So, I have always wanted the best of both worlds with watches. An analogue timepiece that looks nice. But also the ability to see texts on my wrist. So, Fossil had a solution a while ago. The Fossil Hybrid. It was beautiful, had physical hands and an e-ink display under it which subtly showed messages. You literally cannot tell it was a smartwatch until you started using it. It had basic health features and boasted a two week long battery life.
I have been eyeing these up for years. Maybe around four. I didn’t get one as they were £300. I loved them but not that much. I finally got one back in July. It was pre owned at £90 with a minor scratch and a slightly squidgy button (but still worked) and I fell in love. It also came with a 2 year warranty, so I knew it wasn’t very risky. I designed the perfect watch face and everything. It was a great conversation starter. Nobody ever saw a thing like it. My girlfriend even jokingly said “check out my boyfriend’s cool watch!”
Anyway, out of the blue last week, I plugged it in for the weekly charge and it wouldn’t charge. I took it off and the other charging ring thingy just came off. The glue had losened. As much as I tried pushing it back in, it wouldn’t charge. I kept it until Friday watching the battery drain. On Friday I went back to the shop and handed it in. I was hoping they could fix it for me and get it back maybe. But no. I could have tried gluing it in myself, but would have certainly voided the warranty. I talk about it but people don’t seem to understand that even though I got a refund (well, it’s still processing) I am still heartbroken. My dream watch turned out to be a poorly built experimental thing by Fossil and it was a common manufacturing defect, so I don’t want to risk getting another one. Unfortunately the software was lacking as well (could have done with a calendar, couldn’t turn off a notification indicator as well, etc). So there’s a product I fell in love with, but the company that made it doesn’t care. And nobody has ever made something similar since.
There’s a void on my wrist and I don’t know what to replace it with.
I am tempted to try and build my own. I actually saw a display on AliExpress that is circular eink and has a hole in the centre. But I probably lack the complete skill, even though open source LED smartwatches exist and with some wizardry I could maybe convert that into a new hybrid one, it’s probably just one of my pipe dreams. I never even managed to get a seven segment display working properly with a raspberry pi pico.
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I went through 2 Skagen (a div of fossil) hybrids before I had to give up on them. They redesigned the app to be full of ads, and then took away some of the features available on the face. They just couldn’t fucking resist.
Moved on to Garmin OLED hybrid. The build quality is miles better. I miss the daylight readability of the e-ink and 2 week battery, but I’d recommend them to anyone. Battery lasts 3 or 4 days and it’s much lighter weight.
I had a Pebble. It rocked, it died, nothing has ever been as good. sniff, sniff
I’m not 100% sure if it’s what you’re looking for, but Withings has been making some interesting hybrids for a bit now that scratch the same itch you’re describing.
Okay i dont want to shill on lemmy of all places, but i personally use a very similar watch i chose for the same reasons as you: i wanted an actual, physical wristwatch, with basic smart functionalities and a long battery life.
I settled on the scanwatch light made by withings. Looks like a classic wristwatch with a small black and white smart display as well as the standard health functions such as an activity tracker/reminder and pulse meter. The battery holds for 2-4 weeks on a single charge, depending on your use case.
I have had it for about six months now and am pretty satisfied. Only drawbacks are the need for the proprietary companion app and the somewhat archaic charger you have to clamp the watch into, though due to the long battery life you very rarely have to deal with that.
stores all data in the USA. no thanks.
I live in fear of the day something happens to my Pebble Time Steel that I can’t fix. I’ve already replaced the battery once…
Wow, that’s a blast from the past! I still have my original KS Pebble in a drawer somewhere, but I don’t think it boots anymore. I may pull it out later today just to check and see, but I don’t expect much!
I just haven’t been able to find anything better than it lol
My old watch broke once
Brought it to a watch maker, and he fixed it
It’s a omega seamaster 600, made in 1968 I think.
The new stuff is cool, but it doesn’t last long… And you can’t fix it.
Every time I get close to buying a smartwatch, I discover some reason why it isn’t going to do exactly what I want it to do.
I was the exact same way for years. I pulled the trigger on an Apple Watch series 9 a few months ago. Whoo boy! It’s amazing. I regret going so long without one.
I appreciate the recommendation.
By the downvotes I clearly should have kept my experience to myself! 😅
Yeah I don’t understand that. I would guess it’s either 1) I mentioned android (although I think apple watch can work with android) or 2) it’s such an obvious suggestion that people felt like “of course he considered the apple watch,” or 3) people just hating on apple.
But that’s just a guess. My pet peeve is people downvoting without replying when it isn’t obvious why they’re downvoting.
People are the worst
What a bunch of bastards.
I feel your pain. I found fossil’s first gen hybrid smart watch on a clearance rack for $40 and made an impulse purchase. I loved it! It was a totally analog watch face but it would vibrate when I got a notification on my phone. I could set it to go to different hand movements when certain contacts messaged me. I loved that I could control my music to pause, skip songs and change volume on my wrists rather than dig in my pocket for my phone. It ran on a regular watch battery and when it eventually died I went to replace the battery it never came back to life.
I had two of these, and loved them. One died and fossil outright replaced it, zero cost to me 1.5 years into the warranty, and battery changes were free in-store. Unfortunately the app support went downhill and the second watch became borderline unusable. Really bums me out because they were SO practical and functional, and I feel like a ton of people would embrace them if they had better marketing/support.
My wife felt the same way about smart watches, we ended up getting her an older version of this: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/785411
Might scratch your itch.
I’m not normally one to make product recommendations but I do like Garmin a lot. Their watches are well made and loaded with features.
My biggest complaint about them is that they have too many options. It can be kind of overwhelming trying to find a specific feature / style combination. The one you linked looks like what OP described to me though.
