Be Excellent To Each Other

Hello,

My Fitbit tracker has perhaps been through the wash and tumble dryer one too many times. It works, but the Bluetooth is playing up. Also, I think it’s aboit time I got a watch. I haven’t worn one since I was 14, but I’ve worked with computers and had clocks all the time I’ve needed them, but now Darwin goes to Nursery and I have a lot of appointments to attend I find myself getting anxious about the time and the only way I have to check it is the time on my phone, which means finding my phone as a first step.

So, Russell said maybe I should get an Apple Watch/ iWatch to combine the two things I need, but I thought I’d see if there were a better/cheaper alternative that did all I needed?

These would be my criteria:

Tells the time, easily
Can wear it whilst swimming
Heart rate monitoring
Steps/activity tracker
GPS*

I’d also like it to be not too ugly as it will be my only watch.

There are some new fitbits coming out and the Fitbit Versa looks like it could be a decent choice. The thing I’m unsure about is the GPS. It works via ‘connected’ GPS, which I think means that the GPS runs from a phone it’s connected to rather than from the watch. I guess this means I’ll have to make sure my phone is near my watch every time I go out, but will that run down my phone? It needs to use GPS, really, as I havecto take a buggy any time I go long distances beyond which a two year old can walk, so the step tracker doesn’t work as I’m pushing a buggy and my arms are stationary. My last Fitbit clipped to my bra, hence why it kept going through the wash.

*connected GPS doesn’t seem to be as good as actual GPS for reasons above, but actual GPS seems to make things prohibitively expensive, so I think will have to compromise.

Edit: I may also move away from iPhone in my next phone upgrade (not imminent, but when this one gives out), so that may be one reason not to get an iWatch.

There's this one which does have GPS and isn't too expensive:

https://www.techradar.com/reviews/amazfit-bip

I know its the expensive option but the apple watch does tick all those boxes - and an extra one you possibly hinted at - you can press a button on your watch to make your phone make a 'ping' noise so you can find it

If you are willing to compromise the GPS, then I have one of these. It work fine and is 20£.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/172822530639?c ... 8704666250

I need some form of GPS as walking everywhere and using a buggy means it doesn’t register steps alone. I’m not against the iWatch at all and if it is the best for me would just save for the extra, and being able to locate my phone would be excellent. Find my iPhone rings in my house more than my doorbell, but I am thinking of moving away from iPhone when I get my next phone. My 6s shuts down in cold weather and after seeing my sister’s Samsung? 7 and the camera being so much better than the one on my iPhone I think I may move whenever this one dies.

Will look at the one MarkG posted, too.

If you're thinking of moving away from Apple then don't get the Watch. Otherwise you'll be tied in.

There are a number of Android Wear options that work with both Android and iOS.

Yeah, I should hav mentiond that in the first post, but completely forgot. I’m not 100% sold on moving from Apple because I do communicate a LOT with my mum and Russell’s Grandad with iMessage, and sending photos, and I know Grandad in particular has found it difficult using other apps to chat and share pics when people have moved to Android, but that’s a whole different thread. I’ll still look at both options and think on my possibilities.

https://www.techradar.com/news/wearable ... ay-1288283

I've just bought a TicWatch E for £125 from Amazon, which fits all criteria apart from swimming.
The Misfit Vapor is a bit more expensive but is waterproof to 50m.

Personally, i'd go for one of either of those. I use mine connected to an android phone, so not sure what the experience is like for an Apple phone, apparently it works.

I’d want to wear it in the pool, so the second of those would be better, but then it’s tge same price as the Versa, which I think might suit me better due to the size https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07B9WFFJV/ ... XAb1X173RT

Possibly, but with the Versa you lose the built in GPS, so how important is that? Also the Vapor is Android Wear and comes with everything to do with that, which is a good or bad thing depending on your point of view Way more apps, more support going forward, more functionality, but more complex and has annoying quirks etc...

Ah, I didn’t realise the GPS was built in. I’m not too worried about apps and tge like. I can’t see me really using it to check messages/calanders and tge like. Will look more.

Yeah, the TicWatch and Vapor are fully featured smartwatches, GPS built in, heart rate tracking etc... The only thing they don't have, which some of the £300 watches have, is NFC for android pay.
For the price, you'll struggle to beat them in term of functionality, but they are quite big on the wrist. (However that is the same for all full featured smartwatches)

Are you sure?

About a quarter of my Apple Watch's daytime watch face is given over to showing my next meeting. It's really handy. I don't have to remember when it starts or what it is.

Zoom out! ZOOM OUT!

I think I’ve got enough of your fingerprint information from that picture to pin my next bank heist on the Internet’s famous Richard Gaywood.

