Quest for my perfect watch
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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.
Smaller watches, with nylon, silicone, or leather straps help. Big metal bracelet watches always feel in the way.
My data point: much like GP, I experience discomfort if I wear my (smart/big) watch while programming. Also if I wear a small watch too tightly.
I get a sensation in my pinky that's a lot like what you feel with a pinched nerve.
I just take the watch off if I'm going to be using the keyboard for any period of time. Gaming especially bothers it.
Notably, I rest my left wrist on the laptop body underneath the keyboard area. If I kept my wrists perched in the air, I doubt I would have any of this going on at all.
I like to wear my watch a few cm higher up my arm, so that the metal band doesn’t scratch my laptop.
If you want features that need skin contact, you could keep a nice watch as a pocket watch, and then wear a cheap fitness band on your ankle.
This is a cool idea. I hadn't really toyed with the idea of my watch living anywhere but my wrist.
Like the GP, I have to remove mine a lot for computer sessions, as a heavy keyboard user.
I'm really fatigued by all the stuff I have to carry each day. I think the watch is often the best bang for the buck. Pretty small, rarely in the way, lots of utility.
I don't care about the health tracking, so the ankle isn't an option, but I'm going to think about other ways I can use my (Galaxy) watch.
> I think the watch is often the best bang for the buck. Pretty small, rarely in the way, lots of utility.
The ease of accessing a voice assistant is nice--I double click a watch button to set reminders/timers/alarms. It's a shame the VA is bixby, but mostly it gets the job done.
Thank you.
I find personally that some watches are extremely uncomfortable, and some I barely feel.
The small, thin watches that don't get hung up on clothing etc work well for me. Timex weekender, and Casio F91W-1. Of course, they have pretty limited utility. Time & alarm.
All the bigger, nicer watches I've tried are uncomfortable, and that's coming from someone who wears a watch basically every day.
Bands can matter a lot, as well. I have a very small "tightness" range where it's tight enough not to slide around, but not so tight that it hurts at all. The bands with a bunch of holes in them sometimes don't have a hole where I need it.
Literally:
- found a stick of pine that was the right thickness (3/4")
- cut off a chunk a bit wider than the alpha keys (~12")
- measured the distance from the keys to the edge of the X220 wrist rest (3")
- took off 1/8" for border of the keyboard frame, ymmv
- approximated the curve with a rasp and sandpaper
- after a week or so, Elmer's glued a sheet of soft leather over the whole thing
Padding isn't really necessary. Laptops don't have it, and there are plenty of wooden wrist rests out there. It's the geometry that matters. That said, soft leather is nice. Neoprene could work, but it gets gross.
Thank you!
It's one reason why I wish for a laptop with the touchpad next to the screen and the keyboard next to the edge.
I've worn larger watches in the past. Now I wear a pretty small watch or an apple watch, that is also smallish, and I dont have any issues. I tend to wear my watches quite loose so they rest beyond the rim of the laptop I type on.
I regularly (one day out of every two?) wear a relatively heavy mechanical watch while working. 127 grams I think. I don't have more issues to my left hand than my right hand has ; )
Are you left handed? I guess that might be significant for RSI type injuries
(shrug)
Both of my hands are as healthy as it gets.
Ultimately, it came down to the band. The only bands I found that would not cause issues were bands like the milanese loop for the Apple Watch, the trail band for the Apple Watch Ultra, or similar designs, where these bands have flexibility and are capable of sliding/slipping in a controlled fashion to "self-adjust".
The issue with other watch bands type like a typical plastic sports band or metal link bracelet, are that they have no flexibility. What happens is that when your wrist flexes and the band doesn't give way, is that it creates pressure on the tendons and you can end up getting a form of RSI. Much more flexible bands give way and allow your watch to adjust over time to the position of where your hands need to be for typing. When using a milanese loop style band I even noticed I would need to tighten it again when I'd stand up to walk around as it'd be a bit loose, and it'd hold its position until I sat to type again. That it's significant enough to be noticeable is indicative that it's quite a lot of required flexibility.
