Be Excellent To Each Other

I have a lot of blind spots, but that clock is in the bin at least.

I like Fossil watches, but their latest one that does heart rate doesn't have GPS at all which is a shame.
https://www.fossil.com/uk/en/wearable-t ... -more.html

The Misfit Vapor is another possibility. That does most things but uses your phone's GPS for tracking so could be ok.....
https://misfit.com/uk_en/smartwatch/misfit-vapor?

Aw, I love the fossil watches. Russell’s is a Fossil, but it’s just a ticking watch. So pretty though. Shame about the GPS as they are very pretty.

Will look more at the second one as I did look at the vapor earlier today.

I really like Fossil - I've got six or seven in various styles including one like Russell's but a different colour.

As I change my watch every couple of days I wanted a simple activity tracker to wear on my other wrist so I have a Misfit Shine which I've been very pleased with.

I just ordered one of these in fetching dark green!

If it is to smartwatches what my Xiaomi is to phones then I'll be pretty happy with it.

Nice. I thought it was an old school LCD to start with

The battery life is a pretty big draw for me. But not as much as the price.

I've switched back and forth between iOS and Android a couple of time.

I've currently got a Samsung S9, and had it bundled with a Gear S3 smartwatch too.

The S3 watch is kinda neat and I like some of the things it can do but I still can't shake the feeling that it's a bit of a pointless frippery overall.

The good:
It's a really nice screen and changing watch faces is easy. The kids love that I can have pictures of them on it.
Tracks steps, distance travelled, some other workout stuff, sleep, can use it to log water/food/caffeine intake (the calorie count and the BPM are possibly a touch unreliable though, and after a day or two of novelty I don't bother with drink counting).
Pairs with the phone super easy.
Controlling the music player without getting my phone out of my pocket is cool, and useful.
It works OK as a 'hands free' device while driving.
Reminders and alerts are useful for meetings & schedules. It's not perceived as being quite as 'rude' to check a watch as it is a phone (it's easier to surreptitiously glance at my wrist).
The hourly 'inactive - get moving' reminder is quite good as I do sit at a desk most of the working day.
The rotary bezel is a really swish interface mechanism.
There's a watch face that looks like the one from Goldeneye on the N64
It's water resistant (but not waterproof)
There's an app that makes the screen go bright white, like a little torch, that has been useful a couple of times.



The bad:
It's another battery to have to keep on top of (the battery life is pretty good, it can easily go two full days without being 'managed' but at can't really go to three.
There aren't many apps available (although, how many more do we really need?)
It's quite big (but not as bad as i though).
The included strap is not very nice (easy to change, and does come with a smaller strap too for the more dainty wristed. Same construction though).
I feel like a bit of a twat sometimes using it in public.
When it goes to sleep, it doesn't open on the app I was previously using (eg reminders for a shopping list).
Notification overload, mainly because I haven't set it all up yet, but I get 8 weather updates or so a day from a couple of different apps (phone apps, watch app, google). Similarly, there can be a cacophony of alerts (computer, phone, watch) if I get a few messages in quick succession, again though, I could fiddle with settings to change this.

Do I like it? Yes. Would I recommend it? Um, maybe

I would go for a garmin. A lot have the features toy want. A lot better built quality than a fitbit

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/cIntoSp ... 71-p1.html

You must feel deeply uncomfortable whenever you come here

I honestly can't remember so can't be that bad.

Admittedly mine aren't particularly loud but I have quite a few. One of the (admittedly odd) reasons I fell in love with our new house is because the current owner has multiple clocks in every room, and I could just see myself living there.

How is it, Mark?

Still winging its way from China

Ah, ok. I reckon I'm going to order one too. They review very well

Yeah, seems like they do most everything you really need except don't need charging every other day which is one of the things that put me off smartwatches.

Mimi! In case you're still reading this, note that these ones aren't actually waterproof enough for swimming.

I am! I’m still completely undecided, and we had another look last night at a few of the ones I’d narrowed it down to.

The Fossil and another similar one I saw were just saw beautiful, but wouldn’t really do for what I needed it for. So lovely, though. Was sorely tempted. Far too much money for something that isn’t what I need, though, as then I’d have to buy a more fully functioned smart watch as well. So pretty, though.

Looked at the Garmins in comparison to the Fitbit, and the only ones with onboard GPS and all the other things were both a lot more expensive than the Fitbit snartwatches and looked very big and styled to be overly masculine for what I wanted.

I’m going to gave a look again this evening, as I have done every night, as I can’t decide whether to get one that looks a bit squarer but has the GPS built in, or one that essentially looks like an iWatch but has everything I need apart from on board GPS. I don’t want an actual iWatch simply because I think there’s a good chance my next phone will not be an iPhone.

My mother in law has a Garmin Vivofit 4

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/582444

It's waterproof, has a 1 year battery and comes in a more feminine style

No GPS though. Darn.

