7 ms·

Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches, even hackable or open source models. I want my watch to tell me the time, and I want it to

Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches, even hackable or open source models. I want my watch to tell me the time, and I want it to do so 10, 20, and 30 years from now without having to fiddle with software. I love Linux. I cut my teeth on it in high school after one too many viruses on Windows XP made me bite the bullet and try debian. I love my Raspberry Pi. It went from retro-gaming console to brief dev environment to Pi-hole server. There are tons of other hacked up solutions in my home. But sometimes I just want a tool that does one thing, essentially unsupervised, essentially forever. Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, and now Watchy... All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). My Seiko automatic will still be ticking (and, as I wear it almost every day, I only wind it once or twice a year).

Sodman 6y ago
Sounds like this watch is absolutely not for you then, and that's totally fine! For me, in 2021, a watch needs to display more than just date/time to earn a place on my wrist. I'm also ok spending another $50 every 3-6 years on a new watch, that doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Conversely, I'm not keen on the idea of having to manually wind my watch, or remembering to fix the date at the start of every month. More options is good for everyone though, so I'm glad both exist!
- stonesweep 6y ago
  > Conversely, I'm not keen on the idea of having to manually wind my watch, or remembering to fix the date at the start of every month. Side comment, we're well past this stage now. Pretty much every popular watch vendor (Seiko, Casio, Citizen, etc) makes a multitude of atomic clock sync solar models spanning the price spectrum (~$200 USD+). I am an analog watch fan but have been buying them for at least a decade; you set it up the first time, slap it on your wrist and never touch it again under normal circumstances. Just works.
jagger27 6y ago
I found I had to wind my Seiko far more often than that. Is this because you wear it daily and the self winder keeps it going? How often do you have to adjust the time?
- sfRattan 6y ago
  I adjust the time maybe once every three months, which has naturally fallen into a pattern that lines up with daylight savings time. My watch gains at most few minutes over that interval. There's a single complication for date (1-31) that I adjust on the first day of every month. Seiko watches aren't the absolute best, but as long as I don't leave it on the shelf for more than 24 hours the self-winding mechanism still works. I'd call them the Toyota of watches. I'm not a watch-o-phile per se (is there a better word for that hobby/interest?)... More like a /r/BuyItForLife [1] person. Seiko fits the bill to buy it for life without spending luxury good money. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/ https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/
zepto 6y ago
Will it? My guess is that you will need to have it serviced somewhere in that time period. I am with you in regards to how great an automatic watch is, but unless your seiko has an oil-free escapement of some kind, e.g. silicon or DLC coated, 40 years seems like a stretch. https://www.rwsmithwatches.com/journal/roger-announces-nano-science-research-collaboration/ https://www.rwsmithwatches.com/journal/roger-announces-nano-... https://www.sinn.de/en/DIAPAL.htm https://www.sinn.de/en/DIAPAL.htm
- sfRattan 6y ago
  I'll take one servicing in that period over replacing my watch every 3-5 (2-4?) years as the software becomes obsolete and all support vanishes into the myopically short tech upgrade cycle. It's why I say 'essentially' unsupervised and 'essentially' forever. The point of comparison with smartwatches is so far to the other extreme that I believe the language is largely justified.
- jerlam 6y ago
  Cheaper mechanical watches don't even get "service" - they simply replace the entire movement as it is cheaper than having a skilled watchmaker take it apart. It will still cost a significant fraction of the initial purchase price. Seiko recommends servicing every three years: https://www.seikowatches.com/us-en/customerservice/faq/care-maintenance-1 https://www.seikowatches.com/us-en/customerservice/faq/care-... And Rolex recommends service every ten years: https://theslenderwrist.com/rolex-service/ https://theslenderwrist.com/rolex-service/ I loved automatic watches, but when you account for their regular inaccuracy, relative fragility and high maintenance cost, they are not as practical as quartz, but merely higher status symbols.
pthreads 6y ago
I feel similarly. I bought a hand-wound mechanical watch. And my electric blender - does only one thing i.e. blend. Then there is the stone knife sharpener. I am making a list of things along similar lines i.e. devices that do one or two things really well, preferably mechanical, well-built etc.. Suggestions?
jakecopp 6y ago
