Technology

I don't know of any e-ink displays outside of Fossil but give Garmin a try. I use the Vivoactive 4 and get a week+ of battery.

I went from Pebble > Fossil > Garmin.

Withings. Small oled display, looks like an analog watch until you use it. Ton of sensors to monitor your health, or none if you don't want that. And a huge battery. Like huge enough to lose the charger between charges 😆

Even more, I get pretty consistently 3 weeks per charge with my fossil hybrid

Garmin is know for excellent battery life. I don't think they use e-ink though.

A much bigger drawback (to me at least) they lack Google Pay support and keep pushing Garmin Pay which is not widely supported.

The square face of the Apple Watch really irks me.

Garmin hybrid watch might be something you'd like.

There are dozens like those...

Literally this. Maybe let me see a preview of notifications, but that's not a make-or-break issue for me.

Soon. Oura rings exist so they could be an alternative.

Invis make straps without sensors but with NFC payments.

There's clearly a market for rings as fitness trackers so people can avoid a watch altogether

Wanting a watch strap is a bit more niche but it'll come around as a product I'm sure.

I really enjoyed my Samsung watch. I was able to give it a face that looked like a nice watch. It was round. I could get notifications without taking my phone out of my suit jacket. I still have it and it works with my work iPhone and personal android. I hardly have any use for it now that I work from home though.

Seiko are great watches. I have a couple of G-Shock watches and a Garmin heart rate monitor watch. The Garmin is kinda like a smart watch but more practical. It's got all the sports stuff you'd ever need but GPS too. It makes for an excellent daily-driver watch.

I find HRM watches to be very handy. I can tell from checking my heart rate whether I need to slow down my running speed. I can tell if I start running for something how long I'll last by checking my heart rate. If it's in the "anabolic zone" I'll crap out in a few minutes. If it's in the "aerobic zone" I'll crap out when my body gives up.

It's also been handy for monitoring my general fitness. Resting heart rate, steps, floors travelled, etc. I recommend the Garmin Fenix if you ever wanna try out a 'Smart watch' again: https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/p/641479

I really rely on my watch for notifications in particular since it’s MUCH less intrusive to check my wrist than pull my phone out. The other big benefit for me is maps. I get a tap on the wrist when my turn is coming up, which works particularly well when walking like I’m doing a lot of in NYC this week.

That said, my watch is something like 5 years old now and I see zero reason to upgrade. I’ll wear it till it dies and then buy whatever the cheap version is.

Garmin vivomove.

Analog face, and a wee display that tells you whether you want to look at your phone when it buzzes. Counts steps and stuff if you're into that. Week of battery (still 5-7 days after like 5-6 years of owning mine). Perfect daily wear.

yeah I got a watch 4 for free with my s22 ultra, I gave it a good shot and used it for a few months but went back to my garmin. I simply don't need a lot of the "smart" features aside from notifications and fitness tracking, which garmin does better, and then there's the battery.... different worlds there

Smart watches looks interesting to me at first, but knowing how it only lasts 3-5 years and additionally companies loves to purposely make stuff obselete quickly, I'd rather just buy normal watch.... Or just look at my phone's clock.

Agreed, I regret buying my Galaxy Watch 4. The sleep and exercise tracking is nice to have but otherwise it is just an inconvenient watch because you have to remember to charge it daily.