My “Dumb” Watch | Hacker News Reader

My “Dumb” Watch

compassionmonk.com

Essentially, construct a straw man (modern smart watches with oh-so-many-functions), and then attack it revealing the beautiful simplicity of a device that just tells the time. Why not take it all the way back to sundials? Why even add burden to the mortal coil and keep time?

(How did this make it to HN?)

Well, it proves that not everything should be able to do tons of stuff.

How does it prove anything? It is just the preference of the blogger who is also pushing it by way of being an Amazon affiliate.

I don't know how you replied to a comment 26 minutes before I posted the comment.

I also don't know how "Amazon affiliate blogger" fits into things.

I welcome you to enlighten me on either or both topics.

>I also don't know how "Amazon affiliate blogger" fits into things.

Fyi... amazon urls with "&tag=" are affiliate links that get a % cut of the sales price.

In the blog's Amazon link, you'll see it redirects to a url that includes "&tag=compassionmon-20".

The blog author also wrote on the page: "As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases from this link."

A sundial on my wrist is about as useful as the fictional 1980s Dick Tracy video-chat watch. My inner child may want some version of a Dick Tracy watch, but with today's technology we would have had that if it were marketable.

A normal, simple, analogue-face wristwatch that ... wait for it ... just tells the time is exactly what I need and exactly what I want and is exactly what I can buy practically anywhere even if the Internet shut down 30 seconds from now. No straw man required.

My favorite thing about analog watches vs. a smartphone is that there's no opportunity to get pulled into some push notification and forgetting why I was even checking the time to begin with. I've been trying to pay more attention to where I place my attention lately, and having a decent analog watch means I can forget where my phone even is, instead of having to be disciplined every time I interact with my "smartphone".

Funny, my experience with a smart watch has been more positive. I find that getting push notifications on my wrist allows me to dismiss them then go back to what I was doing right away. Without the watch I tend to linger on my phone after dismissing the notification, addictively checking hn or emails instead of getting back to the real world. This is the only feature of the watch I really use, though. I'd love a "smart" watch that just received notifications and had a much better battery life.

I have been thinking about the feature set I would want in a watch and why would I want to smart connect with phone etc. and I just don't see a need. I ended up with solar powered Swiss made carefully designed and engineered marvel of a "dumb" watch that never* needs charging and apart from the time-related bells and whistles has just the no non-sense functions of baro/alti meter and compass.

Best piece of tech I have ever had, though admitedly it costs around double of smartwatch.

-- * the accumulator battery will of course deteriorate with time, and the watertight gaskets would have to be replaced at some point.

I mostly agree with the sentiment about smart watches, but I like my watch to be a bit more featureful than this.

Recently my Casio F-91W died and I replaced it with a somewhat more expensive but functionally simple analogue watch. I'm kind of regretting not just getting another F-91W, as I really miss its backlight and date display. I now find myself reaching for my phone when I want a time / date check and treating the watch mostly as a fashion accessory.

I stopped wearing a watch shortly after I started carrying a mobile phone (~1994) as the phone could tell me the time and date, and I had to keep it charged anyway. I didn't see the point of carry a redundant item such as a wristwatch. Even now I see 'smart' watches as nothing more than gimmicks.

I have a mechanical wristwatch, and love it. Scenario: I want to know how long something lasts (e.g. lunch)

Wristwatch:

1) raise arm 2) pop crown 3) twist crown to align hands at 12:00 4) push crown 5) twist crown to wind

And now I can view at a glance how long it's been since I set it.

Same function with my smartphone:

1) dig smartphone out of pocket 2) press power button to activate screen 3) swipe my unlock figure (sometimes twice because it doesn't register correctly) 4) tap clock app icon 5) tap timer tab icon (out of three extremely similar-looking icons, sometimes tap wrong one) 6) tap 'reset' then start icon 7) press power button to deactivate screen 8) put smartphone back into pocket and everytime I want to check that timer: 9) dig smartphone out of pocket 10) press power button to activate screen and the timer's displayed.

Twice the effort, thrice the hassle.

I picked up a Casio W800-H (similar to F-91W) about a year ago and I'm really loving it. It's holding up pretty well despite regular abuse at the gym and while working on my cars.

While I'm hoping to get a couple of years out of it, at <$20 it's great for a daily driver!

I love my smart watch, i'm able to share my health info with my doctor (heart rate mostly) I can go running without my phone, I never miss a call/text from my wife, and it nags me to standup and stretch once in a while, and it tells me stupid jokes. I can also see the picture of my kids every time I look at the time.

I expected to see the Casio Databank - the best dumb smart watch I've ever owned.

> the battery life lasts a gazillion years

According to the product description, it's more like 3 years.

That's what you will read on most watch descriptions and it's an extremely conservative value. I have never had a wrist watch battery dying on me, even after wearing it for 10 years.

I had an MQ24, it's battery lasted 7.

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