I currently own a Pebble Time Steel, but I love the idea of getting an open source watch I can build my own (very simple) UI for that might outlast the hardware. I guess it's a bit like the itch of building your own desk or some beautiful wooden furniture - I like the idea of slowly refining my own watch software until it's perfectly suited for me.
drewzero1 6y ago
I feel the same about my Casio Tough Solar. I've had it around 6 years and it feels like it'll never get old. For the last year or so I've been wearing a Pebble Time Steel and while I appreciate the extra features I know that one day it will stop working, and I'm sure my Casio will be there waiting. About the Pebble -- I am definitely a fan, and haven't yet seen another smartwatch with its particular appeal. After playing around with a lot of watchfaces I ended up almost always sticking with an analog face which I'm finding helps me visualize the passage of time a lot better than a digital readout.
Alupis 6y ago
> Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, and now Watchy... All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). It is interesting, given the amount of environmental concerns people have over cow flatulates, plastic bags, straws, etc... that nobody seems concerned about these obviously short-lifetime hunks of non-biodegradable/non-recyclable plastics, rubber, silicone, rare earth metals, and worse. All the environmentalists that scream at others for putting a can in the wrong bin, yet buy a new Apple Watch every release cycle...
- wsinks 6y ago
  Yeah, I recently realized this and am now on a much more streamlined technology (and most products) diet. It definitely sucks because I feel like I'm always missing out on stuff, but it no longer feels right.
  - barbs 6y ago
    Curious - what is your streamlined technology/product diet? Personally I buy most stuff second-hand if I can. I'm obviously not on the bleeding edge product-wise, but I'm fine with that.
- tinus_hn 6y ago
  You can give your Apple Watch to Apple and they’ll recycle the parts for you. Besides, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to compare the lifetime of an Apple Watch to that of a plastic straw.
  - Alupis 6y ago
    Why not? The plastic straw doesn't require rare earth metals, anywhere near as much plastic, silicone and other materials. Besides, it's been shown time and time again, eWaste is largely a farce, with majority of components being sent directly to landfills. Ounce per ounce, thousands of plastic straws are far better for the environment than a single Apple Watch.
    - 6y ago
mikestew 6y ago
The problem starts with calling a wrist-worn computer a "watch" of any kind. What parent wants is a "watch", a wrist-worn device whose primary or even sole purpose is to tell time. The Apple product I have on my wrist right now is not a "watch", though it will tell you the time. But that's like saying my car is a clock because time is displayed on the dashboard. And if all it did was tell the time, I wouldn't wear it as I don't need to know the time badly enough to wear a single-purpose device all of the time. Unfortunately, it looks like we're stuck with "smartwatch". If we could get the terminology straightened out, maybe every discussion on the topic of smartwatches need not require the presence of "that guy" telling us how in addition to not owning a TV, they just need a mechanical time-keeping device they can pass to their kids who are just going to sell it at the estate sale.
boring_twenties 6y ago
Mechanical watches need to be serviced every few years, though.
CraigJPerry 6y ago
>> My Seiko automatic Bah, a real curmudgeon would have said a £10 Casio quartz :-) I flick back and forth on this. The features i actually use on my Apple Watch: 1. it extends phone battery life[1] 2. I'm UK based but i work with colleagues across APAC & NA - in 3 of the corners of the "infograph" watch face i have NYC, Mumbai & HK times, it shows the city, the 24hr time & handily the offset - i use this all the time because outlook is poor for this simple use case 3. The 4th corner has a timer - i use it for everything from "the dog's out the back garden, i should remember to let her back in, in 5 mins" to brewing a cuppa to reminding me to do something - the UI here is really good, i'm a mixture of "hey siri, set a timer for 25 minutes" vs. just tapping one of the pre-set timers 4. Up next calendar entry - coupled with calendar notifications, the only notifications i still use today 5. Day date complication 6. Temperature - but it's not the current temp i find useful, it's the daily range display - every night "can i let the cat stay out overnight or will it get too cold?" 7. it's super convenient for driving directions in a rental car when abroad, not so much in my own car though 8. Music / audiobook / podcast volume & skipping 9. The vo2 max readout has caused me to change exercise habits and the HRV thing has caused me to pay more attention to my sleep schedule - he says at 11:26pm 10. But my favourite is Apple Pay, personal account, joint account, corporate card & flight tickets back when we used to do that, super handy Features i don't use but pretend i do: 1. Every other thing on there - from sleep trackers to camera viewfinder remote view thingy (cool, but useless) A £19 "Casio Royale" would do most of the essentials though. [1] in 2017 when i got my 2nd gen apple watch, my iPhone 7 would be almost dead when i got home from work. When i started using the apple watch, my phone battery would have ~20% left when i got home. I was no longer wakening the phone screen to deal with notifications or fiddling with podcast / music controls. Shortly after that i disabled all notifications but that's another story.
