[teekert]

Yeah, I don't understand how there is still no simple smartwatch company without any fitness bs, with thin light >1 week always on screen. Years after Pebble did it. Does everyone but us really want and oled screen and heart rate monitor?

I'd don't understand where Casio is with cheap BT smartwatches that can just show texts/notifications.

[iamwil]

Worked on the ecommerce and marketing teams at Pebble. I can tell you we tried to tell people about our strengths: 1 week+ battery life. Always on screen. Readable in sunlight. Water resistant up to X meters. But what gets people to buy isn't what gets people to stay.

I can tell you that by far, most people wanted the fitness angle with smartwatches. And all those features that you love about Pebble, while great, wasn't all that convincing for people after we ran out of die-hard fans like yourself.

[xyzzy_plugh]

I turned down a job at Pebble after a call with VP of Eng. and when we were discussing the product, I mentioned that health & fitness seemed like the next big hurdle for them. He seemed to agree, but was almost uncomfortable admitting it. As if, "yeah, we know...".

Anyways I turned them down and before May 2015 I started telling anyone who would listen that they were an amazing company full of smart people solving incredible problems that are completely unimportant to the world and FitBit would buy them sooner or later.

I imagined a more successful exit than they got, and I miss my Pebble dearly to this day. FitBit's products are garbage.

[peterbraden]

Here's the thing. I have a Garmin that also gets more than a week of battery life, with an always on display. It also does the fitness stuff very well. There wasn't an advantage to the Pebble angle.

[teekert]

But I don't/want need the bulk and the price of the fitness stuff. The last, cancelled generation of pebble had a black and white screen, many apps and was something like 125 euros for the watch.

I really loved the way I could control my Pebble (time steel), with just 4 buttons, so smooth.

But, ok, out of all brands, Garmin seems nicest to me and they have a payment solution as well.

[_ea1k]

I agree, the weak fitness features were really what killed them. The PT and PTS improved it a lot, but it was really too little, too late.

[freepor]

The thing is that the heart rate monitor gives you an excuse to buy. As a notification device it can seem like a pointless luxury item. If it has a heart rate monitor you can tell yourself/parent/spouse that “this thing could save my life!”

[dheera]

The customers all wanted Pebble. Unfortunately, the VCs didn't want it, so it died.

[fullstop]

Checkout the Amazfit Bip. Strange name, but it's inexpensive, has an always on display (think original game boy advance), and the battery lasts ~40 days on a single charge.

[ValentineC]

I second the Amazfit Bip. My battery lasts anywhere between 35-42 days on a single charge as well. (I take screenshots of the number of days every time it gets to 5%.)

[teekert]

Ok, looks nice! No privacy concerns? Are there any custom OS's? How is the companion app? Do you need it?

[fullstop]

Sorry for the delay here -- I use a third party app and not the one from Huami/Xiaomi.

This is the app that I use: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.miband1...

[yjftsjthsd-h]

Looks like Gadgetbridge supports it[0], so you can probably make it privacy-acceptable regardless of how it was originally made.

[0] https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Amazfi...