The dramatic ending of a watch enthusiast who broke his oath to mechanical watches and give the smart watches a chance...
In today’s world, where being indifferent to technological developments is almost impossible, there are innovations that will excite the watch enthusiasts. Although we have devoted ourselves to mechanical watches, many of us have been influenced by the new smart (connected) watches. At this point, I decided that it was unnecessary for me to hold myself back and I started my very own smart watch adventure.
In fact, I am familiar with digital display time machines, and I still have such models in my collection. With their functionality and durability, they are great piece of accessory especially in sports and fitness activities. Of course, I can only have features that I do NOT always need like chronograph, alarm, thermometer, barometer, compass etc. Obviously, when you hear the word smart, your expectations rise accordingly.
The truth is, I have gravitated towards smart watches just to satisfy my “how can I improve the accessibility of a mobile phone” curiosity. As a result, I was constantly carrying a device on my wrist that is paired to my smartphone. More interestingly, I went beyond demanding for information… Now, I was the source for information. The small machine on my wrist was collecting data from me on a regular basis, processing them and communicating with me.
First, I got Samsung’s Gear Fit 2 Pro. To be honest, I was very happy in the first days. I was relieved by opting a featherlight plastic model after a relatively heavy diver’s watch with metal bracelet. I hit the gym right after the first charge. My pulse was measured, my steps were counted. The watch detected my activities and offered me technical analysis at the end of the training session. If you ask me, it was doing more than I expected. It was vibrating before the phone rings, displaying notifications and claiming it made my life easier. Actually I didn’t have to put my hand in my pocket and check my phone as I have full access all the information I need through its curved screen.
Aside from all these positive sides, this wristband-watch mix device brought a whole new plus to my life; peaceful wake ups. I can never sleep with a watch on my wrist. I had managed to fall asleep due to the relatively light and unobtrusive structure of Samsung, and the effect of the tiredness of that day. Waking up with a gently vibe on your wrist instead of the annoying alarm tone was truly impressive and relaxing. It also made me realize how inefficient my sleeps were as it kept recording data while I was sleeping.
When the honeymoon was over, disadvantages began to manifest themselves. The first trouble was about battery and charging. Whether it was every day or in every ten days, I had to charge this thing. You might ask me what’s wrong with charging your smartwatch every day I was doing the same thing for my smartphone too but my habits let me down. Even worse was needing a separate charger which was totally inconvenient for holidays or short trips. What was the downside of being able to charge it with a simple USB cable?
Another problem caught me about the quality feel. As the end of the day, I did not expect the quality of a metal watch from a bracelet mostly made of plastic, but I was beginning to miss the solid feeling that I was used to. After a lot of research I decided not to give up hope, and I gave the smart watches another chance.
I had the Apple Watch in order. Suddenly, my quality issues were gone. A much more elegant design, superior materials and a lot of personalization options restored my belief in smart watches, but the charging problem continued increasingly. On the other hand, I had more than all the beauty that Samsung offered along a more elegant design and a quality feel in my wrist.
From this moment on, I would like to share my notes about the smartwatch sector through my research and experiences.
Today, when we buy the cult models of brands with long-standing histories, we shop with the confidence that we can use our watch for many years without being subject to any fashion criteria. In smart watches, we encounter different and superior models every year and we know that what we have will get old after a short time. At the end of the day, it would be unrealistic to expect a fast moving consumer product watch to serve us many years with the same performance.
The number of people who do not believe that almost all Apple products are also marketing marvels beside their cutting edge technology features are very few in number. The brand’s insistence for using its exclusive software and hardware platforms for prestige and profitability can stand out as a detail that reduces accessibility for some users.
There are brands such as Montblanc and TAG Heuer which are producing in line with better quality feel, but it is not a nice thing to know that high-priced items will be treated as old models within a maximum 2 or 3 years.
Battery stand-by time issues still reduce the usefulness. Knowing the only thing that can be done at this point is to wait is another example of being desperate. On the other hand, if you think that you will not have problems with gaining the habit of charging on a regular basis, you can ignore this item.
Long story short, I went back to my mechanical watch. Samsung and Apple are in the drawer. And I collect memories (!) as a price for my excitement and curiosity.
