6 ms·

Not having to wear a watch is the best thing mobile phones did to me. Thanks, but no thanks.

by lokopodium 9y ago

ricardobeat 9y ago
How about not having to wear a phone?
- spartanatreyu 9y ago
  I can see phones replacing/merging with wallets long before something replaces phones themselves
  - throwaway413 9y ago
    I recently got one of the Silk super slim wallet cases, and I haven’t used my separate wallet since. I carry around my ID, a debit card, and a bit of cash, and it works wonderfully. Feels so great to only have to worry about 1 thing when I leave the house instead of 2. And, I’ve found myself using Apple Pay more since I’m reaching for my phone now anyways to pay. I really thought I’d dislike it, with the added width to the phone, but so far pros heavily outweigh the cons.
- lokopodium 9y ago
  My experience is not mandatory for anyone else. I use the phone to actually talk 90% and quickly look something up/kill time when on the go 10%. I also like to keep interruptions to a minimum, so smart watches just don't have any purpose for me.
- fiatpandas 9y ago
  Exactly. For me it’s come full circle. “Wow there’s no point of me wearing a watch everywhere now that I have a phone. [10 years later] Cool! This new smart watch will allow me to untether from my phone!”
  - cesarb 9y ago
    There's a xkcd about that: [Watches] https://xkcd.com/1420/ https://xkcd.com/1420/
    - fiatpandas 9y ago
      That is great, thank you!
brownbat 9y ago
I felt the same way, outside of one particular situation. I tried running with a smartphone for a while. I was constantly afraid I would drop it. I tried armbands, pockets, sometimes I just carried a stopwatch and logged all my data in a spreadsheet like some kind of neanderthal. Eventually though I bought a watch. It can tell me how I'm doing on my split times and play music into a cheap bluetooth headband. It's super lightweight. It can even detect different types of weightlifting, and tell me I just did a set of five deadlifts, or squats. It somehow knows the difference. It doesn't seem to understand sprinting at all though and has all sorts of weird bugs because I assume it has a small userbase. I'm not sure any of my apps aside from activity tracking and music make any sense on a smaller device, so that is kind of weird. It's like I strap a tiny phone to my wrist in the mornings, then I swap it out for a larger copy an hour later. Maybe one day phones will be like other accessories and we'll have eight of them and complain both about having too many and how we want more of them. And each night we'll debate internally about which one to wear to a certain function, and judge each other mercilessly for being over- or under-phoned.
- lokopodium 9y ago
  Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. Then again, I guess most gym rats are not really tech savvy/apple fashion type.
  - brownbat 9y ago
    > Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. I've done it both ways. Keeping track of paper and pen and taking notes is more complicated than just having something strapped to your wrist that does it all automatically with an occasional swipe or tap. Both ways are pretty simple so I don't want to exaggerate, but having the thing automatically do the thing is definitely simpler. The random quirks of software are complicated... that's the world we live in though. New stuff is developed to replace the old stuff before we've even worked out the kinks in the old stuff. I don't use an apple or high fashion watch for this, and while GPS and payments work, I don't have LTE for messaging like many do. A lot of watches are just a step up from a fitbit. Fitbit with maps I guess. Hmm, maybe I should have just gotten a fitbit. :)
gambiting 9y ago
As a man, my watch is the only piece of jewelry I get to wear - I'm keeping mine forever, thanks.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  Nobody's forcing you to conform to outdated gender roles. It never stopped Mr. T [1]. If you really want to wear jewelry, don't let your testosterone hold you back. You know you can even pimp out your phone, too [2]. [1] http://www.blazenfluff.com/mr-t-jewelry-starter-kit-golden-chains-and-bling-rings/10391 http://www.blazenfluff.com/mr-t-jewelry-starter-kit-golden-c... [2] http://www.mobiletor.com/iphone-princess-plus-the-worlds-most-expensive-iphone-bearing-diamonds-costs-176400/ http://www.mobiletor.com/iphone-princess-plus-the-worlds-mos...
  - coldtea 9y ago
    >Nobody's forcing you to conform to outdated gender roles Except good judgement.
    - DonHopkins 9y ago
      Outdated judgementalism.
      - coldtea 9y ago
        Out of date doesn't mean stale or bad, just that it's not the fashion du jour. People should think better than using categories like "outdated". Or "judgementalism" for that matter. Not sure when being able to judge things (a prerequisite for not going through life blindly) went out of fashion.
- Lio 9y ago
  I'm right with you. I have an Omega Speedmaster I bought used 12 years ago (can't remember how old it was then). It's a mechanical, manually wound watch. Its movement was quite an old and inaccurate design even by mechanical watch standards. That is it does not meet official chronometer standards. I've worn it almost every day since I first got it. I really enjoy wearing it for all sorts of reasons unrelated to its basic function that I'm not sure I can articulate in any form of convincing argument other than "Well, I like it anyway".
coldtea 9y ago
Because "having" (oh the humanity) to wear a watch was so unbearable?
aldanor 9y ago
To each his own. Not having to carry a phone when running is the best thing digital watches did to me.
- ng-user 9y ago
  I'm not too familiar with the Apple ecosystem, although I own a pair of Airpods & an S8, they work surprisingly well together. Is it possible to store music for offline playback on the Watch and pair it with your Airpods for listening on the go? I'm not a fan of running/cycling with my phone so a Watch/Airpod combo sounds super useful to ditch the phone. I understand I'd need an iPhone for the Watch but I'm just curious if this use case would be possible.
  - ubermonkey 9y ago
    Yes, you can store music on the watch and thereby go for a run without taking your phone.
    - ng-user 9y ago
      Good to know, thanks for your response!
    - DonHopkins 9y ago
      Can you store music on your Airpods? Then you wouldn't need to wear a watch or carry a phone. It could save space and bandwidth by splitting up the songs and only storing one channel in each ear.
      - borgel 9y ago
        You can't, but you can on Samsung's Gear Icon X earbuds [1]. Not sure if they do anything clever with the files though. [1] http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/ http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/
  - eckza 9y ago
    > Is it possible to store music for offline playback on the Watch and pair it with your Airpods for listening on the go? Yes, and not only that but you can also stream Apple Music over LTE as well.
pimeys 9y ago
For me there's only one real use case to have an Android watch: diabetes monitoring. It is so nice how the watch vibrates you awake at night to eat something and how you can constantly see your latest value next to the weather and time. This has changed my life and my life expectancy completely.
- asavadatti 9y ago
  What watch do you use?
  - pimeys 9y ago
    Huawei Watch, because it was one of the first getting the new Android Wear with watch complications, which are nice with blood glucose.