- hluska 6y ago
  Hey friend, I just wanted to let you know that I love your writing. I’ve got nothing of substance to add but you’ve got a great voice. Do you blog? If so, I’d love a link.
  - CraigJPerry 6y ago
spoonjim 6y ago
A smart watch is not a “watch.” It has functionally nothing in common with a Seiko or a Rolex. It’s a computer form factor, like a desktop, laptop, video game console, tablet, or smartphone. Yes they all rapidly become e-waste and that is a problem but Seikos are not really relevant.
- neolog 6y ago
  They do occupy the same location on the wrist.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    I use a smartwatch to tell time just like I use a smartphone to call people. Which is to say that I carry them like their predecessors, but I do a whole lot on them that isn’t captured by their non-smart designations.
fnord77 6y ago
Not to be a fanboy, but I love my apple watch for three reasons: I can see who is calling me without pulling my phone out of my pocket and drop the call. I can also answer calls on it if I left my phone in the other room. Ditto with text messages I can see what my next meeting is just by looking at the watch face. As for e-waste - yeah - replacing the battery costs almost as much as a new watch. Though my last one lasted 4 years. I actually never use it to tell the time, which I know is weird.
hluska 6y ago
I used to be in your camp but then I got really fit and got into masochism through endurance sports. Now, I see a massive utility to smartwatches but my damned wrists are too small to wear any watch.
- justatdotin 6y ago
  #humblebrag
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- zikzak 6y ago
  I am literally "big boned" and have found a NATO strap is what you want for good a good, secure fit.
  - zikzak 6y ago
    I have given you the exact opposite advice. Sorry. Doh.
    - hluska 6y ago
      No friend, don’t worry!! It was very kind of you to offer your help and experience. I appreciate you. :)
zikzak 6y ago
I recently switched back to a regular watch recently. I needed vibrating alarms (have 3, which seems to be enough) and I like a countdown timer. I already had a Timex Expedition Shock that fit the bill in the basement from several years ago. I dug it out of my extra gear bin expecting to have to order a new battery. Nope. Running like a top. I use buzzkill on my Android phone to make sure I get exactly the notifications I want. Pretty nice set up and I feel much less distracted.
dandelany 6y ago
It's not curmudgeonly to not be interested. But I'm always surprised when people feel the need to comment about their disinterest, and more surprised when such comments do well. Going to, say, a rock-climbing thread and commenting about how I have zero interest in rock-climbing would be a bit curmudgeonly tbh :) Your Raspberry Pi will be e-waste in 30 years too...
King-Aaron 6y ago
I was dabbling in smart watches for quite some time - jumping between Huawei and Samsung watches mainly. They are very cool, but after a while I switched back to my vintage seiko automatics and Oris mechanicals for two main reasons: 1. The current crop of smart watches felt bulky. I know the newer apple watches are quite slim but they don't suit my tech ecosystem, but the android/etc offerings just feel 'big'. I know this will improve as time goes on of course. (I do have a gshock which I love, but that's another matter) 2. (And this is the main point,) the smart watches made me feel like it was increasing my anxiety. Even though you can disconnect the watch from notifications, having various alerts and things happening all the time with haptic feedback was making me look at the watch more often, fidget with it, and use it as that kind of social escape thing that you do with phones. Once you disable the 'smart' features, it becomes nothing more than a gimmick, and when using the features it seemed to equally help my productivity the same amount that it hindered it. I don't want to knock anyone who uses a smart watch though, because I do think they're cool. They just so far haven't worked for me.
- folkrav 6y ago
  I really loved my Moto 360, didn't feel bulky at all to me. I really lost track of the current smartwatch market though, did they really get bigger? That'd be... disappointing. Funny about that social anxiety thing. On my end it was actually better - as I could just swipe stuff away instead of having the incentive to click on it and get lost in whatever application I ended up in, I was able to get rid of most of the noise with a swipe without even picking up my phone, and only picked it up for stuff I actually cared for.
