Do Smartwatches Really Help Improve Your Work and Lifestyle, or Are You Being Fooled?

But, it does make a case for fitness

It is fitness that really made the most sense for me out of all the features that wearables come with. I’ve never been too proactive with chasing fitness goals. However, the regular activity reminders did manage to get me off the workstation at regular intervals, stretch around for some time, and resume work after a while. Even when I would skip a reminder to stretch, the pending green foot notification on the watch kept gnawing at me, until I’d eventually give up and take a brisk walk around.

Chasing the activity goals was fun, too. You never realise how subliminally you start working towards meeting the workout goals. The Galaxy Watch 3 has excellent exercise detection modes, and extensive ones at that. As a result, it was good fun to see the watch recognise automatically that I’m out for a run, and automatically record my jogging sessions. The accuracy, the logging of activity, and the day-wise goal-based activity tracking gave enough impetus to do something to stay fitter everyday.

Dedicated fitness trackers with limited smartwatch functionality appear to have far greater value for buyers. (Image: Shouvik Das/News18.com)

I also started sleeping at more regular times, and drinking far more glasses of water than I did before. It is as a wellness assistant that wearables – even far less expensive ones like Huami’s new Amazfit Neo, really cut it. The wearables help you keep fitter on overall terms, and there’s no denying that even without going to a gym and with limited outdoor time, the fitness, health and wellness features of a wearable are undeniably compelling. If you’ve struggled with maintaining fitness, or have a history of cardiac irregularities, the wearables are worth the money, for sure.

If it’s a lifestyle choice, you’re better off with a chronograph

While it is a big tick on the fitness check box, I’m not particularly convinced about how smartwatches look. Sure, they have to have the big screen, and the screen sizes also must have the limitations of the wrist size. But, the software-produced chronograph watch face dials do not look anywhere close to actual chronographs.

Over time, the Apple Watch has succeeded in building a lifestyle identity for itself, and Samsung has managed to do something similar as well, with the Galaxy Watch. However, given a choice, if I were to have a budget of about Rs 40,000 for wrist gear, I’d rather buy a beginner chronograph and a dedicated fitness tracker – perhaps a Fitbit? The reasoning is clear.

You see, what will truly make sense of a smartwatch or a wearable for you are its fitness, health and wellness features. The smartwatch mirroring features can be nifty in moments, but you won’t miss them if you don’t have them. Combine that with the largely standardised design language of smartwatches, and chronographs are still the exponentially classier alternatives, at least if you’re looking at making a lifestyle purchase. Chronographs such as the Victorinox Alliance, the Hugo Boss Classic collection, the Tissot T-Classic and the likes look far classier than notable smartwatches from Samsung, Fossil and even Apple, and all cost around Rs 30,000.

With the remaining budget, wearables such as the Fitbit Charge 4 would make for a far more compelling choice. With them, you get notification-based app access, as well as a robust fitness ecosystem.

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Verdict: Not essential, but not hogwash either

In the end, should you buy a smartwatch? No, but you should not ignore smart wearables entirely. Despite limited outdoor time, I found the Samsung Galaxy Watch 3 and even the limited fitness functionality of the Amazfit Neo compelling me to remain fitter, to become more active again. Smart wearables are surprisingly more adept at helping you adapt to a better wellness regime, and it is this that makes for a compelling use case, indeed.

Just don’t go splurging on a smartwatch because you think you wouldn’t need to whip out your smartphone too often for messages, calls and emails. You’ll still need plenty of your smartphone, and if fitness is not your game, you’re actually better off buying one of the wonderful analogue, non-smart and fully disconnected timepieces we recommended above.