In the not too distant past this was a thing
In the not too distant past this was a thing
85 comments
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A photo of my current watch as I’m wearing it right now.
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Very nice. Here's mine:
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Wearing an oldie watch made in 1988 with a pulsometer on the dial. Love the beaten old thing.
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That’s really cool!
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Here's my reliable, simple Casio. Been with me for the past 7 years. I love this old fucker.
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I'm not wearing it now. But I have an old Casio calculator watch I wear.
Same one Dennis Nerdy wears in Jurassic Park
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Here is my Bulova Sea King “Whale” from 1971 that I bought used a couple years ago. Still runs very well 54 years later.
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Wow. That has to be 20 years old
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The style, yeah, but this is a modern one.
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You’re still allowed to buy a normal watch
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After something like a year of searching I finally got:
- solar powered, I never have to charge or change battery
- analog face with digital date, no need to adjust the date every month but looks good
- date in dd/mm format
- no GPS, no heart rate monitor, no notifications
Couldn't find anything else that would tick those boxes.
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I know a ton of people love g-shock, and i respect you guys, but to me it looks like something i would pick up on my way to drive a main battletank into the heart of russia
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Sounds like an upside.
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I definitely don't love the look. There are tons of better looking watches but analog perpetual calendars are crazy expensive, classic digital watches are ugly and smart watches have to be charged regularly. The only other brand I was considering was Festina but their connected watches are huge. It's crazy but g-shock was the only thing I found that had digital date in dd/mm format and didn't have heart rate monitor.
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Isn't that one of the clear use cases?
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- Got nearly the same month ago
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The plain old digital ones with solar + radio time syncing are the best tool watches on the market in my opinion : set and forget, it even does DST automatically. The only limitation is you have to be outside during the day with the watch exposed a few hours a month or cheat with other light sources.
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The only limitation is you have to be outside during the day with the watch exposed a few hours a month or cheat with other light sources.
You really don't. Maybe other watches use more power but I left my gshock in a drawer for months, maybe even a year and when I took it out the battery was at "M." Put it on a window sill and it was at H in no time. Haven't actually seen it in years and I wouldn't be surprised if it was still alive.
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Are people really not aware that you don't have to have notifications for everything?
You can turn all the notifications off on your phone and watch.
The value the watch brings can be found in other places, for example, being able to stay connected and have music and emergency contact without needing to lug your phone with you during a run or if you lose your phone.
A smart watch means you can leave your phone at home more often in general while still being available to those who genuinely need to be in contact with you, which is great for reducing doom scrolling and the like.
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Right?? One of the first things I do when getting a new phone is disabling all the useless notifications and keeping the ones I care about. My phone doesn't spam with notifications all day.
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Aren't smartwatch sales going down? Anyways, never understood why anyone would use one, especially since we also have phones that we carry around every day and that can notify us whenever.
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There was one case in the last 3 years that I thought about getting one. I started running and hated having to need my phone on me and needed a watch either way.
Then I went to dinner and saw how a friend was continuously and unconsciously flicking their eyes down at their smartwatch every few minute if they weren't talking and decided against it. I'm getting old...
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Being able to track my runs with Strava while playing Spotify via Bluetooth to my earbuds without carrying my phone is amazing
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I use one because it lowers my screen time. I can walk away from my phone and still be aware of texts and calls from family.
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Mine is primarily a sports watch. The smartwatch features are just an added bonus.
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Same, it counts my steps and it measures my runs/swims. It's a Garmin. I don't really have it configured for notifications or anything else.
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Edge case here: my hands are constantly dirty with things I don't want to get on my phone (relevant hobbies include machining, gardening and calligraphy). A smart watch means I can check to see if a message is important (ex: kids/partner attempting to get ahold of me) and I can answer calls and texts just using my nose/tongue + TTS. I never understood why they were such a mainstream accessory, but they are very convenient in some circumstances.
