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Comment by throwanem | Hacker News Reader

Look at Amazfit. Oh, they market to folks who like squares too, but not only. Many of their more classically proportioned models take standard straps, and in several months of use I've found the Balance so delightful as to decide to stock a couple of spares; it's been reliable thus far, but I'm hard on a watch. (It has to keep up!) The customizability and programmability also can't be beat; the experience obviously takes heavy DX notes from Apple, but without almost all the overhead. And I get compliments!

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Honestly the top brand right now. And if you don't want a watch, they also have a whoop-like strap for 99.99$

I had an Amazfit GTR-4, bought a Whoop because I wanted to wear classical watches and I really can't wait for my subscription to expire so I can go back to Amazfit.

The watch is amazing - it looks great, has a long lasting battery (2-3 weeks), quite a solid app to go with it, has GPS that you can enable when you need to and has mini apps on it that are sometimes quite useful (voice notes, timers, stretches, even a ChatGPT mini-app someone made). And it's a 3 year old watch - the new ones are even better and look nicer.

While they had some issues previously with algorithm accuracy for HR and sleep, last year it has improved wildly and the updates hit the old devices too, leaving it on par with top tier watches.

I really can't imagine getting a smartwatch whose battery lasts less than 2-3 days. Makes it super impractical for any traveling/hiking/camping or any kind of a trip where you won't have your charger with you.

I could see hybrids having a moment.

We're obviously well into an Apple watch fashion backlash, to a point where "not obviously a smartwatch" in itself can help sell, and most of the really useful complications can present enough UI on a dot-addressable partial-face display. (By the standards of early digitals, this is luxury!) And with something like a momentarily backlit transflective LCD costing microampere-hours to run, weeks to months of battery should be achievable with careful programming.

Strictly, I don't suppose there's a reason why a hypothetical top-end model couldn't present a full-face display as at present, but with physical hands via a central holepunch, and a touchscreen integrated into the crystal as well as the usual physical controls. It seems like the best of both worlds, and I'd easily pay half a grand or more to find out, but now I'm just dreaming out loud.

Oh definitely, I recently bought my mother a similar Garmin - it is elegant, looks lady-like and is basically a physical watch with smart features integrated. The way the display is integrated into the dial is actually supersmooth and really surprised me, did not expect it from such a relatively cheap watch (vivomove). Definitely check out their offer, as it might be what you're looking for.

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