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Comment by gosen | Hacker News Reader

I've lost my apple watches recently, and I've been using different versions of apple watches for about 7 years. I thought I won't come back to regular watches, but I've decided to try and bought a cheap classic Casio watches for ~30 bucks. After 2 months I must admit that I don't really need smart watches :D

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And you don't even have to charge them nightly. I kind of want a smartwatch, but not until this is solved.

YES! it's really one of the most annoying things about smart watches. I had a reminder for myself for every evening to charge my watches :D

We use cheap Garmins that track sleep and many other things. Battery lasts a week before it needs charging.

I dont need to track sleep. Or steps. Or hearthbeat.

Those were fun as a toy for dew months, but in the long term, I just dont care.

I wish there was a minimal Casio watch which only had heart rate tracking (with high frequency polling too).

I've been thinking about buying a cheap Apple watch just as a sleep tracker.

You're probably better off with a cheap Garmin for that. The battery will last a month instead of a day. (Or multiple months if you only wear it at night and turn it off every morning)

That would be a reasonable answer most of the time, but as the topic was sleep tracking I'd disagree. Consensus I've seen seems to be that Apple has better sleep tracking (having used both, I would agree). Even if they don't, one can swap out to use another sleep tracking app. I think you're stuck with what you get out of the box with Garmin. (Though I've not looked at Garmin's app store. Knowing what I do about their SDK, I doubt a 3rd party could write a usable replacement app.)

I find that Apple sleep tracking concentrates on how early you go to sleep and how many times you get up. I haven’t tried anything else, but the Apple thing doesn’t tell me what I don’t already know. Any suggestions for something basic, BPM and simple alarms ant timers? About to ditch my Ultra S3.

I don't think you're going to find Garmin to be any better. Garmin goes to the other extreme of allegedly sussing out you REM/deep/whatever sleep patterns from a HR monitor and an accelerometer. Eh, color me skeptical. IMO, Apple tells you what it is confident in telling you, and that's what time you went to bed, how many times you got up, and maybe figures out when you were awake.

That said, there are several AW apps that I've or my spouse have used that might be to your liking. I've used Autosleep (not in a while, though), and I think it might be more along what you're looking for (though you've not said specifically what you're looking for). It tries to figure out sleep patterns, and all that other stuff. More like what Garmin offers, I guess. Autosleep is pretty good at figuring out when you go to sleep without telling it. Meaning, for example, it picks up naps that Apple's built-in doesn't.

My wife has used Pillow, and it seems okay. Same as above with functionality, though I've forgotten why I didn't use Pillow instead of Autosleep.

HTH.

Thank you. I am starting to think that all these health tracking devices are pretty much useless until they can measure blood pressure and sugar. I mean, I know how I spent my day, how many glasses of wine I drank and that I watched one episode of Star Trek New Worlds too many.

I basically use my Apple Watch to unlock my MBP and the phone, and the car. The rest is noise. I've had them since S1/0. A marvelous device, but adds too much anxiety on the daily.

I want to ditch it, it's annoying to have to charge it, but the mere utility is there, just wish there was a screen less band that let me do what I really use it for.

Another RL example - my building issues RFID cards to enter doors around the property. When I walk my dog, I don't want to bring the wallet with the card, I've lost many wallets. I purchased an RFID ring and cloned the tag with a cheap $15 programmer. Why can't I do it on the watch or a screen-less band that has some extra utility, like cloning more than one RFID tag? Perhaps this exists on Android, but that's not a rabbit whole worth for me.

Fall detection works. My bike slipped on sand and I went over the handlebars, and my brother was notified. Same with him one time. Wear helmets, folks :)

Sleep tracking was important for me too, but I've solved that by having whoop (it was a gift, though). It's tracking that stuff nicely, and I only have to charge it once in 1-2 weeks.

Apple watch starts at $250, Fitbit does sleep tracking too and starts at $70.

Do you already sleep with a wrist watch on? I got one for the same and realized I can't stand sleeping with something on my wrist. Also realized if I want to use it for anything else throughout the day, that's the best time for me to charge it.

Agreed, usually only take mine off when sleeping or showering. it just gets in the way

I replaced my Apple Watch with a reasonably priced mechanical watch and an Oura ring. I only have to recharge the ring weekly.

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