Not having to wear a watch is the best thing mobile phones did to me. Thanks, but no thanks.

ricardobeat 9y ago

How about not having to wear a phone?

spartanatreyu 9y ago
I can see phones replacing/merging with wallets long before something replaces phones themselves
- throwaway413 9y ago
  I recently got one of the Silk super slim wallet cases, and I haven’t used my separate wallet since. I carry around my ID, a debit card, and a bit of cash, and it works wonderfully. Feels so great to only have to worry about 1 thing when I leave the house instead of 2. And, I’ve found myself using Apple Pay more since I’m reaching for my phone now anyways to pay. I really thought I’d dislike it, with the added width to the phone, but so far pros heavily outweigh the cons.
lokopodium 9y ago
My experience is not mandatory for anyone else. I use the phone to actually talk 90% and quickly look something up/kill time when on the go 10%. I also like to keep interruptions to a minimum, so smart watches just don't have any purpose for me.
fiatpandas 9y ago
Exactly. For me it’s come full circle. “Wow there’s no point of me wearing a watch everywhere now that I have a phone. [10 years later] Cool! This new smart watch will allow me to untether from my phone!”
- cesarb 9y ago
  There's a xkcd about that: [Watches] https://xkcd.com/1420/ https://xkcd.com/1420/
  - fiatpandas 9y ago
    That is great, thank you!

brownbat 9y ago

I felt the same way, outside of one particular situation. I tried running with a smartphone for a while. I was constantly afraid I would drop it. I tried armbands, pockets, sometimes I just carried a stopwatch and logged all my data in a spreadsheet like some kind of neanderthal. Eventually though I bought a watch. It can tell me how I'm doing on my split times and play music into a cheap bluetooth headband. It's super lightweight. It can even detect different types of weightlifting, and tell me I just did a set of five deadlifts, or squats. It somehow knows the difference. It doesn't seem to understand sprinting at all though and has all sorts of weird bugs because I assume it has a small userbase. I'm not sure any of my apps aside from activity tracking and music make any sense on a smaller device, so that is kind of weird. It's like I strap a tiny phone to my wrist in the mornings, then I swap it out for a larger copy an hour later. Maybe one day phones will be like other accessories and we'll have eight of them and complain both about having too many and how we want more of them. And each night we'll debate internally about which one to wear to a certain function, and judge each other mercilessly for being over- or under-phoned.

