Pros and cons from anyone that’s got one?

Only looking at mid-range ones like the Sony Smartwatch 3, but then less generic ones like the Garmin Vivoactive look a bit more useable from a cyclist point of view.

Android only opinions please.

My brother and I got my dad one (samsung) for his 80th birthday last month! He asked for one and he seems to like it but I expect he’s just being polite. Personally I think they all look awful and really naff and I couldn’t be bothered having to stick my watch AND my phone on charge every night myself.

Simple answer: no. I had a Sony Smarwatch, and despite being a fully paid up geek I really couldn’t find any good use for it, and found having to charge it every couple of days to be a pain.

But I sold it on to a friend, who uses it all the time. He uses public transport a lot and likes being able to get notifications and change music without having to take his phone out.

I have an SW3 and it’s great. I managed to break my first one and decided a day later I needed another. 😯

Please don’t ask me to say why you should get one as if I read back my justification I’m not convincing myself! 😀

Strava is great, start on the phone and put it away then get the stats and start it on the phone. Check to see if a message is one that needs replying to in a flash, and if needs be you can speak a reply without stopping.

SW3 is good as it has it’s own wifi and gps so isn’t tied to you having your phone with you all the time. Runs/rides and music can be all dealt with natively.

It lasted a day when I first got it but subsequent updates have meant I get 2.5 days before it needs a charge. As it uses a micro usb you don’t need an extra cable/dock.

Personally I think they all look awful and really naff

I quite liked the look of it – but then I like digital watches (and really hate metal strap Rolexes and similar).

MrsH bought me a FitBit one and I used it for a while, but really couldn’t see the point. Am biased though as I leave my phone behind at all opportunities

Should say here I already had a GPS watch for running, so didn’t need the GPS stuff. That would definitely be a plus if you don’t have one already.

In true STW recommend what you have fashion, have you looked at Fossil’s Q series? I have a Q54 which is essentially just an analogue watch with a pedometer and LED notifications, perfect for me but very much depends what you are looking for. Maybe right for you if you’re not sure if you need a full blown smartwatch though, especially good if battery life is a concern too.

I’ve been using a Samsung gear s for nearly 2 years now everyday. Hard to be without it now as I use it all the time.

I’d like one for those times when out for a ride/ run and you hear the phone. Rather than digging out the phone to find it’s a message you can just ignore you can check in your wrist. For me a smart GPS would be ideal, however due to budget a pebble is more likely. The basic pebble looks ok IMO

As pieface says, the best use i’ve found for one so far is knowing whether or not to stop on a ride if a call comes in. Its not a killer feature though really but it is very nice

The MS Bsnd 2 works with Android & Apple as well as Windows.
It has more functions than most, with text/email/messenger previews, talk-to-text reply function, music controls etc.
Personally I like using mine and find it does help inspire me to keep active.

I keep looking at the Pebble range then decided it’s a waste of money……

Cheers, Steve

I’ve got a Garmin 920XT and it seems to strike the best balance for me ATM – it has a decent battery life, with bluetooth does smart notifications (txt messages etc) from my phone, has internal GPS and is pretty configurable. I can wear it 24/7 and not worry about showering / swimming with it, it can log runs, cycling etc. I would like it to be smaller and less gawdy but I’ll live with it.

I got mine, complete with HR monitor, from Amazon warehouse for £170 odd. Box was a little battered but other than that all good.

FWIW I had an Apple watch for a while. But for me it didn’t do one thing well – it was a nice looking watch but I preferred my old analogue watches, it wasn’t much cop for GPS tracking, fitness / HR was inaccurate and the ‘smart’ bits / apps just weren’t mature enough as a platform when I had one.

I have had a Pebble for a couple of years and recently won an Apple Watch so currently using that. I really like them, the turn notifications are nice for walking round a city you don’t know and I also like being able to glance at notifications rather than faff with my phone.

Bought an LG Watch R for navigation on the bike and Endomondo and have used the watch solidly now for around 19 months and couldn’t be without it. Yes I have to charge it every three days but the functionality is worth it.

Yes I use it for Endomondo but use it more for Google Maps as I walk about towns I don’t know (without phone out look at me I’m not a local), social stuff (mostly watching those i don’t follow me on twitter so I can block them) but the best thing has been email and the ability to see / delete them instantly – oh and timer to kick myself off a stage.

Best wishes,

James

PS Broke mine for a whole month, missed it so much got another.

