A family member of mine recently got a cheap smart watch online. They weren't planning to use it with a phone app for privacy/security reasons. They thought using it without a phone would be fine, since they just wanted it for the time and for the health features like steps, blood pressure, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, etc. and didn't need to see their texts or other notifications on the watch.

Unfortunately, when we tested the watch, we found that basically all of the features required connecting to a shady no-name company's app. You couldn't even set the time! You can't set the time on a watch without an app!

Also, the watch was a bit bulky for their wrist, and they would prefer a slimmer one.

People of Tildes, do you know of any smart watches that allow you to use the health tracking features without ever connecting to a smartphone? If so, are there any that are slimmer instead of being bulky?

I'm looking for a digital watch with a step counter that ideally resets every day. I've had a few smartwatches and my latest Garmin is nearing the end of its life. I've decided that time and step counting is really all I need out of a watch. Can anyone reccomend a watch like this?

She currently has apple everything, but is open to getting something like a Garmin watch.

Rough requirements are:

• Batter life of at least a few days with normal use, ideally up to a week
• Physical activity tracking for swimming. She isn't a runner and doesn't need running-specific features.
• Heart rate / sleep tracking
• Receive and view emails / texts / notifications from her iphone

Some watches she is most interested in are:

• Enduro 3 even though she's not doing multiple day expeditions, she loves the idea of the battery lasting that long, but it is a bit heavy / bulky and has a lot of features that she won't use for the price
• Another apple watch, but even the upgrade is only a day and a half of battery
• Garmin forerunner, we were taking a look at this comparison chart and if she doesn't care about all the running features, would the cheapest version like https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1611937/pn/010-02863-33/ to just act as a budget apple watch with better battery as long as she still gets all the notifications and it works with her iphone?

Also taking suggestions from other brands, I'm just mostly familiar with Garmin and have an instinct solar 2 for 4 years that I really enjoy.

I bought a Timex Expedition North Titanium Automatic a few months ago and have been enjoying it, but it gains about 10s a day that I have to correct. Nowadays we have incredibly accurate and precise clocks that can tell us exactly what time it is, but all mechanical clocks and watches have some amount of inaccuracy.

How did people account for inaccurate clocks in the past? Even if time didn't need to be standardized outside of a community until the railroads and a central clock in town could act as a reference for the entire community, wouldn't the central community clock drift? Eventually the central clock could say it was midnight at sunset. While people can tell that is incorrect, how could they say to what extent it was incorrect?

Summary because I rambled a bit below: I would like suggestions for a smartwatch primarily for notifications with a good battery life and a price of less than 400 USD.

I have been using a Xiaomi Mi Band 4 for two or three years now and I'm considering upgrading to a "real" smartwatch. My primary uses for it are silent alarms and notifications, but I really need at least a 4 day battery life. My main watch when I am not wearing the Mi Band is a 38mm Timex IronMan, and I am comfortable with that size. I would like any potential smartwatch to be no larger than a 42 mm face. I would like the smartwatch and potential connected app to at least pretend not to sell my data. This is why I use the paid version of Notify for Mi Band instead of the official app (that and all of the customization). My other uses for the smartwatch are less important to me, but include step counting, activity tracking (primarily walking and biking), and sleep tracking.

I have been looking at a Garmin Instinct 2S, since it has a long battery life and apparently Garmin is "better" with data security than most. In addition, I could even use the watch without ever downloading the app, although I have yet to find out if notifications would work in that case. The 300 USD price tag is a little jarring, coming from the 35 USD Mi Band, but comparable options are just as pricey.

Honestly, the Mi Band 7 calls to me because it has improved significantly over the 4 and is supported by Notify. It would not be the "upgrade" that I had originally intended, though, and I would continue to have issues with the specialty bands for it.

Does anyone have any alternative suggestions or experiences with the above?

I see some nice watches that I like, but 80-90% of them are the silver/stainless steel color. I'm not sure why that color is so prevalent (probably the same reason 40% of new cars are white), maybe a lot of people love it but its not for me.

Let's say I found a watch I really liked, but wanted the case/bezel/lugs (and of course the strap) to be black stainless steel. Is this something a jeweler or watch repair shop would be able to do?

There's a type of watch that's very popular. It has a clean, clear, design. It's definitely a classic. I have mixed feelings about it because of the origins of the design.

The watch is big. I has a black dial with white numbers and index marks. At the 12 o'clock position there's a triangle. There's plenty of lume on the dial. They usually have a leather strap, and that strap often has two rivets.

Sometimes the dial has two index rings, the inner ring has hour markings and the outer ring has minute markings.

