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.
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.
Garmin "Smart" watch. It doesn't do apps but it does notificatios and is great for fitness... and only needs charging once a month. A watch that needs recharging daily is useless to me.
I always wear a real watch because I collect them and they are the only jewellery I have and they complete your clothing style. They can gain value and I can give them to my kids one day (when I'll learn how to make them). Also because as a Swiss I don't really have a choice.
But I also wear an apple watch on the opposite arm, for sport reasons at first, then I got used to all the bullshit it have...
Regular mechanical watch. I don't care about my notifications, I just want what is effectively a piece of jewelry. I prefer the watch to a bracelet because I also appreciate the worksmanship and design of the analog machine.
Casio G-Shock owner here. I prefer a watch to always know the time without checking my phone but I would never use IOT devices, including a smart watch for privacy & security reasons.
Where my Casio G-Shock fam at? Solar, set by atomic clock, stylish, pretty backlight, old Nokia cell phone levels of indestructible. What's not to love?
My good old Timex Ironman has survived tons of physical abuse over the decade or more ive had it, and it's battery only needs my attention every few years. I doubt a smart watch would improve either of those scenarios.
Plus, I don't see any value added to my life by having phone features on a smaller, harder to read screen. If I want to use phone features, my actual phone is less than a foot from my wrist.
I enjoyed having a smartwatch back in the pebble days. I was kind of addicted to notifications (especially from datadog) at the time. My Pebble time made me feel less stressed because glancing at my watch was less effort than pulling out my phone.
Then Pebble was killed off, web-scale infrastructure became more reliable, and I learned to recover from my notification addiction. Now I'm happily watchless again.
I have a Garmin viomove hybrid, I use it to count steps, count my swimming and see how much I sleep. I wouldn't want a smarter watch out of trust issues. Battery life still sucks 3-4 days but the analog watch works if the smart watch part is dead.
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 don't like either. I don't use things for fashion, and the phone alone gives me all the function of either watches without it giving me sensory issues by being a bracelet on my wrist.
No. I prefer to not wear any watch. I dislike having something heavy strapped to my wrist.
And I dislike accidentally looking at clocks when I didn't specifically query the clock time; it screws with my perception of the passage of time, causing unpleasant dissonance.
Also I work in food, which means washing my hands above the wrist every half hour at a minimum, and wrist jewelry gets in the way of that.
And I've never been mugged, partly because I aggressively look like someone not worth mugging, and strapping multiple hundreds of dollars to my wrist is counter to that.
Regular watch. Don't need to be hounded by any more notifications and don't care about fitness data. However, it may be useful for people who need to keep track of texts, and fitness data.
I currently have a smartwatch but I don't like how I can't prevent it from getting my text and phonecalls which I find useless because my phone is on me 95% of the time. The only way is to keep it on Do Not Disturb. It also for some reason has trouble updating, sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. I just want it to tell time without all the fancy annoyances.
No watch at all - I check the time on my phone and I don't see the point in saving a half second here and there checking notifications on a smart watch.
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.
I wear an automatic Seiko. I like that I don't have to worry about a battery staying charged/wearing out over time. I just have to take a second every couple weeks to set it forward to account for it losing a few minutes. Another factor is when I looked at the smart watches that were available last time I got a new phone and they were all very large and I have small wrists which I don't want to emphasize. My current watch fits well.
I would like to get a bracelet or something that tracks biometric data but from what I saw when I was investigating those is that they all have watch functionally as well and I don't want to wear two watches.
Like many, I stopped wearing watches when smartphones became a thing. Then I adopted the Apple Watch when that came out and wore one or another of them until this month. Something switched in my brain and I just decided that I hated that thing. Hated having to charge it. Hated the notifications. Hated feeling a need to close the rings. Hated the look of the thing. Hated that everyone seems to wear the same thing.
I started to learn about mechanical watches and bought an inexpensive but reportedly good quality one that looks nice to me. So far, I love it. There’s something viscerally satisfying about watching the movement through the display back, hearing the subtle sound, occasionally winding it, and contemplating that people can make such complex things that actually work.
Smart watches and privacy don't go hand in hand. Also dont want to own another product that i need to worry about charging.
But if i am going to buy one ever, it would be garmin. I heard pretty good things about it here in europe.
I have a couple of traditional watches that I occasionally wear and don't own a smart watch because I don't need another thing to worry about keeping charged.
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.
Dumb watch. I have a digital Casio watch (A158W) and it's great. The battery lasts years and is easy to replace. It's cheap and looks decent enough.
Maybe in years down the line when Smart Watches become cheap, easier to fix and give more health features, I might be more tempted. But right now, I love my Casio and highly recommend it.
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 use a basic analog watch because I want to be able to tell the time with something that is always on my person.
If I understand correctly, smart watches require charging, data connection to a phone, are physically large, and they use displays which are sensitive to impacts.
