Taboo question about watches

How many of you folks use a watch that is NOT an Apple Watch?

What are your thoughts?

I actually have been wearing my Apple Watch less because I enjoy my mechanical watches. I have a FitBit on my other wrist since it isn’t as big as an Apple Watch. I still use the Apple Watch during workouts.

My daily wear right now is a Bremont GMT. I also have a few Omega watches that go into the rotation. There’s just something special about wearing a mechanical marvel on my wrist every day. The fact that the watch can keep time with springs and gears is simply amazing to me.

I really wish Apple would make a FitBit-like device. I’d much rather be in the Apple ecosystem for my health tracking. But FitBit meets my needs!

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100% agree with this. I love my dress watch but miss the function of the Apple Watch when not wearing it.

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I’m trying really hard not to buy a Kronaby, as mentioned on this week’s podcast.
They say ā€œConnected. Not Distracted.ā€ and of course I must have one.

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I find great sentimental and tactile pleasure in wearing my dive watch. I mainly check the time discreetly by glancing down at a slightly-upturned wrist, so having an Apple Watch that does not have always-on time and requires a blatant arm movement to activate the screen to see the time, is a turnoff.

Since I tend to always have my iPhone on or near me, I don’t really find a lot of friction in using it compared to using the Apple Watch. If the Apple Watch had a low-power, time-always-on mode I’d reconsider the gadget but for now I’m doing fine without it.

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I still wear my Apple Watch after years of going watchless. But truth be told, I mostly use it for the time and date now, as I’ve turned off a lot of the notifications which were distracting me.

I think I’m going to put a nice mechanical watch on my Christmas list. I don’t think I’ve ever had anything other than a cheapie, and I love the idea of having a really great watch.

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I went nearly a month without the Apple Watch on vacation and missed it, mainly for reminders and calendars. Turned out there were a lot of scheduled activities on this trip and I was in a situation where audio alarms were inappropriate.

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FYI my phone is usually in my pocket, plugged into headphones, so my alarms usually aren’t audible. (I also set my phone to ring with an almost-inaudible tone - but with vibrate on - and it works well for me; OTOH I usually don’t answer the phone anyway.) So I find I get sufficient feedback.

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I recommend looking at Tissot. It’s where I point people who are starting out on the mechanical watch journey. Reasonably priced, great designs, and reliable.

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I love my mechanical watch (A Blancpain Aqualung—30th birthday gift from my wife).

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Polar M430 - for HR accuracy and gps

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I have high blood pressure, so would there be another option besides Apple Watch 4 that y’all have encountered to monitor that?

I don’t think there is.

BTW thank you all for the mechanical watch suggestions :slight_smile:

Me to!
Waiting for the next Apple Watch update before pulling the trigger. Just in case Apple comes out with something I might like better.

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I wear my Apple Watch every day, because I like to have internet time, multiple time zones, timers and alarms, activity monitoring and weather. It’s good to know the outside temperature where I live. I gave up on my fitbit (an old design) because the strap was terrible to put on and still fell off regularly, and I eventually got a skin irritation from the metal. This was the one they had to recall before the Apple Watch came out. I would never go back to a mechanical watch. Enjoy your watch, whichever you choose, or no watch if that’s your choice.

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Mostly the health functions for me

I have an Accutron which I’m very fond of because of who gave it to me and because it looks great and functions very well. I mostly wear my Apple Watch but I keep the Accutron in an honored position on my nightstand and put it on when I dress up. Unfortunately, I’m very used to the lightness of the Apple Watch now and steel feels quite heavy. I experimented with wearing both, but it wasn’t for me, so I expect I will continue with Apple 90%/mechanical 10% until it’s no longer necessary for Apple smartwatch features to use the entire wristwatch space on the arm.

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I don’t own an Apple Watch. If I did, it would not be my only watch: I currently wear a ā€œregularā€ watch on my left wrist and a Fitbit Charge 2 on my right, and any future Apple Watch would replace the Fitbit, not the ā€œregularā€ watch. I’m too invested in horology to be all in on smartwatches.

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Depends. I wear my Apple Watch 4 most of the time, but I still wear my Omega Seamaster Professional on occasion, usually when I wear a suit in the office or a tuxedo for formal or charity events.

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Sure there is. To get a BP reading, you have to stop the bloodflow in your arteries and veins, and you can’t do that with the AW by itself. Instead, you must use an on-arm pressurizable cuff device, such as the QardioArm or the Withings BPM. Both connect to your phone and have apps that allow you to take and record your BP.

I use the Withings BPM and like it. Very easy to use.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HMJR2ZM/A/withings-bpm-wireless-blood-pressure-monitor

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I have my Garmin Fenix 5. I’ve tried the AW about 4 times (yes, I know!) but I’m stuck between too many notifications and not enough (I know I can adjust any and all notifications on the AW).

The Garmin also has me in their ecosystem for running and stats etc. which when I move to the AW, they all go because the companies don’t talk to each other (well Garmin info goes to Apple but Apple does not go to Garmin).

I get alerts on the Fenix which I find enough at the moment plus, for me, I like the look of the Garmin over the AW (not that I don’t like the AW look, it’s just a preference.)

After heart surgery last year I really liked the ECG idea but it still doesn’t work in Australia and then I find the Garmin also has heart rate alerts!

I’ll wait till the AW5 lands in September, assuming it does …

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