I bought a £16 smartwatch just because it used USB-C

I got a cheapo Xiaomi one a few years back.

Pretty sure it just makes the heart rate up and infers it from how many steps you're doing.

When it gets wet, it randomly skips songs on Spotify.

The water thing is just a quirk of capacitive touchscreens. The same happens on the most expensive watches too, which is why there is usually a water mode that you can put the watch into. It sorta locks the touchscreen until you disable it using one of the physical buttons.
- I think you need to pay extra for physical buttons.
  This one sometimes has a "lockscreen" that needs a swipe up to unlock, but the rain can do that.
  Interestingly it doesn't always have a lockscreen. Sometimes it just switches it on and off depending on how it feels.

I really like my Amazfit Neo. Okay, it doesn't charge with USB-C but I appreciate its "always on" display and retro aesthetic. Can't believe they don't make 'em anymore!

Is there a worthy successor or can anybody recommend a similar minimalist smartwatch that won't break the bank?

I've had my Amazfit Bip (the original) for 6 or 7 years and the only complaint I have is the shitty original non-breathing silicon strap. After I replaced it with nylon strap, it was pretty much perfect.
The battery still lasts over three weeks. The display glass only has a few tiny scratches on it, despite that I've worn the watch basically 24/7 all these years.
It has all the basic functionalities I need built in and the not-so-important-but-nice ones I can get via Tasker.
And it was really cheap, I originally bought it just to see what the fuss about smartwatches was all about. But it's been so damn useful and trustworthy that I won't even consider upgrading until it fails someday.
Garmin instinct. Used they are often pretty cheap. They look like an old 80s retro digital but have a bunch of smart features. I love mine.
- Looks good, tnx

I keep looking weird at people who say phones give you cancer and that you should never sleep with one next to you. Same people wear smartwatch with sensors pressing against your skin 24/7

I’d buy a smart watch if it displayed my “Heart” stat out of 100.

Also, 16 quid is “a couple of pints” now?!

In London, yeah probably.
In a wetherspoons in the north east? You could get 8 pints for that, if you're down for some cask ales.
That depends if you consider 3 pints "a couple"
- That’s only half as many points as “a quick pint”.

Wicked!

All I want is a smartwatch which will let me own all my personal health data, I don't want to get locked in to some monthly subscription just to access my own health metrics

Get something which works with GadgetBridge. You'll be in complete control.
The FOSS app GadgetBridge, has a number of supported smartwatches.
Supported watches can sync your health, activity, GPS, heart, O2, sleep data to GadgetBridge locally on your phone, instead of sending it online to who knows where.
May need to use the watches app to set it up, but then all happens locally.
I have a rule: I never preorder anything. I broke that rule recently. https://www.repebble.com/
- Their website has a question at the bottom "Are you still interested in Pebble?" And if you click yes, it'll show you their new models, but there's also a button for No, which takes you to Google's latest smart watch. The "we're not a big tech msgacorp" vibes are strong with this one.

Honestly, it's baffling how good some of the stuff you can get off of AliExpress is, especially when taking the low price into account.

My ~$100 N100 server is a testament to that. Just need to score some additional storage for it

