Why I no longer wear Smartwatches, or how a a wearable pioneer got himself a G-Shock
Years ago I wore a Citizen quartz and all was good and well, but then, being seriously tech oriented, I learned about a startup company that was crowdfunding something they called a "Smartwatch". Both concepts were new to me and I go interested. This was the Kickstarter campaign for the pebble (the photo on top of this post is taken from the original campaign page), the first Smartwatch and the first integrating features such as receiving notifications from a mobile phone, that we take now as granted. And so I became a wearable pioneer before the word was invented.
My pebble was red, it had an extremely legible e-ink display and a battery that could keep its charge for more than a week. Nobody had anything similar to it and I was smitten. I continued with the first round smartwatch from LG (The Motorola that came before was only 95% round), and from there to other models, each one more tech loaded than the other. All this happened while my Eco-Drive Citizen languished in a drawer until its capacitor died.
But then what used to be cool and exciting became a burden because I could no longer tolerate the constant notification stream intruding on my life. it was kinda OK during work and became intolerable once it invaded my free time and destroyed every pretense I had to rest and do my own things during my own free time. I threw the Smartwatch into a drawer and got myself the simplest and most hassle free watch I could get: A G-Shock DW-5600E which I still own.
And that’s how I started collecting watches and why I don’t wear my Smartwatch unless I have to. I’m still a serious TechHead, I can still appreciate the marvels of miniaturization and engineering that goes into wearable technology, but I’ll be damned if I’ll let my job take over my life again.
I'm a big fan of watches that are interesting because they are either unique, have interesting features, well designed or simply offer a great value for their price.
Yeah I never wanted notifications. Even on my phone they are extremely minimal and time limited as well.
And I can't stand the heart rate bump on the bottom. Or having to charge them all the time.
Still I love the screen on my gbd200. Like ana-digi watches it has the benefit of never confusing the local time with other modes at a glance.