"Smart" watches?

[GoinAllTheWay]

When I first heard of these, they struck me as a bit of a gimick. Was in BB last week and saw a table full of them and messed around with the first one I picked up. I dunno, they almost seem.....functional? Fairly easy to navigate, display some useful info. I'm somewhat intrigued now. Some even appear to be able to take some water exposure which may be nice for swimming laps.

Anyone have one? What type? Would you recommend them?

[Maccalus]

I have a Moto 360 Version 2. I like it for the notifications and call screening without digging my phone out of my pocket.

I used the fitness apps very sparingly at the start, but that was never a draw for me to them in the first place. I never use the voice functions as they seem slow through the watch.

I still find that anything that it needs to talk to the phone for has a small delay and I haven't found that many additional useful apps to make further use of it.

I get up to 2 days of battery life, and the wireless charging dock is very simple. I never slept with a watch on anyway, so the only additional hassle is I have to bring the dock when travelling.

Overall, it does everything I wanted out of it though, which is to look nice, tell me the time and bring my notifications to my wrist. I would expect that this year's watches are much faster and may have a few more features, but watches I think they are still very much non-essential tech items.

[Barnes]

This is the one I am looking at.

https://www.amazon.com/iMCO-CoWatch-...01H5YX9HO?th=1

[Hack&Lube]

i bought the Huawei Smart Watch from another CP member. It works great. The greatest limitation to me using it everyday is that I have to remember to charge it daily.

Many of them are also hard to see in the sun unless an e-ink option like Pebble but then you don't get the nice graphics.

It's really nice to get all my notifications on my watch since I can just glance at my wrist and see texts, social media messages, emails, etc. when they arrive.

When I do have my watch on, I almost never take my phone out of my pocket.

[RW99]

I have a Pebble Steel smartwatch. I got it for mostly notifications, so I haven't had much interest in the other ones. And being able to hold a charge for 7+ days has been the best part. I'd say if you can find one that has a 7 day charge and it has most of the features you want, I'd go for that over a fancy one that dies every other day.

[Sliver]

I had a pebble for a while. I found it just added clutter to my day. Another cable. Another thing to charge. Another thing to bother me with notifications. A hunk of plastic strapped to my arm (after going watchless 15 years ago). Glad I sold it - waste of money IMO.

[iamajai]

I have a Pebble Time and used the original Pebble before that. I like the long battery life (5-6 days) and the unobtrusive notifications. It allows me to keep my phone on silent and no vibration at all times. My phone can stay in my pocket or jacket while I'm working or in meetings and not be distracting. I'm on call and when my phone rings during the night my wrist vibrates me awake and doesn't wake up my wife. The step and sleep counter are interesting, but not overly useful and I like that I can take it swimming without worrying about it.
It's been very useful for me.

[Yamer]

I have a Samsung Gear 2 Classic and love it. Looks stylish, has all the functions I need, comfortable, and lasts me 3 days without a charge. It has a magnetic charging dock which is super convenient.

It's fantastic to get all notifications on my wrist, especially during meetings. I can just glance at my watch, tap on a text or email, and check out the jist of it to see if it is important. It's just a really handy companion to my phone.

[GoinAllTheWay]

Charging....hadn't thought of that. Good to keep in mind. I really need to go back and find the one I was looking at. It was nice as it wasn't too big and the circular face had a ring around its perimeter to change to from weather/time/texts etc. Struck me as an easy way to navigate. Was hoping to find something I could swim with but most seem to have a limit of a half hour of water exposure.

[TorqueDog]

Smart-watches do nothing for me.

But a smart strap? I could work with that.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Charging....hadn't thought of that. Good to keep in mind. I really need to go back and find the one I was looking at. It was nice as it wasn't too big and the circular face had a ring around its perimeter to change to from weather/time/texts etc. Struck me as an easy way to navigate. Was hoping to find something I could swim with but most seem to have a limit of a half hour of water exposure.

My Moto360 stopped working when I showered with it. Once. They wouldn't warranty it

[chedder]

Got the garmin Vivoactive only because it has a golf gps in it. Turns out it is pretty good basic smart watch too. More geared for activity. Running, cycling, even swimming. It does give notifications for texts etc. Can add hiking, weather apps and such. Charge lasts all week unless using heavy gps.