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.
I always have my phone on silent mode and have messages turned off for most apps, so I'll have to check them manually.
This is less stressfull to me. I just get to relax without being bothered.
So I think I prefer a regular watch since I don't see the benefits of a smart watch in my situation.
Tried various smartwatches and the problems always came down to one thing: battery.
Some of the watches batteries last a few days or a week but the screen remains dark and to see time you have to touch the screen our flip your wrist which gets on my nerves.
Now wearing a regular watch and each time I look at the time I'm in awe of the miracle of seeing the time displayed clearly.
When they come up with a watch that can keep the screen lit for at least a week without recharge I'll reconsider...
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)
Neither; I don't like the feeling of something on my wrist. I used to have a pocket watch, but finding a modern one is rather difficult, so I just use my phone.
dumb watch. I really just need a quick glance at the time and date mostly when I can't (or don't want to) whip my phone out.
No batteries, kinetic powered, waterproof, cheap.
Some smartwatches have features I might be interested in (offline GPS tracking) but not at the price I'm willing to pay. Still waiting for prices to drop more.
And aside from Garmins and other high end dedicated expedition/marathon watches, everything else's battery life just seems like crap. Like if I ever leave home for a single night I'll have to pack a charger? That's terrible.
I wear a Garmin fitness/ multi sport watch. It has some smart features (shows notifications) but is not touch screen. I run/work out and use the watch to track that.
I over a week on battery wearing it t 24/7 and running around 20 miles a week.
Regular watches for me. Specifically, relatively cheap automatics. There's a certain kind of beauty to a mechanical watch, they're impressive feats of engineering.
I've worn Fitbits in the past, but just long enough to know I'm not interested. I don't need yet another thing to charge, I'll just grab my phone for things beyond checking the time.
I never really liked watches to begin with. I sweat a lot and it would always smell funky under my band. The last watch I had I got a machine washable nylon band to prevent this and had to wash it every other day.
I've always worn a watch. I got myself a smartwatch when my kids kept insisting on texting me, while I was cycling home - usually while I wasa half way up a hill. Much better than rummaging to get my phone only to find it was some bit of nonsense.
Subsequently bought an Apple Watch 4 which I still have today and wear daily. I find it very sndy for reminders, as a fitness tracker and like the Apple Maps haptic direction prompts
I use a cheap, lower end Fitbit. I like the cheap one because it's low profile, the screen is nice and small.
I do use it for time constantly but the other features are nice too. I can read, but not reply, to texts. I'm notified of an incoming call. I do use the step counter and hourly activity reminders to make sure I move enough at my sedentary job. The stopwatch feature is great for in-between sets at the gym. I like knowing my heart rate too when I'm working out.
Regular watch, mostly because I hate having one more device to constantly charge up. I liked my Pebble Steel back in the day because I only had to charge it like once a week, plus I think it looked really good. I now have a Huawei GT2 Elegant that I used for a while, now only use it as a fitness tracker when I work out. Daily driver is a Gucci Tornabuoni because it's cute and comfortable but it's almost useless for telling the time, it's just a fashion piece.
I wear a basic watch so that I can keep track of the time without opening up my phone all the time. I discovered that when I wore a smart watch I was constantly peaking at my notifications and paying less than quality attention to my family. When I gave up the smart watch I was less distracted but still found myself wasting time when all I intended to do was check the time
Regular analogue silver/black self-winder 99% of the time.
Also, an offline smart-watch with gadgetbridge to record bike riding and badminton(heart rate, steps, GPS, duration, date, etc)
The simple smartwatch I have is older but does the job OK. Amazfit Bip. No need to pair it with a website to enable, just record sport and lift data off to gadgetbridge app.
I wanted a smart watch for notifications etc but didn't like any of them; too shiny and short battery life
Ended up buying a Fossil Hybrid watch; the screen is kinda like a Kindle, and it has physical hands too so is always visible. Battery lasts three weeks plus
Really good except for having to sync it with the app every couple of days
I find myself bombarded by notifications all day anyways, I don't also want my wrist buzzing along with my pocket. Since I work from home, I have my phone out on my desk most of the time anyways, smartwatch doesn't really add any value for me as I don't care about the fitness data.
I'm also a watch enthusiast, so smartwatches don't scratch that same itch as a traditional watch.
I tried a cheap smartwatch to test out the concept to see if a smartwatch would add anything of value to my life before I spent hundreds on a good one.
I liked that I didn't have to reach in my pocket to take my phone out to check the time, see what a text was, and take calls on speakerphone. The best use case was while I was working and that was very handy. The problem was that my job destroyed that cheap smartwatch in a couple weeks. I don't have anywhere near the same utility outside of work. So no smartwatch for me despite wanting one, because technology.
I had a smartwatch for a bit and I realized the only things I cared about were the biometrics and clock. I got rid of it and got a nice watch and an oura ring that I only need to charge once a week and I much prefer this setup.
