Review on Movado Connect 2.0 Unisex Powered with Wear OS by Google Stainless Steel and Black Leather Smartwatch, Color: Black (Model: 3660028) by Adam Taylor

Physically this is a beautiful watch with excellent build quality and an impressive size. The chrome and black color of my watch is attractive and the leather strap is elegant. However, this watch loses a bit with the display and its practicality. The display is less impressive than I had hoped. Even when active, it doesn't look bright as shown in the images, regardless of the display's brightness setting. The Movado circle at 12:00 is clearly part of the display and doesn't look real, and any additional elements (diamonds or lighting effects) look pretty fake. Compared to the OLED display of a modern phone or tablet, it is inferior in contrast and resolution. I set the brightness to "Auto" to save power - increasing the brightness makes the picture look a little better, but it costs energy. I wish it was possible to adjust the maximum value of the "Auto" setting so you could still save power on a brighter clock. As you tilt the watch, the background shifts as if showing that the light falls differently and this effect is not smooth, further reducing the illusion. There are three dials - a large number that you see are variations on these three. You can change the colors and accent styles on each face. I'm not very happy with either of them - I like the standard Movado look, but I found it impractical. The animated face felt artificial and may be more appropriate for women than men. So I went for the aviator dial with three complications. The background should show the texture but looks a bit confusing. The hands can be replaced with different metals - I chose silver, which is good, but the face reflection effect they're trying to show looks weird. You have to choose an accent color that will be used to make the complications and second hand stand out, but you only have pink, blue, orange, or green. I would like silver to make it more traditional but that is not an option and is not used. I've tried several downloadable watch faces. One cut battery life by 50%, the rest always seemed to want you to buy this or that extra functionality. The store doesn't differentiate apps from watch faces, so finding one is a bit confusing. Most of them are "free" but with really useful in-app purchases that you only find out after downloading them. I chose "Agenda", "Date" and "Battery" for my three extensions. The agenda shows the start time of your next meeting. When the default font size is set, the agenda almost extends beyond the circle. The font is difficult to read and sometimes cryptic (it shows the time, but near the meeting it shows the number of minutes until the meeting - 5M means 5 minutes). Why can't the next meeting show up as a smaller watch face or better font? Why would the battery show percentages and not a gauge that would more closely resemble a traditional clock? It's like they assume you're buying the best watch face. The leather strap is very good, but I took it off and replaced it with a 21mm Revain rubber strap. It wasn't very expensive and allowed me to take advantage of the watch's water resistance to 10m. Why would I want a watch with fitness features that has a leather strap that has been damaged by sweat and that I can't take a shower with if I have to? . Unfortunately, buying a watch with a metal band is significantly more expensive than buying the metal band itself. Luckily, this is a standard band that I can easily find and replace without tools. The dial I use has an orange accent and the strap I use is black on the top and orange on the bottom so it goes well with the watch. my wrist. The elastic keeps it in place better. I start the day with 100% charge, at night the watch usually has about 40%. I can wear it all night and it basically charges in the 45 minutes it takes me to get ready and leave the house. I worry about charging in the morning so I charge it at my bedside table at night. This requires a proprietary charger and the watch must be in a specific location. The watch face will change while charging, but you have to wait a few seconds. The features are pretty standard for Android Wear OS and they sync very well with my phone. I get notifications and reminders. I have a Sonos sound system and since the app is installed on my phone my watch controls the Sonos once it starts playing. I'm very happy with the connectivity to my phone and the smart features. There are three buttons, and turning the crown scrolls the display. I assigned the top button to the agenda and the bottom button to the stopwatch. I don't really like Google Fit for workouts, but they're too big and trendy to be workout watches anyway. The heart rate and stride/heart rate reminders are good and get me running more, but there's no way I want to run 5k on this thing. All in all, I cannot recommend this watch. The screen, stuttering animations and limited watch face selection make such a promising offering unsustainable.