The better question:
Smart watches – any benefit to a person?
As you might guess I think they are absolutely pointless, but I accept that other opinions validly exist
I have a Garmin D2 watch which I always wear in the Cub since that has a very simple panel and no GPS, and the watch provides a backup for a simple Direct-To bearing or Nearest if needed, plus groundspeed, GPS and baro altitude, etc. It has a WAAS receiver which is nice, but not tried flying an approach with it :) I carry an iPad with Garmin Pilot as well in the Cub but there is limited room for it.
But the watch is completely pointless in a well equipped aircraft.
The main area in which these phones have real utility is fitness training and sport – running, swimming, cycling, heart rate zones, etc. I use mine for this all the time. The D2 Pilot is just the Garmin Fenix 3 training watch plus some extra aviation “apps” so I paid extra for the D2 when I was going to buy a new Fenix anyway.
An iOS or Android watch doesn’t interest me in the slightest.
We link EasyVFR to a smart watch to get around one problem that is often reported. Pilots often report that they don’t hear the airspace warning sound from their tablets. This can be a particular problem if there is some soft of cover/stand on the tablet.
So we link the warnings from EasyVFR on the tablet to the smart watch. When a warning is done, the watch will vibrate on the wrist, making it much easier to identify in a loud cockpit. Not Earth shattering, but useful for some.
Ultranomad wrote:
For a mere $70 or so, one can get a GPS-enabled smart watch running full-blown Android
Hmm. You got me there. Order is out :) Wonder how well it works. Do you know how long it lasts on one charge?
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Do you know how long it lasts on one charge?
dnj wrote:
The main area in which these phones have real utility is fitness training and sport – running, swimming, cycling, heart rate zones, etc.
Yes, that’s what they are meant for. My watch comes with a SmartBand app on the phone that logs and count and shows statistics for your every move.
Well, of course smart watches are pointless in the sense that most of their features one can live without. But there’s a but.
My Apple Watch is by far the best watch I’ve ever had. Meaning it’s likely the most accurate time keeper you can get for the cost of 1 flying hour. And you never need to set time. Also Never had any issues with charge lasting beyond my awake time.
My key aviation feature is weather (yes, I’m a weather freak…) for which the AeroWeather app works quite nicely.
Can I live without? Absolutely. Will I live without one? Not likely.
There is no doubt a smart watch can do some useful stuff.
What is interesting to me is that people are willing to put up with the daily charging. I would absolutely hate that.
A phone which runs for barely the duration of the daylight in one day (if you actually use it e.g. for photos) is bad enough… but almost everyone needs the phone.
The other applications (e.g. fitness related) are very valid but in terms of something small that you wear and then take off (and put on charge) these have been around for ages. I was peripherally involved in something like that 25 years ago.
It’s just one more small daily routine. Take it off when you go to bed, put it back in the morning. Not a big deal.
Pretty much the only thing I want a wrist worn device for are notifications. There are situations where I can easily miss even a call. It doesn’t have to be a watch to do that. If it was practical, a distress call would be a feature I wouldn’t mind. And then there is the possibility of using it as a key. I’m still on the fence about that.
Fitness would be another potentially interesting area but I’m not that much interested in so called activity monitors. I’m more interested in statistics for particular activities which requires appropriate sensors. Since I use other specialized equipment for working out, it’s no problem to have a specialized device for monitoring.
