Fossil is quitting smartwatches::Fossil is going to stop making smartwatches. It was one of the most prolific companies creating Wear OS watches.
Damn. Big fan of their hybrid smart watches (e-ink screen, ~10 day battery and looked like a watch).
Anyone know of any good similar products?
I don’t know of any e-ink displays outside of Fossil but give Garmin a try. I use the Vivoactive 4 and get a week+ of battery.
I went from Pebble > Fossil > Garmin.
Watchy which is open source and comes in a build it yourself kit has an e-ink display.
I came across the project before but they don’t have biometric stats that I was looking for.
Garmin are atrocious compared to hybrid watches or the legendary pebble. Had one for like a week before I sent it back, there was so much wrong with it.
Withings. Small oled display, looks like an analog watch until you use it. Ton of sensors to monitor your health, or none if you don’t want that. And a huge battery. Like huge enough to lose the charger between charges 😆
Garmin is know for excellent battery life. I don’t think they use e-ink though.
A much bigger drawback (to me at least) they lack Google Pay support and keep pushing Garmin Pay which is not widely supported.
?
Is there really any functional difference which backend is providing that virtual card number? I have never seen a terminal anywhere that A) supported contactless in the first place, but B) did not work with the Garmin Pay feature of my Fenix 6. Even out in the sticks. Not-a-one.
Another vote for Garmin instinct (2 solar in my case). Not E-ink but oldschool style black/white LCD. Full charge with nightly pulsox is just above 2 weeks, would be 3 if i turned off nightly pulsox. With solar, if you are active outside and have a sunny climate, you probably do not need to charge basically at all.
There is also the instinct crossover for the hybrid look. But first series instincts are supposedly hit or miss on the software. And trust me, the whole analogue watch thing is nice for looks, but really you will not look at it if you have a digital clock on the watch face.
That’s a shame. I really liked my Fossil before I switched to the Apple Watch. It did a fantastic job of looking like a normal watch while still being a decent smartwatch.
I know I’m in the minority, but I switched from a square Android watch (LG G Watch from the neolithic era) to a round watch, and I miss the square. A round screen is awkward for anything but a simple watch face, IMO. I use my new watch much less than my old watch, partly because of this, and I don’t think I’ll ever buy another one.
Visually as a watch design I agree with you. Having used quite a few round face smart watches before getting an Apple Watch I can absolutely see why Apple went with a square face. It just makes way more sense for displaying data. A square space displays more information in a an easier to read format.
That’s precisely why they designed it this way.
What? Can you explain what you mean here or is this just Apple hate?
I find it hard to believe that any company, much less one with such a high reputation for aesthetic, would design something specifically to irk people.
I think it was designed rectangular because it’s easier for smartphone app developers to make watch versions of their apps, easier to display data, and generally fits with the look of the rest of their rounded rectangular products.
As a watch it isn’t as visually appealing, but as a device it’s (arguably) more useful.
I’d love a smartwatch that, along with telling time, is just a screen that shows me my notifications and a button to pause my music.
Withings, Garmin and Casio have them in very different styles, plus a lot of Chinese ones which names I don’t remember.
Literally months of battery time, up to unlimited for the solar ones.
Important thing with those is… avoid Garmin at all costs. They are nasty company who will drop support for your device 6 months after purchase forcing you to buy a new device and similar nasty moves.
I love my pre-smart era Fossil watch. I hope they go back to making classy digital watches again, I would buy another.
Same. Mine is a regular watch with hour and minute hands and a digital read-out in the background that I can turn on and off. It’s nothing fancy, but I wear it with a fat black leather wrist-band which is pleasing to my easily-entertained soul.
I am a simple man in many ways.
Will there ever be a day where I can just buy a smart watch strap to attach to my mechanic watch to get biometrics and what not?
Soon. Oura rings exist so they could be an alternative.
Invis make straps without sensors but with NFC payments.
There’s clearly a market for rings as fitness trackers so people can avoid a watch altogether
Wanting a watch strap is a bit more niche but it’ll come around as a product I’m sure.
Don’t you need a paid subscription just to get full access to your biometric data from the Oura ring?
Lol the rings that have a lifespan of 3 years or so, almost as much as a midrange smartphone and ALSO have a subscription fee that almost doubles the cost of the ring over its lifespan?
