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Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

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Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#81

Post by King-Aaron »

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 was dabbling in smart watches for quite some time - jumping between Huawei and Samsung watches mainly. They are very cool, but after a while I switched back to my vintage seiko automatics and Oris mechanicals for two main reasons:

1. The current crop of smart watches felt bulky. I know the newer apple watches are quite slim but they don't suit my tech ecosystem, but the android/etc offerings just feel 'big'. I know this will improve as time goes on of course. (I do have a gshock which I love, but that's another matter)

2. (And this is the main point,) the smart watches made me feel like it was increasing my anxiety. Even though you can disconnect the watch from notifications, having various alerts and things happening all the time with haptic feedback was making me look at the watch more often, fidget with it, and use it as that kind of social escape thing that you do with phones. Once you disable the 'smart' features, it becomes nothing more than a gimmick, and when using the features it seemed to equally help my productivity the same amount that it hindered it.

I don't want to knock anyone who uses a smart watch though, because I do think they're cool. They just so far haven't worked for me.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#82

Post by TheRealSteel »

abetusk wrote: post #64

Wow, this article doesn't do it justice. Watchy is an open source hardware device that uses an e-ink display and has an ESP32 module builtin [0]. SQFMI, the creator of watchy, has a twitter account [1] which has some very nice screenshots [2] [3]. Even the CrowdSupply website has better pics of the device [4]. This is one of the few watches I've been sorely tempted to buy. [0] https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy [1] http…

Oh wow. They should choose a different image. I looked at that and thought it was using an actual segmented LCD display, not an eInk display simulating the look of a segmented display.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#83

Post by neolog »

spoonjim wrote: post #52
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…

A smart watch is not a “watch.” It has functionally nothing in common with a Seiko or a Rolex. It’s a computer form factor, like a desktop, laptop, video game console, tablet, or smartphone. Yes they all rapidly become e-waste and that is a problem but Seikos are not really relevant.

They do occupy the same location on the wrist.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#84

Post by znpy »

I've seen some watches from the current wave of open-hardware models and i'm not sure i'm interested.

The mi band 4 on my wrist is almost perfect, except I cannot pull data out of it natively. I'd love to be able to mess with data about myself in a quantified-self style.

the pine time looks like it might be interesting in that sense, but it's bulkier than the xiaomi mi band 4 ...

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#85

Post by em-bee »

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 don't carry a watch. my phone tells the time. that's enough. same with phones replacing the camera, i look at smartwatches as a phone replacement. this of course requires that the smartwatch includes a sim card.

i agree, smartwatches that can't replace my phone are not interesting. but if they could replace the phone that would be a different thing entirely.

to put it differently:

i need a cheap portable phone for my children, one that i can control 100%. besides telling the time and setting alarms it must not have any features except calling or sending (and receiving) voice messages home.

nothing that attracts kids to play with the device and interfere with class.

it doesn't have to be a watch, but it needs to be small, lightweight, easy to carry, and appear uninteresting.

even a feature phone has to many features.

and it must be affordable to families with multiple kids (less than $50)

those devices do exist, at that price level too. if only they were hackable so i could control what the kids can do with it...

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#86

Post by harry8 »

vzaliva wrote: post #65
harry8 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you need a smart watch with a bigger screen and font that you can't get at present. Others are almost certainly in the same boat. People who like tech of this nature are a generation who are aging so the demographic is growing. Everyone needs reading glasses if they live long enough. There's an opportunity there! I have no doubt it will happen. Who, how etc? We'll see.

"According to the Vision Council of America, approximately 75% of adults use some sort of vision correction. About 64% of them wear eyeglasses, and about 11% wear contact lenses, either exclusively, or with glasses. Over half of all women and about 42% of men wear glasses." Apparently I am not alone and this statistics shows that smartwatches are not suitable for a significant part of population. In other words they…

>depending on how bad your vision is, you man need such a huge screen [...]

Upper limit of the minimum requirement is probably the size of the screen of the phone being used by the individual? Or do many people always use a phone with reading glasses (eg to check the time in a nice big font)?

Those stats you've listed don't look so great. They seem to include those who are short-sighted and can read just fine without glasses. (Eg most children to people under about 40 who wear corrective glasses).

Somewhere in middle age every single one of us needs reading glasses as our corneas harden. Long sightedness. This is the relevant thing for smart watches & smart phones.

Either all of the middle aged to elderly must put on reading glasses to view their smart watch or they don't use one is the status quo.

It really looks capable of being disrupted to me in a market that appears to be growing. Especially given the potential for health benefits of smartphone monitoring etc. which is more attractive to middle aged to elderly given the greater prevalence of medical conditions.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#87

Post by folkrav »

King-Aaron wrote: post #81
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 was dabbling in smart watches for quite some time - jumping between Huawei and Samsung watches mainly. They are very cool, but after a while I switched back to my vintage seiko automatics and Oris mechanicals for two main reasons: 1. The current crop of smart watches felt bulky. I know the newer apple watches are quite slim but they don't suit my tech ecosystem, but the android/etc offerings just feel 'big'. I know…

I really loved my Moto 360, didn't feel bulky at all to me. I really lost track of the current smartwatch market though, did they really get bigger? That'd be... disappointing.

Funny about that social anxiety thing. On my end it was actually better - as I could just swipe stuff away instead of having the incentive to click on it and get lost in whatever application I ended up in, I was able to get rid of most of the noise with a swipe without even picking up my phone, and only picked it up for stuff I actually cared for.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#88

Post by marcinzm »

Alupis wrote: post #76
tinus_hn wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can give your Apple Watch to Apple and they’ll recycle the parts for you. Besides, I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to compare the lifetime of an Apple Watch to that of a plastic straw.

Why not? The plastic straw doesn't require rare earth metals, anywhere near as much plastic, silicone and other materials. Besides, it's been shown time and time again, eWaste is largely a farce, with majority of components being sent directly to landfills. Ounce per ounce, thousands of plastic straws are far better for the environment than a single Apple Watch.

An apple watch will end up in a landfill where it will lie for millenia harming nothing. Some of those plastic straws will get into the ocean, local parks, streams and on where they will harm wildlife. Landfills are not the worst thing in existence.

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#89

Post by mtm »

CraigJPerry wrote: post #50
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…

>> My Seiko automatic Bah, a real curmudgeon would have said a £10 Casio quartz :-) I flick back and forth on this. The features i actually use on my Apple Watch: 1. it extends phone battery life[1] 2. I'm UK based but i work with colleagues across APAC & NA - in 3 of the corners of the "infograph" watch face i have NYC, Mumbai & HK times, it shows the city, the 24hr time & handily the offset - i use this all the tim…

Regarding the "camera viewfinder remote view thingy" I've used it to:

* point my phone at a TV while I aligned an outside VHF antenna

* point my phone at a security flood while I figured out which breaker in the garage controlled it

Re: Watchy: Hackable $50 Smartwatch

#90

Post by walrus01 »

abetusk wrote: post #64

Wow, this article doesn't do it justice. Watchy is an open source hardware device that uses an e-ink display and has an ESP32 module builtin [0]. SQFMI, the creator of watchy, has a twitter account [1] which has some very nice screenshots [2] [3]. Even the CrowdSupply website has better pics of the device [4]. This is one of the few watches I've been sorely tempted to buy. [0] https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy [1] http…

Are there files somewhere for a 3D printable case for it? Such as something you could do on a $300 consumer-grade printer capable of ABS filament printing?
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