IWC makes the most well known example: https://www.iwc.com/en/watch-collections/pilot-watches/iw329301-big-pilots-watch-43.html

There are lots of homages:

https://whamond.com/products/laco-watch-pilot-original-heidelberg-39-862094?variant=20123598716982&currency=GBP&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=google+shopping&gclid=CjwKCAiAp7GcBhA0EiwA9U0mtgW5zl3U-UDVpOj2xzQugfY8gjG7C01nWLIjDNRRPNV9C5Ybim0tFRoCrtUQAvD_BwE

https://www.jurawatches.co.uk/products/laco-watch-pilot-basic-aachen-42-861690-2?utm_medium=PPC&utm_campaign=Shopping&variant=10940401025060&sfdr_ptcid=3694_524_461850736&sfdr_hash=d57409f84f1ff15872832c2e5817a3ae&gclid=CjwKCAiAp7GcBhA0EiwA9U0mtpzVPcdQyfLtQzP4-E5jrfi5c7FKYtNrpJD8SnV0DqRqgYthNF70PBoCXgcQAvD_BwE

https://shop.diywatch.club/products/new-arrival-diy-watchmaking-kit-f01-lite-vintage-pilot-watch-with-date?variant=42068938358997

https://www.watchshop.com/watches/mens-sekonda-aviator-watch-3347.pdp

https://mwcwatches.com/products/vintage-ww2-style-german-pilots-watch-1

This style of watch is called "B Uhr", or "B Uhren"and you get many results if you use that search term. It's German, and it's an abbreviation for "Beobachtungs-uhren" which means "observation watch".

My problem with the watch is that is that it was specifically designed for the Luftwaffe in WW2.

https://monochrome-watches.com/the-history-of-the-pilot-watch-part-five-b-uhr/

After the war other airforces, including the British RAF, started using very similar watches.

Most watch sellers do not celebrate the Nazi history of the watch. But some do: https://b-uhr.com/en/collection/b-uhr-luftwaffe-flieger-chronograph.html

So, I don't know how I feel about this watch. Can its clean design be appreciated when I know of its Nazi link? Can I separate the creator from the product?

I am considering the purchase of a Garmin GPS watch, but I don't want to run the bloated Garmin Connect app on my phone. Really all I want, is the ability to pull coordinates from my watch (.gpx files) and put them on my phone or computer. Does a privacy-respecting app like this exist?

I recently went back from Pebbles to a green Casio F91W with a green NATO strap. I did a quick mod tonight to disable the beeping... which lead to everybody in multiple channels chatting about 'dumb' watches and even old calculator / data watches.

I love watches -- from reps to cheap Casios to fancier ones. Indulge me with a little show and tell :)

I recently fixed my old wristwatch when I realized the need to know time is one of the causes for my smartphone addiction. It is nice to know the time from a device without WhatsApp, a web browser, or notifications.

Here it is, nothing fancy but extremely durable, about 15 years old: https://imgur.com/gallery/daDVelR

I’m looking into getting a Casio digital wristwatch with a simple alarm function and a light to see it in the dark. Again, nothing fancy. Just a piece of reliable, single purpose hardware. I love things like that.

They also look really nice.

Do you have and enjoy “dumb watches”? Why? Let’s talk about that :)

My husband's birthday is coming up and I want to get him a smartwatch that syncs with his Pixel. I was gifted an Apple 3 watch which I like a lot and would like to find something with the same sort of functionality for android. I tried going through watch reviews but ended up with buyers paralysis because there's so many to choose from. What would you recommend and why?

Edit: Fitness is not the key use I'm looking for.

I’m looking for a device that can track runs, whether it’s a watch or small device, which just exports raw GPS data via USB. I don’t want it to have Bluetooth, and it’s not enough to be able to disable it, I would just like it to not have any wireless radios whatsoever. Have you guys ever seen anything like this? I feel like it doesn’t exist on the market.

Is there a good smartwatch/simile that monitors sleep and has excellent battery life (measured in weeks not hours)?

I use the Withings (ex-Nokia) Steel HR, but it … kinda sucks. The bluetooth pairings very often lose sleep data, it's very inaccurate, the reporting sucks for non-24s, and the leather bracelet is of very poor quality, keeps breaking.

I really don't care for the fitness/step tracking which, as someone else here put it, thinks typing on a keyboard or eating is a step.

I also briefly tried an Oura (https://ouraring.com/), but I never got it to work and had to send it back.

I also don't care much for any of those "sleep quality" trackers that try to detect if I snore and what not. I can do sleep studies in my own time, I just want to have accurate stats on whether and when I am asleep.

Hi, I wonder if there are people here likes to collect watches. If so, please share about the watch that you're wearing right now, or maybe your watch collection.

As for me, I own a few of Seiko mechanical watches (SNK809, SKX013, and the SARB017), and a couple of Casio digital watches (Casio Royale and W217H)

Lately I'm starting to appreciate quartz watches even more and I'm starting to look at vintage Seiko and Citizen quartz watches.