
Smart devices are eating the market for accessibly-priced watches - prostoalex
https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/smart-devices-swatch-daniel-wellington
======
CydeWeys
No @#$^. I have a traditional quartz wristwatch that I like but that I never
use anymore because my $150 Garmin smartband is so much more capable, and I'm
not gonna wear things on both wrists. The Garmin does an unbelievable number
of things that the wristwatch doesn't do, including: (a) telling time more
accurately and automatically adjusting for daylight saving time and travel
timezone changes, (b) email/text/IM notifications, (c) GPS logging of
biking/running, (d) step tracking, (e) heartrate monitoring. And this isn't
even the pinnacle of what smartwatches can do; there's ones that play music
directly to Bluetooth earbuds so you don't even need to bring along your
phone.

I like the styling of a traditional wristwatch more, but I'm not gonna give up
so much functionality to continue wearing it. It's just a no-brainer to get
the more capable device.

~~~
politelemon
The GPS logging sounds interesting (I'm not a smartwatch/smartband user).
Where do the logs go, does it get send to a companion app on the phone, or to
log files?

~~~
californical
It all gets synced to their app. They do allow you to export your data on
their website, but it's not necessarily an easy process.. but the app that can
do everything from monitoring your sleep cycles and reading heart rate to
recording your route (and elevation change) on a hike with the ability to
navigate you back to your starting position.

I have a Garmin Instinct that I bought a year and a half ago and wear it
daily. It looks like a dumb-watch, and the battery lasts 2 weeks with daily
tracked GPS runs... Can't say enough good things about it. Oh, it's also
waterproof (I've swam and showered with it many times) and shockproof.

The privacy activist in me is pretty worried about what they can do with this
data, since it's all synced (sleep patterns, exercise habbits, etc...), but I
have just enough cognitive dissonance to use it anyways lol

~~~
izzydata
At least they aren't in the ad selling business. Leaks are always a threat,
but I can't see them selling it to advertisers.

------
sunpazed
I have a $1200 Garmin smartwatch on my wrist, which will likely need to be
replaced in 3 years time.

With that same money, I could have purchased an entry-level ETA Swiss-made
automatic watch, that would last me a lifetime.

I’m lucky enough to own both. On the weekend I wear my Swiss watch, and during
the week I wear my smart watch. As someone who’s worn smart watches since the
Pebble, the utility of a digital device can’t be replaced by nostalgia.

Maybe there’s a place for both.

~~~
sandoooo
I think the chance of you wearing the latter for more than three years before
it's lost or you're bored of it or it's forgotten in a drawer somewhere is
pretty low.

Longevity is overrated. People don't want to wear the same watch for a
lifetime, no matter how fancy.

~~~
danielbarla
I don't know - at some point the age and history of the device itself become
the dominant factor, not the fanciness. E.g. as I'm writing this, I'm wearing
a relatively low-end watch (a Seiko Kinetic) that was a gift about 20 years
ago, and even that tiny bit of history provides me with a fair bit of
nostalgia and joy. I get the advantages of smart watches, but it _is_ a shame
that they can't really be timeless in the same way.

~~~
ss3000
Personally, I'm just not a fan of having to keep charging those smart watches
every other night.

Especially when taking them off to charge at night means losing access to
sleep tracking, which for me is the only killer feature smart watches have
going for them over the smartphones that I already have.

~~~
maccard
I've got a Fitbit versa which has a 4-ish day battery life. I sleep with it
on, and take it off to shower. I charge it when I shower and I've never once
had it run out unexpectedly (since I started doing this)

------
dexen
I'm very happy with a middle way, the 200 EUR Withings Steel HR Sport,
considered a "hybrid". Good usability and excellent 20 ... 25 day battery
lifetime. Will run even longer if you synchronize it sparingly.

It looks like a regular mechanical watch at 40mm, with two complications: a
step counter, and an AMOLED screen for notifications and other readouts.
Supports the usual functionalities: pulse meter, step meter & other sports
tracking, visual & tactile notifications and Bluetooth synchronization with
smartphone.

About the only think I would add to it is time synchronization from atomic
sourced radio signals, to make it truly independent from a cellphone for
extended periods of time. Mine tends to drift about a minute ahead after about
a month without phone synchronization.