And yes, I can see how that is useful. My problem is not remembering appointments, however, it’s knowing tge time. I don’t have a watch, and no clock in my house. It’s actually that I know I have to start getting Darwin ready at 5 past midday to get to Nursery at the right time, but I keep checking my phone from 10am every three or four minutes to see how long until five past. It’s driving me up the wall as I take my phone through to kitchen, but then go into living room and have to find phone to check time.

I was just going to buy a clock for the living room, but as my Fitbit has broken I thought a Fitbit replacement plus portable clock (watch) made more sense as then I had both.

But... you can still buy a clock, right?

I could, but I don’t really like them. There’s no way for me to explain it without sounding weird, but for a start I can’t relax with a ticking clock anywhere.

Go on, sound weird.

I don't like clocks in the house either. In my parents' holiday flat they have a loud ticking carriage clock in the bedroom. It gets put in a drawer immediately.

I'll be weird.

I like the sound of ticking clocks. When the kids were small we had ticking clocks in their bedrooms. If I could hear the clock ticking through the baby monitor I could relax and sleep without having to check on them every five minutes, paranoid that the monitor wasn't working. I find it soothing.

Although, there was that one time that the baby monitor picked up Chinese Radio... that wasn't soothing!

Buy a clock that doesn't tick, or am I missing something obvious

Well, no, that’s just one of the things, but perhaps the most relateable by others. I also don’t like a clock that is hung higher than eye level at any time, but most are; especially in a sitting room, where you sit. They just give me an Orwellian sense of doom and foreboding power. The ticking just intensified that.

Then there is the problem of Russell’s clock. When we first met and I moved in up in Whitley Bay he had a clock that moved backwards and all the numbers were in reverse. I was in a very difficult time, and struggling to make sense of the world. I was in a delicate mental state, quite vulnerable and confused, and it just screwed with my sense of reality. I didn’t know where I was and time wasn’t making sense anyway, but I hadn’t yet found a voice to tell him how it was affecting me. The weeks I didn’t travel with him for work I’d cover it over with a cloth and take it off just before I knew he was due home. And I could hear it ticking on and on and on whilst I was alone and cold. It was so oppressive. It was doubly awkward as I knew it was a gift, so didn’t feel I could say anything. It just made my fear of clocks worse.

Then he set the microwave a bit fast and I wanted to smash it to pieces.

So, you know, your fault for asking

Sundial?

Don’t have a garden.

Wha wha whaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

People have things that freak them out - if yours happens to be clocks then fine.

So back to the original question - what do you actually need to have right now - because your original list had a lot of stuff in there - but that last one sounded just like you need a watch and you can pick up a cheap basic digital watch that will tell the time and let you know when you need to go somewhere - and it does not need to look like a clock because it can just be digits.

The idea of having it all together is nice , but the more stuff you add in the more complex it gets so if for now its 'i need to be able to tell the time without finding my phone or having a clock around' then pick up a Casio from the supermarket / Argos / Amazon for a few quid and use that.

If you can get along with having a watch again then maybe look for the fancier stuff later ?

I use my Fitbit tracker a lot, and it’s broken, and it’s kind of important to me as I’m not very well, stuck in the mite of some long-term health problems, and it does help me manage what I’m doing.

I could just buy another Fitbit like the one I had, except they don’t make them any more, so my only choice seems to be to get one for my wrist, but as I need to be able to tell thevtime as well, using it as a watch would be handy as then I’d only have to get used to wearing one thing on my wrist rather than two.

I wouldn't get an Apple Watch for just telling the time and counting steps. It's a bit overkill. Unless you want one and have no trouble affording it, then why not?

Some of the Fitbit tracker/watches are cheaper and would do the trick, though.

Hey, we all have our own foibles
Knowing Russell, I imagine he was distraught when he found out, I suspect he thinks your mental health is more important than any clock

It also needs to be swim-proof, have a heart rate tracker and have GPS (at least connected via the phone, if that turns out to be the best option alongside everything else, as that is the first thing to compromise on before the others), because of all the reasons up-thread, but I was thinking a watch style Fitbit might be close to what I wanted. The one I linked to was waterproof, too, and I don’t think it’d sit too huge on my wrist, which I think would be my main worry with the one Trooper linked to.

I’ll have a think on it a bit more as the one I was looking at doesn’t get released for another fortnight anyway.

My friend has an iWatch and her husband could get me a discount. Hers is a series on and she uses hers in the water even though it doesn’t say it is waterproof because it’s secretly waterproof, or something, but I’d not be comfortable enough doing that. But as I might move away from Apple with my phone it’d seem to tie me to that a bit.

Yeah, there are a few things that he head slaps himself for now. None were his fault, nor mine. He had no way of knowing and at the time I had no way of saying.

I have a lot of blind spots, but that clock is in the bin at least.