- mewse 6y ago
  > I know the newer apple watches are quite slim They’re really not. I’ve owned three different Apple Watches (including the current model), and even the most recent models are heaps thicker than even my old Citizen Eco-Drive watch, which already seemed absurdly massive on my wrist when I bought it. I’m still using Apple’s smart watches for just one reason: As thick as they still are relative to regular watches, they’re heaps smaller than phones. And if all you want to do is basic phone functionality (check the weather, make/receive calls and text messages, listen to music, set timers, etc), you can do all of that from a cellular-enabled watch+wireless earbuds, without carrying the bulk of a phone around with you at all. For those of us who feel like phones are getting too large to reasonably carry around all the time, having all the critical functionality in something that just sits on your wrist until you need it is kind of amazing. If it wasn’t necessary to have an up-to-date phone in order to configure the watch, I’m not certain I’d still own a phone at all.
em-bee 6y ago
i don't carry a watch. my phone tells the time. that's enough. same with phones replacing the camera, i look at smartwatches as a phone replacement. this of course requires that the smartwatch includes a sim card. i agree, smartwatches that can't replace my phone are not interesting. but if they could replace the phone that would be a different thing entirely. to put it differently: i need a cheap portable phone for my children, one that i can control 100%. besides telling the time and setting alarms it must not have any features except calling or sending (and receiving) voice messages home. nothing that attracts kids to play with the device and interfere with class. it doesn't have to be a watch, but it needs to be small, lightweight, easy to carry, and appear uninteresting. even a feature phone has to many features. and it must be affordable to families with multiple kids (less than $50) those devices do exist, at that price level too. if only they were hackable so i could control what the kids can do with it...
Pxtl 6y ago
The thing with Pebble was that it was a good watch - a better watch than most modern smartwatches. Week-long battery and always-on screen are critical "watch" functionality that too many modern smartwatches fail on, and pebble succeeded on. For me, it was a watch that I could get notifications on, including turn by turn directions which was super useful when cycling.
- Steltek 6y ago
  Was? It still is! The great thing about the essentials is that they never go out of style :). Sadly personal devices live a hard life. My wife's Time Round bit the dust and nothing out there really looks the same. Edit: Okay, a Pebble would probably not be the top of my list in 2021 for a new purchase but the one on my wrist is doing just fine for me right now.
ehnto 6y ago
I was the same until I realized with a smartwatch I could leave my smartphone at home but still receive phone calls. Helps me disconnect from the smartphone everyday instead of only days where I know I don't need to be contacted.
dspillett 6y ago
> Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches I hadn't bothered with watches at all until I got into running, as there are clocks everywhere including on my phone in my pocket. Though I only use that for specific things (telling the time, pace tracking, and breadcrumb mapping when following a trail route or otherwise in an unfamiliar location). > All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). Even 10 is a very generous estimate IMO. Even though I'm a light user I've gone through a few in the last six or seven years. First was a gps-only-when-paired-with-a-phone-step-counter-otherwise fitbit thing (given to a cousin when I got my next device), I had a Band2 but not long before MS gave up on that (it went on eBay, I doubt anyone is still using it), one TomTom died, the replacement is now a spare (may soon be donated to a friend who is getting into running), the Garmin I currently use is likely to be replaced this year (I'm sliding down the off-road ultra-running rabbit hole and don't have a great sense of direction, so extra battery life on those "not getting lost" features will be handy! (while pretty good at reorienting myself with a map, the watching beeping before I go far enough off course to need to is very useful)) and demoted to being my spare. And I'm using it as a utility device - people buying them mostly as toys or fashion/showyness probably upgrade even more often (or just bore of, and stop using, them sooner). Even accounting for selling/donating the old device after an upgrade, I'd say most will be abandoned in significantly less than a decade. Much like phones.
aquir 6y ago
The only thing that I would miss from a "non-smart" watch is the vibration alarm. If someone can show me a proper watch with silent vibration alarm I would buy it

