I'd love a smartwatch that, along with telling time, is just a screen that shows me my notifications and a button to pause my music.
Garmin hybrid watch might be something you'd like.
There are dozens like those...
Such as? Not doubting, I just want to know
PineTime
Withings, Garmin and Casio have them in very different styles, plus a lot of Chinese ones which names I don't remember.
Literally months of battery time, up to unlimited for the solar ones.
Damn. Big fan of their hybrid smart watches (e-ink screen, ~10 day battery and looked like a watch).
Anyone know of any good similar products?
Withings. Small oled display, looks like an analog watch until you use it. Ton of sensors to monitor your health, or none if you don't want that. And a huge battery. Like huge enough to lose the charger between charges 😆
I'll second this, stupid good battery life but a fairly simple watch. Doesn't do apps but it does health tracking and notifications and it's pretty good at looking like a watch instead of a toy.
I don't know of any e-ink displays outside of Fossil but give Garmin a try. I use the Vivoactive 4 and get a week+ of battery.
I went from Pebble > Fossil > Garmin.
Watchy which is open source and comes in a build it yourself kit has an e-ink display.
Yep - Garmin Venu 3 here. I just charged and it's telling me 15 days of battery, but with my use I'll probably charge it in 12-13 days.
Garmin are atrocious compared to hybrid watches or the legendary pebble. Had one for like a week before I sent it back, there was so much wrong with it.
Care to elaborate?
Even more, I get pretty consistently 3 weeks per charge with my fossil hybrid
Garmin is know for excellent battery life. I don't think they use e-ink though.
A much bigger drawback (to me at least) they lack Google Pay support and keep pushing Garmin Pay which is not widely supported.
?
Is there really any functional difference which backend is providing that virtual card number? I have never seen a terminal anywhere that A) supported contactless in the first place, but B) did not work with the Garmin Pay feature of my Fenix 6. Even out in the sticks. Not-a-one.
The difference is in the bank support. All contactless terminals support all NFC payment providers. But banks don't. Each bank chooses with which services to integrate, and this part is not standardized so it requires some investment on the bank side.
Will there ever be a day where I can just buy a smart watch strap to attach to my mechanic watch to get biometrics and what not?
Soon. Oura rings exist so they could be an alternative.
Invis make straps without sensors but with NFC payments.
There's clearly a market for rings as fitness trackers so people can avoid a watch altogether
Wanting a watch strap is a bit more niche but it'll come around as a product I'm sure.
Don't you need a paid subscription just to get full access to your biometric data from the Oura ring?
Yes you do.
A smart strap honestly sounds like a gap in the market. Seen quite a few people wearing a normal watch and trackers.
They have to get usable at some point, but I got tired of the (shitty off-brand) smart watch I had after a couple minutes. I replaced it with a fully analog Seiko watch and a fitness tracker ring.
Way easier to manage and still meets the needs addressed by the smart watch.
I really enjoyed my Samsung watch. I was able to give it a face that looked like a nice watch. It was round. I could get notifications without taking my phone out of my suit jacket. I still have it and it works with my work iPhone and personal android. I hardly have any use for it now that I work from home though.
Seiko are great watches. I have a couple of G-Shock watches and a Garmin heart rate monitor watch. The Garmin is kinda like a smart watch but more practical. It's got all the sports stuff you'd ever need but GPS too. It makes for an excellent daily-driver watch.
I find HRM watches to be very handy. I can tell from checking my heart rate whether I need to slow down my running speed. I can tell if I start running for something how long I'll last by checking my heart rate. If it's in the "anabolic zone" I'll crap out in a few minutes. If it's in the "aerobic zone" I'll crap out when my body gives up.
It's also been handy for monitoring my general fitness. Resting heart rate, steps, floors travelled, etc. I recommend the Garmin Fenix if you ever wanna try out a 'Smart watch' again: https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/641479
That’s a shame. I really liked my Fossil before I switched to the Apple Watch. It did a fantastic job of looking like a normal watch while still being a decent smartwatch.
The square face of the Apple Watch really irks me.
The Apple part of the Apple Watch really irks me.
I know I'm in the minority, but I switched from a square Android watch (LG G Watch from the neolithic era) to a round watch, and I miss the square. A round screen is awkward for anything but a simple watch face, IMO. I use my new watch much less than my old watch, partly because of this, and I don't think I'll ever buy another one.
I think "full blown" smart watches like the Apple Watch and Samsung Gear are largely a waste of money. I always considered getting one, but always read the largely "meh" or negative reviews from them. When I got my Galaxy S23 Ultra Verizon said I could get the Gear 5 for "free" I just had to pay $5/month for LTE service. The thing lasts about 15 hours on a single charge, it's damn near impossible to type anything on, I've never used it to make or receive a phone call, the fitness tracking is nice, but unless you're a hardcore athlete/gym rat you don't really need it, and the sleep tracking is nice, but once again not really that useful. After about a year of using it, I'm largely over it.
Smart watches looks interesting to me at first, but knowing how it only lasts 3-5 years and additionally companies loves to purposely make stuff obselete quickly, I'd rather just buy normal watch.... Or just look at my phone's clock.
yeah I got a watch 4 for free with my s22 ultra, I gave it a good shot and used it for a few months but went back to my garmin. I simply don't need a lot of the "smart" features aside from notifications and fitness tracking, which garmin does better, and then there's the battery.... different worlds there
Garmin vivomove.
Analog face, and a wee display that tells you whether you want to look at your phone when it buzzes. Counts steps and stuff if you're into that. Week of battery (still 5-7 days after like 5-6 years of owning mine). Perfect daily wear.
+1 for Garmin!! I've got 2 Fenix watches and they're so important to me I'd be lost without them.
The vivomove is my daily, but for many outdoor activities I'd be literally lost without the GPS forerunner!
Also they seem to be one of the lesser evils for those who care about personal data collection and brokerage.
I got the Lily, seems like one of the cheaper ones but ditto to pretty much everything you said here!
I really rely on my watch for notifications in particular since it’s MUCH less intrusive to check my wrist than pull my phone out. The other big benefit for me is maps. I get a tap on the wrist when my turn is coming up, which works particularly well when walking like I’m doing a lot of in NYC this week.
That said, my watch is something like 5 years old now and I see zero reason to upgrade. I’ll wear it till it dies and then buy whatever the cheap version is.
Agreed, I regret buying my Galaxy Watch 4. The sleep and exercise tracking is nice to have but otherwise it is just an inconvenient watch because you have to remember to charge it daily.
I agree, I have a watch 6 classic, the battery life is absolutely shit. It's less then 6 months old, I went to bed with it on power save and swim mode to prevent overnight activation via the screen at 80% charge, woke up today at 1pm, it was at 50%,it is now 6Pm and it is at 20%. I will never buy a Samsung watch again lol, they look real fancy but, this is rediculous. you should get more than 24h on a watch.
My old gear sport and my previous watch 3 didn't have this issue until at least the e year mark.
I love my pre-smart era Fossil watch. I hope they go back to making classy digital watches again, I would buy another.
Same. Mine is a regular watch with hour and minute hands and a digital read-out in the background that I can turn on and off. It's nothing fancy, but I wear it with a fat black leather wrist-band which is pleasing to my easily-entertained soul.
I am a simple man in many ways.
I like the style. I might just skip smart watches just because of this.
That's sad but at the same time, their QC wasn't that great, I had a ring fall off of one and the entire back fall off the other.
Sucks but they couldnot keep up. I'm rocking a Garmin and am very happy with it
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