The garmin are more robust than fitbit. A lot of my running biddies have returned a lot of the fit bits.

I don’t understand this at all. When I go to bed, I take my watch off and put it on the charger on my bedside table, next to my phone. This is routine so I never forget it. If it only needed charging (say) once a week, there’s a decent chance I’m going to forget one day and it’s going to go flat.

At no point in the day am I lazier than right before bed and there's enough techno clutter on the bedside table as it is. A watch that I can charge once a month but otherwise just wear seems like a decent idea.

You’re too lazy to put a watch onto a magnetic charger instead of just putting it anywhere? It’s zero effort.

I was looking at one of those but decided on getting something that looked more like a watch so I could wear it Day in and out as just a watch, which will be one of the primary functions, and tge lack of god just ruled it out.

You'd need to spend a bit for a built in deity

I’ve put two fitbits through not only a wash cycle but also a full hot dryer cycle for 3.5 hours, and they both emerged fine But I’m probably not going to put mine through the rigours your triathalin mates do.

My doctor has agreed I can push myself a bit more when I’m feeling up to it according to the various medications they are trying, but on strict understanding that I don’t overdo things. My problem has been that I have a ‘good’ day and end up hauling myself around carrying all sorts of things for 7 miles and then come home before heading off to the pool, then I’m really sick for three to five days later. I want to be able to accurately track how I’m doing on various meds to find my limits and also build very slowly. In January I was so ill I couldn’t move out of bed for days at a time in pain, so it’s part of just trying to claim some life back, gently, so not through the same kind of rigours as your super fit friends x

After accounting for summertime, point the hour hand at the sun. The bisection between 12 and the hand is the north-south line.

D’oh!

Extra expense!

I was not counting the triathlon watches, they are a mental price.

They wee looking at the fitbit equivalents, a lot user the Garmin FR35, a great piece of kit and quite small.

They all come with magnetic chargers.

The ones that cost more.

Ah yes, that was one on my shortlist.

What on earth were you drying on hot for 3.5 hours?!

No help with the watch though - sorry.

Just the washing. Actually, it sets itself at 3hrs 50mins, dries a bit and then weighs the washing and judges the remaining water and then recalculates, so I’m not sure of the actual drying time, but when I set it it says 3hrs 50 as a standard starting point no matter the load.

Grump Face has a Special Amusement for putting whatever the fuck is in the washing machine on boil wash followed by massive heat. If I didn't admire her dedication to the cause, Sanctions Would Occour.

As it is, I get to say "this jumper is tight, I need to do running" and fuck off for an hour.

Opportunities, take them

Is it a condenser dryer, Mimi?

Yes, it’s a condenser. The actual drying times can be anything from 20 minutes to nearly four hours depending on the load, but it’s an extra large drum so will take a huge dry load.

Ah! That makes more sense (and is less likely to burn your flat down). Mine is rarely on for an hour though, so maybe it's less than you realize.

Amazfit Bip turned up today. Love it! Feels really nice to wear and just seems to do everything I would want it to. Off out for a run at lunchtime so I'll see how the data compares to that from the strava app on my phone. Although I'll probably still be using the phone when I'm running anyway since I'm normally listening to a book or some music while I'm at it.

I got a watch. True to forum form everyone posted what they had and I bought the one I first saw anyway (actually, different watch, but same company). But honestly, this thread WAS helpful as it helps me consider more scenarios and use cases, and I decided in the end that the onboard GPS was more important than pretty pretty watch. I’ve had it since Thursday and love it. Taking it swimming on Thursday too. Good to leave phone at home yesterday too as I don’t like taking it with me if I don’t have to.

So... what did you buy?

An Xbox.

It’s a Fitbit Ionic. I love the newer one, it’s so pretty and they have it in pink, but I thought this was more practical and it fit all the criteria and works with the Fitbit app I’ve always used so I feel comfortable using it.

Having done a run with my Bip the GPS tracking worked faultlessly however compared to the garmin chest strap the heart rate data seemed consistently low, by about 20bpm. Perhaps it needs to be on a little tighter for running because the rest of the time it's showing the 50-55bpm that I would expect. But not really a big deal since most of the time I'll just be using my old setup anyway. It is really nice to be able to glance at my wrist to see my pace, though. The display on this little watch deserves a special mention, the reflective panel which gives it the huge battery life also means that it's actually easier to see the more light there is but even indoors you don't need to activate the backlight to read it. Definitely seems like a sensible way to go for these things.

I decided to join in the fitbit fun, and my Versa arrived today! here's hoping it motivates me to lose some of this timbre I've built up over the last 10 or so years...

I've given thought to getting a new tracky fitness watch this year so this thread has been useful Mimi, thanks

Ah, was that you that friended me? That’s actually come through on s really old account so I’ll wirk out how to link you to my actual current one x

Yeah, that was me, went down my FB friends list and added people it said had Fitbit