~~~
Loughla
Wow, that's exactly what I've been looking for. What's the size of the face on
those? I have small wrists and regular men's watches look comically huge on
me.

~~~
dexen
There are 40mm and 36mm variants; some patterns available in only one of the
sizes. Frankly even the 40mm model is _optically_ small thanks to its
understated design; it's got two rather unobtrusive complications, and one
side button. The maximum thickness is significant, but the back side is convex
and the rim is reasonably thin, so against your arm it looks about the same as
an average self-winder. FWIW, I'm very happy with an alternative wristband -
the black/gray silicone one which normally goes with Sapphire version.

------
Animats
Amusingly, the Casio G-Shock has been made more expensive. That thing solved
timekeeping. Rugged, solar-charged, corrected from radio time signals, and
under $100. At last, the zero-maintenance accurate watch.

But not expensive enough, so they now have models up to $500.

~~~
TMWNN
>At last, the zero-maintenance accurate watch.

I imagined this to be the case when purchasing my $500 solar G-Shock, but it
needed the battery replaced every 3-5 years, and the work had to be done by an
authorized Casio repair center; local watch repair people refused it.

~~~
gambiting
The rechargable battery for one of these is literally $10 on eBay, and I can't
believe there wasn't _anyone_ around you willing to fit it. I can believe
larger chains refusing it, but come on, a small jeweler or watch repair shop
would have done it I'm sure.

Anecdotally - I've had my solar powered Edifice watch for 10 years now and the
battery still works fine.

~~~
falcolas
A number of watch stores in my area won't replace a battery in _any_ watch.
It's not because they're not able, it's because they've been burned by people
who claim that the store ruined an expensive watch while changing the battery.

It's a liability issue, not a capability issue.

~~~
gambiting
That's....crazy to me. Here in UK we have a chain called Timpsons and all they
do is repair watches, shoes, keys etc, smaller jobs like this.

If it really is a liability issue, then it's solved the same as with literally
anything else in the world - you sign a little piece of paper that releases
them of liability. Done. When I bring my own brake pads to fit to my car at a
nearby garage they just make me sign a paper that they don't and won't accept
any responsibility for fitting my own pads. Problem solved.

~~~
magicalhippo
Yeah when I got the battery in my gf's Galaxy S8 changed, the repair shop had
me sign that there's a chance the phone won't be 100% afterwards and that I
accepted this risk. Seemed reasonable enough, if I hadn't liked those terms I
could have walked out the door.

------
buserror
Funny that. I used to never wear a watch. I had a phone after all. One day I
decided I might get myself a 'smartwatch' (primitive, it was about 5 years ago
or so!) but not being sure I'd like 'wearing' a watch at all, I bought a cheap
chinese automatic watch on Aliexpress for £9 shipped.

Guess what? I never bought a smartwatch, instead, I bought a whole collection
of real watches, some vintage, some modern, some expensive, some cheapos and I
love accessorising with them. Must have 20 of them by now.

The "crown" of my collection is a Bulova Spaceview in 18K gold. It's the
nerd's nerd watch, it has _A TRANSISTOR_ in it, a resonator, it 'humes' a
360hz faint hum, and was made in 1964 before Quartz was invented; that
movement was onboard the Apollo missions. And that watch has no 'face' so all
you see is the innards with the tuning fork in the middle, and a pair of tiny
coils around it. </orgasm>

------
kop316
For a survey of a few watches I have owned:

\- $50-60 Fossil: Would break in under a year.

