As useful as they are smart watches just aren’t for me.

Agreed. Smart watches are not for me either. like you, i like to wear my watches and i generally have a different piece on each day. Variety is the spice of life, right?

i also watched AB and his video re apple watch, root beer and the vintage Omega (which is 👌) we have to respect his choices, just as he would respect our own. I think watch nerds who horde and spent worrying amounts on watches would struggle with an Apple watch for Monday to Friday.

Well I hate the constant charging, the heart rate bump on the bottom, the fact that it will become landfill as soon as the battery is too weak and that the screen isn't always on.

I can do sleep tracking from my phone or a bedside device. And my g shock can track steps and even workouts if I want.

I don't really care if other people like fart watches. But I do hate them for my own uses and I think a lot of people are missing out on the actually good watches when they go for an apple watch. Too many downsides and most of the features can be done better with a phone. 

Definitely agree about variety being the spice of life and I liked all 3 of those watches just don’t think I’d use the Apple. I like Adrian’s tastes though even if he generally deals in watches out of my price range. 

I think that’s great. Like I said I think they’re cool but my workout routine is very simple and boring and all I need is a second hand or at most a stop watch. 

When smart watches reach the point where they only need to be recharged every year or so, and don't become obsolete when new versions of their underlying OS are introduced, I would be prepared to embrace them.  I have a pocket watch in my collection from 1899 that still works and keeps good time. I can't imagine any smart watch that would provide any functionality after a decade let alone a century.  I can understand the appeal of the functionality that they provide, however one of the things that I like about mechanical watches is that they aren't always interrupting me to tell me that I have a new message. 

You might want to check out Kronaby they do something like that I believe. 

I don't like being outsmarted by my Watch!

I've flirted with the  idea of a smart watch a few times. I'd have to wear it on my "spare" wrist if I did. 

Each time I've looked into them it's battery life that's killed the idea. I don't need another device to have battery anxiety over nor another way of connecting with media or social media.  

I had an Apple Watch shortly after they first released and it worked well for me until I tired of the connectedness of it all. I see how they are valuable tools to some though, for sure. 
Having that Apple Watch did put the idea of a wrist watch back in my mind after abandoning it for some years. In that regard I credit Apple Watch with planting the bug of appreciating watches in my head some 5 or so years ago. 
That being said, I don’t want to wear a smart watch anymore.

My wife gifted me a samsung gear s3 classic back in 2017? It doesn't hold a charge longer than half a day now.  I wear it on some hikes to keep stats. Other time it just sits on the charger. I already tried replacing the battery myself,  but couldn't get the back case off b/c I slightly rounded the odd Y-shape screw head even though I was using the proper screwdriver bought off of AMZ for it. 

I agree the battery thing would be annoying, but there are some that has a more standard quartz power source. The Timex in the photos is one though it is quite basic as smart watches go, I’d check out Kronaby and Withings for more advanced features. 

I wear my fitness tracker on my off-wrist and that's all it is even though it has the functions to be a smartwatch. 

Charging generally isn't an issue as I charge 2-3x a week while showering/dressing.

When it dies, I'll likely get a solar G-Shock with step counting ability to continue that. 

I wear a fitbit band type thing on my right wrist and wear a real watch on my left. I like to track my steps and heart rate since a health problem a couple of years ago. I find it quite useful but couldn't ever give up a real watch for it. And don't think I could spend more the a couple of hundred on a device either so that would rule out the high-end pieces available as they get obsolete so fast.

I don't like the connectedness. Even on my phone, I haven't installed some work-related apps that would alert me of work messages, because this is my private device, not a tool supplied by my employer. In fact, my phone is not my constant companion anyway, and it is often in an uncharged state. From this, a smartwatch just does not work with my lifestyle. So, it's not the desire to change watches that is the main stumbling block - sometimes I wear a watch for a week or two, sometimes for only half a day.

I hate so much that my phone is Orwellian. I don’t want a mini version on my wrist. 