Rather than giving up on wearing a watch, I'd recommend you spend some time trying different bands and look for flexible bands.
It’s not that I feel the watch causing pain _directly_, like a lot of replies here seem to assume, it’s that if I wear one regularly for more than a couple of weeks, it aggravates my existing tendency to develop pain in my wrists.
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.'
On the topic of battery life, it's still going after 6 months!
I supposed UX can be a matter of taste, but I've found it's simple enough to set up an Apple Watch such that I have rapid access to the features and functions I need in a given situation.
In particular, outdoor usage -- even in bright sun -- is pretty great. I've done no small amount of hiking with mine, and use it often when cycling. Readability is fine!
(I also liked Kronaby a lot, but those were quite expensive)
But, for me, the lack of a second hand and backlighting or glow-in-the-dark hands & numbers, combined with the strong potential that my health data was being snooped on, convinced me to return to a traditional analog face wristwatch.
But I may look into the OP's original Casio - a sturdy watch with a barometer and compass built in, that would be handy.
- Battery life is around 25 - 30 days (it would be longer if I was outside more and got more benefit from solar charging)
- The screen is always visible
- The UX on the watch is pretty terrible, not going to lie.
- Not a problem at all. When it is very, very, dark I have to press a button to temporarily activate the backlight.
The Fenix 3 I wore like ten years ago had a setting to turn the backlight on when I turned my wrist. It was not as reliable as the same functionality on Apple Watch, but good enough.
I’m an Apple Watch guy myself, but I’ve got a drawer full of Garmins, and they might make a fine choice for OP.
I also have it set so that the backlight turns automatically on when it's dark and I flip my wrist. I wear it to bed (sleep tracking) and I can always check the time if I wake up in the middle of the night.
But personally I have fiddled around with 5 different Garmin watches and think their UX in menus is simply horrible on average, mine is okay for my use-case but I'd advise to never buy them blindly.
I want buttons. Not capacitive touch.
And I have a hunch the rotating bezel on the Samsung classic 4 (or whatever) is The Correct Answer™.
My Apple Watch 4's battery is now pretty weak. So I'm looking to replace.
I kinda hate my Apple Watch. Now it's just an annoying step counter.
It sucks for controlling audio playback. I'm walking the dog, in the cold, wind, and rain. So then I have to take off my gloves, look at the damn thing, navigate to the playback controls (because reasons), tap the button a few times. Etc. So now I just dig out my iPhone.
The Activity tracker sucks. If I stop to pick up some waste, it's smart enough to pause. But not smart enough to resume when I get walking again. So I have to hit Dismiss multiple times during an activity. Grrr. So I stopped using it.
Siri via the watch is turrible. I've stopped trying.
The one huge feature I want for a future watch (or whatever) is tracking my waking breathing rate. For pain management and other mindfulness stuff. I'm supposed to regulate my breathe. Like remind me to stop holding my breathe during a bad spell.
I think it's the whole Samsung Galaxy Watch line. My Galaxy Watch (original) has one, and they'd be total fools to remove it in a later model.
I think the only time I touch the watch face is to dismiss notifications with a gesture. The dial is super nice, and I actually default to spinning it to wake the face instead of hitting a button.
The dial is my favorite thing about the watch.
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.
While the functionality they add-in is intriguing, their low processing power is taxing the mobile phone a lot. I'm in apple ecosystem, and constant communication and process offloading reduces battery life of the phone considerably. Esp, when on the move.
I want a watch primarily. A time keeping device which I can depend and can use for a long time (i.e. years). So returning to a vanilla, bona-fide watch was refreshing and liberating. Having a self-winding, completely mechanical heart inside is also nice.
If you're exercising, band establishes and keeps a constant connection about your movement data and pulse. It also gets some information from app (is GPS healthy, etc.).
Both modes keep the phone out of its deep sleep, and halves your daily battery stamina if you have a moderately active day.
Because of that, I actively kill the Zepplife application most of the time if I'm wearing the band that day, unless I'm exercising.
