Apple Watch for me, because of how well it integrates with my phone - the point where i end up using my phone a lot less.
I don’t really bother with fitness tracking to be honest. I know in my head that I went for a 50 minute bike ride on the weekend. That’s enough for me. I do appreciate when my watch tells me if I’ve been too sedentary/etc today or reminds me that it’s late and I should probably get some sleep, but that’s about the extent of my “fitness tracking” needs.
For something with fitness tracking, I’ve been using the Garmin Forerunner series for years. Recently though, I’ve been using the Pine64 PineTime as my main smartwatch. It doesn’t have much for fitness tracking, but if you’re looking for a basic smartwatch it’s pretty nice!
It’s perhaps not a fully fledged fitness tracker, and it’s certainly not a smartwatch - but my favorite health tracking device has turned out to be my Oura ring.
I used it alongside my Apple Watch for quite a while, but I’ve found that the Oura ring gives me plenty of insight on my sleep, recovery and (more limited) activity. And the form factor is just awesome! I don’t even notice I’m wearing it, and I only charge it every 5 days or so.
I’ve stopped wearing the Apple Watch altogether now, and I find it freeing not to have all those notifications available on my wrist, while still having the health tracking I want from the Oura. Obviously it’s not a good fit for someone who does want the other features of a smartwatch, but solely as a health tracker I really like it.
I went from using a garmin fenix to an oldschool mechanical watch and my stress levels have gone down like you wouldn’t believe. The only thing I miss is garmin pay.
I like the garmin venu 2 that I bought used, it’s been very reliable. I pretty much forget about it since it just works with minimal fuss. Battery lasts 2 weeks too which is nice.
I remember researching fitbit and it just seemed like more hassle, and some features were locked behind subscriptions and stuff like that.
Where’s the “none of the above” choice? Aside from keeping the time, all I want from a smartwatch is the ability to see its screen both in the dark and under direct sunlight, a week-long battery life, 5ATM water resistance rating, receiving notifications from my phone (with the ability to dismiss them), ability to have customizable watch faces, and finally the ability to accept standard size watch bands. The last watch I’ve owned that could do almost all of that (aside from standard bands or ) was Pebble Steel. I still miss it to this day.
Everything else was an overpriced disappointment. I don’t need it to monitor my heart rate, or my blood oxygen level, or my blood alcohol level. I don’t want it to prod me or give me pep talks, or make phone calls, or play music, since my phone can do all of that better.
Double plus for the Garmin. I’m wearing an Instinct 2 right now. 21 day battery life! It replaced my Vivoactive 4S (6 day battery life) and was cheaper than the Venu 2 (11 day battery life).
I’ve killed at least two smartwatches by forgetting I’m wearing them when I go in the ocean. The Vivoactive 4S was completely unaffected by the salt water, and I’ll test the Instinct 2 this week.
My mom is all about her Apple watch, and has touted the features to me. “I can [insert feature] with this!” Have you used it for that? “No.”
I’ve had three Pebbles, a couple Fitbits, a couple Garmins, a couple Android watches, two Amazfits… I just want something that sends me notifications and has good battery life. If I have to charge the watch every night, I’ll forget I’m wearing it.
That being said, the Instinct 2 is actually worse at tracking my workouts than the Vivoactive 4 was. I do martial arts, so the GPS is actually a hindrance there, and I haven’t found a way to make it move “generic cardio” to the top of the workout list.
Everything else was an overpriced disappointment. I don’t need it to monitor my heart rate, or my blood oxygen level, or my blood alcohol level. I don’t want it to prod me or give me pep talks, or make phone calls, or play music, since my phone can do all of that better.
That’s the thing. I have an apple watch, and apps on it are complete garbage. They’re not useful, they UI is impossible, browsing for apps to launch them is tedious and painful. Like, I don’t want to order Taco Bell on my watch. I don’t want to play a game. I need notifications, time/date/weather, and easy playback controls for whatever is currently playing on my phone and that’s it.
I also generally don’t trust fitness trackers. If you have a watch that can use GPS to track a run or a ride, then that’s fine. But pedometers are a joke, and counting calories burned is most assuredly bullshit since the human body isn’t a closed system and everyone’s metabolism is different
I'm currently using a Mi Band 6 (with a nylon strap that's real comfy), but I wish the Pebble still existed. The e-paper display, the nice UI and tactile buttons, with good battery life and the ability to make apps was great.
Once my Mi Band breaks, I'm torn between Garmin (since they check almost all of the Pebble boxes, even if I don't do fitness and they're more fitness oriented) and a Galaxy Watch with the rotating bezel, since that was really cool to play with, plus the Android integration might be nicer.
Been wearing a pinetime pretty much constantly since the start of the year, it only tracks walking though afaik but luckily that’s my main source of exercise (and way of getting around the city)!
It does track heartbeat too but I don’t use that either. What I really like is that the software has gotten so much better since I bought it and upgrading it is really easy
I like my Garmin Vívoactive 3. It has all the basic features (for casual walking/running) and looks okay.
I really like the look of the “hybrid” watches like the Garmin Vívomove or Withings watches. They look great but as far as I know none of them have in-built GPS.
Would be very interested in checking out the BangleJS 2 as well.
Add comment