I got a garmin vivoactive and it’s been great £99 on Amazon Boxing Day,

I use it for walking, swimming as waterproof, and mtb’ing the GPS is superb,
It’s very simple to use and only a few clicks to start an activity, 90% of the time it syncs to the garmin connect app no problem, but now and again I have to close the app and turn off/on the Bluetooth and it usually syncs , the garmin app syncs to strava after initial setup no problem at all

Charge lasts ages, 5-8 days no problem although heavy usage of GPS 10 hours and it.ll need a recharge.
Alerts are OK messages and regular iPhone alerts come through and so do phone calls,

The new version launched recently and includes a HR monitor on the back for the wrist, was £177 promo last week, but back to £209, vivoactive sell pretty cheap second hand on eBay

It’s so simple to use and I know if I keep it charged if I plan 3-4 hour rides the next day, it’s a 3 button press to set it going and I can forget about it until I get home, whereas mobiles using GPS heavily drain the battery..which can be a real inconvenience later in the day

Runs/rides and music can be all dealt with natively.

WTF?

I think that might be, erm, tech-speak for the granularity of the data interface on this realtime end-user platform

sony SW3 near enough half price these days; i got mine for 90 quid a couple of months ago and it’s great- the GPS and WiFi make it more useful for ride tracking etc than most of the others (endomondo runs locally in the watch so you don’t even need to have your phone with you if you don’t want to).

do you need one? maybe not. i didn’t need one. but i wanted one, so i got one.

They look very very flimsy.

My boss wears a FitBit. The pro from her point of view appears to be that her long, drunken Wednesday nights down at the disco now count as exercise.

🙂

Mondaine Helvetica Smart watch?

https://www.mondaine.com/watches/mondaine-helvetica/helvetica-1-smartwatch.html

Had a SW3 since last October, find it useful for everyday use, but love it when out on the bike – handy seeing texts / calls on the watch as you ride along.

I also use the ‘backcountry navigator’ app which enables you to have OS maps on the watch screen. This is great if you are out exploring and need a quick glance at a map (although you can’t scroll around on the screen, it’s just centred on current location). If you load a route in advance, this is also shown as an overlay, which is handy. Showing the map does seem to cause large batt drain though, 2-3 hours tops…

The Oruxmaps app has also recently enabled a map on the watch, unfortunately only google (or is it OSM?) at the mo though.

I got a garmin vivoactive and it’s been great £99 on Amazon Boxing Day,

I use it for walking, swimming as waterproof, and mtb’ing the GPS is superb,
It’s very simple to use and only a few clicks to start an activity, 90% of the time it syncs to the garmin connect app no problem, but now and again I have to close the app and turn off/on the Bluetooth and it usually syncs , the garmin app syncs to strava after initial setup no problem at all

Charge lasts ages, 5-8 days no problem although heavy usage of GPS 10 hours and it.ll need a recharge.
Alerts are OK messages and regular iPhone alerts come through and so do phone calls,

Similarly happy with mine – mainly use for the step-tracking stuff but also handy as a GPS running watch, for the few times a year I play golf, and for tracking rides if I forgot to charge the Edge.

The “smart” stuff isn’t advanced but it’s handy sometimes (eg. when gardening with gloves on, etc) to see what that alert or incoming call is before I grab my phone.

Google maps will fire alerts for directions which is good for walking around the city without having your phone out all the time.

I tried a Vivoactive, but not happy with the gps tracking – it only records data at 5 – 7 second intervals, so each time you stop, it can be up to 7 seconds before it records again, very inaccurate compared to a 1-second-recording gps.

No

I had a pebble in 2014 and sold it on to get a pebble time last year. They’ve just put the next one o kickstarter and if I wasn’t so skint I’d be pledging, the new time 2 has a bigger screen, longer battery and a built in HR monitor.

I can honestly say that apart from charging (wednesday and sunday evenings) and bathing I haven’t taken it off since I got the first one. I also haven’t had the ringer on my phone on since then either. It’s handy when I’m cycling to work because I can see if a message can be ignored or needs attention immediately. I can also skip tracks on my bone conduction headphones, I am a fully paid up nerd though, so YMMV.

I like me Vivoactive as unlike my other two garmins its always with me. So when I stop the car to go for a walk in random interesting looking bits of the country I can track myself then look later at where I was/went on the map.

I also like that I can check notification just with a glance to see if they are worth bothering with the phone for.

Runs/rides and music can be all dealt with natively.

WTF?

😀

reminded me of this

“Then everyone started pretending to talk into their watches, saying things like ‘come in KITT, I am a massive tosser, please help’.”

Man’s first day of wearing Apple Watch to work not going as hoped

Mondaine Helvetica Smartwatch

Not sure what makes it smart, but it is lovely