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Am I the only one who wants an Apple Watch without the whole health hardware?

2 points by andraganescu ↗ HN
I have an Apple Watch ultra. It's bulky but it is made to last so ok. But the health stuff I don't use. My use case is: leave my bulky brick iPhone at home but still enjoy digital life - payments, messaging, apps and music on the go. It works great - but I have to ignore the bulk that I don't use.

How come nobody makes a watch that has LTE, payments, App Store integration - not only Apple - without the health tracking - which would result in a nice slim, normal watch that does not bruise my wrist if it's too lose or my arm if it's too tight :)) you know like a normal watch experience?

Is there no market for such a thing ?

14 comments

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night-rider
Get yourself a PineTime[0] and avoid Apple's vendor lock-in:

[0] https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/

andraganescu
Never seen one. Says "Heart rate sensor" on the description - does that entail the tip of a sphere design on its back? Can I use contactless payments with it?

I didn't mean to make my post about Apple - but generally about a specific feature set watch:)

odysseus_ithaca
Interesting. Health hardware is one best thing about the Apple watches. What is your reason for not liking them?
andraganescu
It's great at doing what it does: if you want it. I don't want it, nor its function, but I do have to use a device affected by it - bulky design, non ergonomic shape (nothing that attaches to a wrist for hours should have a bulge).

I want everything other than the physical tracking stuff. Maybe that will be solved by some super smart design.

jqpabc123
What I want is a cheap, slim watch that will support data storage and payments.

Strapping data to my arm is an effective part of a backup strategy that I have already solved by 3D printing an addition to the strap to hold a micro-SD card. The data is as safe as I am.

The payments part is a little harder.

Connecting to my phone is just a gee-whiz marketing gimmick with little real, practical value to me.

andraganescu
Indeed :)) the modern watches connect to phones for no reason other than to not cannibalize the phone. I accept that price - it'd be horrendous to market otherwise. But at least I'd love a device that is dumber but makes using it a better experience for me.
zem
it's sad that people have just accepted that phones are now bulky bricks that you don't want to carry around and are looking for alternatives, now that it's clear manufacturers are not going to supply an actual good phone.
andraganescu
Yes. I think the market for a watch that is just a small comms device is tiny for the big players but not tiny for a smaller one?
seanmcdirmid
The health stuff doesn’t add much compared to the LTE and base hardware you need anyways. It is cheaper for Apple to just make one board with everything then to separate the health stuff, which is mostly software on top of cheap sensors.

It works like that for everyone else also. The health stuff is easy to add and conveniently usable on your wrist, so it gets put in by default.

andraganescu
Yes I think you are right except that it comes at the cost of a device that is anti-anatomy :) a bulge on your wrist to wear 12h ...

Maybe they'll refine and refine those sensors to make it flat? They still add weight I think?

seanmcdirmid
The casing and screen are much of the bulk, but the LTE is no slouch either. If you are ok with e-ink display and no LTE, I’m sure something really thin is possible. But I don’t see something like that with LTE as possible yet. By the time it is, probably the health hardware will be small enough to go along with it.
smokeydoe
I think they’re just talking about the bottom with the sensors. They bulge out to get a more accurate reading. It would be more comfortable if that was flat.
seanmcdirmid
Ah, I just had to take off my watch right now to see those, I've never noticed the bulge before.
andraganescu
Ha. People are so different, I was annoyed and distracted by that since minute one :)))