Sodman 6y ago

Sounds like this watch is absolutely not for you then, and that's totally fine! For me, in 2021, a watch needs to display more than just date/time to earn a place on my wrist. I'm also ok spending another $50 every 3-6 years on a new watch, that doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Conversely, I'm not keen on the idea of having to manually wind my watch, or remembering to fix the date at the start of every month. More options is good for everyone though, so I'm glad both exist!

stonesweep 6y ago
> Conversely, I'm not keen on the idea of having to manually wind my watch, or remembering to fix the date at the start of every month. Side comment, we're well past this stage now. Pretty much every popular watch vendor (Seiko, Casio, Citizen, etc) makes a multitude of atomic clock sync solar models spanning the price spectrum (~$200 USD+). I am an analog watch fan but have been buying them for at least a decade; you set it up the first time, slap it on your wrist and never touch it again under normal circumstances. Just works.

jagger27 6y ago

I found I had to wind my Seiko far more often than that. Is this because you wear it daily and the self winder keeps it going? How often do you have to adjust the time?

sfRattan 6y ago
I adjust the time maybe once every three months, which has naturally fallen into a pattern that lines up with daylight savings time. My watch gains at most few minutes over that interval. There's a single complication for date (1-31) that I adjust on the first day of every month. Seiko watches aren't the absolute best, but as long as I don't leave it on the shelf for more than 24 hours the self-winding mechanism still works. I'd call them the Toyota of watches. I'm not a watch-o-phile per se (is there a better word for that hobby/interest?)... More like a /r/BuyItForLife [1] person. Seiko fits the bill to buy it for life without spending luxury good money. [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/ https://old.reddit.com/r/BuyItForLife/

zepto 6y ago

Will it? My guess is that you will need to have it serviced somewhere in that time period. I am with you in regards to how great an automatic watch is, but unless your seiko has an oil-free escapement of some kind, e.g. silicon or DLC coated, 40 years seems like a stretch. https://www.rwsmithwatches.com/journal/roger-announces-nano-science-research-collaboration/ https://www.rwsmithwatches.com/journal/roger-announces-nano-... https://www.sinn.de/en/DIAPAL.htm https://www.sinn.de/en/DIAPAL.htm

sfRattan 6y ago
I'll take one servicing in that period over replacing my watch every 3-5 (2-4?) years as the software becomes obsolete and all support vanishes into the myopically short tech upgrade cycle. It's why I say 'essentially' unsupervised and 'essentially' forever. The point of comparison with smartwatches is so far to the other extreme that I believe the language is largely justified.
jerlam 6y ago
Cheaper mechanical watches don't even get "service" - they simply replace the entire movement as it is cheaper than having a skilled watchmaker take it apart. It will still cost a significant fraction of the initial purchase price. Seiko recommends servicing every three years: https://www.seikowatches.com/us-en/customerservice/faq/care-maintenance-1 https://www.seikowatches.com/us-en/customerservice/faq/care-... And Rolex recommends service every ten years: https://theslenderwrist.com/rolex-service/ https://theslenderwrist.com/rolex-service/ I loved automatic watches, but when you account for their regular inaccuracy, relative fragility and high maintenance cost, they are not as practical as quartz, but merely higher status symbols.

pthreads 6y ago

I feel similarly. I bought a hand-wound mechanical watch. And my electric blender - does only one thing i.e. blend. Then there is the stone knife sharpener. I am making a list of things along similar lines i.e. devices that do one or two things really well, preferably mechanical, well-built etc.. Suggestions?

jakecopp 6y ago

I currently own a Pebble Time Steel, but I love the idea of getting an open source watch I can build my own (very simple) UI for that might outlast the hardware. I guess it's a bit like the itch of building your own desk or some beautiful wooden furniture - I like the idea of slowly refining my own watch software until it's perfectly suited for me.

drewzero1 6y ago

I feel the same about my Casio Tough Solar. I've had it around 6 years and it feels like it'll never get old. For the last year or so I've been wearing a Pebble Time Steel and while I appreciate the extra features I know that one day it will stop working, and I'm sure my Casio will be there waiting. About the Pebble -- I am definitely a fan, and haven't yet seen another smartwatch with its particular appeal. After playing around with a lot of watchfaces I ended up almost always sticking with an analog face which I'm finding helps me visualize the passage of time a lot better than a digital readout.

