Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch • Hacker News Board

Cool device. A bit short on the sensors, but I understand why for a first iteration. Hope it's successful enough that later revisions will include a few things I'm keen on:

* Pulse ox

* Continuous heartrate

* GPS+Compass

But it's a cool device anyway.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#14

Post by IrishJourno » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

kingbirdy wrote: post #2

Why does this article not have any pictures of the watch? It only has renders, even though the author supposedly has one.

I'm the author of the article and the editor of the section: a while back we decided to use illustrations rather than photography for this section of IEEE Spectrum—it was a style choice, but it gives us more options in terms of showing components and process diagrams.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#15

Post by gardenfelder » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

ohazi wrote: post #5

monocasa wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAICT, those are renders too

Real pictures here: https://twitter.com/sqfmi (scroll down a bit)

Great link. Shows the product has evolved from the video linked elsewhere.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#16

Post by gardenfelder » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:03 PM UTC

dandelany wrote: post #10

barbs wrote: post #8

Looks interesting! Any word on battery life? Couldn't seem to find anything...

I have one... The battery life is currently OK but not great - something like 55 hours. But I think this can be improved with some firmware changes - and the firmware is open source.

are those batteries available anywhere, or just form them?

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#17

Post by sfRattan » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches, even hackable or open source models. I want my watch to tell me the time, and I want it to do so 10, 20, and 30 years from now without having to fiddle with software.

I love Linux. I cut my teeth on it in high school after one too many viruses on Windows XP made me bite the bullet and try debian. I love my Raspberry Pi. It went from retro-gaming console to brief dev environment to Pi-hole server. There are tons of other hacked up solutions in my home.

But sometimes I just want a tool that does one thing, essentially unsupervised, essentially forever.

Apple Watch, Android Wear, Pebble, and now Watchy... All these devices will be e-waste in 30 years (most in less than 10). My Seiko automatic will still be ticking (and, as I wear it almost every day, I only wind it once or twice a year).

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#18

Post by djrogers » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:13 PM UTC

This looks interesting, but I’m always leery any time I don’t see any photos of the product - the linked article and it’s source both just have drawings. That’s kinda concerning.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#19

Post by jagger27 » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

sfRattan wrote: post #17

Maybe I'm a curmudgeon, but I have subzero interest in smartwatches, even hackable or open source models. I want my watch to tell me the time, and I want it to do so 10, 20, and 30 years from now without having to fiddle with software. I love Linux. I cut my teeth on it in high school after one too many viruses on Windows XP made me bite the bullet and try debian. I love my Raspberry Pi. It went from retro-gaming con…

I found I had to wind my Seiko far more often than that. Is this because you wear it daily and the self winder keeps it going? How often do you have to adjust the time?

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#20

Post by airbreather » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 10:16 PM UTC

Lily Go have had something cheaper and maybe better, ESP-32 and I think there is a LORA version, that is something worth having

https://www.banggood.com/LILYGO-TTGO-T-Watch-2020-ESP32-Main...