I’m looking for a watch that can track my heart rate, stay on my tiny wrist, and that doesn’t cost a lot only to break frequently. Fitbit is….no longer meeting that criteria and was honestly out of my budget to begin with, but i am nervous about spending money again on something random that could also break just as quickly.
Any recommendations ? I have heard about pinetime, but I don’t have a computer or many technical skills - I couldn’t tell from the website if that device requires setup or tinkering to work? I basically just want to be able to look at my wrist and see my heart rate and what time it is. Nothing fancy, I don’t even really need it to sync to my phone, a long as it works for a few years and isn’t $90.
I was going to suggest this, you just need to not worry about the Chinese government probably having access to your data. On the other hand let’s not pretend the US gouvernement isn’t doing the same.
I don’t know if Xiaomi still sells them, but they used to have fitness trackers without a screen. I really liked that, much longer battery and no annoying notifications on your arm.
I’ve had a Xiaomi Mi Band 7 for the past year and I like it a lot. using it with Gadgetbridge instead of the official app, so none of the collected data leaves my phone.
it’s a one time procedure though, and it’s smooth sailing afterwards. you can check Gadgetbridge’s website for other supported models that might be easier to pair up, though.
Wife and I needed the same thing and we didn’t want anything fancy. We just needed to monitor heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Monitoring both these levels also allows you to monitor your sleep patterns which we liked.
I did my research and found the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 and the Huawei Band 7 … both are very basic, simple and straight forward watches with no bells and whistles but they are the only watches that can provide continuous heart rate and blood oxygen. Every other cheap watch out there that can provide heart and oxygen levels do so manually, which means every time you want to measure, you have to stop, turn on the setting and do a measurement. The Xiaomi and Huawei can be set up to just continuously measure throughout the day and log everything on your phone app … this is especially important if you want to monitor your sleep.
We couldn’t settle on either so I bought one of each a year ago. I wore the Huawei and the wife had the Xiaomi. Both worked great and once they were set up we never had to monitor them … we could manual spot checks if we wanted to or just review the daily data on our phones. And most importantly it gave us the info we needed to do something about it sleep.
I work outside a lot doing carpentry work and renovations and I always wore the watch. My wife is not as active because of a chronic condition so she stays relatively quiet. After a year, her Xiaomi watch face fell off! Mine is still working fine. We had to buy her a new one as the warranty period expired. I offered to get her a Huawei but she liked the Xiaomi better … and for the cost, we didn’t mind buying another one.
The only other thing that broke down for either watch was the rubber watch band … there are cheap easy replacements on Amazon and we just bought a bundle ($20 for 10 Xiaomi bands … $15 for four Huawei bands)
The battery life is about a week on both watches … and that’s with continuous monitoring on! Just remember to clean off the contacts when charging because those get dirty fast.
Otherwise both are a great value and we enjoyed both. Huawei is a bit more expensive but more durable. Xiaomi cheaper but didn’t last as long.
Like I said, you can get cheaper watches with similar features but these two are the cheapest ones that can give continuous monitoring.
I’ve been using the Mi Band 3 for the past 4 years or so. Was about $15 new from aliexpress and hasn’t broken yet - just the plastic straps which break every 12 months or so.
Apart from the Apple Watch (which became a door stopper when I moved back to Android) I’ve not had a lot of success with really good accuracy on watches. I actually opted to get a Polar H10 chest strap, and it is really super accurate. I usually live monitor the data on the Polar app on my phone (and it uploads to Strava, and then to Samsung Health), or if I’m outside I pair my Samsung Galaxy Watch to it with the Sporty Go! app so it shows on my watch.
I would question wether “good” and “inexpensive” are possible at all on a wrist tracker. Measuring your heart rate from the wrist is technically difficult - it’s just too far from your heart and requires expensive sensors, a large battery, and even then a massive R&D budget (as in hundreds of millions) to get the software algorithm right.
Get yourself a chest strap - those are technically much easier to implement. You’ll need to look at your phone to view your heart rate, but it should be accurate unlike most wrist trackers.
Even thousand dollar wrist fitness trackers (like the high end Apple Watch models) are often paired to a cheap chest tracker and those watches generally will trust your chest tracker over their own measurements - because even with billions spent on the best wrist tracker possible they still can’t be as good as a $30 chest strap.
Look for one that supports the “ANT” standard. They will allow you to view your heart rate in real time on a variety of other devices (phone, watch, gym equipment, etc). ANT trackers just use bluetooth, so they won’t send anything to the cloud (unless you pair them to a phone app that does that).
Been using a Suunto 5 Peak watch since May and it’s been absolutely great. Dunno if 250€ counts as inexpensive, but like we say in Finland, poor people can’t afford to buy cheap shit that breaks right away. (I think they have cheaper options?) Suunto watches talk to phone app which at least on Android is pretty great, and the app can talk to other services which can analyse stuff further.
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Check out the Xiaomi mi fit or Amazfit watches.
I was going to suggest this, you just need to not worry about the Chinese government probably having access to your data. On the other hand let’s not pretend the US gouvernement isn’t doing the same.
I don’t know if Xiaomi still sells them, but they used to have fitness trackers without a screen. I really liked that, much longer battery and no annoying notifications on your arm.
