cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19284817
Iβd love a successor to Pebble which doesnβt require an account. There are a number of options, but my issue is that most require creating an account with vendor, and app integration with - no doubt - copiuos data harvesting and reselling. Many are absurdly expensive.
There are several cheap options on Alibaba.
Goodreader.com lists a number of expensive e-ink watches, some of which look quite nice.
But Iβve got my eye on Watchy (github, old review); it was introduced a couple of years ago and is still being updated. Itβs also available from a couple of vendors, including preassembled through Amazon.
my eye on Watchy
Have one after the Pebble, let me know if you have questions.
let me know if you have questions.
I have all the questions. Iβm peripherally aware of ESP32; my experience with it, and its capabilities, is severely limited, and IME interface changes require recompiling and re-flashing things. Many of my questions stem from that ignorance.
- Integration support. I assume GadgetBridge on Android is how youβd do it? Or is there another app?
- How is the battery life IRL?
- What does the watch face & app space look like? The FAQ mentions a βgalleryβ, and instructions for contributions describe the github PR process. Is the gallery just the list of watch faces on the sqfmi website?
- Whatβs the process for changing faces, and installing additional functionality? From the docs, it looks as if this must be done over a serial cable, despite the device having WiFi capability. I assume thatβs because adding faces is basically re-flashing the firmware, which is not supported over wireless? So, to get a new face, you clone the repo, compile a new firmware, and flash the device over a serial cable?
- The FAQ verbiage is confusing regarding the display technology, but I think itβs saying the display isnβt reflective LCD like the Pebble.
- Can you have multiple faces on the device, or do you have to re-flash it to change the face? The FAQ says the face is the entire firmware, implying only one face on the device at a time.
- If youβre part of the community: have there been any discussions about future development to add, e.g. health monitor hardware?
- Is there any integration with a phone, such as notifications? This is sort of the GadgetBridge question, but more about what integrations - if any - are supported. Vibrate on phone ringing? Quick responses to texts? Phone calls over the watch - yeah, I know itβs not that advanced, but for example.
- Whatβs your opinion of the device? Do you use it as a daily driver?
At under $70, Iβm not expecting much, but itβd be nice to know what you expect. The sqfmi site is pretty sparse on details. If thereβs an additional, deeper FAQ or Wiki, a link to that would be great.
Thanks!
I had an Amazfit BIP for a while that had a color e-paper display with a battery that lasted over 30 days. I think they have since gone OLED but one cool thing about it was, while they had their own app with a login, I could alternatively sync it directly with a third party app on Android that was called βNotify And Fitnessβ. I only mention it because within this particular app the info never left the device. Perhaps there is something similar today, but I have since just given in and gone Garmin.
Which one do you prefer?
And donβt say Pebble, thatβs an e-paper (sharp memoryLCD), not an eink. I personally havenβt really encountered any actual eink watches that would seem any good.
I know E Ink is a company, but for most of us itβs become a de-facto term referring to the technology, like kleenex, or q-tips.
I have every Pebble model, and used them until the last oneβs battery finally gave out. Iβve been using various e-ink (e-paper) readers, from the first Sony to my current Kobo & reMarkable (one for leisure reading, tβother for PDFs and writing). Are those displays different technologies than E Inkβs? Does the display process E Ink uses differ from other e-paper technologies? Are they not all based on polarized, bi-colored balls?
I have nothing against pedantry, but I also think E Ink has lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) the identity game; I suspect the majority of people - if surveyed - would neither realize E Ink is a specific company, nor that the correct generic term is βe-paper.β Everyone I know (with whom the topic comes up) just call it βe-ink,β whether or not it comes from that company. Similarly, Iβve never heard anyone call it βe-paperβ IRL.
P.S. I just did a search for βe-paper watchesβ, and most results call them βe-ink.β Maybe they all use E Ink-brand displays, but I canβt really tell since none seem to capitalize or β’ the term. Thereβs a bunch of cheap watches on Alibaba which are called βe-inkβ watches - are those all really using E Ink brand displays?
E-paper is the category for any display that looks kinda like paper. E-ink is a specific technology (by a specific company, yes,) that uses blobs suspended in oil in small capsules that are controlled by magnetic fields.
Pebble uses a Sharp memory LCD, which as the name suggests, is a liquid crystal display. If you categorize pebbles as a βeink watchesβ, then a gameboy is one low-power memory chip away from being an eink handheld gaming console, the display tech is otherwise identical - a transflective lcd.
The Fossil hybrid watches are pretty awesome. Very sad they are now discontinued.
No idea if itβs any good, but hereβs an e-ink watch: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy
