I've just retired my Apple Watch Series 3.

Andy Carolan :prami:

tekphloyd :neobread_laptop:

@andycarolan, my wife did the same. She has an S4 that has been in the drawer for ages. And I can’t live without my S8. Most of the time, it is more important than my iPhone.

Leanne J

@andycarolan I don’t need to charge my 6 every night, it’ll happily go over a day and a half, but the charger is on my beside table. As I take the watch off and would put it on the table anyway, it just clicks onto the magnetic charger.

I went years without wearing a normal watch until I got the AppleWatch 1, and it felt weird to wear one, but now if I don’t have it on it feels like I’ve lost something Neither of them is necessary if you don’t get valid use out of it of course.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@tekphloyd Haha, I mostly used mine for telling me the time. Being an S3, it was so slow and couldn't really do much more lol.

I can use the iPhone to count my steps/distance, which is just fine lol.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@LDJ Much the same for me, I take my watch off at night. I could never sleep wearing any kind of watch... too uncomfortable.

I think the valid use is something I've been looking for with it. I used to have Fitness +, which it was great for.

Alex G

@ljpuk @andycarolan can confirm. Went from smart watches to a Casio. Love the retro look, night light and a battery which lasts years instead of hours

Andy Carolan :prami:

@MajesticTechie The whole battery situation alone is a great reason to move away from smart watches. @ljpuk

Dave 💖

@andycarolan A friend of my wife talked us into wearing Garmin devices 24/7 because of the “body battery” feature. Sleep adds to that measure and activity deducts. It’s …. OK. I still wear a mechanical watch on my other wrist.

Santa Sponge 12.xmas

@andycarolan That's one reason I'm kind of over the whole smart watch thing. I do have one here that holds a charge for several weeks. Of course that's with all the features basically disabled. And it wasn't particularly smart to start with

Andy Carolan :prami:

@ddanielson That's interesting about the body battery. Do you find the data helpful?

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge I was sceptical to begin with, and after using the Apple Watch for a few years, I think I am done with it.

My phone is always with me, and for what I use it for, is far more capable than any watch.

I find the motivation I get from Pokémon Go better for reaching my movement goals than Apple fitness rings lol.

Santa Sponge 12.xmas

@andycarolan I got a watch from a brand called Amazfit. I got it for the heart monitor. Unfortunately it quite often thinks I'm dead. On other occasions it thinks I've become a hummingbird.

And absolutely chews through the battery.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge That's the problem with fitness watches I guess... battery life or constant fitness data.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge Oh I've heard of that brand... I assumed given the name it was an Amazon thing?

ROFL @ the dead/hummingbird flip flop thang

Santa Sponge 12.xmas

@andycarolan It's not actually an Amazon brand. It's a pretty good watch but it's not as good as the Fitbit Versa I had. Unfortunately I lost the charger when I moved 3 years ago, and now I've lost the watch as well

The Amazfit I sometimes wear in bed purely so I can just look at the time if I wake up during the night but it started driving me crazy.

And yes, the heart rate would flip from 0 to about 300 randomly. Not exactly helpful.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge Shame about the Versa

I think sleep tracking is useful if you suspect that you're not getting quality sleeps though.

Santa Sponge 12.xmas

@andycarolan Best sleep tracker I've come across was on my old Pebble Watch.

It was a third party app and it was absolutely great and felt accurate.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge Pebbles were awesome... shame that Fitbit bought and killed the company. I think they were in debt though?

Santa Sponge 12.xmas

@andycarolan Like so many tech companies that stretched too far and died.

There was a community third party replacement for the services that came up that was relatively easy to set up. Unfortunately my Pebble kind of died.

Andy Carolan :prami:

@retrosponge Yeah, I read about the third party stuff.