I’ll be honest: I wasn’t really excited about the whole smart watch thing when it first happened. I didn’t get the point of it, and it just seemed like another thing to interrupt my day. Why do I need to see my notifications in even more places? What was the point of it? Plus, I felt like all the smart watches on the market were bulky and awkward. I hated the silicone bands that came with them. I even wore my old fitbit in a necklace because those silicone bands were so ugly (and they would get linty from all of my knitting).
I was at my local knit group a few weeks ago and my friend Kelly had a Pebble. It was smaller, thinner, and way more attractive than the smart watches I’m used to seeing. She told me how much she loved it and spoke about a few of the features. I looked into them and found that there are often sales that put these watches way under the $200 retail price. I picked one up directly from their website, but Target seems to have frequent deals on them.
After getting the watch, I’ve found it’s actually keeping me off my phone more. I’m able to see my texts, emails, and social media notifications in a much less distracting way. If it’s not important, I can ignore it until later. If it’s a client email, a family phone call, or something else I’ve been waiting for, it’s easy to grab my phone and address it.
Also, I have been wearing a lot of leggings (heck yeah maternity leggings!), which don’t have pockets for my phone. I can leave my phone on the table or counter, or stuffed down in my diaper bag and not worry about how I’ll carry it. And there are great features on this thing. For one, there are customizable watch faces, each offering a litany of info at a glance. The one above shows the time, date, and battery level of the watch, but others report the weather, step count or other health info (yep, it does steps and sleep like a Fitbit), or the status of a virtual pet.
In addition to watch faces, you can install apps on the watch that are useful to your own productivity. My watch has a row counter on it!
I haven’t even started to flex the capabilities of the thing, but I am really enjoying it. I bought a new watch band for it (the stock ones are leather), in a style I like. There are, of course, cons. The battery on this model gets depleted daily. The round interface has fewer options than Pebble’s square watches. It doesn’t have all of the features of, say, Apple’s watch. Regardless, I think it’s wonderful, and I am happy to share my experience with you!
What’s your new favorite toy?
– YX