Amazfit Bip lasts 4-6 weeks on single charge with always on transreflective display with readability improving with more sunlight (opposite of useless OLED power hungry displays) and I use it exactly just to check time and read notifications, I also use it to track my sleep, step counts and heart rate, plus one of the most used features in my night apartment is using display backlight (necessary only in dark) as flashlight

it's also very small, light and thin, pretty much impossible to find such compact watch since I don't want to carry bulky brick on my wrist (so no thanks expensive Garmin bricks with shorter battery life)

I'm now on my 2nd one, first I had brand new, it fell apart just before end of 2y warranty (basically the body inserted in frame without gluing, it felt outside, I could put it back and connect, just display colors were reversed but since it was in warranty I just used warranty to get money back, they improved gluing with newer versions), then went for OLED watch and gave up after maybe half year, gave new OLED watch which need to be charged at least twice a week to wife, it has unreadable AOD in sunlight (beause you need full brightness in sunlight or very least B&W AOD display instead other useless color combinations) and just bought second hand Bip for 20USD and I couldn't be happier, I'm thinking I could stock few of them into drawer in case something will happen to this one

plus for people with too much spare time Bip firmware is somewhat hackable with extended functionality

I ordered a Bip U, they just sent me a Bip U Pro for the same price stating it is better and the Bip U is discontinued. I cried a little because the Pro has an lcd screen. Are there really so little people that want a Pebble like experience?

BTW TBH I don’t really like Amazfit/Xiaomi, their terms tell you they can get basically all your data. With Pebble I felt a sort of trust, which I also have with Apple (but sleep tracking on a 1 day battery smart watch is bit of a bad joke).

I used the Bip U Pro on Android with GadgetBridge which is really amazing and perfectly privacy focused. Sadly when I switched to iOS I found nothing equivalent.

I want Pebble back.

that's not really Bip though, only original Bip, Bip S and Bip Lite have transreflective displays with battery life in 4+ weeks and display readable in sunlight, any other Bip is just regular power hungry watch.

Bip U has already just regular TFT display with poor battery life, maybe a better readability than OLED, but not comparable with transreflective displays and their battery life.

As you said you can use Gadgetbridge if you don't trust them, though I find GB experience very poor always losing connection compared to their own app, not sure if you can disable internet connection for the app to keep using it which would resolve privacy issues (I use also GBoard without internet access).

Oh yes, you are right, I ordered a Bip S, apologies.

Do you trust Amazfit with your data? I can't trust such a Chinese entity with so much personal data.

I have a Bip and absolutely do not trust Amazfit with my data, which is fine because I don't use their app.

I use the open source Gadgetbridge app instead and it works well: https://gadgetbridge.org/

This is great! Finally I will be able to use a Xiaomi Fit band I have.

> last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.

Actually there is something that does that, my favorite watch: https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr

The battery lasts a month. The only thing which would improve it would be NFC payments, but one can't have it all.

Also looks good IMO.

Citizen developed a fantastic-looking, bluetooth-connected mechanical watch called the Proximity using its Eco-drive solar tech:

https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/BZ1005-51E.html

https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/BZ1000-54E.html

In theory, its capabilities included phone search/filter and visual/vibration alerts. Not quite a smartwatch, but at least some connection to the digital ecosystem.

I was excited when I heard about this, particularly the Eco-drive, as it meant no charging would ever be necessary. I have one non-Bluetooth Eco-drive which has been running continuously for 12 years without changing the battery.

In practice, the Proximity was a disaster. Owners reported dropped connections, late notifications, and a terrible iOS and Android app. The first two problems, from what I read, related to insufficient power. It wasn't enough to maintain a Bluetooth connection. The third issue is common to many companies that do not have mobile app engineering in their wheelhouse.

Citizen discontinued the models. They have a real smartwatch now (https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/MX0008-56X.html) but it is not Eco-drive.

I lost mine unfortunately and got a "normal" smartwatch with a touchscreen and all. I don't use 90% of the features and it doesn't look nearly as class as the Steel one.

Dang that is an attractive watch, how open is the communication protocol and how much does it report to home? I'm not a watch-wearer but it could make for a nice gift, especially with such a reasonable price.

I don't think it's open. Looking on the web page it reports all fitness data, but not notifications, but one can't be sure without checking the actual communication.

Well, that made me want one! These look pretty impressive.

Here you go: https://pine64.org/pinetime.

The specs of the device linked in OP aren't that far off the PineTime. Maybe if we ask very nicely we can get the source code and begin work on a PalmOS port!

Remarkably, source may not be needed: https://pmig96.wordpress.com/2021/09/08/pumpkin-os/

Unfortunately "asking nicely for source code" almost never works. I would prefer supporting companies which intentionally collaborate with the FLOSS community.

I enjoyed my Pebble but most Garmins have all that and a whole lot more.

Do you have one? From the pictures of them the screens seem really small and therefor not really apt for more "finnicky" things like reading mails, planning routes etc.

