Before their watery demise, I was wearing the Basis B1 watch, and a Jawbone UP. I bought the Basis watch first. I later bought the Jawbone UP, at first just to get vibrating alarms - but I liked the UP iPhone app so much more that it became my main fitness tracker. I mainly used the Basis as a watch, to tell the time, and because it had a display so that I could see how many steps I had done without opening my phone.
Now I am wearing a Pebble Smartwatch, and a Jawbone UP2.
The UP2 because I continue to prefer its app, and for sleep monitoring. The Jawbone UP was able to tell whether I was awake or asleep automatically, but only the Misfit watchapp can do that on the Pebble - and it interferes with other watchapps, like the Jawbone UP watchapp, which actually counts steps.
Interference between watchapps is the bugbear of the Pebble.
I was therefore a bit disappointed to learn that the UP2 has separate modes for sleep and awake. Automatically detecting is the entire reason I got the UP2.
The Pebble SmartWatch (a) because running the Jawbone UP watchapp displays steps taken in almost real time - i.e. because it has a display. (b)_Swimming. (c)_Other smartwatch goodness: (c.1) calendar (via SmartWatch Pro), (c.2)_notifications about email and text (mixed blessing, needs better filtering), (c.3)_bus and train schedule. (d) Because I can write my own watchapps, in my own copious free time.
I can already feel the gravitational pull: I am frustrated when something that could fit in the smartwatch's limited form factor is not available as a watchapp. Just as I prefer to use my cellphone for most things that fit on it, I think the same will apply to the watch. The cellphone just has a bigger display, and the MacBook an even bigger display, and a big keyboard.
If we had goggles...