I wear a hybrid watch made by kronaby. I just need to keep my phone unlocked and it lets you change/pause music so I'm more than satisfied. It even tracks your steps and whatnot but I don't ever use that.
I forgot to mention the battery lasts months so there's also that going for it
Smart watch. Great for notifications and telling me if I need to pull my phone out and reply or not, whether mid conversation, driving, cooking, etc. Also fitness tracker so I don't need my phone on a run.
I would never wear a dumb watch. I need my watch to do more than tell time.
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 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 have a pixel watch, but I usually just wear my regular watch. I forget to charge the smart watch, and that annoys me. I always sleep wearing my watch so it's hard to remember to take it off at night and charge it.
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.
I use a Garmin Venu 2. It's a "smart enough" watch where it's not annoying in terms of notifications, but it provides all of the data I could imagine needing relating to my fitness activities. I started using it after Mozilla reviewed Garmin's stance on privacy.
I also have a Seiko kinetic watch I wear for nice or more formal events.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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.
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.
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'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'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.
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.
Using an Amazefit Bip GTR 2 and it's awesome! 2 Week battery life, always on display, it can get my notifications, control my media, and track my workouts. Don't need anything else.
I had a Fitbit for a while but I hated having to charge it, so I know I'd hate a smart watch.
Something tells me I'd enjoy having a mechanical watch but I don't really have the motivation to drop a fair amount on something I may or may not like.
In a professional environment it can come across as unprofessional to be regularly looking at your phone. People might think you're checking messages, when you're only checking the time. Or your phone might get damaged/dirty by taking it out of your pocket.
I own a few nice wristwatches for special occasions, but my daily driver us a Fitbit. even though charging every 3-4 days is a bit annoying, I do like wrist access to notifications, step counts and activity tracking.
Smart watch. I’ve been wearing one every day for the past 5-6 years. I like that I can check notifications at work, in a meeting, or any time it’s inconvenient to have my phone out. I also really enjoy having my fitness data tracked for trends over the years: calories burned, steps walked, heart rate, breathing, exercises, sleep, etc. It has really helped me become a more active person as I try to beat previous goals.
I have an Apple Watch because of its ability to detect falls. Since I commute a lot by cycling if I were to get into an accident(hit and run, or I fall off my bike) and fall unconscious, the watch would be able to alert the police and get me the medical attention I need. As well as the watch could provide the ambulance worker a way to identify me because my information is on the watch in case I forgot my id card.
Smartwatches look like something so consumerist to me, like a desperate move from companies who are having diminishing smartphone sales, but need a constant growth to not face a crisis.
Seriously, with very few exceptions, like people who need to track health issues, I don't see why someone would need it.
I hummed hawed on this over the past few years to finally end up in the pixel watch 2, being sold on getting workout, sleep and general heartrate metrics.
Just recently went been to a Fitbit charge 6 from a Galaxy watch 5. I don't use any of the features of a smart watch and having to charge it every day is bullshit. The Fitbit is charge ever week or week and a half.
I've personally been using a apple watch series 2. See no need to upgrade it tells the time battery lasts a long time even after all these years of use and it can tell me my heart rate,play tappybird and I can listen to music on it I bought it used for £40 3 years ago complete with the box extra straps and a charger literally one of the best purchases I think I've ever made only compliant is that because the watch was manufactured in 2016 support dropped several years back and support for some applications such as audible has dropped which is a shame
I like to wear a smart watch that looks like a regular watch. I have a Withings. It does basic notifications, has the usual health functionality such as heart rate, workouts etc. But the battery lasts a few weeks between charges.
Both, but much more of my days are an Apple Watch SE2 than my DW5600.
I use it as a HUD - I want to know the exact time for work, current temps high/low, sunrise / sundown times, and a pop up for screening phone notifications helps me quite a bit with not checking my phone as much. I also appreciate wrist heart rate (for keeping anxiety in check,) compass is neat, and knowing the local dB is helpful for keeping my tinnitus from getting worse.
I never thought I’d like a smartwatch until I tried one.
I really want to get onboard the smart watch thing, but my usual daily wear watch for the last decade or so has been a Casio protrek prg-550, which is solar powered so I haven't even had to change a battery in all that time, let alone worry about charging it, so I really kind of don't want to switch to something I have to remember to charge every day or every couple of days
I did have a regular watch back in highschool, and all it gave was the time and date. Now that I can look at my phone or my computer screen, it would be of little benefit.
My smartwatch comes with a step counter, which gives a little goal for every day. Plus it shows notifications from my phone. It makes it so much more comfortable that I don't have to pull my phone out for every single notification. Just having a look at my watch, and I know if it's important or not.
Why would you wear either? Have not worn watches since cellphones became a thing in the late 90s and smart watches are just a solution looking for a problem...