Fitness bracelet is the thing that brought me to the idea of getting a mechanical watch. I used a fitness bracelet for 3 years straight everywhere, I slept with it on, I took showers with it on and it only left my wrist for one hour every two weeks to recharge. It didn't have all that fancy functions of an Apple Watch Ultra. It showed the time, messages, counted steps, heart rate, get sleep stats and showed the weather. On the beginning it was a lot of fun, I counted steps, checked on my sleep, could check weather from a bracelet or check my heartrate. Then I counted steps and checked the time. After a year I only used that to check the time. And you have to turn your wrist or touch the bracelet to see the time. It got all scratched up and also annoyed me with it's battery dying on occasion when I needed the watch the most. So I thought that if I only use that for time I can get a quartz or an automatic watch foe checking the time more comfortably, looking better and not having the necessity to recharge. So in the foreseeable future I'm not turning towards smart watches. I will just not use the functions.

The Apple Watch actually got me into watches because I knew I’d never want to own a watch that was going to be obsolete in a year (didnt yet know about “the honeymoon period”). I’ve yet to own an Apple Watch, but I do have a MiBand that I use on the other wrist for notifications of calls, messages, and alarms. I find it’s nondescript enough that I can wear both. 

similar feelings

Thanks for passing this on. I've seen hybrid watches before, but wasn't familiar with this brand - they have some nice designs.

The hybrid smart watches are certainly a huge step in the right direction in terms of battery life, but they are still dependent upon a particular version of an OS to provide their value added functionality, which is the other main problem with Smart watches. I would bet dollars to donuts that in 10 years time all of the "smart watch" functionality they offer will be obsolete. 

There was a LCD smartwatch that had a good battery life but they got bought out and shut down. They should make them solar powered but they draw too much power and give off too much light.

I like this idea. Not generally a fan if double wristing but as a fitbit is so slim that would be a lot more discrete. 

Good point I hadn’t considered software issues. 

Got to admit that I’d been curious as to why no one seemed to have made use of solar in a smart watch. That’s good to know. Thanks. 

I don’t have one and can’t see it happening any time soon

Huh, Marlo Stansfield is on another show.  That might be worth a look.

I keep waiting for the perfect one so that I can stop worrying about mechanical watches.  I've devoted way to much of my life to thinking about this stuff.  

Smart watches are very good at what they do but, at the end of the day, you're wearing a piece of tech that has a shelf life. Compared to even, say, the most basic automatic watch for 100 or 200 bucks which will still be ticking like a champion in 10, 20, 30 years, and still look great.

The Wire Great show! I look at smart watches as a gadget originally conceived in a comic strip from the 1930s and 40s Dick Tracy. Tracy was a detective. People think it's some new idea but not really. Bosch is a crime drama where the lead character is an LA PD homicide detective who wears a Rolex Submariner or Seadweller. Even normies ask how he can afford the watch as a cop.

I'm not sure why the Ultra is getting so much attention and love from the usual watch YouTube suspects (more sporty and rugged with Garmin like functionality/ the smartwatch desk diver?) but I agree that it looks really cool and will certainly generate clicks (esp with Adrian's Rolex in the middle of his pic).

As for the smartwatch itself, my 7 year old original 1st gen Apple watch has a permanent place in my collection because it was a gift from my late Mom who knew I loved tech and picked one up for her almost retired son as a surprise at launch.  While it's no longer supported or updated by Apple, it still runs great. So it's a real watch for a collector like me not just because it "tells the time" but also because of the memories of who gave it to me. Not my Dad's old long gone Omega or a vintage piece handed down with more history but I wouldn't trade the "old" Apple Watch for anything. 

I absolutely agree with you. I really love smart watches and I think they are incredibly useful, so I wanted to give them a chance. I tried 3 times - first with an OG Pebble Classic back in 2014, then with a Huawei Watch GT in 2019 and finally a Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Classic. After about a month or so, I always came to the same conclusion: Having a digital display instead of an actual dial really takes the soul out of a watch. Even the most beautiful watchfaces are just animated pictures projected on a tiny LCD screen. That's why I always went back to my actual watches after a while!