I’m looking for a watch that is able to do basic “smart” things like show notifications and ping my phone if I misplace it. A timer/stopwatch would also be good, and a long lasting battery.
I have no interest in an Apple watch or Galaxy watch, so I’m looking for something comparatively cheap.
I would suggest to look at the models supported by Gadgetbridge and pick one from there. I know I can trust Gadgetbridge not to leak my data since it doesn’t ask for network permission.
https://gadgetbridge.org/gadgets/
I used it for several years, through multiple gadgets (in chronological order)
- Pebble
- Pebble Steel
- Pebble Time Steel
- Mi Band 4
- Amazfit Bip
- Bangle JS2
- Casio GBD-200
I’d second the recommendation for Gadgetbridge and would add most of the Amazfit watches to the list. I have the Amazfit GTS 4 and it has run flawlessly with Gadgetbridge.
I thought about using Amazfit products but all the new ones require Huami/Xiaomi server pairing. How was that process?
I just used a throwaway email to initially sign up to get the Key, then deleted the app. Was very easy.
I more dissapointed that Pebble was unable to find a viable financial path forward :(
Initially the software wasn’t very stable, but that was fixed over time. Overall I liked it a lot, and the available “apps” for it all filled a niche I looked for.
I switched because I wanted to go back to a more classic watch I can simply wear and forget about. I don’t have all the bells and whistles from the BangleJS2, but now I have a watch to see my notifications and step counter that I don’t need to recharge every week, the battery (CR2032) is said to last about 2 years in the GBD-200.
Pine Time probably
Pine Time
I agree with that. It only has really the basic features, but honestly, I’m not using any other features on my Samsung smart watch anyway. I had one and it has one feature which makes it better then the regular smart watches, the battery life. If I remember correctly it ran for almost a week before I had to charge it again.
Pinetime.
I would highly consider leveraging the AsteroidOS project – a privacy-focused linux smart watch effort – on one of their approved devices. That link should bring you straight to the watches they support.
Pine Time works well with Pine Phone, but only has basic functionality with other Android devices, like notifications. Not much else last I looked, but I may be out of sync with the community’s development efforts.
The Bangle.js 2 smart watch is another open source device you could look into.
Oh how cool, I didn’t realize that Florent Revest is still keeping his AsteroidOS alive, great to see! I’ve worked with him a couple of years ago and he implemented over the air updates in our custom Linux distribution. I see AsteroidOS is still build with Yocto, cool stuff and great guy!
Garmin is pretty good and respects user privacy.
