from Hacker News

Quest for my perfect watch

by misterdata on 11/19/22, 9:26 PM with 177 comments

• by mhalle on 11/21/22, 12:08 PM

  On a related topic, I find programming or typing while wearing a watch leads relatively quickly to wrist pain due to the pressure constraints it puts on the muscles and tendons.

  I have tried several different watches and experienced this problem. I know many tech industry people wear watches while they work, but I have never heard a discussion of this condition. I wonder if I am somehow unusual in this situation. I am otherwise not especially prone to repetitive stress injuries.

  It has been bad enough I have thought of converting a wristwatch into a modern pocket watch, though I would lose any feature that depended on skin proximity.

• by foobarian on 11/21/22, 2:03 PM

  I've been dabbling in smartwatches because of the built-in step counters, trying to get healthy, etc. The main thing I found I appreciated is the automatic time sync including DST switchover.

  There is a long list of negatives:

  - Battery life is miserable compared to a classic watch

  - Screen activation is unreliable. Imagine a classic watch not visible when you look at it.

  - Bad UX. Somehow the brightness settings I apply randomly get reset/reverted. This is probably hit or miss depending on brand, I expect Apple's devices have this nailed.

  - Outdoor performance. This is the worst one. The screen is just not readable under bright sunlight. I find myself making a little tent out of whatever I have on and furiously shaking my wrist to activate the screen just so I can tell the time. This is what's going to make me ultimately switch back to a classic watch unless I can find one with e-ink. I'm not sure how Apple's devices fare here beyond friends saying 'it works fine.'

• by crims0n on 11/21/22, 1:26 PM

  Posts like this really make me miss my old Pebble. Maybe its incredibly niche, but they left a gap in the market that no other offering has yet to fill.

• by bayindirh on 11/21/22, 9:01 AM

  I was well into smartwatches and was planning to scale up to an Apple watch or Garmin or something higher end.

  Then I got a Longines automatic, and I remembered why I loved mechanical watches so much.

  So, it's back to basics for me. While the features are nice, It's nice that my watch is "charging" itself as I wear it.

• by ChrisMarshallNY on 11/21/22, 10:20 AM

  I have a couple of Oceanus[0] (Casio’s boutique brand) watches that I wore, all the time, for years (I brought them in Japan). They replaced a Junghans Mega MF[1],

  They are all collecting dust. I’ve been wearing Apple Watches for years.

  The Apple Watch costs half as much as my other watches, and is less attractive, but I have really come to rely on its utility.

  I have a friend that just got the Ultra. It’s a cool watch, but way too bulky and awkward-looking, for me. Reminds me of a Suunto watch, a friend of mine once owned.

  First and foremost, I need to know exactly what time it is. The weather functionality is also important to me.

  For many folks, a watch is jewelry. I had a friend that used to wear a broken Brietling.

  [0] https://www.casio.com/us/watches/oceanus/

  [1] https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/junghans-mega-apollo-...

• by gonzo on 11/21/22, 9:46 AM

  l've been wearing my dead brother’s Citizen Eco-Drive Calibre 5700 (stainless) for the past decade for similar reasons to those in the article. It’s rugged, solar powered, and requires no thought.

  It also has a small scorch mark from an arc welding incident he had that I treasure.

• by NKosmatos on 11/21/22, 9:06 AM

  I wouldn't change my Casio Protrek PRG-80T for nothing, More than 16 years and no battery change, Titanium strap and case, solar charging and tough as none of the others, A classic ABC watch (Altimeter-Barometer-Compass) with temperature sensor.

  To be honest, I also have a small smart band (latest Xiaomi Mi Band) to complement for all the missing smart functionality. People keep asking me why I wear two watches :-)

• by z9znz on 11/21/22, 11:56 AM

  There are two design approaches to wristwatches that I haven't seen but which I think have distinct benefits: wide (landscape) bodies/faces, and bands with batteries in the links.

  In Sci-Fi, it's normal to see landscape displays on forearms. Often it's part of a suit, so it is kind of an obvious solution. But watches could take this concept at a smaller scale and provide at least double the screen real estate without ending up looking like a brick.

  The bands on some watches are already fairly thick, and people have shown they are fine wearing thick bracelet things for decoration. Why not embed batteries into parts of the band? The obvious case would be the big metal links (like tank tracks), with the wiring through the link connections. Not only would you be able to store a whole lot more energy compared to a single battery in the watch body, but you could also have swappable bands so you could always have one charged and ready.

• by NoboruWataya on 11/21/22, 3:35 PM

  I have a Garmin vívoactive 3 which to me is a good fit because it is "smart enough" - all the basic features I would want from a smartwatch (fitness tracking, GPS, phone notifications, music control) behind a fairly basic UI. My partner bought an Apple Watch a while ago and while it's quite snazzy and probably does a lot more stuff, the battery life really limits its usefulness and it is very expensive for what it is.

  I've had mine just over 2.5 years. It's still going strong so hopefully it will continue to serve me for a while yet, but comparing smartwatches to traditional watches really makes you realise how short-term these gadgets are. People here talking about their 16 year old Casio watches - no way this Garmin will reach anything like that age. And then of course you have those quality timepieces that are passed down through generations.

  Really interested to hear more real-life user reviews of the BankgleJS 2, which I only heard about recently and seems to tick all the boxes while being open and hackable.

• by Maxburn on 11/21/22, 12:50 PM

  Found on that site; Wena Pro and Wena 3.

  What a great idea, I love my old mechanical watches, really like metal bracelets, and I do like having smart watch features.

  Unfortunately seems like Wena is a bad implementation of this concept. What other companies make things like this?

• by comprambler on 11/21/22, 7:06 PM

  Nice to see someone lauding the Timex Datalink (the 851), which IMO is the best smartwatch ever made. I would pay modern smartwatch money for a proper re-release. The original software still works perfectly on W10.

