Smart Watch 2.0

Smart watch 1.0 has been returned. It had dozens of functions, but all I wanted was to be able to tell the time and count my steps. The clock part worked well, but by the end of the first week, the watch seemed to be very confused about the concept of a step.

The first few days it lulled me into a false sense of security. Around the house and with an errand or two, I was totaling 1,500 -2,000 steps. I checked the readout frequently and the steps seemed to accumulate in reasonable increments.

The fourth day, as I puttered around the house, I had 384 steps. Ten minutes later I checked again (see what I mean about becoming easily obsessed?) and it read 1604 steps. I couldn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, have walked that much in ten minutes. I knew I hadn’t even walked that much that day. I took the watch off.

The next day, ever hopeful, I tried again. The watch said “0 steps” when I put it on, which was accurate. Half an hour into my day I looked again: 2, 532 steps. Umm, I don’t think so.

I had to wait for my husband to come home from a business trip to see if he could trouble shoot. Remember I told you that I found the instructions incomprehensible. But he didn’t have any success. So, we started looking for a different watch.

Right after I bought 1.0, I started seeing ads for smart watches with slim faces and they looked so much more comfortable. That was my first requirement. We combined our searches and decided on 2.0.

So far it seems to be counting my steps fairly well. But something I never thought to look at is giving me trouble. Someone designed what I presume they thought was a really cool watch band. I don’t know if they had actual people test it, but I’m struggling to get the hang of it.

Instead of the standard buckle with a tongue, there is a rigid plastic rectangle with a tiny—and I mean minuscule—bump on one side. As I slide the other end of the strap through the rectangle and reach the point where the strap is snug, the little bump goes into the hole. So far, so good. But now I have the rest of the strap and there are no loops to slide it under. There’s a space that I figured out I was supposed to slide the rest of the strap through, so it’s neatly tucked away, out of sight and not getting caught on anything. Sounds good, right?

It would be, except for two things. One, I made the strap fit snugly so there’s no room for anything else between the strap and my wrist. Two, even when I managed to loosen the strap one hole, the rubber strap doesn’t slide against the one I’m trying to tuck it under. Sigh.

When I finally got it on, it wiggled a bit, moving the watch face, little by little, toward the outside of my arm. This was uncomfortable and hard to read. But when I slid the watch back to where it belonged, the little knob started moving, loosening the watch band each time. I’m not giving up yet. I’m hoping that with time I’ll work out the quirks.

 And I haven’t gotten to the exciting things this little watch can do. More on 2.0 next week!