So I want te find the most feature rich smartwatch that doesn’t send data to the manufacure. I have tried the Pinetime watch, but it died after 6 months.
Infinitytime (OS) was not realy that feature rish, so I want to secrufise an Open Source watch OS. But I still want to connect it with Open Source software, like gadged bridge.
What is my best option under €200? Maybe the Xioami Mi band 7 (€50) that is supported by gadgedbrigde?
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Casio with inbuilt calculator
Personally this has been the most feature rich/open source one I could find, and it’s what I ended up going for, there’s an opensource app store, direct integration with gadgetbridge, a decent always on display much like the amazfit bip S, which also means a long battery life.
That’s the closest thing I’ve found to my dear departed Pebble
That’s the closest thing I’ve found to my dear departed Pebble
Yep saw that but it said standby time which is not equivalent to normal usage battery life.
This is pretty amazing, I was not expecting it to be such a reasonable price considering the specs. What’s the battery life like?
It can get up to 4 weeks, though my experience is closer to 4 days to a couple of weeks, I think it depends heavily on what apps you’re using, how much you’re moving about and how much stuff you’re installing
If you can find a Pebble, they still work perfectly and the manufacturer doesn’t even exist anymore!
Shit! You just reminded me I have a Pebble Time, sitting in a drawer. I remember it being such a good watch, then I got distracted by the Samsung watch at the time.
Might see if there’s any life in it and test it out with GadgetBridge.
Rebble was easier to get working than gadget bridge. just something to consider
Thanks for that. Came across Rebble while searching for answers to problems getting the Pebble working with GB earlier today, so definitely looks like it’s worth a go.
no problem! that’s what the internet and forums are for :D
Just following up - Rebble is fantastic! Have revived the Pebble Time - will see how the battery goes over the next week or so. Thanks again for the tip!
Hey, you go it!
FYI, you can financially support Rebble and get perks like being able to reply with voice to messages. I don’t personally do so but I know people who have had success with it.
For comparison, my Pebble with everything turned off (like health tracking, apps, steps, alarms etc) and only BT on for notifications, I get about a week still
I do! My yearly subscription actually just renewed yesterday!
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Smartwatches do have features an analog watch doesn’t have. I’m pretty sure OP already knows about the existence of analog watches.
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Controlling music without taking out your phone, health stuff like heart rate sesnor or sleep recording or whatever that’s called, being able to switch clock designs when you get bored of it
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Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=-fY6J97K67E
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Reading my blood sugar off my CGM without taking my insulin pump out of my pocket is huge actually. I’m using a $25 pinetime for that.
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I guess you don’t know what a Continuous Glucose Monitor is. It’s a medical device that is attached to my arm with an adhesive pad that monitors my blood sugar continuously, and reports it over bluetooth to my phone. What you’re talking about is a glucometer which I also have (freestyle lite)
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Are you for real here? Reducing the dependability on user interactions also reduces the chance for user error, and helps keep people alive in some cases. Even if that weren’t the case, it’s not your place to call out someone’s medical treatments and compare them to your (at best) anecdotal experiences. It’s not outrageous to want a CGM.
throwing it away in 3 years is the best feature
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For me it’s easily paying subway fare, seeing notifications, leaving my phone home for a quick errand (but could make a call if absolutely necessary). I have a small child, so having hands free abilities is great. If I could degoogle it and run only open source linux/android, I would. But nfc payments will never work with such a thing even if the software existed.
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I ride a motocycle and listen to books in my helmet, I got a pinetime (great btw) so I can control my audio and have gps. Other then gluing a phone to my gas tank (I have done, its not safe or good) there is not really an option other then a watch.
This is the correct answer. I used to wear a smartwatch before realizing most of the features were useless or actively annoying, and a regular watch will tell me the time just as well and doesn’t need to constantly be charged. Do you really want your wrist to buzz every time you get an e-mail? If you’re going to spend €50 on a smartwatch, spend it on a Casio instead, that’s what I did and it’s much better value for money.
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anything that’s compatible with Gadgetbridge should be okay. it keeps everything on your phone and doesn’t even request a network permission, so the device can’t phone home.
incidentally, I’ve got the Mi Band 7 (connected via Gadgetbridge] and I quite like it.
Pinetime by pine64
I’m in the same boat. The buttons on my Pebble Time Steel are going, and I don’t know what I’m going to replace it with.
the Pinetime watch, but it died after 6 months.
Oof, that’s a shame. That was on my list of possibilities.
Don’t know how close this gets to what you want, but I really dig my Withings steel. Small watch, standard analog face with step tracking subdial and a tiny lcd display that you can set to show different stats from the watch. You need an app to set it up, since it only has a single button for input, but after that I think you can just uninstall the app and be fine for the alarms you set up, heart rate readout, and whatever custom step goal you set. Also it lasts a month on a charge, which is absolutely awesome if you hate charging these damned things as much as I do
I’m waiting for the next batch of Watchy’s so i can’t say if it is any good, but I have high hopes. They have a handy spec comparison chart between Watchy, Pine time, Bangle.js, and the beloved Pebble.
I have a Watchy. It’s nice if you’d want to tinker easily, but it’s very bulky and cheap in feel even compared to a pinetime.
I know you mentioned infinitime, but the PineTime is seriously great and can be flashed with custom firmware to improve functionality. I have had mine for a while and flashed wasp os and then back to infinitime without it ever breaking. Worst case, you are out 30 bucks.
I’ve also used a pinetime running infinitime for the past year, and I agree that it’s not exactly feature rich. I like it though.
I’ve heard that ‘bangle.js’ is an open source watch as well, with a decent feature set.
Pebble is peak smartwatch. Fight me on it, I wont change my mind. Its just smart enough, without being too smart. Battery lasts for days, its waterproof, and side buttons instead if some impossible to use tiny-ass touchscreen. Perfection.
Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation.
😶
Who got eaten up by Fitbit, who got eaten up by Google. 😭
Been pretty happy with my Garmin Instinct. It has a cloud connection of course but seems pretty decent privacy wise.
I love my Garmin watches but they aren’t really known for privacy or security. They had a ransomware attack in 2020 and the Connect service was down. It’s speculated that they paid the ransom.
I’ve mad a MiBand 6 for a while now - seems solid and you could, in theory grab all the data from it and process it yourself (via the Notify app). I don’t know exactly how bolted down it is privacy-wise though.
MiBand 6
The latest 7 looks very nice. 16 days battery life, 5 days with always-on apparently… sadly if you want to pair it with your phone, you need the Xiaomi App and then (as OP asked) you get trapped in privacy Hell and send all your data (Health, Location, User Content, Financial Information, Contact Info and identifiers) to china. At least on iOS as I can read in the App-Store description. Bummer. It looks like a nice watch.
You can just use gadgetbridge after the initial pairing and key generation. You need to install the xiaomi app once in some burner phone with empty contacts, or maybe you can pair it without giving it access to contacts first. Once you have the key (described in the gadgetbridge guide) you can just dump the official app and use GB without using any xiaomi data/servers.