I just ordered a shitload of little soldering projects for $1-4 to practice soldering and have been quite satisfied. The instructions are only in Chinese and minimal, but easy enough to translate with a phone camera and the lack of hand holding sorta encourages learning.
I wouldn't say aliexpress stuff is good, but rather that amazon stooped down to aliexpress-levels of quality, to which we got ourselves used to.
- It's more that AliExpress is all over the place, which is probably because manufacturing in China is itself all over the place (small and pretty much amateur-hour cottage factories doing plastic molded stuff or pretty simple electronics right next to much bigger professional companies designing their own smartphones and computers) plus there is very little in the way of established brands and without a brand to defend, manufacturers don't really care if customers get a bad impression of whatever product name they're using today for their, at best, badly made stuff.
  It also doesn't help that in a lot of domains competition in China is mainly on price: the manufacturers might even know how to do a good product, but they have to use inferior parts and cut corners on their designs to stay competitive on price.
  (At some point I looked into importing LED light bulbs into Europe from China and got and evaluated several samples and then went back to the manufacturers and at least one e-mail exchange was very enlightening on this and on just how little extra money it actually costs to provide a much better product, but to compete they have to advertise - this was in Alibaba, the B2B site that gave birth to Aliexpress - the cheapest product they have which is kinda crap but only a domain expert doing a teardown of their product will spot it).
  Also the fraud prevention in AliExpress is pretty much non-existent and anti-fraud there is entirelly reactive, so product listings with fradulent claims which are hard for customers to validate just stay there forever (for example, almost all powerbank storage claims or solar power bank supply claims are complete total bollocks, insanelly so at times - I've seen listings for small powerbanks claiming more power storage than actual EV cars have).
  So for some things you can get really decent stuff at a good price - best place to buy switches or push-buttons for Electronics and as the above poster mentioned mini-PCs, to which I will also add Single Board Computers - whilst in other areas it's a bit of a crap shoot if you'll get something decently made or not - for example clothing - and in yet others the scams are more than the honest listings - such as external digital storage, solar power or power storage.
- You'd be surprised, actually. You have to be careful, yes - the default option is that you get crap - but all of the high-quality cycling gear/running gear/variety consumer electronics I've scored is a testament to the possibility of getting great stuff.
Which one do you use/have?
- I got a GMKtec G3.

Pretty wild that the author didn't set up app notifications. Getting specific notifications from specific people on my wrist is a big part of the reason I use a smartwatch. But to each their own.

It'd be pretty cool to get a significant use case of my pricey pricey Garmin for ~CAD$40.

I'm the author. I've now set up notifications on the advice of just about everyone. It's pretty cool!
- Nice!
  I enjoyed reading your blog. It's been a while since I looked at an honest to goodness enthusiast blog. Thanks for writing it!
What do you mean, specific notifications? Like an allowlist or something? Where, in android, the companion app or GB?
I'm genuinely confused.
- Yeah. GadgetBridge allows me to set up an allow-list / block-list for notifications. So I can get SMS on my wrist but ignore social media pings.

On a side note I wish hybrid smartwatches were still a thing. Most of the product lines are discontinued, but I liked the idea of it.

I really really like my Garmin Instinct 2. It a kind of hybrid but between old digital clock and smartwatch, instead of analog.
It has strong Casio Pro Trek vibes. One color, no touch LCD screen. Solar charging, more than 3 weeks battery life, GPS, all health sensors and smart stuff.
- I had a garmin vivomove hr. The idea behind it was pretty neat, but it was too annoying to keep charged.
- Garmin makes excellent watches
I feel like withings cornered the market on hybrids. They are a little pricey but they are built very well.
- Yea they're pretty much the only brand still.
  I liked my garmin vivomove, it was pretty nice despite some clunkiness (the one I bought was early on)
  I'd like to try one, but I feel like I might end up not using it often or just not liking it

I was able to pair it with GadgetBridge by pretending it was a Colmi V79. Most of the functionality worked - I was able to see heart rate, steps, change some settings etc. I've requested GadgetBridge support which should make it possible to get notifications etc.

Proper GB support and this is seriously attractive.

Happy to say the latest nightly does support notifications. My wrist is buzzing with action!
- Oh, your user name. Now I get it.
  Does this mean it's basically fully supported with the core features, including hands-free? Thanks for being the type of person that adds device requests to the repo, I only browse for devices already fully supported. 😔
  Is there a dedicated profile in GB or are you still spoofing the 79?
  And for the most important question of then all - Does 2048 come with the standard 4x4 grid only or is there optional sizes for those long, chill games of ~~cookie clicker~~ math swiper?

Should I Buy One?
That's up to you, champ. I'm not your real dad and I'm not trying to take his place. But I'm here for you if you need me.

Love it. 🤣🤣🤣

Loved the article.

One pet peeve of mine: PD plugs are too powerful to charge puny devices. Not the first time I've run into this problem.

So sad that we've finally gotten a good standard (USB c) but there are still things that look like they should fit together and work, but don't.