(Edit: I just remembered another use case, my partner is medically "a dingus" and constantly loses their phone as a result, but habitually is always wearing their watch. Upgrading them to a smartwatch has meant our relationship no longer suffers the daily turmoil of tearing apart several rooms looking for it. Again pretty niche, but a wonderful QoL improvement)
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I work as mechanic and when my hand is either dirty or full or busy, it's super useful to have a fitness band to help tell time or see who's calling/messaging.
Sometime it's also quicker to check time instead of having to pull my phone out. It's also helpful for when i misplaced my phone.
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Same here. They are just pointless devices. A smaller screen for your small screen. And I can't understand the point of a "watch" You take off to charge. I'm using a solar powered G-Shock and take it off my hand maybe once every 3 months.
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I use my Garmin instinct to track fitness. I love it
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Most of the time, it's just a decoration.
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I have a MiBand which for me is primarily a regular watch with notifications.
I haven't used audio notifications or ringing on my phone for years. I can also just allow the most important apps, while the less important notifications I'll see just on my phone when I unlock it, unless I blocked those notifications too.
Currently this means I get SMS notifications (mostly useful for verification codes / package pick-up codes), Lemmy reply notifications (and few other e-mails), bank notifications (like payments), phone battery charged (80%) notification, and notifications of upcoming space rocket launches with webcast available (within 10 minutes).
My phone doesn't make a sound, it doesn't light up the screen, it doesn't show notifications on lockscreen, it doesn't vibrate, it doesn't use notification LED. The smartband is a replacement.
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If we're doing watches today, here's what I'm rocking lately.
I stopped using my Garmin smartwatch because they finally fell into the enshittification trap and recently tried adding AI slop and a subscription scheme into their watch app. That's a big old nope from me, dawg.
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I'm not really a watch person, but that one looks totally great!
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It's also approachably yet suspiciously cheap. I think I paid $20 for this close to 15 years ago, and Sinobi is apparently still at it making mechanical watches in the $30 range.
This one does two things: Tells you the time, and does so while not needing batteries.
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Have been wearing a Withings Scanwatch for close to two years now. I can check the time as usual and do not have to do a weird hand movement to activate the screen. On that tiny screen on top I can see who is calling on my phone.
The dial at the bottom goes to 100. That's percent of predifined steps taken.
I like it. The Scanwatch 2 has a ton of more functioniality healthwise but it also quite expensive for a watch.
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I like my smartwatch. I'm extremely ADHD as well as hypoglycemic. I have a lifelong history of not eating, then working/playing/exercising until i get woozy or pass out. I'm a terrible judge of what I actually need to stay functional. Always have been. I'm stubborn and will just try to power through things when I actually can't.
The watch helps me track my sleep/rem cycles and lets me know when I've been neglecting my health. It lets me know when I'm getting stressed and need to take it easy, and it estimates how many calories I've expended on a given day.
The watch and pager functions are nice for reducing screen time when I should be working, but as a health monitor I find it indispensable in keeping me honest with myself.
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I found this in my jewelry box when I was packing for moving. Throwback to the 80s! Very much doesn't work.
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I'll bet you it does, but you'll need to put a new battery in it.
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I love my phone to a not great degree, but I would hate a smartwatch. I don't like wearing watches anyways, but something buzzing on my wrist all the time would drive me batty. At least on my phone I can listen to podcasts, music, radio, etc, and I can read books and magazines. A smartwatch just feels like a shackle. Also every time I go to concerts or theater now and see the lights go down and all the smartwatches glowing in unison it's creepy.
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something buzzing on my wrist all the time would drive me batty
It's the same when it's in your pocket. I'd say the issue is not that it buzz all the time on your wrist, but that it buzz all the time. I disabled most notifications, except for a selection of people and apps. When I get a notification, it is usually important enough that I should check it. Everything else (including non-emergency work stuff) is checked on my own accord, when I feel like it.
Having the notifications pop on my wrist, with that system, does not feel like a shackle more than a phone constantly turning its screen on to tell you you have unread whatever.
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A well executed ad.
85 comments