lokopodium 9y ago
Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. Then again, I guess most gym rats are not really tech savvy/apple fashion type.
- brownbat 9y ago
  > Sounds complicated. Most gym rats I know just use pen and paper clipboards. I've done it both ways. Keeping track of paper and pen and taking notes is more complicated than just having something strapped to your wrist that does it all automatically with an occasional swipe or tap. Both ways are pretty simple so I don't want to exaggerate, but having the thing automatically do the thing is definitely simpler. The random quirks of software are complicated... that's the world we live in though. New stuff is developed to replace the old stuff before we've even worked out the kinks in the old stuff. I don't use an apple or high fashion watch for this, and while GPS and payments work, I don't have LTE for messaging like many do. A lot of watches are just a step up from a fitbit. Fitbit with maps I guess. Hmm, maybe I should have just gotten a fitbit. :)

gambiting 9y ago

As a man, my watch is the only piece of jewelry I get to wear - I'm keeping mine forever, thanks.

DonHopkins 9y ago
Nobody's forcing you to conform to outdated gender roles. It never stopped Mr. T [1]. If you really want to wear jewelry, don't let your testosterone hold you back. You know you can even pimp out your phone, too [2]. [1] http://www.blazenfluff.com/mr-t-jewelry-starter-kit-golden-chains-and-bling-rings/10391 http://www.blazenfluff.com/mr-t-jewelry-starter-kit-golden-c... [2] http://www.mobiletor.com/iphone-princess-plus-the-worlds-most-expensive-iphone-bearing-diamonds-costs-176400/ http://www.mobiletor.com/iphone-princess-plus-the-worlds-mos...
- coldtea 9y ago
  >Nobody's forcing you to conform to outdated gender roles Except good judgement.
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    Outdated judgementalism.
    - coldtea 9y ago
      Out of date doesn't mean stale or bad, just that it's not the fashion du jour. People should think better than using categories like "outdated". Or "judgementalism" for that matter. Not sure when being able to judge things (a prerequisite for not going through life blindly) went out of fashion.
Lio 9y ago
I'm right with you. I have an Omega Speedmaster I bought used 12 years ago (can't remember how old it was then). It's a mechanical, manually wound watch. Its movement was quite an old and inaccurate design even by mechanical watch standards. That is it does not meet official chronometer standards. I've worn it almost every day since I first got it. I really enjoy wearing it for all sorts of reasons unrelated to its basic function that I'm not sure I can articulate in any form of convincing argument other than "Well, I like it anyway".

coldtea 9y ago

Because "having" (oh the humanity) to wear a watch was so unbearable?

aldanor 9y ago

To each his own. Not having to carry a phone when running is the best thing digital watches did to me.

ng-user 9y ago
I'm not too familiar with the Apple ecosystem, although I own a pair of Airpods & an S8, they work surprisingly well together. Is it possible to store music for offline playback on the Watch and pair it with your Airpods for listening on the go? I'm not a fan of running/cycling with my phone so a Watch/Airpod combo sounds super useful to ditch the phone. I understand I'd need an iPhone for the Watch but I'm just curious if this use case would be possible.
- ubermonkey 9y ago
  Yes, you can store music on the watch and thereby go for a run without taking your phone.
  - ng-user 9y ago
    Good to know, thanks for your response!
  - DonHopkins 9y ago
    Can you store music on your Airpods? Then you wouldn't need to wear a watch or carry a phone. It could save space and bandwidth by splitting up the songs and only storing one channel in each ear.
    - borgel 9y ago
      You can't, but you can on Samsung's Gear Icon X earbuds [1]. Not sure if they do anything clever with the files though. [1] http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/ http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-iconx/
- eckza 9y ago
  > Is it possible to store music for offline playback on the Watch and pair it with your Airpods for listening on the go? Yes, and not only that but you can also stream Apple Music over LTE as well.

pimeys 9y ago

For me there's only one real use case to have an Android watch: diabetes monitoring. It is so nice how the watch vibrates you awake at night to eat something and how you can constantly see your latest value next to the weather and time. This has changed my life and my life expectancy completely.

asavadatti 9y ago
What watch do you use?
- pimeys 9y ago
  Huawei Watch, because it was one of the first getting the new Android Wear with watch complications, which are nice with blood glucose.