a smartwatch lasts before getting phased out because of software improvements. That’s a $500 replacement. An Ironman is a tenth of that.Shop $55, amazon.comIt Keeps You Off Your PhoneIt’s also worth saying that I do not have an issue with smartwatches or fitness trackers; they are truly revolutionary when it comes to catching hidden health problems. And if it’s your jam to track steps, count calories, and see little rings that tell you about VO2 max and sleep scores—by all means, do what works for you. But that line of thinking just does not work on me. A screen on my wrist means I’m constantly fiddling with my playlist or thinking about the text messages and emails just on the other side of Do Not Disturb. None of that is what I need when working out.Since switching over to my Ironman, I’ve found myself not even having my phone on me during a workout. I’ve gone full Luddite—something I always laughed at in the gym but now have huge respect for. Everything becomes harder without a workout playlist, but it also becomes more zen. On a run, you listen to your feet on the pavement. During a lift, you listen to your breathing. You get a lot more in tune with your body.Shop $55, amazon.comFlorence SullivanIt Reminds You Just How Simple Getting Fit Is This, however, is the real crux of my argument. The little smartwatch tracking rings don’t do it for me, and nothing pisses me off more than a notification badge. It’s a nerd with a stat sheet saying, “Well, if you observe last night’s sleep score and this morning’s use of caffeine, you’ll see it’s a great time to get in the gym,” while I’m sitting at the beach reading a book on vacation. I don’t want to be told when to work out or how hard to workout by someone’s algorithm.What I want is something that sparks my internal motivation. For that, I keep the Ironman where I’ll have to see it every single day. At home, it’s on top of my phone when I wake up in the morning—that’s one time when I can hit the park for a few pull-ups or knock out 15 minutes of pushups in the kitchen. If I miss that, it has to go in my work bag, so that when I drop my laptop in, I see it and make a decision whether or not to hit the gym on the way home. When I travel, it’s on the hotel nightstand.Reader, let me tell you how much sweeter it feels when you know it was your willpower, not a notification, that got you to move around. I’ve done midnight sprints in a hotel gym, 6 a.m. jump rope on the sidewalk, 6 p.m. squats in the gym. There are times where I go too hard or too light, but I’m learning to listen to my body—not an app—for cues on when it’s ready, and if I skip a workout for drinks with friends or a movie with my wife, I don’t beat myself up. It’s a little part of my brain, my soul that I haven’t given over to the tech overlords. All I needed to get in shape was a good watch.Photographs by Florence Sullivan