FossilGen 5 Carlyle Stainless Steel Touchscreen Smartwatch with Speaker, Heart Rate, GPS, Contactless Payments, and Smartphone Notifications

I didn't really see a reason to own a wearable, but I was intrigued and I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. I wanted something that would sync up effortlessly with my Pixel 3, be highly readable, offer vibe, and have physical buttons. I also wanted a round face (I find the square/rectangular ones ugly) and a metal band. That narrowed the field down considerably. The Galaxy Watch was a strong contender until I realized that many of the features are only active with Galaxy phones. A buddy at work has a Garmin Fenix for twice the price of the Fossil. I ordered the Fossil.Setup went easy and I had it running/synced in minutes. The smoked stainless looks very classy, much better than the cheap, plasticky look of many of these devices. There was plenty room in the bracelet even with my thick wrist - I ended up pulling two links (doable, but not very easy).I was initially disappointed with the size of the digital display font despite the large face, and none of the options on the WearOS app seemed to be "just right". In addition, the battery life was not great for the first couple of days. It took me some doing, but I found a free face on a third party app that looks and works terrific, plus it seems to have extended the battery life. I can go 18+ hours on a full charge with the ambient display and BT on, however the charger works very quickly - popping on the charger for even a few minutes can add several hours.It's grown on me over the past few weeks and I am finding it very convenient to simply glance at it to see if the email/text is worth immediate attention. Sending quick SMS/email replies is simple, either with the suggestions or (amazingly) the tiny keyboard. Also, I get an SMS for dual layer authentication at work,12+ times a day, so that alone makes it very useful. The speakerphone is OK only if you have HD voice. I've toyed with some of the apps like Fit and Cardiogram. They seem to do what they're supposed to do, but I was really in for the productivity. About the only complaint I have is the size of the crown/main button. It's quite large and easy to press, so it's easy to accidentally depress any time I bend my wrist back, though wearing it a little higher on the wrist has helped.I'll edit if anything notable pops up, but for now I'll say that this was a very good choice at the price point.

...Well... this watch changed my mind.It would actually be 5 stars except for the fact sometimes my watch loses sync with my phone. But that happens with my car and phone too so maybe it's my phone. Huh. (EDIT - changed it to five stars because it turns out it WAS my phone that was losing sync and not the watch.) Well anyways yeah I never thought smartwatches made any sense whatsoever, especially not at $300+. But then this bad boy went on sale for under $210 and I am one of those people who always misses phone calls, txts, and emails because I lay my phone down and forget about it. Yeah my life does not revolve around a phone. But with the coronavirus lockdown I needed to be instantly reachable for work since I'm working from home right now. Yet I hate carrying my phone around when I'm at home. So a small device that I can wear on my person that instantly lets me know when someone is trying to reach me AND i can txt and take phone calls on it?! PERFECT.And this bad boy IS perfect. Although when doing my research I kept reading how Samsung watches have so much better battery life, what Samsung watches *don't* have is Google assistant. And Samsung's speech-to-text is HORRIBLE. My wife's Note 9 cannot understand what I'm saying u-n-l-e-s-s I t-a-l-k s-l-o-w l-i-k-e I h-a-v-e s-p-e-c-i-a-l n-e-e-d-s, but my Huawei Mate SE *perfectly* translates my everyday speech to text - even when i've got loud music playing. And since I'm not trying to type on a tiny 1" screen, that only leaves me the option of buying a watch whose speech-to-text actually works or else I have to go find my phone again. Nah. So I bought this watch and after the first two days the battery life improved drastically (usually end with anywhere from 20% to 40% after a 16-hr day. Like right now it's after 10pm and I still have 48% left. Pro Tip: turn the screen off while watching TV.) And it understands my speech-to-text needs perfectly. Best of all, it has Google assistant so it seamlessly works with all my google stuff.Now my boss can call and I always pick up. I see emails immediately and can respond to the ones that actually need an immediate response, and same for txts.As for the health/heartbeat functions I'm not into all that, so never use them.All-in-all I am very happy with my smartwatch purchase, even though I am probably about to be laid off and can't afford it haha. Too late! I already love it so it stays.