From Wrist watch to No watch to Smart Watch — A short story of my Wrist Watch journey
Earlier this year I decided to get a smart watch.
Background of my history with wrist watches
I used to wear wrist watches for the longest time (in fact from childhood) but stopped wearing them since 2014 because I felt that I could tell the time by simply looking at the smart phone. Also the previous wrist watch I had (a Swiss brand which I shall not name) was giving me problems even after frequent servicing (imagine being without a watch when the watch is sent all the way to Switzerland for service & repair). During those times of not having that watch (which can be as long as 2 months) made me realize that I don't really need a wrist watch at all. As such when the next time that Swiss watch threw up on me, I just junked it!. Yup no more wrist watches for me!
A period of no wrist watches
I was without a wrist watch from 2014 to 2022 , thats nearly 8 years. I never missed it. In fact I enjoyed the lightness of my wrist without the watch. And funnily in a way I was in peace without constantly looking at the watch and seeing time (i.e. I became blissfully time un-aware). If at all I wanted to know the time, I can fish out my smartphone from my pocket, or simply look at the clock on my computer while I am at work.
Enter the Smart Watch or the Health tracker
Normally when I go for my walking exercise, I usually carry my phone with me so that the number of steps can be tracked. However this is problematic in a way as the smartphone is big and it just moves up and down in your track pants pocket while you are walking/jogging which can make it uncomfortable. Worst, it can create a hole in the flimsy pockets of the track pants.
The other option is to leave the phone home while going out for a walk/jog. The big downside of this is that you lost the ability to track the steps and other health metrics.
At this point, I started to seriously consider to buy a wrist watch, specifically a smart wrist watch with health metrics. After numerous research on which watch to buy (I considered various brands from Apple, Fitbit and Samsung) and settled on the Garmin Venu 2 Plus smart watch.
The price was around USD 450 which was reasonable. I would have bought the Apple Watch but the battery was a big let down in that. The Apple Ultra Watch which has better battery life is way too expensive (closer to USD 800).
So its been 6 months now with this Garmin watch and I find that I am wearing it every day (except when sleeping and bathing/toilet matters). If you wear it during sleep, it can measure some sleep metrics to determine the quality of your sleep, but I was not really into that.
So what I like about this watch? Let me list it here
- The long battery life! This watch easily lasts 9 to 10 days on a single charge. This is much better than the Apple Watch which can last only about 10 hours or the Ultra watch which can last probably at best 3 days.
- Ability to download my Spotify playlist. If you have a premium paid subscription to Spotify you can download your playlists to your watch. I use this to listen to songs when I am walking out or jogging. You don’t even have to buy ear buds as the watch has its own speakers. Its not too loud so as to disturb others and you can still legit hear it yourself. This is a real godsend as it motivates me to go for my walks and listen to my favorite songs at the same time.
- It comes with 2 mobile apps to connect to your smartphone. One of the apps gathers the data from the watch and pumps it into the phone app (Garmin Connect) and track all your fitness and health matters. This app can even pass the data to Apple Health. The other app (Garmin IQ), which is more of a Garmin app store, lets you to customize your watch, for e.g. to download new watch apps or change the face of your watch).
- The GPS functionality of the watch is super good. You can turn it on while doing your outdoor activity and it will track the terrain and directions for you.
- The phone allows you answer phone calls from the watch and also to read messages. This works through Bluetooth connection and so the phone should be nearby. Its really useful when driving if you want to just to quickly see who messaged you.
The biggest impact is I don't need to carry my phone when going for a long walk. And the ability to download and play the songs without any internet via the watch. This really makes a difference in my motivation to go for walks which is my favourite form of exercise.
One minor downside is that Garmin Pay is not available yet in my country. It would be great to have this to pay for a drink after the walk since I don’t carry my wallet or money during the exercise.
So from a person who thought that a wrist watch is not necessary in this day and age, I have become a wrist watch lover once again. Or more specifically a Smart wrist watch lover.
Thanks for reading!