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Do you prefer to wear a smartwatch or a regular watch?

Would love to know what you guys think and your reasoning for it. I'm starting to see a lot of Apple Watches/Fitbits/Galaxy Watches in my area compared to more traditional timepieces.

218 comments
  • Smartwatch. It’s very useful for triaging notifications (messages, email, phone calls, etc) and turning HomeKit devices on/off quickly or when my hands are full (Siri, open the garage door). Also extremely useful for fitness.

    • I see the appeal, having home automation on your wrist would be very convenient indeed.

  • Regular watch. I already often find it stressfull to be constantly connected and available with just a phone, I don't want to be even more available.

  • Regular watch, my $60 watch has traveled to 5 continents with me over the past decade. Lightweight, has a dim illumination when needed, and ticks right even after some rugged adventures.

    I honestly wouldn't ask a smartwatch to handle what I've put my regular watch through.

  • Regular watches - been wearing watches of some kind since middle school, and at this point I feel undressed or like something is missing without anything on my wrist. Like many others here, while I love the tech of smartphones (and admittedly the smart watches are really cool) but don't want an even more in-my-face screen to further pull me into more phone time. Trying to really cut back on screen time. Also, if I went for a smart watch, I'd feel the want to wear it all the time both because of how much they are and to keep activity tracking data consistent, which would mean my collection of watches would likely get much less wear time.

    Watch I have on now is the Citizen Eco-drive I got when I graduated college, years of service and frequent wear in situations I had no business wearing it and it's held up great. Because of the eco-drive it's one of my few watches I don't have to worry about, it just always has the right time.

    • I really do relate to your reasons. I had been using a smartwatch from spring 2020 until last week, and while it was great for some fitness tracking, it ended up giving me health anxiety due to the constant feeling of 'needing' to meet all my fitness goals daily, and the notifications buzzing my wrist regularly breaking my concentration during work, or for slower times of the day such as sitting on the couch with my headphones and just focusing on the music.

      Citizen FTW! Their Eco Drive Watches are the real deal. Accurate, reliable, won't break the bank. Citizen really do live up to their name as a company, they've created a practical and economical slew of products that appeal to the everyday working man. Plan on getting one myself soon!

  • Regular watch. I like watches so I have a collection (mostly cheapos). I don't want to give that up, I don't see a point in a smartwatch (except maybe for counting steps), and I don't want to have to recharge the thing frequently.

    Today: Orient Neo 70s Panda solar chronograph.

  • I like both, but I mostly wear a smartwatch. I don't always hear notifications on my phone. Having my watch vibrate at the same time has been a huge improvement. It is also nice to be able to view and dismiss notifications without pulling out my phone.

    I started experimenting with smartwatches soon after they first appeared. There were a lot of limitations, but having better access to notifications made them worth the tradeoff for me. Over time, the hardware and software have both gotten steadily better. I have owned and used four previous smartwatches. My latest, a Samsung Galaxy Watch6 Classic, is the first I've had with the battery life, display quality, and speed to make me feel like I'm no longer compromising. It works well as a basic watch, in addition to all the other features.

    My other reason for sticking with smartwatches was not something I expected. I was able to build my idea of the perfect watch face for myself, using the Watchmaker app. Getting it to do everything I wanted required some serious programming, among other things, but I can't tell you how satisfying it is to have exactly what I want on my wrist.

    I do still wear regular watches, sometimes for particular occasions and sometimes just for fun. I have a Citizen Promaster Skyhawk A-T Titanium that serves as a dress watch and a Casio Pro Trek 3500T for when I'm camping or just need a watch I can't accidentally break. Both watches are solar powered and both set themselves to the Bureau of Standards radio signals.

    I would hate to have to choose one type over the other, but my smartwatch get most a lot more wear time than my others.

  • I've worn both, but I'm just looking for watches that can do 24H time. Smart watches are nice for setting alarms and cooking timers. Regular watchss don't need to be charged and are much more durable and usually less expensive. I'll probably continue to switch back and fourth.

    Smartwatches don't really get updated for more than a few years anyways, which is a bummer.

  • I don't care to have anything on my wrist. But I want to start tracking steps, especially over winter, to prompt myself into enough daily activity. So I'm going to try a ~$50 fitness tracker on my wrist and see how that goes. If I can get past the annoyance at having something on my wrist, I may shop around for a full smartwatch, or more likely wait for the next gen or two. I am deeply unimpressed with the size and battery life of the flagship smartwatches right now.

  • Hybrid watch. Still has the hands for manual time reading but in the middle is an eInk display for notifications. I have to charge it about every 3.5 weeks which is amazing. (Fossil gen 6 Hybrid)

218 comments