• by fxtentacle on 11/21/22, 8:14 AM

  When I built my smartwatch, I went with ESP32-PICO and bluetooth low energy for connecting to my phone. Battery lifetime is excellent, but not quite a year because I poll weather data over wifi once every 10 minutes.

• by Markoff on 11/21/22, 8:34 AM

  Why not something like Casio G-SQUAD GBD-100/200 (starts from ~110USD)? Or there are also pricier Garmin Instinct Solar with solar transflective display which should last loong time (since he doesn't mind bulky watch unlike me).

  Casio claim to last one year on battery with notifications, Garmin 50+ days as smartwatch.

  I wish Casio made something like this (transflective graphic display which can display texts/simple graphic) in F91 form factor with rechargable battery, I wouldn't mind if it last only few months between charges. Currently using Amazfit Bip which I charge once a month.

• by lazyant on 11/21/22, 4:09 PM

  In terms of keeping time and no unrelated features, the CASIO G-shock tough solar radio are the best. Cheap, durable, solar and synchronized via radio (plus other things like chronometer and word times).

• by greyman on 11/21/22, 2:31 PM

  But Casio already manufacture smartwatches, which meets OPs criteria like 1 year battery life. For example G-Shock GBD-H1000. But they are rather bulky, comparing to the alternatives he mentions.

• by dchuk on 11/21/22, 4:00 PM

  I really like wearing real watches, but I still want to pay attention to health and activity, so I’ve been wearing a Fitbit luxe on my other wrist.

  It’s been fine so far, battery life is good, seems to be reliable.

  However, what drives me nuts on this thing is that I distinctly DON’T want it to be a watch, I just want the stats on the face, and there is absolutely no option for the watch face that doesn’t include a huge current time on the front.

  I wish there was a device with this exact form factor, but was just programmable. Call it OpenFit or something.

• by brvier on 11/21/22, 12:19 PM

  Or go for better, FOSS smartwatch :

  PineTime : https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/

  Charging one time a week.

• by helf on 11/21/22, 7:26 PM

  I love my protrek. I have a PRW-3000 with the inverted LCD. I have worn it every day for at least a decade.

  I still want a smart watch of sorts. Just nothing out there has grabbed my attention yet. The last "smart watch" I had was the OnHand PC which was the americanized version of the Matsucom RuPuter.

  http://www.pconhand.com/

• by europeanguy on 11/21/22, 12:03 PM

  Over the past 2 yes I've bought 3 F91W. The band keeps breaking. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to get a better band? I didn't seem like changing band is doable without appropriate tools, and furthermore I don't know how to ensure I know his to buy a band that is "compatible".

• by jhallenworld on 11/21/22, 6:25 PM

  I have a need for something like this "WatchMinder":

  https://watchminder.com/shop/watchminder3

  It's pretty good, battery lasts a month, but it has a stupid limitation: the programmable reminder messages don't allow numbers, only letters.

  Also, it's nice that you can program the watch directly, but a smartphone app or laptop would make it easier: I would be OK with a USB cable from the charging station in lieu of Bluetooth.

  Smartwatches should be able to provide this function, but they don't. For example, reminders should repeat until acknowledged. (Text messages on phones should do the same thing...)

• by rand49an on 11/21/22, 11:18 AM

  I've had a Withings Steel HR (was briefly owned by Nokia) for 5 years and would recommend it to anyone. About £150 new, still achieves a month plus battery and in that time all I've done is change the band a few times.

• by Humpelstilzchen on 11/21/22, 9:35 AM

  needs to be recharged weekly and software can brake with each update but BangleJS2 should cover most requirements: https://banglejs.com/

• by jacknews on 11/21/22, 7:26 AM

  There are the nordic nrf52xxx based btle smartwatches for <$30, search 'smartwatch P8' for example.

  The firmware can be replaced with your own.

  The battery won't last a year though.

• by eschneider on 11/21/22, 4:05 PM

  The Sony Wega 3 looks really interesting, though probably not at that price. Definitely a tech idea worth exploring further. :) As for watches, I tend towards cheap timex windup watches. They tell time well enough, I can read the dial with my distance glasses on, and I don't feel too bad when something happens and they inevitably get broken.

• by europeanguy on 11/21/22, 11:53 AM

  I can find this watch by googling "pro trek". At first I thought it's just because that's the name of a series and not a watch, but I can't even find that watch in that series. What am I doing wrong?

• by kranu on 11/21/22, 10:26 AM

  I'm surprised the investigated options don't include modifying a watch with a solar panel, given that battery life is an important factor; 1 year seems good but isn't comparable to solar.

• by helf on 11/21/22, 7:24 PM

  He needs to port a FPS to the Timex. There is already tetris :)

  https://github.com/PsiKlops/TimexBlocks

• by Rebelgecko on 11/21/22, 6:53 AM

  >magnetometer or IR photodiode that I could use to build a low-bandwidth communication channel

  Maybe I'm missing something, but why not go for something more straightforward like BTLE? There will be some hit to battery, but probably not that much, in exchange for a huge gain in convenience if you want to sync with your phone or whatever

• by noncoml on 11/21/22, 11:04 AM

  F105W (which is like F91W + illumination)

  Light, reliable, cheap. A true spartan watch

• by zapt02 on 11/21/22, 2:43 PM

  Bangle.js 2 sounds like a good option. The hackability is second to none. https://banglejs.com/

• by twiclo on 11/21/22, 4:14 PM

  Does anyone have an RSS link for this blog? I want to be alerted of his follow up article

• by secondcoming on 11/21/22, 9:40 AM

  I have a Garmin Fenix GPS doodad, and I regularly get lost in the UI. Great watch though