Smartwatches I Have Owned and Used
I have been a fan of the promise of the smartwatch since I read Dick Tracy in the 1990’s (the novel based on the Warren Beattey film of the same title from 1990). Long about 2006 I got my first taste of smart watch technology, and I have been a fan ever since.
Sony MBW-150
The Sony MBW-150 was my first smart watch (well sort of … it was a loaner from my uncle, my geeky side wanting to try it out). The MBW-150 is a Bluetooth enabled analog smartwatch created and designed by Fossil and Sony Ericcson. The Sony MBW-150 has a small LCD display that can relay notifications from the phone. It also had buttons to control the playback of music and to manage notifications (for the record the device button configuration and the device’s abilities are like the Sony SBH-600 (Stereo Bluetooth headset 600). The problem is that the MBW-150 only connected to the Sony Symbian based phones from 2005 – 2009.
Sony LiveView
In 2010 Sony Released the Sony LiveView a watch like device that used a 128px by 128px LCD display with touch sensitive borders around the edge of the display. An app provided messages and notifications to the device as-well-as allowing the LiveView to act as an A2DP remote for the phone’s media player application. The LiveView was not the best smart watch I have ever used. The device constantly disconnected from the phone, and the software on the watch constantly froze up requiring a reboot to make it semi-useful again. The Bluetooth connection drained my battery fast, and on occasion my phone seemed to run hotter because of the LiveView. I only used it for a few weeks because it was unusable, and became frustrating.
Asus ZenWatch
The Asus ZenWatch uses the Android Wear OS, and out of all the watches I have ever owned it came closest to the promise of the smartwatch. Now the watch functioned perfectly, and even though I couldn’t take a call on it (although newer smartwatches can take phone calls), it did provide access to all my messages, e-mail, call history, and it notified me of every message and e-mail. This is where it becomes a precautionary tale of getting what you ask for. The watch would constantly notify me of every e-mail (junk and all), every text message (junk and all), every facebook, twitter, twitch … etc. It became more of a problem instead lessening the time I spend on my phone I was spending it on my watch. The Bluetooth connection also drained my phone battery. The notifications became annoying and semi-intolerable, so I stopped wearing it. Here is a review from Phone Arena about the ZenWatch:
Skagen Hagen
It’s like coming full circle The Sony MBW 150 was designed by Fossil. The Skagen Hagen was also created by Fossil. As of writing this article I have been wearing the Skagen Hagen for 2 weeks, and it has been wonderful. The Hagen is a hybrid smartwatch. The watch is an analog watch where the hands move to show the time (obviously), date, and the various notifications I define. It also tracks my steps and my sleep, and I only get the notifications I want. It has reduced the amount I am bothered by my watch or phone, and it allows me to get work done. On top of that the watch does not need to be recharged because it uses a replacable battery that needs to be changed every 3 to 6 months (based on the amount of times the phone sends notifications to the watch). Here is a review from PocketNow on the Skagen Hagen:
Conclusion
Sure, the Dick Tracey like promise of smartwatches has been reached. The regrettable problems of modern social networking and communications has created another device that will further divide our attention between our smartwatch, phone, and the rest of our life. Luckily, there is a segment of modern smart watches that allows us to focus on what we need to focus on and will help filter out the ancillary unneeded notifications from our lives.
