If you were to go out today and buy an open source smart watch to pair with a GrapheneOS phone which would you choose?
This isn’t the right community to make this post in, though.
Where would you ask?
I’ve ordered one of the new Pebbles, but in the meantime, I have a PineTime: https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime
I’ve even given some to nephews and nieces because they are durable enough and so affordable that we don’t need to worry too much about them
Pine was my first stop but when I tried to actually but it I got a 404
Yeah the main link is broken.
This one works for me: https://pine64.com/product-category/wearable/
I was so annoyed that Google bought both Pebble and Fitbit, then did… absolutely nothing with them. Would’ve loved a low-end (sub $100) fitness tracker with ePaper.
Best thing they did was to release the pebble rights back to the creators.
Large corporations don’t buy small companies to make better products. They buy them to eliminate the competition.
Sometimes. Most times they buy them to gut them for their patents. Fitbit and Pebble both probably had some patents that Google really wanted.
I have a pinetime, it’s nice enough
If you care about actual functionality (accurate HR, fitness tracking, GPS tracking for runs) but still don’t want to be spied on, using GadgetBridge with a commercially available watch (Huawei/Garmin/Amazfit) is probably your best option. GadgetBridge being the controller/gatekeeper app to the watch means all your data stays on your device and isn’t going to the watch manufacturer, but you still get the benefit of the actual functionality working well (which, unfortunately with Pebble or PineTime isn’t the case right now - pebble being very old iirc and pine time just… Not being good.)
sensorwatch.net is the only one I have any interest in, and it doesn’t pair with a phone.
Fellow sensorwatch represent! It’s great!
This probably depends on what you mean by “smart”
In the old days, dumb phones were defined as devices that shipped with a set of features with users generally being unable to add new features themselves
And smart phones could be extended by users because they allow installation of apps, etc
But I don’t think this applies to smart watches: it seems like the difference here is that a smart watch goes beyond “dumb” by having phone/internet connectivity to display more than just times and dates
I recommend a different consideration than the usual design, battery life, OSHW, etc : connectivity.
So typically you get BT but that’s not enough, you need a bit more since it’s not a well recognized device, unlike e.g. headphones. Typically you would need a companion app, for GrapheneOS, Android more broadly, iOS or a Linux phone. This is where GadgetBridge comes in. The goal of the project is to… bridge gadgets that are not standalone. Instead of having a myriad of (usually proprietary) apps that basically all do the same thing (pair, configure, handle notifications both ways) have 1 that does it for all such device.
From that standpoint, namely GadgetBridge support, at the moment the recommendation is Pebble (which is how the project started) or PineTime.
PS: I personally have a Pebble (with hardware issue, so not sure were), a PineTime (also hardware issue, touch on screen AFAIR) and finally a Watchy and… honestly I don’t wear any anymore. I don’t get enough benefit from it as typically I have a phone nearby and when I don’t it means I do NOT want notifications.