I like Fossil watches, but their latest one that does heart rate doesn't have GPS at all which is a shame.
https://www.fossil.com/uk/en/wearable-t ... -more.html

The Misfit Vapor is another possibility. That does most things but uses your phone's GPS for tracking so could be ok.....
https://misfit.com/uk_en/smartwatch/misfit-vapor?

Aw, I love the fossil watches. Russell’s is a Fossil, but it’s just a ticking watch. So pretty though. Shame about the GPS as they are very pretty.

Will look more at the second one as I did look at the vapor earlier today.

I really like Fossil - I've got six or seven in various styles including one like Russell's but a different colour.

As I change my watch every couple of days I wanted a simple activity tracker to wear on my other wrist so I have a Misfit Shine which I've been very pleased with.

I just ordered one of these in fetching dark green!

If it is to smartwatches what my Xiaomi is to phones then I'll be pretty happy with it.

Nice. I thought it was an old school LCD to start with

The battery life is a pretty big draw for me. But not as much as the price.

I've switched back and forth between iOS and Android a couple of time.

I've currently got a Samsung S9, and had it bundled with a Gear S3 smartwatch too.

The S3 watch is kinda neat and I like some of the things it can do but I still can't shake the feeling that it's a bit of a pointless frippery overall.

The good:
It's a really nice screen and changing watch faces is easy. The kids love that I can have pictures of them on it.
Tracks steps, distance travelled, some other workout stuff, sleep, can use it to log water/food/caffeine intake (the calorie count and the BPM are possibly a touch unreliable though, and after a day or two of novelty I don't bother with drink counting).
Pairs with the phone super easy.
Controlling the music player without getting my phone out of my pocket is cool, and useful.
It works OK as a 'hands free' device while driving.
Reminders and alerts are useful for meetings & schedules. It's not perceived as being quite as 'rude' to check a watch as it is a phone (it's easier to surreptitiously glance at my wrist).
The hourly 'inactive - get moving' reminder is quite good as I do sit at a desk most of the working day.
The rotary bezel is a really swish interface mechanism.
There's a watch face that looks like the one from Goldeneye on the N64
It's water resistant (but not waterproof)
There's an app that makes the screen go bright white, like a little torch, that has been useful a couple of times.



The bad:
It's another battery to have to keep on top of (the battery life is pretty good, it can easily go two full days without being 'managed' but at can't really go to three.
There aren't many apps available (although, how many more do we really need?)
It's quite big (but not as bad as i though).
The included strap is not very nice (easy to change, and does come with a smaller strap too for the more dainty wristed. Same construction though).
I feel like a bit of a twat sometimes using it in public.
When it goes to sleep, it doesn't open on the app I was previously using (eg reminders for a shopping list).
Notification overload, mainly because I haven't set it all up yet, but I get 8 weather updates or so a day from a couple of different apps (phone apps, watch app, google). Similarly, there can be a cacophony of alerts (computer, phone, watch) if I get a few messages in quick succession, again though, I could fiddle with settings to change this.

Do I like it? Yes. Would I recommend it? Um, maybe

I would go for a garmin. A lot have the features toy want. A lot better built quality than a fitbit

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/cIntoSp ... 71-p1.html

You must feel deeply uncomfortable whenever you come here

I honestly can't remember so can't be that bad.

Admittedly mine aren't particularly loud but I have quite a few. One of the (admittedly odd) reasons I fell in love with our new house is because the current owner has multiple clocks in every room, and I could just see myself living there.

How is it, Mark?

Still winging its way from China

Ah, ok. I reckon I'm going to order one too. They review very well

Yeah, seems like they do most everything you really need except don't need charging every other day which is one of the things that put me off smartwatches.

Mimi! In case you're still reading this, note that these ones aren't actually waterproof enough for swimming.

I am! I’m still completely undecided, and we had another look last night at a few of the ones I’d narrowed it down to.

The Fossil and another similar one I saw were just saw beautiful, but wouldn’t really do for what I needed it for. So lovely, though. Was sorely tempted. Far too much money for something that isn’t what I need, though, as then I’d have to buy a more fully functioned smart watch as well. So pretty, though.

Looked at the Garmins in comparison to the Fitbit, and the only ones with onboard GPS and all the other things were both a lot more expensive than the Fitbit snartwatches and looked very big and styled to be overly masculine for what I wanted.

I’m going to gave a look again this evening, as I have done every night, as I can’t decide whether to get one that looks a bit squarer but has the GPS built in, or one that essentially looks like an iWatch but has everything I need apart from on board GPS. I don’t want an actual iWatch simply because I think there’s a good chance my next phone will not be an iPhone.

My mother in law has a Garmin Vivofit 4

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/582444

It's waterproof, has a 1 year battery and comes in a more feminine style

No GPS though. Darn.

The garmin are more robust than fitbit. A lot of my running biddies have returned a lot of the fit bits.