Alupis 6y ago

> Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, and now Watchy... All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). It is interesting, given the amount of environmental concerns people have over cow flatulates, plastic bags, straws, etc... that nobody seems concerned about these obviously short-lifetime hunks of non-biodegradable/non-recyclable plastics, rubber, silicone, rare earth metals, and worse. All the environmentalists that scream at others for putting a can in the wrong bin, yet buy a new Apple Watch every release cycle...

wsinks 6y ago
Yeah, I recently realized this and am now on a much more streamlined technology (and most products) diet. It definitely sucks because I feel like I'm always missing out on stuff, but it no longer feels right.
- barbs 6y ago
  Curious - what is your streamlined technology/product diet? Personally I buy most stuff second-hand if I can. I'm obviously not on the bleeding edge product-wise, but I'm fine with that.
tinus_hn 6y ago
You can give your Apple Watch to Apple and they’ll recycle the parts for you. Besides, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to compare the lifetime of an Apple Watch to that of a plastic straw.
- Alupis 6y ago
  Why not? The plastic straw doesn't require rare earth metals, anywhere near as much plastic, silicone and other materials. Besides, it's been shown time and time again, eWaste is largely a farce, with majority of components being sent directly to landfills. Ounce per ounce, thousands of plastic straws are far better for the environment than a single Apple Watch.
  - 6y ago

mikestew 6y ago

The problem starts with calling a wrist-worn computer a "watch" of any kind. What parent wants is a "watch", a wrist-worn device whose primary or even sole purpose is to tell time. The Apple product I have on my wrist right now is not a "watch", though it will tell you the time. But that's like saying my car is a clock because time is displayed on the dashboard. And if all it did was tell the time, I wouldn't wear it as I don't need to know the time badly enough to wear a single-purpose device all of the time. Unfortunately, it looks like we're stuck with "smartwatch". If we could get the terminology straightened out, maybe every discussion on the topic of smartwatches need not require the presence of "that guy" telling us how in addition to not owning a TV, they just need a mechanical time-keeping device they can pass to their kids who are just going to sell it at the estate sale.

boring_twenties 6y ago

Mechanical watches need to be serviced every few years, though.

CraigJPerry 6y ago

>> My Seiko automatic Bah, a real curmudgeon would have said a £10 Casio quartz :-) I flick back and forth on this. The features i actually use on my Apple Watch: 1. it extends phone battery life[1] 2. I'm UK based but i work with colleagues across APAC & NA - in 3 of the corners of the "infograph" watch face i have NYC, Mumbai & HK times, it shows the city, the 24hr time & handily the offset - i use this all the time because outlook is poor for this simple use case 3. The 4th corner has a timer - i use it for everything from "the dog's out the back garden, i should remember to let her back in, in 5 mins" to brewing a cuppa to reminding me to do something - the UI here is really good, i'm a mixture of "hey siri, set a timer for 25 minutes" vs. just tapping one of the pre-set timers 4. Up next calendar entry - coupled with calendar notifications, the only notifications i still use today 5. Day date complication 6. Temperature - but it's not the current temp i find useful, it's the daily range display - every night "can i let the cat stay out overnight or will it get too cold?" 7. it's super convenient for driving directions in a rental car when abroad, not so much in my own car though 8. Music / audiobook / podcast volume & skipping 9. The vo2 max readout has caused me to change exercise habits and the HRV thing has caused me to pay more attention to my sleep schedule - he says at 11:26pm 10. But my favourite is Apple Pay, personal account, joint account, corporate card & flight tickets back when we used to do that, super handy Features i don't use but pretend i do: 1. Every other thing on there - from sleep trackers to camera viewfinder remote view thingy (cool, but useless) A £19 "Casio Royale" would do most of the essentials though. [1] in 2017 when i got my 2nd gen apple watch, my iPhone 7 would be almost dead when i got home from work. When i started using the apple watch, my phone battery would have ~20% left when i got home. I was no longer wakening the phone screen to deal with notifications or fiddling with podcast / music controls. Shortly after that i disabled all notifications but that's another story.