\- $500 Automatic Tissot: after a couple of years, it couldn't keep time (it
added minutes in a period of a week).

\- $400 Quartz Citizen: something on it died after three years, and it wasn't
the battery. Not worth it to save.

\- $4000 Automatic Omega: keeps time amazingly (off by ~7 seconds a week). No
issues after two years.

\- $60 GPS Soleus: perfect watch for running/working out/rough activities.

When two of my sub $500 watches fail like they did in under give years, I am
very hesitant to want another one. On top of that, there are many watches that
are just branded watches from another company (e.g. a Burberry Watch is really
a branded Fossil Watch).

I can see why someone would prefer a smart watch based on those experiences.
The reason I don't get a smart watch is primarily that I dislike having yet
another devices to charge. Well...that and I really like my Omega.

~~~
davidgay
> $500 Automatic Tissot: after a couple of years, it couldn't keep time (it
> added minutes in a period of a week).

Sounds like it got magnetized ([https://wornandwound.com/watches-and-
magnetization/](https://wornandwound.com/watches-and-magnetization/)), which
can happen quite easily. For instance, the magnetic closure of Mac laptops did
that to one of my watches, from resting my wrist next to the touchpad.

The good news is it's easy to fix with an ~$10 watch demagnetizer.

~~~
kop316
I took it to an authorized repair shop, they said the cost of repair was more
than the watch. I'm guessing they would have taken it into account?

------
rini17
Why nobody is eating the market by making affordable (sub $50) hackable
watches? The most widespread MT626x devices are so paranoidly closed that even
changing clock face involves mucking with ROM image using third-party tools.
Installing apps? Forget about that.

~~~
tastroder
Curious to what you think that would achieve market wise. Hackable does not
seem to matter much. Everything in the sub $100 dollar range I've tried is
crappy (battery life, as well as functionality wise) because that's all that
particular market segment is willing to pay for, those that want access to one
of the viable app ecosystems seem to be prepared to pay the usual markup.
Don't get me wrong, I love tinkering with the hardware form factor myself but
that doesn't mean I'll create apps, no less an app ecosystem, that make this
more viable to the manufacturing side of things. Maybe low cost devices with
access to the Android ecosystem become more viable in the future but other
than that changing this niche seems relatively hard and producing hackable
devices historically goes counter to the approach of any company I can think
of in the space. I could see somebody like Arduino creating something
appealing and approachable for the rest of us but that would be unlikely to
make a dent market wise.

~~~
dwighttk
What sort of 3rd party apps do you find yourself using?

Looking through my list the only two I (barely) use are PCalc and DarkSky,
which if I didn’t have, I’d just use the stock calculator and weather apps.
I’ve tried maybe 20 other apps and none are compelling.

~~~
tastroder
None really I'm afraid. I enjoy having notifications on my wrist sometimes but
most days I just slap on a regular watch instead since they're more fashion
than utility item for me honestly.

------
Robotbeat
I have a Casio F-91W watch. Like $15. The strap started disintegrating (a
known issue) in a year or so, but I replaced it with an awesome NATO strap
($10) and it has served me for years.

Ultra minimalist. Super cheap. Love it.

------
jessaustin
This isn't the first time this has happened. I stopped wearing watches in
normal situations when I got my first Nokia brick, in the late 90s.

------
TMWNN
Amazfit Bip. $60 for GPS, heart rate monitor, step counter, notifications, 25
days of real battery life, more than 20,000 user-created watch faces, multiple
third-party software that runs on the paired phone, and work moving forward on
a third-party OS (BipOS).

~~~
bananasbandanas
Unfortunately, the Bip would always randomly crash for me during GPS
recording. I got it to record tracks when hiking, and was never able to record
more than 5h without it crashing and losing all data.

Too bad, because it was great for the money otherwise.

------
jansan
I'll give you my Casio A168WA-1YES when you pry it from my cold, dead left
wrist.

~~~
grenoire
I prefer the terrorist edition, Casio F-91W. But I agree, truly the
patrician's choice.

