I lost my trusty LG Watch Urbane about 6 months ago. It didn't really bother me too much as I'd had it for about 5 years (bought for £120 used), and I wasn't really leaving the house. Now things are starting to kick off again, I'm looking at spending a similar amount on a smartwatch, but it seems that the market has got considerably worse since I last looked.
There are millions of shitty cheap watches out there with proprietary operating systems, and a few watches in the £100-150 range, but it seems a lot of manufacturers have given up on making their watches look like watches at this price point. One of the best features of the LG was multiple people not realising it was a smartwatch for months or years, until they saw me using it.
It's looking like my best bet around the £120 price point is a used Samsung Galaxy Watch, but even that is a bit too... it's got the second markers on the bezel and looks a bit Casio. Wear OS or Tizen (I've not had Tizer in years, and now I really want some) are a must, so do you lads know of anything sub-£150 used that's a better bet for looking like an actual watch?
A watch is an aesthetically appealing thing, and one of the few bits of "jewellery" a man can get away with culturally. I don't see anything wrong with sinking a bit of money into one if it brings that person pleasure and serves a function.
Of course it's also a bit of a status symbol, but so is a well-fitted suit, or any choice about your appearance for that matter.
That said, I'm not sure I understand the appeal of smart watches so much, unless they double as some sort of fitness tracker or something that must be worn on the wrist. Honestly I can do without another device beeping and chiming at me.
>>27890 I really enjoy designing my own watchfaces, and I like the idea of being able to check the time without having to do the full distraction of my phone.
Weirdly, it seems that a good 99% of all custom faces are just completely fucking hideous, full of low-quality jpgs of Rolex watchfaces but without the movement, even though WatchMaker and Facer let you script your own movements in. That, and faux-digital watchfaces that emulate seven-segment deiplays when you have entire fonts to play with.
For example, I created the Swiss Rail face that did the actual movement (and in fact better than the Mondaine stop2go ones as it has a smooth movement rather than the jerk of the stop2go, and cost £200 less). S'yeah, that's why I want another.
>>27890 I'm with you on that. I don't get overly smart watches, but I did recently invest in a smart-ish gadget watch - the Garmin Instinct Solar. Largely this is so that I can go running without taking my phone, but it's really comfortable and it's solar powered, so it's quickly become my daily driver.
>>27890 I don't get the jewellery/status symbol bit. Maybe I would have agreed in the past when technology wasn't as advanced, but I don't think I've ever paid attention to the watch someone was wearing, unlike a well-fitted suit or a haircut which are things you can't ignore. Real watches are overpriced, heavy, uncomfortable, and have functions that I'll never need or use.
A smartwatch on the other hand will still be uncomfortable but it will be lighter and is effectively a smartphone on your wrist with all the function that implies. The Samsung Gear Fit 2 isn't a fully-functional smartwatch but due to its ergonomic shape it's definitely the most comfortable watch I've ever worn, I often forget I'm wearing it. I can read my texts without taking my phone out, and it - guess what - tells the time just as well as a real watch. And it ran me fifty quid on eBay. So all you Patrick Batemans can go and wank over your Omega Chronometers and whatever that cost more than a car, I'm happy with it.
Won an eBay auction for a Samsung Galaxy Watch overnight. It's the LTE version so theoretically I could connect my bluetooth headphones up and leave the house without my phone. I'm not going to do that as I'm on VOXI which don't seem to offer the service, even though Vodafone do.
It's still not as nice-looking as the Urbane but realistically it was so far underspecced for Android Wear 2 that half the features were unusable, and the Samsung Watch 3 is effectively the same watch but a bit nicer-looking for £300 more. But yeah, as I say I just looking having my own watchfaces, and the time/music control/notifications without having to take my phone out of my pocket is a nice feature.
Isn't leaving the house without a phone a bad idea? The question makes me sound infantilised but Sods law says that the moment leave my phone behind I'll lock myself out, get an injury and find a dead body all in the space of 10 minutes.
>>27896 In all those circumstances you can call for help, find a payphone, ask to use someone else's phone... you are not going to be impaired from reacting appropriately when not carrying a phone of your own.
This is a case of different tastes. Not meaning to be rude about your watch, it's perfectly valid choice, but the colourful plastic and icons make it look a bit like a toy to me. I'd wear it to exercise, but it doesn't make me happy to look at in the same way looking at a real watch does, which is totally subjective.
There must be some form of smart watch out there I'd like. The imitation watches are a bit weird, like when modern hi-fi systems are retrofitted into old cabinets. There's probably a lot of scope for well designed smart watches that aren't derivative of old designs, but don't necessarily look like smartphones strapped to your wrist, either. I'm inclined to blame Apple for this, as their smart watches are hideous.
Notice I totally ignore comfort, I'm open about wearing a watch mainly for how it looks.
>>27899 >find a dead body
Funny sort of scam where you produce a dead body just to nick someone's phone, or ask someone to call for an ambulance for you to do that same.
>I'll lock myself out
Neighbours and the local shop keepers would recognise you even if you're not on speaking terms.
>>27900 I honestly think the first generation of smartwatches (square ones excepted) put far more of an emphasis on looking nice than the current generation ones do. The 1st Moto 360 looked great.
What I don't understand is people who keep their credit cards in their phone case. Losing your phone is a massive pain in the arse, losing your wallet is a massive pain in the arse, but losing both seems like the sort of thing that would fling you into a Kafkaesque nightmare.
Fossil have some reasonably handsome smartwatches. I suspect that the market has gravitated towards smartwatches that conspicuously look like smartwatches.
>>27900 I'm surprised that fob watches and pocket watches haven't been smartified. They've got a bit more room for battery, and you could look like a colossal tool, which I understand has an appeal.
I don't think the original intent was to suggest that it's a good idea to go out without a phone if you live in, as you describe, a rural, desolate, crime hotspot.
>>27907 The original intent was actually to say that the smartwatch has a mobile radio in so if you needed to call 999 you could do it via your watch and bluetooth headphones (or just go all Star Trek and talk directly through the watch).
>>27905 True, some of the Fossil/Skagen ones don't look too bad (I quite like the pictured Falster 3) but in general they are a bit Casio these days.
It's astounding nobody has thought of putting fancy chains on them like a Kensington lock. Keeps it safe from pickpocketing as well as signalling class.
>>27911 Some googling found this. Certainly not fancy, but I'm trying to think why most people don't already have one of these, myself included. Would I find it too annoying to clip and unclip when I need to leave it to charge etc.? I dunno.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVFcUjfG_c0
>>27912 I used to see these all the time but haven't recently.
I used to have a metal wallet chain and was relentlessly bullied for it even though I kept it inside my pocket and did save me from getting pickpocketed a couple of times when I lived in a particularly seedy area.