hluska 6y ago
Hey friend, I just wanted to let you know that I love your writing. I’ve got nothing of substance to add but you’ve got a great voice. Do you blog? If so, I’d love a link.
- CraigJPerry 6y ago

spoonjim 6y ago

A smart watch is not a “watch.” It has functionally nothing in common with a Seiko or a Rolex. It’s a computer form factor, like a desktop, laptop, video game console, tablet, or smartphone. Yes they all rapidly become e-waste and that is a problem but Seikos are not really relevant.

neolog 6y ago
They do occupy the same location on the wrist.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  I use a smartwatch to tell time just like I use a smartphone to call people. Which is to say that I carry them like their predecessors, but I do a whole lot on them that isn’t captured by their non-smart designations.

fnord77 6y ago

Not to be a fanboy, but I love my apple watch for three reasons: I can see who is calling me without pulling my phone out of my pocket and drop the call. I can also answer calls on it if I left my phone in the other room. Ditto with text messages I can see what my next meeting is just by looking at the watch face. As for e-waste - yeah - replacing the battery costs almost as much as a new watch. Though my last one lasted 4 years. I actually never use it to tell the time, which I know is weird.

hluska 6y ago

I used to be in your camp but then I got really fit and got into masochism through endurance sports. Now, I see a massive utility to smartwatches but my damned wrists are too small to wear any watch.

justatdotin 6y ago
#humblebrag
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
zikzak 6y ago
I am literally "big boned" and have found a NATO strap is what you want for good a good, secure fit.
- zikzak 6y ago
  I have given you the exact opposite advice. Sorry. Doh.
  - hluska 6y ago
    No friend, don’t worry!! It was very kind of you to offer your help and experience. I appreciate you. :)

zikzak 6y ago

I recently switched back to a regular watch recently. I needed vibrating alarms (have 3, which seems to be enough) and I like a countdown timer. I already had a Timex Expedition Shock that fit the bill in the basement from several years ago. I dug it out of my extra gear bin expecting to have to order a new battery. Nope. Running like a top. I use buzzkill on my Android phone to make sure I get exactly the notifications I want. Pretty nice set up and I feel much less distracted.

dandelany 6y ago

It's not curmudgeonly to not be interested. But I'm always surprised when people feel the need to comment about their disinterest, and more surprised when such comments do well. Going to, say, a rock-climbing thread and commenting about how I have zero interest in rock-climbing would be a bit curmudgeonly tbh :) Your Raspberry Pi will be e-waste in 30 years too...

King-Aaron 6y ago

I was dabbling in smart watches for quite some time - jumping between Huawei and Samsung watches mainly. They are very cool, but after a while I switched back to my vintage seiko automatics and Oris mechanicals for two main reasons: 1. The current crop of smart watches felt bulky. I know the newer apple watches are quite slim but they don't suit my tech ecosystem, but the android/etc offerings just feel 'big'. I know this will improve as time goes on of course. (I do have a gshock which I love, but that's another matter) 2. (And this is the main point,) the smart watches made me feel like it was increasing my anxiety. Even though you can disconnect the watch from notifications, having various alerts and things happening all the time with haptic feedback was making me look at the watch more often, fidget with it, and use it as that kind of social escape thing that you do with phones. Once you disable the 'smart' features, it becomes nothing more than a gimmick, and when using the features it seemed to equally help my productivity the same amount that it hindered it. I don't want to knock anyone who uses a smart watch though, because I do think they're cool. They just so far haven't worked for me.