~~~
jansan
I need the luxury of "ElectroLuminescence", otherwise the F-91W is of course
the choice of a true Spartan.

~~~
grenoire
There must be a mod for that, flipping the polarising filter already does
wonders.

------
prophesi
I'm frustrated enough that smartphones have a battery life that can barely
last through the work day. Call me from your smartwatch once we've made enough
advancements in battery technologies.

------
BerislavLopac
In the age when everyone, even the lowest-income people have some kind of a
mobile phone (not even a smartphone), the market for affordable watches all
but disappears.

------
libraryatnight
I went back to my automatics when I found myself checking notifications and
such too much. I had this fed up moment with my cell phone a few years ago
where I felt like I was being programmed like a Pavlovian dog and I put the
thing on silent permanently with a few custom settings for important people
like my wife and parents etc. When I received a smartwatch (Samsung) I found
myself slipping into the same habits and swapped back to my automatic watch.
Full disclosure I also just love automatic watches, I find them fascinating
and beautiful, but the ultimate driver was not wanting my cell phone/computer
on my wrist.

~~~
adrianmonk
I had a smartwatch for a while, and to my surprise I actually found it less
stressful!

For me, one source of smartphone stress is that moment when its screen is out
of view (in your pocket, sitting on a desk, etc.) and it makes a noise. At
that moment, I have to choose between ignoring it or checking it.

If I ignore it, I have a little bit of worry in the back of my mind that I
might be missing something important. If I check it, I have the interruption
of figuring out where the phone is and grabbing it. And maybe of unlocking it.

With a smartwatch, the display is always within easy reach. I can check the
notification very quickly and move on. I don't worry that maybe I ignored
something important.

Also, it's cumbersome to do anything substantial on the smartwatch. On a
smartphone, I am tempted to open up another app and get sidetracked with
something. With a smartwatch, I don't have that temptation. Its limited
usefulness is actually an advantage.

------
robg
Still waiting on SwatchOS (From 2018):

[https://www.swatchgroup.com/en/swatch-group/innovation-
power...](https://www.swatchgroup.com/en/swatch-group/innovation-
powerhouse/internet-things/swatch-group-and-csem)

Swatch itself was born from the desire to keep the Swiss Watch industry alive
against low cost quartz mechanisms. Not likely the same strategy will work
twice (government propping up the entire industry).

------
kemonocode
There's still quite a while to go before I'd consider replacing my trusty
Casio wristwatch with a smartwatch. The Pebble got close to what I was looking
for, and I have some hopes for the PineTime, but the ideal smartwatch for me
has a nice balance between hackability and reliability.

------
throwaway55554
If you just want to tell time:
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GB0G7A/?coliid=IM29FNJPX2F5S&c...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GB0G7A/?coliid=IM29FNJPX2F5S&colid=OTFWFGZF2FZ0&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it)

------
LeoPanthera
I was confused by the headline until I read the article. Here "accessible"
means "affordable", and specifically <US$500, and not "usable by people with
disabilities".

~~~
kylec
Maybe not having $500+ to drop on a watch is considered a disability in that
world

------
drivingmenuts
Got a phone that does way more. Don’t need a watch.

And if, for some reason, mechanical watches become necessary, I probably have
way more immediate problems anyway.

~~~
rimliu
I also got a phone that does way more. Then I got Apple Watch. I like how it
greatly reduces the need to reach for the phone. Also, I am one of those guys
who have their phone always on silent mode, so those subtle taptic
notifications on a wrist don't hurt either.

~~~
lotsofpulp
An alarm/phone that doesn’t wake up your spouse has been one of the most
amazing features and has made Apple Watch worth it for me.

~~~
mr_toad
Annoying ringtones in the office have declined a lot in the last couple of
years, and part of that seems to be due to smart watches.

