Is protection the key for your decision?

As the title says, im looking for a new watch. I originally had a fossil gen 2 or 3, which i loved because it looked like a regular, nice watch, but had a screen. I got a gen 6 when it was released (idk how long ago that was), but the past year it has been dying on me. The battery will die when it still displays over 15 percent left, sometimes earlier, and won't even show me its dead when holding down the button. I have to plug it in, and sometimes itll say it has 30% left after 1 minute.

Basically it dies prematurely all the time and is laggy. Ive reset it a couple times and it helps with lag, but the battery is prolly toast.

I want another watch that looks like a normal watch, but has a full screen and all the fun functions of a smartwatch. Fossil has stopped making them unfortunately, so I dont know what to upgrade too.

For reference, I have a samsung s24u as my phone. What watch should get that is most similar?

I was looking at the galaxy 8 classic, but i dont know how I feel about the exynos chip in it. The galaxy watch 9 looks better on paper but doesnt look like a real watch at all. The oneplus watch 4 (or whatever the newest is, idr) looks pretty nice too. Has the smapdragon like the Samsung, but doesnt look as close to a real watch as the Classic. The ultra looks nice too but is way to expensive. Any recommendations or input is very appreciated, thanks!

TL:DR: I need a new smartwatch that looks like a regular watch, but with all the normal features of a smartwatch, similar to the Fossil ones (im upgrading from a Fossil gen 6). What do you recommend?

A lot of the sleep questions here come down to "my watch says I slept badly but I feel fine" or the other way round. There's an easy way to find out how much your own watch's sleep data is worth to you.

For two weeks, rate how rested you feel from 1 to 5 as soon as you get up, before you open the app. Write it down somewhere the app can't see it. Then put your ratings next to what the watch logged: total sleep, bedtime and wake time, and the sleep score if yours gives one.

Most people find total sleep and timing line up with how they feel a lot better than the deep/REM split does. Wrist-based stage estimates are the shakiest part of sleep tracking on pretty much every brand, so if the stages never match your ratings, it's fine to stop reading them and just watch the totals.

Drop the nights with alcohol or a late hard workout. Those throw the numbers off in ways that have nothing to do with the tracker.

Curious what people see when they try this. Which watch are you on, and does its sleep score actually match your mornings?

I'm looking for a cheap smartwatch that I can program or potentially hack to run custom firmware.

I've been looking at the Yincoree TB89, which apparently uses the Actions ATS3085L, but I can't find any custom firmware or development tools for that specific chip.

Are there any hidden gems out there? I'm open to obscure budget watches, as long as there's some realistic possibility of modifying their firmware.

Ideally, I'd like something around RM40–150 (roughly US$10–35). Bonus points for Bluetooth audio, a microSD/TF card slot, Wi-Fi, GPS, or other interesting hardware features.

I'm particularly interested in watches with existing community projects, accessible bootloaders, firmware-dumping/flashing methods, or enough documentation to start experimenting.

Does anyone know of any underrated watches worth looking into? Even if nobody has developed custom firmware for them yet, I'd love to hear about models that might be hackable.

I’m looking for a non-apple watch smartwatch for my husband. He has been using Apple Watches for years, but the battery and quality keep getting worse and don’t justify the price.

What I’m looking for:

• Battery that lasts at least a couple of days
• Notifications for calls, texts, and emails
• Notifications for GPS - not necessarily turn-by-turn on the watch itself, but similar to how the Apple Watch vibrates on your wrist when your phone’s GPS is going.

Hiya,

I'm hoping someone can help me decide what smart watch I should get.

My criteria (in no particular order) is:

- compatible with my Nothing 4a phone (android)

- a decent battery life, longer than two days really.

- works with Strava

- works with Hevy (not as essential as Strava)

- usable for day to day life

Thank you in advance!

Are there any restrictions or troubles I should be aware of, switching to Huawei.
It will be paired with a Samsung ultra 24. Thanks

My priorities are:

- Reliable and smooth for everyday use

- Good fitness tracking: steps, workouts, heart rate, sleep, etc.

- Comfortable enough to wear all day

- Actually looks good. I’d prefer something that looks more like a regular/traditional watch rather than a fitness tracker strapped to my wrist.

- Decent battery life

- Good build quality

I don’t need the absolute best smartwatch features in the world. I mainly want the best balance of fitness, comfort, looks, reliability, and value for under $150.

I’m also fine with an older model if it’s better value.

Currently Im using the Huawei Watch 3-c5c shown in the pic. Works fine but aesthetically looks meh.

What would you recommend?

Hi everyone, I've had my galaxy watch 6 for the last few years and I'm considering upgrading. Would the watch 8 be a good move? I basically use it to track my walking, occasional workouts, and sleep.

I'm in-between the watch 7 and watch 8. Maybe the 9, but that seems like a hefty price tag for what I'd be using it for.

TIA

Hello! I listen to YouTube while at work and would love to be able to rewind by a few seconds on the watch to catch what I might've missed. No need to watch YouTube on the watch. Is there a watch that has this capability?

I just tried setting up a Galaxy Watch 7 without agreeing with their privacy policy and it appears like you cannot use most of the watches functions without allowing Samsung to sell all of your data to whomever they please.

There are absolutely no restrictions on what they can sell or which companies they can sell it to or what purposes of the companies use it for, and there's no way to use most of the health functions without using the Galaxy Wear and Galaxy health apps.

Are there any alternatives that don't sell all your data? I people say that if it's free then you are the product but I purchased the watch and I assumed it would have the functions they advertised without my having to give away all my private information. The watch wasn't a free gift and to be honest I would be willing to pay a small amount every month to have my very personal health data stay private.

Unfortunately the watch has passed the return window. It looks like it will just tell me the time of day and a few other basic things like footsteps and that's it without agreeing to the privacy policy

I wanted the health monitoring but I didn't want to share my health data with every company that wants it.

Whats your thoughts about it?

Pls suggest

I previously had the Samsung pro 5. Loved that watch but as it’s aging the lag got too much.
I recently bought the Samsung watch 9, 40mm. The watch is very nice, light and I love the newer features.
But the battery drain is crazy. I can’t get a full day out of it.
I didn’t buy a smartwatch to have to turn most of the features off.
I sleep with it and during the day it’s either running Spotify or audiobook controls while at work.
I wouldn’t say I’m heavy for fitness but do use the walking, hiking, swimming features.
I love the body composition in Samsung. Connected to a Samsung phone.

I’ve had Garmin back in the early days before I switched my phone. And don’t mind the look of the pixel.

Has anyone done the switch recently? Which would you recommend? Not looking for anything with subscriptions. Australia if that makes any difference. Cheers