folkrav 6y ago
I really loved my Moto 360, didn't feel bulky at all to me. I really lost track of the current smartwatch market though, did they really get bigger? That'd be... disappointing. Funny about that social anxiety thing. On my end it was actually better - as I could just swipe stuff away instead of having the incentive to click on it and get lost in whatever application I ended up in, I was able to get rid of most of the noise with a swipe without even picking up my phone, and only picked it up for stuff I actually cared for.
mewse 6y ago
> I know the newer apple watches are quite slim They’re really not. I’ve owned three different Apple Watches (including the current model), and even the most recent models are heaps thicker than even my old Citizen Eco-Drive watch, which already seemed absurdly massive on my wrist when I bought it. I’m still using Apple’s smart watches for just one reason: As thick as they still are relative to regular watches, they’re heaps smaller than phones. And if all you want to do is basic phone functionality (check the weather, make/receive calls and text messages, listen to music, set timers, etc), you can do all of that from a cellular-enabled watch+wireless earbuds, without carrying the bulk of a phone around with you at all. For those of us who feel like phones are getting too large to reasonably carry around all the time, having all the critical functionality in something that just sits on your wrist until you need it is kind of amazing. If it wasn’t necessary to have an up-to-date phone in order to configure the watch, I’m not certain I’d still own a phone at all.

em-bee 6y ago

i don't carry a watch. my phone tells the time. that's enough. same with phones replacing the camera, i look at smartwatches as a phone replacement. this of course requires that the smartwatch includes a sim card. i agree, smartwatches that can't replace my phone are not interesting. but if they could replace the phone that would be a different thing entirely. to put it differently: i need a cheap portable phone for my children, one that i can control 100%. besides telling the time and setting alarms it must not have any features except calling or sending (and receiving) voice messages home. nothing that attracts kids to play with the device and interfere with class. it doesn't have to be a watch, but it needs to be small, lightweight, easy to carry, and appear uninteresting. even a feature phone has to many features. and it must be affordable to families with multiple kids (less than $50) those devices do exist, at that price level too. if only they were hackable so i could control what the kids can do with it...

Pxtl 6y ago

The thing with Pebble was that it was a good watch - a better watch than most modern smartwatches. Week-long battery and always-on screen are critical "watch" functionality that too many modern smartwatches fail on, and pebble succeeded on. For me, it was a watch that I could get notifications on, including turn by turn directions which was super useful when cycling.

Steltek 6y ago
Was? It still is! The great thing about the essentials is that they never go out of style :). Sadly personal devices live a hard life. My wife's Time Round bit the dust and nothing out there really looks the same. Edit: Okay, a Pebble would probably not be the top of my list in 2021 for a new purchase but the one on my wrist is doing just fine for me right now.

ehnto 6y ago

I was the same until I realized with a smartwatch I could leave my smartphone at home but still receive phone calls. Helps me disconnect from the smartphone everyday instead of only days where I know I don't need to be contacted.

dspillett 6y ago

> Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches I hadn't bothered with watches at all until I got into running, as there are clocks everywhere including on my phone in my pocket. Though I only use that for specific things (telling the time, pace tracking, and breadcrumb mapping when following a trail route or otherwise in an unfamiliar location). > All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). Even 10 is a very generous estimate IMO. Even though I'm a light user I've gone through a few in the last six or seven years. First was a gps-only-when-paired-with-a-phone-step-counter-otherwise fitbit thing (given to a cousin when I got my next device), I had a Band2 but not long before MS gave up on that (it went on eBay, I doubt anyone is still using it), one TomTom died, the replacement is now a spare (may soon be donated to a friend who is getting into running), the Garmin I currently use is likely to be replaced this year (I'm sliding down the off-road ultra-running rabbit hole and don't have a great sense of direction, so extra battery life on those "not getting lost" features will be handy! (while pretty good at reorienting myself with a map, the watching beeping before I go far enough off course to need to is very useful)) and demoted to being my spare. And I'm using it as a utility device - people buying them mostly as toys or fashion/showyness probably upgrade even more often (or just bore of, and stop using, them sooner). Even accounting for selling/donating the old device after an upgrade, I'd say most will be abandoned in significantly less than a decade. Much like phones.

aquir 6y ago

The only thing that I would miss from a "non-smart" watch is the vibration alarm. If someone can show me a proper watch with silent vibration alarm I would buy it