Since I am so “anti”, I eschew the idea of getting a “push gift” but I did want to mark my return to work after 52 49 weeks away with something new and incentivizing. I have every intention of biking to work instead of walking and thought a commuter bag would be my “back-to-work gift” but bought one months ago, a Kyodan knapsack from Winners.
Somewhere along the line, I realized that a smartwatch, as much as I discounted them back when the first ones were released, might fit my needs. I can’t remember if it was before or after I was talking to Andrea’s boyfriend who was sporting an early generation Motorola one. And definitely I had been looking around by the time I was talking to GG’s husband in early April, he who has more than one Pebble watch.
Since initially it was a present to myself and I have some Best Buy gift cards, that is where I evaluated brands and prices. I crossed off brands and ones that did not catch my eye and then crossed off those unjustifiably at the higher price point (around $400).
Despite my list of how a smartwatch would be so handy, I was afraid of the possibility it would become tech I’d cast aside after not much use (like my on/off/on/off/on/now-off relationship with my Fitbit Flex). These are the reasons I enumerated to NPY (besides the obvious ones of instantly receiving alerts and notifications from apps):
- Timer – I am often timing cooking and it is far easier to set a timer on my wrist with voice command and receive an alert that the timer is up.
- Clock – I am often checking the time for when E starts feeding or sleeping and my phone screen is so big and bright.
- Phone – my phone is almost always set to silent (as to not distract E) and I have so often missed the mail or courier trying to buzz me and visitors buzzing to enter my apartment
- Alarm – I’m learning to wake from the vibrating against my wrist which doesn’t need to wake anyone else.
With all these valid uses and because NPY hadn’t conjured up a better (first) Mother’s Day gift, on Mother’s Day eve, he went to Best Buy and bought for me the Moto 360 first-generation smartwatch in Stone Gray (which is no longer on the website). And a pint of Malted Milk Chocolate with Honeycomb ice cream from Rain or Shine. It gives NPY face, too, when people marvel at my pretty watch and I can tell them why NPY bought it for me. :D
The apps I have used, and I haven’t even branched out to explore, include: (SMS) Messages, What’s App, Gmail (read/archive/delete), Runkeeper, Tangerine (banking), see Swarm updates, navigation, checking the weather, and answering my phone (then scramble to find it).
Bonus: At 42mm, this watch has the largest face I’ve ever had and I had long fancied those chunky Michael Kors watches. NPY is jealous (I will end up pitching the same amount towards his smartwatch, whichever way he goes) and time will only tell when and which watch he ends up with!
On this day..
- I'm SO Vancouver: Cycling - 2017