My Watch is Smart Enough
27 September, 2024
I’ve never been one for watches. I’ve owned three in my years on this planet and haven’t (as some people do) embraced them as part of my lifestyle. Even when I owned a watch, it wasn’t always on my wrist.
My last watch was, believe it or not, a smartwatch — something of a surprise considering my relationship with and feelings toward technology. That watch was a Pebble Time bought in November, 2015. I used it daily until Pebble Technology, the company behind the watch, went away. And for a little while after that.
Between then and now, nothing adorned my wrist. There were days when I missed the Pebble Time and was tempted once or twice to buy a smartwatch. But I held back.
That all changed in late June, 2024. On a whim, I ordered a PineTime. It’s an open source and very minimalist smartwatch which you can hack (if hacking hardware is your thing). It was the watch’s minimalism, and its resemblance to the Pebble Time, that attracted me to it. With a price tag of under $30 (USD), how could I resist?
The PineTime doesn’t do a fraction of what, say, a Samsung or Apple smartwatch does. And you know what? That’s fine with me. I don’t need access to 47 different apps on my watch. I don’t need it tracking everything I do and everywhere I am. I don’t need my watch to pack a death ray or a drinks dispenser.
The PineTime is, as I pointed out a few paragraphs back, very minimal. It’s a good example of calm technology. The watch sits on my wrist and doesn’t bother me every time someone hiccups online. It’s not constantly beeping or buzzing or vibrating or doing backflips to get my attention.
The watch’s built-in apps are enough for me. It does enough. Unlike more complex smartwatches out there, it doesn’t try to track, analyze, push, file, stamp, index, brief, debrief, or number me.
All of that makes the PineTime not only smart enough for me but also the right smartwatch for me.