The only annoyance is that a recent update which added support for a device I don't use has caused GadgetBridge to prompt my for a permission that device support needs every time I open the app, and doesn't care that I have no reason to grant that permission. I should make a bug report…
My main battery issue is that the Mi Band's "up to 14 days" (or whatever) is nowhere near enough. I get about 7 days, and I'd prefer "at least 30 days", or...dare I say it?...a few years . (-:
I think it was pretty common in old days to damage the balance wheel assemblies and the mainsprings since the shock absorbers were not that well, or non-existent. However, modern/upscale watches have much more robust assemblies and alloys.
I may send my watch in for regulation and check in a decade, but I don't expect that its mainspring will be replaced at that interval. Even my entry level Seiko 5 is pretty much spot on after 5-6 years.
On the other hand, my first mechanical, a Swatch Diaphane automatic has died because it had no shock absorber and fell to a soft carpet from my hand, approximately from 1M above ground. It can no longer keep accurate time if it's not flat on a table.
If the only reason you take your watch in for service is because the time is drifting a lot each day, you've waited too long. At that point the lubricants have almost certainly broken down and the metal contact points are grinding away. The metal that's worn off ends up on other parts of the movement as dust and can be abrasive.
Your Seiko 5 can be cleaned and serviced (you can regulate it yourself with a Timegrapher you get on ebay for $100), but I'd probably just replace the movement with a new one. They are essentially disposable.
Neither confirm, nor deny. It's not my watch, I'm just the messenger of the owner. He said it's not opened. I can't say anything else.
> If the only reason you take your watch in for service is because the time is drifting a lot each day, you've waited too long.
For me a drift for service is a minute/day at most. Also, these are the words of the retailer I bought the watch from. They carry and service from Tissot to Omega, and everything in between for the last 20+ years, so I'm assuming they at least they know what they're talking about (Longines official recommendation is 6-8 years on their website, BTW).
> Your Seiko 5 can be cleaned and serviced (you can regulate it yourself with a Timegrapher you get on ebay for $100), but I'd probably just replace the movement with a new one. They are essentially disposable.
I'd rather not replace a japan made movement which constantly hits +/- 4 seconds every day, esp. if it's designed to be very low maintenance and repair. Of course I can upgrade it in myriad of ways, but I bought it for what it is, and I'd rather keep it stock. A 7S36C can be a very simple movement, but it's not exactly disposable.
I'm aware of the depth of the rabbit hole, and I'm making a conscious choice of staying at the surface, because I rather have less number of dependable items rather than a fleet which needs constant love. I've found the depths of proverbial rabbit holes in other ways, so I'm pretty experienced about the consequences.
Swatch shop employees in my country wears a watch on each wrist, again which I don't like how it looks.
Why? :)
This means you have an hermetically sealed unit which rewinds itself as you live your life, and works off its reserve when you put it aside. This unit runs off mechanical energy, with no electricity whatsoever, and keeps time pretty spot on for what it is.
Moreover this steel+sapphire construction is made to held up against daily elements and some (a 30 bar designation is no slouch), over the decades you presumably own the piece.
As a result, you carry something you can depend (and love to look at) for a very long time, and live your life together, in a sense. Long living items collect memories with you, and act as a trigger for these memories too.
This is very different from an item which you consume and (have to) throw away three years later. This is why some people are this much into watches, fountain pens, and other low tech items which have long lifespans, presumably generations.
This is a damning with faint praise.
Yes, mechanical watches are amazing if you think of them as tiny devices packed with gears and rotors and jewels and springs. This is what drew me to them in the first place.
But in an absolute sense, they are simply poor timekeeping devices. The "elite chronometer" certification on high-end watches means that a mechanical watch is required to be +/- 2 seconds/day. A normal quartz watch is +/- 20 seconds/month, which is significantly better. There are high-accuracy quartz watches which are +/- 5 seconds/year.
There is nothing preventing you from owning a quartz watch for decades just like a mechanical watch. It's just going to cost you - a small fraction compared to mechanicals. Replacing a battery every few years will cost you less than a full mechanical rebuild every decade.
> daily elements and some (a 30 bar designation is no slouch)
A silly flex. More WR comes with more weight/size. Divers mostly use diving computers now.