[bossy22]

I have the Garmin Fenix 3. Love it. Tracks pretty much everything. Skiing, biking, hiking, running, SUP, swimming, rowing, etc. Has Altimeter, Barometer, compass. It links to my phone so I can see incoming calls and messages. Controls the music on my phone. I have the Garmin Virb Ultra 30 camera, and I can control it with the watch as well. Lasts for a week to three weeks depending on how much I'm using the GPS.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

Charging....hadn't thought of that. Good to keep in mind. I really need to go back and find the one I was looking at. It was nice as it wasn't too big and the circular face had a ring around its perimeter to change to from weather/time/texts etc. Struck me as an easy way to navigate. Was hoping to find something I could swim with but most seem to have a limit of a half hour of water exposure.

Rotating the bezel to control the watch is only in the Samsung Gear S2 and S3 watches. They are pretty good but they run on Samsung's Tizen OS and I find there is a significantly lower selection of apps, watch faces, and other customisation.

I would go for Android Wear OS watches because the Android market is huge and there are hundreds of thousands of watch faces and applications that work with Android.

That's another good point that your smart watch consideration might depend on what phone you have. The above posters talked about Garmin. That's another consideration. Do you want a sports watch? Do you want a classy watch? What is it you are looking for?

[psyang]

I agree - be clear on why you want a smart watch, especially if you don't normally wear a watch now.

I had 3 main criteria: something that would replace my golf watch (to give me yardages), something to track my laps in the pool, and something that would give me notifications from my phone.

There were pretty much only 2 watches that did all this: Garmin vivoactive (HR and non-HR), and the Garmin Fenix.

The Vivoactive non-HR is the older model, and the Fenix is twice the price as the Vivoactive HR, so it was a no-brainer for me. I think I've seen the Vivoactive HR for just over $200 on a Black Friday deal, which is phenomenal - they are around $350 regular.

Since getting the watch, I've been extremely happy with how it met my 3 criteria, and also have come to appreciate the step and stair tracking, gps routes on hikes and runs, and the heartrate and sleep monitoring. Also, being waterproof takes out any worry when I'm at the pool or beach.

My main gripe is minor: You set your units to metric or imperial, and that affects everything. I like to track my swims in metric, but my golf distances in yards. They've pushed out a few updates since I got the watch - hope this one makes it into a future update.

[psyang]

Originally Posted by psyang

The Vivoactive non-HR is the older model, and the Fenix is twice the price as the Vivoactive HR, so it was a no-brainer for me. I think I've seen the Vivoactive HR for just over $200 on a Black Friday deal, which is phenomenal - they are around $350 regular.

Just following up: Costco is selling the Vivoactive HR for $229 at their Black Friday sale.

[Bobblehead]

I have the original Pebble. Like others, I can keep the phone in my pocket and just allow the selected notifications to pass through to the watch. I like the choices of watchfaces, I prefer the ones that pass the weather through so I have an idea what is happening outside. I also use it for golf GPS. Well, it uses the phone, but that is in my pocket so it passes the yardages to the phone and seems to work pretty well. A friend has a Garmin golf watch and we are always within a yard of each other. Being able to go for a week without charging is great too. And when you do charge it doesn't take long.

My original is getting a little long in the tooth so I'm keeping any eye out for any sales on Pebble this season. I'd like to get a Pebble2 SE - I'm not interested in the heart rate monitor.

[Danijam]

Originally Posted by Sliver

I had a pebble for a while. I found it just added clutter to my day. Another cable. Another thing to charge. Another thing to bother me with notifications. A hunk of plastic strapped to my arm (after going watchless 15 years ago). Glad I sold it - waste of money IMO.

Glad you enjoyed your gift, Sliver. 😑

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Got a Fenix 3 HR yesterday. Really like it so far, although I'm not used to wearing a watch.

[GoinAllTheWay]

After a ton of looking around, I think I may wait till this gets developed a bit more. Looked at everything BB had and the only thing of interest was the Samsung G2 but that's an older model and reviews are OK but not great.

Went online at home and did more research. The Moto 360 Gen2 looked ok but man that thing is massive and I hate the flat tire look on the screen. I think before long there will be smaller, slimmer models that have better battery life and hopefully more water proof.

There were some models I like (such as the Fossil line) but I don't want to pay $600+ at this time.