Review on ⌚ Fossil Machine Hybrid Smartwatch for Men: Stainless Steel, Activity Tracking, Smartphone Notifications by Alif Wills

I consider this my "spy watch". I was new to the hybrid smartwatch concept when it became available. I wasn't sure if that meant the screen was digital, but it would display an analog clock with the ability to toggle between other views. It didn't really appeal to me. This is an analog watch face with digital components behind the scenes. It connects easily to my phone via Bluetooth and stays connected with no noticeable impact on my phone's battery life. You don't have to edit the time manually. The watch gets the current time from your phone, which comes in handy when traveling across time zones. When your phone updates to local time, the same thing happens to your watch. Pretty smooth. The app is pretty terrible, but I rarely if ever use it. It's easy enough to ignore. When you open the app on your phone, the clock will sync. The more you sync, the faster the battery drains. I don't like the app because I can't hide the slider that keeps trying to sell me additional products. However, you cannot exit the app if you want to customize your spy watch. You have 12 contact places. For example, if you put your wife at number 1, when you receive a text message or call from your wife's phone number, your watch will vibrate and the hour and minute hands on the dial will point to 1. After a few seconds, the hands will return to the current time . Feel free to repeat this example for 11 people. However, I didn't. Honestly, it's nice to know that every time my watch vibrates, it's a message from my wife. I might change it sometime, but for now I like it. I can also tap a button on my watch to control music streaming from my phone as well as some other features included in the app/watch. So far I've only used it in one salon, but I'm sure it's more useful for a certain segment of people. Before receiving this watch, I researched how to change the batteries in Fossil watches. I've had other watches in the past that have had a difficult time replacing the battery and this listing says they only have a life expectancy of 6 months (although I'm hoping to extend that by not using the app often and only get notifications from my wife ) . I've found helpful user-made videos on how to remove the back of a Fossil watch, but I don't need these tips. This watch has a notch on the back that fits a coin. Replacing the battery is not difficult. And the battery used in this watch is not expensive. The watch has built-in activity tracking. I think it's exactly the kind of functionality that everyone expects from wearable technology these days. I've compared its accuracy to my Fitbit One and it's pretty good. I'm not giving up on my Fitbit just yet. I found myself carrying stuff around with me all the time and when the watch wasn't swinging no activity was being tracked. I know a lot of people who like wearables on their wrist (Fitbit included), but they're just not for me. However, I've found the activity tracker to be pretty close to the Fitbit in terms of accuracy, as long as I'm walking "right" and waving my arms. Note. You can set a daily step goal in the app. A small inset shows your progress toward 100% of your daily goal. When you reach this goal, the clock will seem to go crazy. The watch vibrates more than when the message was received, and the hour and minute hands make several revolutions in opposite directions. It's not a gremlin in a watch. This is a public holiday. Pretty smooth.