Ask Lemmy

regular digital for me. i dont personally find much use in the 'smart' features, and i dont use it to work out. not worth charging everyday.

plus smart watches are another antiprivacy device

What timing! I am so pissed at my smartwatch right now.

I got a smart watch because I was having some sleep problems, and I found that some Apple watches can monitor your oxygen levels while sleeping. I suspected it was related to other things like stress, but I wanted to be a bit more comfortable and say that it's probably not sleep apnea.

So, the point is that I must wear it when I'm sleeping. Also, like any reasonable person, I have my phone set up not to disturb me at night. But at least on Apple watches, this means that my alarm goes off only on my watch. I can't figure out any way for it to not go off on my watch, and only go off on my phone, unless I simply take off the watch.

It's the MOST ANNOYING THING. First, because it means that you can't have your alarm go off across the room. You can always turn it off on your watch, which means that you can even turn it off without waking up. And then, you have no alarm at all. So, if I absolutely have to wake up for some meeting or airplane or something, I can't wear my watch to bed.

Also, maybe this is just me, but I hate when my watch vibrates on my wrist. I hate the feeling. Every time it vibrates, I have the urge to smash the thing. If I had to choose a set up, I'd have my phone always vibrate, and my watch never vibrate. But I can't figure out how to make that work on Apple.

This morning was an absolute nightmare, though. Now, I'm used to turning off my alarm on my watch, but when I went to turn it off this morning, the watch was deep in some shitty menu. I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. And it was just vibrating on my wrist non-stop. Obviously, this was made much more difficult because I was just waking up.

I eventually figured it out, but the point is that the UI is obviously less refined than, for example, the phone UI, where this sort of alarm hiding has never happened in all of my years owning a smart phone.

Anyways, to answer your question, I prefer to wear a smart watch, because a regular watch doesn't do anything for me. But goddamn do I hate my smart watch right now!

I stopped wearing a watch completely until the exercise/sleep/fitness trackers and smart watches got fairly good. I was a big watch guy before nice Seiko, Citizen, Patek Philippe, and Breitling watches but then everything had a clock on it. My phone, my laptop, etc. No reason to have this expensive thing on my wrist getting banged up as I go through the day. Now I have a Huawei GT3 Pro because it has good sleep and fitness trackers plus the EKG and blood O2 level checks. It controls my music at the gym and the timer works well in the kitchen plus the flash light is extra handy.

Used to have an Apple Watch Ultra. Used to because it’s been somewhere in my house for months and I can’t find it and even when I knew where it was I barely wore it. I have a phone, i don’t need further notifications. I wear regular old school watches and love those (I think it comes with the Swiss nationality at this point, our insane love for well crafted watches is in our blood). As a woman who loves watches and has way too many, I also enjoy that mid range and luxury brands are starting to get more exciting models for us. I don’t care about diamonds. But automatic models and such were almost non existant for us a decade ago.

Regular. I hate to charge things

I use mine more as an mp3 player and I do find the vibration alarm feature very useful as sometimes a normal alarm clock doesn't wake me. Apart from that don't really see to much benifit over a normal watch.

It is nice to have things like maps etc on your wrist bit I can't say I've ever actually used really used them.

I would prefer a smart watch if there was one I could afford that meets my wants.

Apple Watch cellular, which I really like. I got a Speidel Twist-O-Flex watch band that’s even easier for daily use than the bands that come with them. I like having all the health and fitness data but it’s also just nice to not need my phone.

One example of not needing a phone I really like is having Apple Pay on it. If you’re out jogging or your phone dies or something, you can still use it to pay. It’s also nice at festivals and arenas and other places where you’re just trying to pay quickly. You don’t have to dig out your phone or wallet.

I've had my g shock for 12 years and just now I've started wearing a smart watch. only thing I've used it for is heart rate, sleep, step counter, precise time, and easily accessible stopwatch.

Having an easily accessible stopwatch with a flick of the wrist and 2 pushes is MUCH faster than looking at then unlocking the phone, navigate to the page that has the clock application, and scrolling to the stopwatch function.