I’ve had a Xiaomi Mi Band 7 for the past year and I like it a lot. using it with Gadgetbridge instead of the official app, so none of the collected data leaves my phone.
This is the answer. Same device and same software for about two months now. Loving it so far.
Oh heck yes. That extra tip solves my other problem with fitbit.
just keep in mind, the initial setup for that particular model requires some tinkering and following the guide: https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/wiki/Huami-Server-Pairing
it’s a one time procedure though, and it’s smooth sailing afterwards. you can check Gadgetbridge’s website for other supported models that might be easier to pair up, though.
Do you know where the pairing key is stored? The instructions just say “obtain the pairing key” which isn’t particularly helpful…
…just scroll like an inch lower.
Wife and I needed the same thing and we didn’t want anything fancy. We just needed to monitor heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Monitoring both these levels also allows you to monitor your sleep patterns which we liked.
I did my research and found the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 and the Huawei Band 7 … both are very basic, simple and straight forward watches with no bells and whistles but they are the only watches that can provide continuous heart rate and blood oxygen. Every other cheap watch out there that can provide heart and oxygen levels do so manually, which means every time you want to measure, you have to stop, turn on the setting and do a measurement. The Xiaomi and Huawei can be set up to just continuously measure throughout the day and log everything on your phone app … this is especially important if you want to monitor your sleep.
We couldn’t settle on either so I bought one of each a year ago. I wore the Huawei and the wife had the Xiaomi. Both worked great and once they were set up we never had to monitor them … we could manual spot checks if we wanted to or just review the daily data on our phones. And most importantly it gave us the info we needed to do something about it sleep.
I work outside a lot doing carpentry work and renovations and I always wore the watch. My wife is not as active because of a chronic condition so she stays relatively quiet. After a year, her Xiaomi watch face fell off! Mine is still working fine. We had to buy her a new one as the warranty period expired. I offered to get her a Huawei but she liked the Xiaomi better … and for the cost, we didn’t mind buying another one.
The only other thing that broke down for either watch was the rubber watch band … there are cheap easy replacements on Amazon and we just bought a bundle ($20 for 10 Xiaomi bands … $15 for four Huawei bands)
The battery life is about a week on both watches … and that’s with continuous monitoring on! Just remember to clean off the contacts when charging because those get dirty fast.
Otherwise both are a great value and we enjoyed both. Huawei is a bit more expensive but more durable. Xiaomi cheaper but didn’t last as long.
Like I said, you can get cheaper watches with similar features but these two are the cheapest ones that can give continuous monitoring.
Thank you!
I’ve been using the Mi Band 3 for the past 4 years or so. Was about $15 new from aliexpress and hasn’t broken yet - just the plastic straps which break every 12 months or so.
Same and same.
I have a MiBand5, pretty good too
Apart from the Apple Watch (which became a door stopper when I moved back to Android) I’ve not had a lot of success with really good accuracy on watches. I actually opted to get a Polar H10 chest strap, and it is really super accurate. I usually live monitor the data on the Polar app on my phone (and it uploads to Strava, and then to Samsung Health), or if I’m outside I pair my Samsung Galaxy Watch to it with the Sporty Go! app so it shows on my watch.
I’ve been pretty happy with the Garmin Vivosmart line.
I would question wether “good” and “inexpensive” are possible at all on a wrist tracker. Measuring your heart rate from the wrist is technically difficult - it’s just too far from your heart and requires expensive sensors, a large battery, and even then a massive R&D budget (as in hundreds of millions) to get the software algorithm right.
Get yourself a chest strap - those are technically much easier to implement. You’ll need to look at your phone to view your heart rate, but it should be accurate unlike most wrist trackers.
Even thousand dollar wrist fitness trackers (like the high end Apple Watch models) are often paired to a cheap chest tracker and those watches generally will trust your chest tracker over their own measurements - because even with billions spent on the best wrist tracker possible they still can’t be as good as a $30 chest strap.
Look for one that supports the “ANT” standard. They will allow you to view your heart rate in real time on a variety of other devices (phone, watch, gym equipment, etc). ANT trackers just use bluetooth, so they won’t send anything to the cloud (unless you pair them to a phone app that does that).
Id look into this https://intl.cmf.tech/pages/watch-pro If memory serves it’s like $60
Looks like nobody is selling it. Do you know where it can be purchased?
Just a heads up, they released the watch and buds internationally yesterday. They are mostly selling on Amazon and Ali express now I read from an email I got. Here’s the list if you’re still interested https://intl.cmf.tech/blogs/news/cmf-by-nothing-expands-availability
Thanks! Much appreciated!
Nope. It’s pretty new, only seen it on YouTube. But that’s the one I’m digging.
I like it too. Also looking at the pixel 2, but that has a spicy price
Been using a Suunto 5 Peak watch since May and it’s been absolutely great. Dunno if 250€ counts as inexpensive, but like we say in Finland, poor people can’t afford to buy cheap shit that breaks right away. (I think they have cheaper options?) Suunto watches talk to phone app which at least on Android is pretty great, and the app can talk to other services which can analyse stuff further.