First G-SHOCK with a heart rate monitor, also featuring Smartphone Link(gshock.casio.com) |
First G-SHOCK with a heart rate monitor, also featuring Smartphone Link(gshock.casio.com) |
The massive plastic bezel shouting PROTECTION, G-SHOCK, G-LIDE, random text on the display like SOLAR POWERED, HEART RATE, START-STOP, SHOCK RESIST, WATER RESIST 20BAR, TIDE GRAPH, besides the permanent function labels, all strike me as childish at best, not something an adult would wear unironically.
They release collabs all the time with streetwear brands. They’ve released watches with PAC Man, stranger things, haribo gummies, Toyota, Honda, etc.
Chunky digital watches aren’t my thing either but Casio has carved out a very nice niche for themselves. They can essentially keep releasing the same designs with various colors and materials for decades.
And I do appreciate a solid, durable and accurate dumb watch sometimes. I have a couple analog/digital G-shocks that look very nice.
Personally I don’t understand the market for very expensive watches that are fragile, less accurate, need constant maintenance and look like nothing special for many thousands of dollars. To each their own.
They’re fun and functional. Childish? I hope that’s something that will never entirely fade in me. Pretending to adult all the time is exhausting
My ideal smart (dumb) watch has step/heart/sleep tracking synced to my phone, no other connected features (especially no notifications), and a ~month of battery life. Currently that only satisfied by a Withings Scan Watch or a few Garmin models with the notifications disabled...
there is nothing better since Amazfit Bip, Casio came close, but they are too bulky
Those in addition to what it already has: 1 month battery life, HR and SpO2 tracking, flashlight.
Also, blood glocose and BHB monitoring would be nice.
And I didn't mention the software..
Run Time
Using activity functions (heart rate): Approx. 35 hours max.
Using in watch mode with heart rate measurement OFF: Approx. 1 month
Using with power-saving function ON: Approx. 11 months
What I'd love is a fitness track, without a subscription, that sync data with HealthKit whenever my phone is within reach, but buffers it, if it can't find the phone nearby. It's the assumption that my phone will always be with me when I workout or take a walk that triggers the "BUH" from me.
I'd also love for this device to not be a watch, because that limits my choice in which watch I can wear.
I guess the reality is that this really isn't a "watch" anymore and Casio knowing how to make very low power, solar charging watches doesn't extend to computing and GPS.
ProTrek series pioneered this "power stages" feature back in the day. The watch selectively powers down capabilities to keep core functions going for much longer.
""" Use USB charging for the heart rate monitor, step tracker and notifications. Time display is powered by solar charging alone when the battery runs low. """
I have a gshock already (GM-B2100D-1A) and I love it - I especially love that it should never be opened, always just works, and it looks ok too (:
I like how they're advertising this shitty feature that's much more cumbersome than what their watches have now, namely https://gshock.casio.com/europe/technology/radio/
More like, automatic time correction is the best reason we found for mandating smartphone pairing and we hope you won't remember there's a better solution.
Also, 35 days that the battery lasts is 1/10 of a year, compared to 10 years that radio-synced watches have, so two orders of magnitude less. Fuck off with smartphone pairing, Casio.
edit: 35 hours, lol, so more like three orders of magnitude less.
But it's damn near bullet proof and I change the battery every few years.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...
https://support.garmin.com/en-US/?faq=2yEgS0Pax53UDqUH7q4WC6
The only other alternative I can think of is a screen strap (some companies make those screenless ones, Polar, Whoop) around the bicep, as it’s relatively close to the shoulder and chest areas which gently move with our breath.
Impedance pneumography is more consistently accurate, but requires a chest (not bicep) strap.
It uses an app to sync with Apple health but will happily run offline for a week until you can sync it.
There are also heart rate bands you wear around their chests since you mention non-watches. I am not sure if those will work without another device to sync with though.
I can imagine the author may have used an LLM for this webapp version of it though
If you're a hacker/dev/tech nerd, that's trivial. You do similar things twice before breakfast without thinking about it.