I've started to be more cognizant of my health, and having a bio monitor makes me feel I've accomplished something today. Big numbers go BRRR. WEEKLY STREAKS GIVES ME THE GOOD BRAIN CHEMICALS.

I enjoy something with wrist presence, and without something there, it just feels wrong. So why not have something there that's accurate, useful, and fashionable.

Cheap casio because I definitely do not want a mobile on my wrist. Too distracting already

Neither. They get in the way when I put on my backpack.

Apple watch now, but I have plans of picking up a hybrid soon. Im looking at Garmins vivomove or instinct crossover.

It depends. If I'm doing something fitness related I put on a fitness band with smart watch features (I don't let it alert me). If I'm dressing well I put on a watch and a tasteful men's bracelet. If I'm dressed like a sack of crap and having lazy time (like right now) I'm not wearing either.

I wear a not so smart watch. Like short yellow bus watch.

I'd rather not wear anything on my wrists but I like data so wear an Apple watch 7 to collect health data. I use Health Auto Export app on iOS to sync health data to homeassistant. I found straightforward guide to set it up but it is not perfect, need to open the app regularly for the data sync to happen. Battery life sucks, for my usage max it'll last is a little over 2 days. Quick charging works well enough so usually only gotta charge for a few mins once a day.

I'll never wear another smart watch.

The laxer on it burnt a pin sized hole on my wrist that has scarred. This broke the straw for me, never again... Don't trust them at all.

Other than the above. Taking it on and off daily to charge. Having to update it constantly. Having notifications constantly (easy solve). Having to touch it to wake. They just aren't designed well.

I had a seiko watch that was nice, but I felt like wearing it daily would damage it.

If I were to get another one, it'd be either a durable mechanical watch, or a dress watch. Wish I'd kept the seiko over the bullshit smart watch replacement.

I wear a smart watch to get work related text messages without needing to pull my phone out. Sometimes I'm busy or my hands are covered in oil/diesel

Regular. After hearing all the stories about Facebook google and other tech, if I still buy a smart watch then I am the biggest fool and nobody can save me. Its like smoking cigarette even though it says on the pack "smoking causes cancer"

Smartwatch, but without native software.

I do appreciate the extra functionality compared to regular, and the price is lower, so win-win.

I am, however, privacy-conscious and do not allow the watch manufacturer to get any of the data from the watch.

I had a smart watch when they first came out and the experience was miserable, poor battery and slow response times. I know that's improved now but it didn't offer enough over and above what I can do with a chest strap HRM for exercise, my strap doesn't even need the phone when I go out as it has offline storage.

I have a few mechanical watches I wear as accessories when going out that I love for their function, these will last decades. This is my other problem with smart watches, the battery isn't going to last forever and the specs are eventually going to fall too far behind. I'm not spending hundreds on a good smart watch when I can buy a mechanical watch for the same price that lasts 10 times longer.

It all depends on what you are trying to get out of it. If you're looking for more phone connectivity, you can bet you'll need to charge it way more often. Easily once a day. If you're looking for just a fitness tracker, get a fit bit or a Garmin, they last a week or so. I had a fit bit for many years, before Google purchased them up. I had the charge 2, 3, and 4. Had to recharge it about once a week. It worked fine for viewing texts and tracking sleep/steps. About two months ago I switched to a galaxy watch 6 lte, I need my phone for work but don't always have it directly on me, so it was a compromise. I can deal with the rigorous charging, but having the expanded features, I actually use them. I am unbiased about apple watch VS galaxy watches, I went with a galaxy because I don't have an iPhone.

Been wearing a F91-W for 15 years. Just don't have to think about it

I'm wearing a fitbit versa 2, which when I got it was ok, but later on I found it too much. Now I'm looking to buy an automatic wrist watch. Lot of options, but budget changes everything. edit: for anyone interested, there are hybrid wrist watches, half analog half smart.