Well, considering a lowly Seiko 5 can always point to the correct minute within some (+/- 15) seconds without adjusting it ever is a remarkable achievement if you ask me. A top of the line server has more drift than that gearbox.
> But in an absolute sense, they are simply poor timekeeping devices.
If you want sub second accuracy to time F1 races, yes. For catching your metro, no.
> A normal quartz watch is +/- 20 seconds/month, which is significantly better. There are high-accuracy quartz watches which are +/- 5 seconds/year.
Yet, their batteries tend to go flat on the most inconvenient times, and without warning if you're not using a higher end movement.
> Replacing a battery every few years will cost you less than a full mechanical rebuild every decade.
Every 2-3 years to be precise, unless you use an entry level Casio digital wristwatch, which will last a decade.
> A silly flex. More WR comes with more weight/size. Divers mostly use diving computers now.
It's not a flex. A 30 bar watch will just last. It's not about just WR.
You don't need to like automatics, that's OK. If I want utmost precision, I'd wear a GPS enabled Casio. However, for some of us out there, using these things are about appreciating the craft and engineering going into these things. Like vinyl, fountain pens and mechanical keyboards.
No need to be frantic about some seconds unless you're synchronizing server farms for TLS, TOTP or other stuff. Even life is not that rigid about timing. That rigidity is something we enforce on our lives.
Use what you enjoy, get your favorite hot drink and relax. :)
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-...
It’s funny you say this. I view this of watches, but I wear a Whoop band which gives me utility.
My brother-in-law wears a watch, but has multiple times wondered why I wear a bracelet. His claim is “I don’t need a bracelet to tell me I slept horribly,” which is, in my opinion, completely missing the mark.
But it made me think about perception - I view watches as effectively jewelry because I have a smartphone. The benefits I could get out of a smart watch don’t match what I get from my Whoop (I’m very anti-notification so the Apple Watch doesn’t appeal to me), so I just view them all as vanity items (I realize they aren’t, but they would be for me).
Sorry, just an aside - perception is strange.
I don't want to have to dig my phone out of my pocket, every time I want to know what time it is.
I also like to keep an eye on the outside temperature, so that's useful.
I don't like frivolous notifications, but I rely on important ones, and the Watch is pretty much perfect, for that.
Funny, I actually decided the opposite - I think making it too easy for me to check the time promotes anxious thinking, especially when as for most cases, the exact time doesn't really matter that much. I think making it slightly harder to check the time is good thing for me.
Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone, and might be a bad idea if you regularly do things that really do need an up to the minute time accuracy.
I'm pretty anal about time. People know they can rely on me. It's a thing.
It also has a small scorch mark from an arc welding incident he had that I treasure.
It's also a fairly inexpensive watch, so it's no big deal should I lose it. (I have no sentimental attachment to mine.)
A downside I see to smartwatches is they feel outdated after a few years. With this, you make the decision to stick to the basics, but hopefully you're not generating any more waste for the next 10-15 years.
(Edit: spelling)
It's a great watch. I would wear it more, but it's a little gaudy for me, and heavy. Still, I've really mistreated it a lot, and it just keeps on going.
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 :-)
https://www.amazon.com/CASIO-PROTREK-PRW-7000FC-1JF-MENS-JAP...
It all may be great for you but depending on your activities one may appreciate higher precision / more capable instruments.
That being said, I used to wear some old Suunto that are probably even worse and I had to switch battery every few years. I didnt mind being 100-150m off in altitude for example in some himalayan treks or skitours in alps since terrain navigation was easy. Stopped with them altogether, for weekends phone is vastly superior and battery is no problem. And since kids I dont do much more situations that actually use such watches.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
The SDK is pure JavaScript and seems friendly enough (I only got a few examples working and lost interest) - https://dev.fitbit.com/build/tutorials/examples/
I don't know if the SDK can target the luxe BTW
PineTime : https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
Charging one time a week.
The battery life also seems significantly better than advertised. I unboxed and charged to 100% on 13th November, and now on 21st November it's sitting at 43%. I wake the display up maybe a dozen times per day to check the time, read notifications, or pick up a phone call.
