Smart Watch Owners (Apple / Android / Other)

Great question!!! I think most of us here prefer tradition and the use of smart watch is a "fitness device"

I only use my trusty Garmin for running stats and heart rate feedback.

Otherwise I'm a regular analogue guy (Might change my name to that on here 😁).

I've never owned a smartwatch. I looked into buying one, but quickly realised I would never use it as intended. Plus I don't like the fact that they will become somewhat obsolete once the firmware updates end. It just seems like a waste of raw resources.

Indeed, but I'm interested in this position as I have head the suggestion that smartwatches are a gateway on various articles related to the industry... I also have an idea that this information would be useful in support of.

Never owned one and never will. But I do acknowledge that smart watches are here to stay and are a sub branch of horology at this day and time.

Absolutely. I still wear an Apple Watch and not necessarily as a fitness tracker. I love its design and functionality and I use it as a reference to set the time on my mechanical watches. While researching the development of the Apple Watch, I discovered Ikepod (same designer) and that led me to my first traditional watch purchase. From there I grew an appreciation for traditional watches. I can thank the Apple Watch for that.

For years, growing up, between ages 12 to about 25, I never wore a watch. Ironically, during that time, I received about 3 or 4 "collectible" watches as Christmas gifts. (Star Wars Fossil Watches.) I still have those watches, in a box somewhere, in the attic, lol. Maybe I will look for them one day. But I digress.

Once I was at the age where I wanted to wear a watch as part of my daily wardrobe, the first thing I did was to go to a jewelry store and buy a "real" watch. (Citizen Promaster 200M Diver.) From that point on, I wore a traditional, analog watch. That was sometime in the mid-1990s when I bought that Citizen watch. EDIT: My Promaster later got passed down to my son, because I wanted him to have a nice-looking, reliable watch.

In 2005, as a Christmas present, my wife got me a fashion watch. (Marc Ecko "The Encore Oz.") I started wearing that as my main watch. Then in 2014, for Valentine's Day, my wife got me another watch (Stuhrling Original Concorso Raceway.) That became my main watch for a long while, although I did alternate them occasionally. But the point is, they were both analog watches.

Fast forward to 2017, when FitBits were all the rage. I got one, because I wanted to count steps, monitor my heart rate, and lose weight. So I started wearing my FitBit as my main timepiece. I HATED THE FEELING. Because it was plastic, I sometimes forgot I was wearing it. I missed the "heft" of the stainless steel Stuhrling Raceway chassis. And the plain, digital time readout left me feeling non-plussed. I love analog displays, and watching the second hand tick around the dial.

ADD TO THIS, that the particular model of FitBit that I purchased had a wristband that was GLUED to the watch, and couldn't be removed / swapped out, and you have the core reason why I really started to HATE my FitBit, hahaha. And guess what the number one complaint about that model was? That particular model was known for the glue drying out, and the wristband just falling apart, causing the FitBit to LITERALLY just fall off of your wrist!!! This happened to me TWICE. The first time, I mailed it back to them, and they replaced the entire device. The second time it happened, I literally just tossed the device into the trash, and went back to my analog timepieces.

I know that AppleWatches and other smart devices don't have this problem, but I am now also of the opinion that I don't need yet ANOTHER device that is going to bug me with constant notifications the way my phone does. I'm just DONE. Plain and simple. My wrist is now completely ANALOG. 😎 And I am very happy with that decision. I don't miss that FitBit at all. Not one bit.

Ok, my rant is over now. 🤣🤣

I have always liked watches and my answer sort of falls between the poll options, I bought a smartwatch after having other watches and always having more than one watch. I have several smartwatches, Apple, Garmin, Withings & Tissot. The only one that pretty much sits in the drawer unloved is the Apple one, all the others get a regular outing. As others have said, notifications are off on all of them and I just don't like the dull black square of the Apple watch on my wrist. I am a bit of an accuracy fiend so some of the other non-smartwatches I have are radio / bluetooth for setting the time and I have a penchant for solar too! LOL

I'm old enough to pre-date digital watches, let alone smart watches!

I'd been wearing watches for a very long time before even the first smart watches appeared.

Can't see myself ever owning one.

I bought a cheap smart watch as a test to see if I should invest in a more premium model, but found myself wearing mechanicals as often and enjoying them more. That pushed me to get more into watches.

I’ve also started to despise “engineered obsolescence” which will keep me from buying any other smart watches.

Thanks, Adam. This was the response I was most interested in, as I had yet to hear this in person, Thank you for your comment.

No I was already a watch fan before getting a smart watch. Though I find myself using the smart watch less and less these days.

Wow... sounds like you were on the unlucky end of design flaws, I don't see myself ever getting a smartwatch or Fitbit etc for the same notification-based reasons, but sounds like it was a quality issue that tipped you over the line first. Thanks for the comment

Owned the first Apple Watch that was produced. After a few years, it was no longer able to keep getting updates. Decided right then that smartwatches were out for me as I'd likely need a new one every few years (like my phone). That's when I started looking into watches that last a lifetime and here I am years later...alone and addicted to this hobby 😬

30th birthday - not a smart watch guy :)

I'm the opposite. I've been a traditional watch guy for decades and an Apple Watch denier. But I needed something to track my stats for an upcoming marathon, so I recently added the Apple watch to my collection.

And I'll say after owning it for a few months, the Apple watch is splendid. It's not a time piece or jewelry, but a fitness tool. Being able to check my heart rate, blood oxygen, do an ECG, is incredibly useful.

Now is it something I'd wear to a date night, wedding? Probably not. But it has it's place.

Never wore a smartwatch, I got my watch love honestly via Swatch and Seiko 5s like every 80s kids here.

The Apple Watch is a pure tool watch. I wear it when I work out. I wear it when I sleep to track my sleep. Otherwise, I don’t wear it. I don’t really get the two watch thing either, though. I just wear one at a time.

I specifically went mechanical when SmartWatches became a thing. I’m a contrarian like that.

Kind of… I exchanged my Apple Watch Series 3 for my first automatic watch back then 😜 So you could say it was my gateway to this wonderful world of watches

That's a yes in my book

I used to have a Samsung Gear 2 back in the day. My father gave it to me when he upgraded to the Gear S3. I felt like the biggest player in the world knowing I could make and answer phone calls on my wrist. I always had trouble pairing it, even in 2017. When I booted it up again last year, just to find something interesting to wear, I found that it cannot be paired to any phone made after 2021, regardless of your app version. That's what has made me go the opposite way in terms of smartwatches. I'm fairly fit, I don't need my watch to tell me I'm exercising or gaining weight or whatever, because chances are, if I'm exercising, I'd know it from the fact that I'm in the gym... exercising. A mainspring or tuning fork will always be a mainspring or tuning fork and will always work so long as it's kept in decent order and the laws of physics prevail. I don't trust anything I can't see. I believe software, gravity and electricity are all myths or the doing of fairies. So in a way, it was a gateway. I got into more traditional timekeeping out of spite.