I wish they made more e-ink watches
I’d love a successor to Pebble which doesn’t require an account. There are a number of options, but my issue is that most require creating an account with vendor, and app integration with - no doubt - copiuos data harvesting and reselling. Many are absurdly expensive.
There are several cheap options on Alibaba.
Goodreader.com lists a number of expensive e-ink watches, some of which look quite nice.
But I’ve got my eye on Watchy (github, old review); it was introduced a couple of years ago and is still being updated. It’s also available from a couple of vendors, including preassembled through Amazon.
I had an Amazfit BIP for a while that had a color e-paper display with a battery that lasted over 30 days. I think they have since gone OLED but one cool thing about it was, while they had their own app with a login, I could alternatively sync it directly with a third party app on Android that was called “Notify And Fitness”. I only mention it because within this particular app the info never left the device. Perhaps there is something similar today, but I have since just given in and gone Garmin.
Tried https://bangle.js? Loving mine so far. Edit: my bad https://banglejs.com/
What battery life are you getting on that?
3-4 days easy. That’s with turning on all the gps/heartrate/iOS sync functions tho. Turning off the gps and heart rate monitor and I’m sure I could get 7 days easy, and turning fewer notifications I have no doubt it’s go 2weeks.
Cool, thanks
site is down
My bad it’s actually https://banglejs.com/
It is nice, but not e-ink
my eye on Watchy
Have one after the Pebble, let me know if you have questions.
let me know if you have questions.
I have all the questions. I’m peripherally aware of ESP32; my experience with it, and its capabilities, is severely limited, and IME interface changes require recompiling and re-flashing things. Many of my questions stem from that ignorance.
- Integration support. I assume GadgetBridge on Android is how you’d do it? Or is there another app?
- How is the battery life IRL?
- What does the watch face & app space look like? The FAQ mentions a “gallery”, and instructions for contributions describe the github PR process. Is the gallery just the list of watch faces on the sqfmi website?
- What’s the process for changing faces, and installing additional functionality? From the docs, it looks as if this must be done over a serial cable, despite the device having WiFi capability. I assume that’s because adding faces is basically re-flashing the firmware, which is not supported over wireless? So, to get a new face, you clone the repo, compile a new firmware, and flash the device over a serial cable?
- The FAQ verbiage is confusing regarding the display technology, but I think it’s saying the display isn’t reflective LCD like the Pebble.
- Can you have multiple faces on the device, or do you have to re-flash it to change the face? The FAQ says the face is the entire firmware, implying only one face on the device at a time.
- If you’re part of the community: have there been any discussions about future development to add, e.g. health monitor hardware?
- Is there any integration with a phone, such as notifications? This is sort of the GadgetBridge question, but more about what integrations - if any - are supported. Vibrate on phone ringing? Quick responses to texts? Phone calls over the watch - yeah, I know it’s not that advanced, but for example.
- What’s your opinion of the device? Do you use it as a daily driver?
At under $70, I’m not expecting much, but it’d be nice to know what you expect. The sqfmi site is pretty sparse on details. If there’s an additional, deeper FAQ or Wiki, a link to that would be great.
Thanks!
- I’m not using that
- about a week
- it’s indeed like the gallery
- yes, you need to compile the firmware and flash it over USB. The first time is a tricky but then it takes just few minutes
- strangers have said it looked like actual paper. It’s extremely readible
- indeed it’s one face per firmware… but assuming there is enough space, you could imagine modifying it in order to have more faces
- for now I just briefly chat on Discord to get the basics going as I was one of the very first to have the new ESP S3, cf https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy/issues/252
- cf 1 but I bet there is, I was thinking of changing the WiFi HTTP server to possibly send data to HomeAssistant but I didn’t explore that yet
- it’s my daily driver, it’s a HUGE thing but it works and often sparks interesting conversations, I like it
Happy to clarify a bit more if need be.
Which one do you prefer?
And don’t say Pebble, that’s an e-paper (sharp memoryLCD), not an eink. I personally haven’t really encountered any actual eink watches that would seem any good.I know E Ink is a company, but for most of us it’s become a de-facto term referring to the technology, like kleenex, or q-tips.
I have every Pebble model, and used them until the last one’s battery finally gave out. I’ve been using various e-ink (e-paper) readers, from the first Sony to my current Kobo & reMarkable (one for leisure reading, t’other for PDFs and writing). Are those displays different technologies than E Ink’s? Does the display process E Ink uses differ from other e-paper technologies? Are they not all based on polarized, bi-colored balls?
I have nothing against pedantry, but I also think E Ink has lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) the identity game; I suspect the majority of people - if surveyed - would neither realize E Ink is a specific company, nor that the correct generic term is “e-paper.” Everyone I know (with whom the topic comes up) just call it “e-ink,” whether or not it comes from that company. Similarly, I’ve never heard anyone call it “e-paper” IRL.
P.S. I just did a search for “e-paper watches”, and most results call them “e-ink.” Maybe they all use E Ink-brand displays, but I can’t really tell since none seem to capitalize or ™ the term. There’s a bunch of cheap watches on Alibaba which are called “e-ink” watches - are those all really using E Ink brand displays?
E-paper is the category for any display that looks kinda like paper. E-ink is a specific technology (by a specific company, yes,) that uses blobs suspended in oil in small capsules that are controlled by magnetic fields.
Pebble uses a Sharp memory LCD, which as the name suggests, is a liquid crystal display. If you categorize pebbles as a “eink watches”, then a gameboy is one low-power memory chip away from being an eink handheld gaming console, the display tech is otherwise identical - a transflective lcd.
Thanks; TIL.
Pebble advertised their displays as “e-ink”, and I never thought to question it. The best lay resource I found while digging into this was an article on TechRadar, which was about a new product but gives a good overview of the technology and history.
The Fossil hybrid watches are pretty awesome. Very sad they are now discontinued.
I had one of those! So cool, loved not having a giant glowing thing on my wrist but still receiving notifications.
No idea if it’s any good, but here’s an e-ink watch: https://www.crowdsupply.com/sqfmi/watchy
I switched to garmin because of the transflective LCD. So much better than AMOLED for a watch. But e-paper would definitely be nice, too (if I didn’t use active maps when backpacking).