I know someone who has one. It's surprisingly good and can display a few lines of text at once. It's not as big as the pebble but it seems like enough.

Do we trust them on the security, privacy side of things?

Can't speak for the online side of things, but it's possible to use most Garmin watches fully offline.

I'm not talking about a reduced functionality style offline mode either; the watch computes all metrics locally, you can load OSM for navigation, copy MP3 files to it and copy GPX traces off of it.

Mozilla gave them a thumbs up https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/garmin-...

What's your threat model?

I don't remember the brand, but a smartwatch brand's activity feed was public, and the some military personnel bought these, and trained around the military bases, leaving nice outlines secret bases, complete with their GPS coordinates.

Then that thing was banned, again IIRC.

That’s just what a default is. I think it was Fitbit? Fitbit got lame for me after. Every one’s feed was private even for basic info. It was unnecessary to make everything private by default for the average person except to combat all the blow back from the PR of that story and vocal people like many on here.

It’s not disssimilar to how Cambridge Analytica gave FB an excuse to clamp down on their API and put much more content even more in their control. The API for many things became useless after the clamp down. Not that a response wasn’t required.

However, in both situations, it was like throwing the baby out with the bath water

While I'm by no means an absolutist about not sharing personal information, I disagree in this case. Location data can be pretty sensitive and defaults are powerful. I don't want my location being shared by some device or website unless I've explicitly given it permission to do so.

It can be a tricky tradeoff. For example, I think the blowback around Apple AirTags and Find My Network is way overblown. But I do draw the line at sharing my location tracks and related absent checking a box somewhere in a menu.

The response wasn’t to not share location or specific detailed info. It was to set everything to private by default. The actual issue was not the only thing fixed with the response. Everything was taken away. That’s why I said baby with the bath water. Facebook did a similar thing when they reduced what their APIs could do and what any normal user could do using FB themselves. In both cases, the actual issue could have been solved without the amt of stuff they did.

Once Fitbit hid basically everything by default and almost no one changes defaults, it was hard to know if a user was even using Fitbit or not without already being friends with them.

Edit: I agree whole heartedly. Whatever specifics were done with location sharing is not good and shouldn’t be done by default. I am pretty open with my location, but it’s under my control and I’m usually actively opening up my privacy and location. 100% agree there and also agree over the excessive reactions to AirTags

I've got Huawei Watch GT2 and it feels like I recharge it once a month. I was honestly quite positively surprised by it, having expected having to recharge every 2-3 days.

They advertise a two week battery life so you are probably having to charge it more frequently.

I am not wearing it every day, so it probably conserves energy when it's idle.

The Fossil Hybrid[1] series with the E-ink screens is by far my favorite "smartwatch" right now, and has a ~10 days battery (claimed 2 weeks). Does basic sports, heart and sleep tracking, shows notifications, customisable watchfaces and a bunch of other stuff I don't really care about.

[1] https://www.fossil.com/en-ch/smartwatches/hybrid-smartwatche...

Edit: it shows the time using physical arrows, so you have it accessible 24/24 (they glow at night).

Another great option, the Garmin's Vivoactive line (and some other models) isn't e-ink, it's a transflective LCD(? they call it Memory-In-Pixels (MIP)), that's always on. It's a great display that's usable in any light-level other than dark. Also a pretty good purpose-driven smart watch, especially if you want your smart watch to do things like have GPS and HR recording and integration with sports peripherals (like bike power meters, etc). Doesn't have great "apps", though. Battery life isn't two weeks, but it can easily last a week if you don't record any GPS, and a few days of normal wear + 6-8 hours of GPS recording during that period if you use it normally + exercise.

Unfortunately, the Vivoactive line seems to lag behind in tech from the product lines with the more traiditonal displays. So I've moved to the Venu line, which has an "always off" AMOLED display and better sensors. The display is also much more vibrant, but at the cost of being a lot harder to just glance at since it's usually off.

If they can bring the better sensors to a Vivoactive, I'd definitely go back to the always-on display it offers. I miss that always-on and much closer to e-ink style feel the transflective display has.

A big downside is that in order to use the phone app, you need an online account with Fossil. Not sure if it is the same case with Garmin.

You can use some features with GadgetBridge, but you still need the account to initiate the server-based pairing.

Garmin Vivoactive 4s ticks all the boxes that you mention

Are they community-programmable? SDK, etc ?

There is a SDK that looks quite decent: https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/sdk/

https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2 seems to be the closest to open and well finished at the same time.

TicWatch Pro (I do not own it) has a 2nd layer screen that uses very little power and can last many days. However the watch is too big for my taste, but always on is a must.

I purchased a refurbished Samsung Galaxy 42mm. I can last well into 1.5 days without charging (it usually gets topped off). The newer Samsungs can barely last a day.

There are in fact a lot of watches that can do this. Fitbit Charge 5 for example

GPS is the real killer for battery life. If you turn the GPS off, there are a fair number of watches from companies like Garmin that probably fit the bill.

Check out the Wyze Watch, it's surprisingly good for the price, and battery life is great

22 days on my Garmin