The thing is that USB type C is only about the physical plug/socket, and the USB standard and version that uses it is a separate thing.
In this case it's probably a PD only charger and the device only supports plain old 5v 500mA USB power
too powerful? what do you mean? USB PD by default supplies 5v the same as USB A and increments from there
5v is pretty low - 3v is pretty common logic voltage, but i doubt anyone would use voltage that low for battery charging?
do you mean you don’t like to “waste” a perfectly good powerful USB C port? you can get some pretty low watt USB C plugs, but honestly i much prefer to just have a brick with 7 big ports
- The person you replied to is referencing findings made by the author, in the article.
  The author tried plugging a PD charger into the watch to charge it, and it wouldn't work. It's probably not PD as a specification couldn't work, but that the watch failed to negotiate with the charger.
  Whatever the reason, the findings were that plugging your PD laptop charger into this cheap little watch does not result in any charging.
Does the PD standard not regulate? I've used a PD power cord from a laptop to charge a mobile phone, but that isn't exactly a small device. And maybe I shouldn't have done that...
- I think a phone is big enough that it can work with the PD charger. But I had a tiny little gadget that wouldn't pull any power from a PD charger, but did charge from a normal charger / dollar store cable.
- You can certainly charge a phone with a PD laptop charger. PD does negotiate, so it will only give the device what the device indicates it can support.
  I use my laptop charger with my android phone frequently if I'm out and about.

dude this thing has a flashlight? you son of a bitch, I'm in

No, he said torch. I assume butane.
- Close, propane.

I had no idea USB C charging was such a rarity for smart watches

I'm curious about the reliability of this port on a sweaty wrist exposed to dust and general labor environments. My phones, even back to the proprietary plug days, have had the charge port covered and my wrist watch would get wrecked.

It has a small rubber lug - which has worked so far at keeping out the grime. But I don't have a manual labour job.

Get a BangleJS2 and you won't need to charge it on a bus.

2 weeks between charges. GadgetBridge is the mobile app. It's more expensive, true: £76. The battery is replaceable, though, so you might have to buy fewer.

It's more expensive, true: £76.
Not if you order 50 or more!
- I could fit at most 10 on each arm.
I just looked that up, that is insane. As described "Spartan" but really cool
- It's certainly not flashy! It isn't a dress watch; it looks cheaper þan an Apple watch, so it doesn't look like much.
  You can get it pre-assembled or as a kit, and þis means þe battery is replaceable, which is a huge plus for me. A owned a series of Pebbles, and battery degradation was þe main reason I replaced þem.
  Also, it's an e-ink display, which is fantastic for þe job, but not nearly as pretty or bright colors as an LCD.
  If you want looks, þe Garmin is probably better.
2 weeks between charge
Most Garmin watches do this and they offer a modern featureset.
- With an always-on watchface þat's readable in daylight?
  What features do Garmins have þat Bangles don't? GPS chip? Bangle's got that. WiFi? Bangle's got that. Accelerometer, barometer, vibration? Bangle's got those.
  What "modern features" do þe Garmins have?

Neat! I was looking for one of these things for health monitoring, but there's so many that I have no idea where to even start.

Heh, of course it has a knock-off UI too.

Please check in with an update after 6 months.

Is it esp32 based?

No, its something different, according to the blog:
First up, the brains of the watch is the JL7012 - which is a deliberately underpowered chip.

This article was right up my alley. I've been considering buying a cheapo smartwatch. I suppose this one couldn't be used as a mp3 player for jogging though.

It doesn't have storage or a headphone port. But it will stream music over Bluetooth. So if you want to annoy everyone you job with, you can listen to its tinny speaker :-)

I really like the Interactive Relationship Graph on your site. Reminds me of when I used to work with graph databases and could visualize all the information in the database as a handy graph of nodes and relationships.

Thank you 😄
I wrote about it at https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2025/01/graphing-the-connections-between-my-blog-posts/

For what it's worth there are smartwatches with good battery life too, my Garmin Venu 2 lasts at least a week with sleep tracking, workout tracking, and some GPS use through the week.

A phone for the price of a couple of pints? £16? Two pints? Very London of him to assume that’s the price of a couple of pints. Actually unreadable.

How much are pints actually?
- Not in London; about a fiver. Depends on the establishment and the drink itself, ranges from £3-4 ish to £6. The usual cooking lager to Guinness range.