I’m trying to move away from a fitbit, once in a while I forget to charge it and I have to install the app and fork over all of my data to fitbit to set the time.
Anyone have any recommendations, I need something with a decent heart monitor, that’s really the only thing I care about.
I use a Fossil Hybrid watch with gadget bridge. Works really well, though one caveat is that while you can read and dismiss messages on the watch, you can’t reply from it. This isn’t a problem for my use case, but YMMV. The couple weeks of battery life is a great plus, though. (E-ink screen)
Can I ask which one you have and does it work well with gadgetbridge?
I have been eyeing a watch from them for a while now but gadgetbridge.org seems to only list two compatible watches (or I misunderstand the Fossil naming scheme).
Basically any Fossil / Skagen (they’re the same thing) Hybrid (meaning e-ink) watch will work with Gadgetbridge. I personally have the Fossil Machine Gen 6 Hybrid which works great. Ignore the ‘Alexa’ bit, that does nothing via Gadgetbridge (and in fact you can just flat out remove that ‘app’ in the GB app). Heart Rate and Message/Notification/Call control functions all work fine. Step tracking works, but sleep tracking does not (Fossil doesn’t have it done on the watch, it’s done in their app, so until/unless GB replicates that functionality it won’t work).
I use the Fossil Collider HR with Gadgetbridge and it’s pretty great. Three are some downsides though:
- The set-up is a little bit of a hassle. You need to get the Collider’s secret key, and that requires installing a jailbroken version of the Fossil app
- Any changes you want to make to the watch display have to be made in the Fossil app, which means you have to install that app and do a bit of a runaround whenever you want to change something
But aside from that, it’s been a good year with my Collider HR and Gadgetbridge
Only one I recall (smartwatch open source)
https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
Does this fit the bill for you?
I have one, great use for my notification. Works with gadgetbridge to update as well. I cant upload resource zip files however that say will have new watch styles that is included seperately. Id have to link it to my linux phone to do that. Overall though for the basics its great and the price is nice.
I’m pretty sure Garmin has a good privacy policy - mozilla seemed to like them - and I got a fenix6 sapphire on ebay used for about $250 and I love it. Way better than my apple watch, particularly because I care more about fitness tracking and hate having texts show up on my watch.
Honestly, a good privacy policy, and even a good history of standing up to law enforcement as per the review means nothing to me. They could easily be bought out by vulture capitalists that do whatever they want with the data. Or they get a nice NSL in the mail and it doesn’t matter what the executives think they stand for. You should own your health data.
Garmin Fenix! The new ones are very expensive ($1000), but I picked up a used Fenix 5X a few years ago when it was the most recent model for $350 and I love it! Battery charge lasts about 3 weeks on mine and 6 weeks on the newest ones. It has sports tracking activities for just about anything you’d ever do, a great phone app interface, doesn’t need to be charged for weeks at a time, and has GPS topo maps that you can use while backpacking, cycling , jogging, or even driving. I was able to track how far I paddled in my kayak thanks to the GPS. Anyways, it’s a great watch if you’re looking for a fitness tracker as well as a smart watch to give you phone notifications, music controls, and that sort of thing. The only drawback is that the screen resolution isn’t great on the older ones since they use eInk screens instead of fancy screens. The new one uses OLED, so it’s supposed to look better. Oh, and they’re not touch screens. That was a little clunky for me when I first got it, but it doesn’t bother me now.
Maybe a watch supported by asteroid os is something.
Some models have support for heart monitor. Don’t know if there is a fitness app or something like that.