Updating the firmware was a breeze, the thing just works. Only snag I've noticed is that the pedometer is too sensitive, with no obvious way to adjust sensitivity.
I haven't risked showering with it yet, but it's supposed to be waterproof up to 1 meter. I suppose this implies it wouldn't survive a swimming session though.
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.
I bought this 18mm strap: https://aliexpress.com/item/33044774071.html
And this tool: https://aliexpress.com/item/32976742331.html
I solved this problem by going on Aliexpress and ordering replacement metal band that fits the F-91w, A-158, and similar models. It costed $4.98. Been using it ever since and it works great. Being metal, now it's the least fragile part of the watch. You can also just upgrade to the ~$20 A-158, or one of the other metal band Casios, and get that out of the box. Timex also makes the T80 with a metal band as well.
I slightly prefer the light weight of the plastic band, but if you're okay with a metal band and your arm isn't too hairy (these low end metal bands like these can be painful if you are), then that's an option. The only tool you'll need to replace this is a spring bar tool that has the straight poker end or something similar.
1: https://www.amazon.com/Casio-A158WA-1-Water-Resistant-Digita...
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GAYQJ0
A158
Do you know the difference between the A158 and the A1000? And don't say it's 842 :D
There are plenty of almost-similar models, with the same low prices and some have standard lugs. The A158W is one of them. Then buy any strap you want, leather or textile are nice and cheap.
You'll want 18mm wide bars and straps.
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...)
Fixed that.
Please, just make all things possible! Let me micro-manage the shit out of notifications!
Upsides: Month long battery (doesn't use a standard USB cable, but it reaches full charge in about an hour), basic activity tracking, smart alarm clock (which I absolutely adore[0], haven't used phone's alarm for years), no subscription needed for any of its features.
Downsides: glass is not scratch-resistant (mine's full of scratches), getting data out of via API is not trivial, and the screen itself is annoyingly small (it can fit like 10 characters).
For the past two or three years I did look into other options a couple of times, but they all either don't have any additional actually useful features, or if they do their battery barely lasts days. I don't see myself switching to anything else for the foreseeable future, unless Withings goes out of business of course.
[0] Instead of telling it "wake me up at 9am", you can tell it "I need to wake up at 9am, but 8:30am is fine if you detect my sleep is weak". It wakes you up by vibrating. Quick press of the only button on the watch turns the alarm off, longer press snoozes it for 10 minutes.
EDIT: I also discovered by accident that it still "works" even with 0% battery. I forgot to bring that special USB cable with me on some trip and I still used it to track time/steps for days until I returned home.
The latest models do not have this problem.
> EDITED: I also discovered by accident that it still "works" even with 0% battery.
This is by design, I think in dumb mode it gets you another 5-10 days.
The latest models have"only" 2-3 weeks battery but pack a ton of medical features (Withings is a medical company).
The firmware can be replaced with your own.
The battery won't last a year though.
I have a colmi P8 and it was easy to get wasp-os uploaded and now have micropython available with direct connection into the watch!
Battery life is really only 24-48hrs if you don’t do anything heavy.
Sometimes I wonder how more useful it is than my apple watch.
Is that a different model? Is the website defunct?
on closer inspection, it does say 'out of stock'
Do you care to comment on the smartwatch features or health monitoring one?
I remember there is now basically rebranded Bip with different firmware sold under different name (Bangle.js 2 or some other unknown chinese models), but nothing improved in last few years for low price in compact body. Everything else like those Casio or Garmin watch with good displays and battery life or LILYGO TTGO T-Watch-2020 are like 15mm, more than 50% ticker than original Bip.
I like Bip so much that when it failed (because of a design flaw fixed in Lite and later Bip models), I bought Bip Lite (since I never used Bip's GPS, always using the phone's instead).
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
I'd love to see this happen though!
Light, reliable, cheap. A true spartan watch
edit, just confirmed that this is the case:
F91W light: https://i0.wp.com/thetruthaboutwatches.com/wp-content/upload...
F105W light: https://media.karousell.com/media/photos/products/2021/7/19/...