# Took the plunge and bought a Samsung Galaxy Watch



## ugawino (Jan 20, 2019)

Sold off most of my watches in an attempt to de-clutter and simplify. Now I've just got the Galaxy, a G-Shock for camping and a Luminox I inherited when my father-in-law passed away.

Downloaded the Facer app. Holy cow, what a rabbit hole that is. Thousands of choices. For now, I'm just sticking to what I can download for free.

I think the Omega and Tudor dials are tacky. You'll not catch one of those on my watch.

Advice? Favorite apps? Other suggestions for dials?

Not a big fan of the stock silicone strap. I like the Barton Elite better. Had a few of those leftover from other watches. Anyone tried this watch with the Barton Hybrid leather? Might be a way to dress it up a bit without making it look too stuffy.

Rocking this look today.....


----------



## wease (Feb 26, 2012)

ugawino said:


> Sold off most of my watches in an attempt to de-clutter and simplify. Now I've just got the Galaxy, a G-Shock for camping and a Luminox I inherited when my father-in-law passed away.
> 
> Downloaded the Facer app. Holy cow, what a rabbit hole that is. Thousands of choices. For now, I'm just sticking to what I can download for free.
> 
> ...


See if this link works, this is one of my favorites
If I'm violating any policies by posting please let me know, I make no money off this.
Check out this watch face on Facer! Matteo Dini - MD 131 - watch face for Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S3, Huawei Watch, and more - Facer

#facer #watchface

Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk


----------



## ugawino (Jan 20, 2019)

wease said:


> See if this link works, this is one of my favorites
> If I'm violating any policies by posting please let me know, I make no money off this.
> Check out this watch face on Facer! Matteo Dini - MD 131 - watch face for Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S3, Huawei Watch, and more - Facer
> 
> ...


That's sweet. Saved.


----------



## Mediocre (Oct 27, 2013)

What are your thoughts on it? I have been considering a smart watch for exercise purposes


----------



## myltz400 (Feb 7, 2008)

I went down the smartwatch rabbit hole after being a traditional mechanical watch guy. So far I have had Galaxy, Asus, Tic Watch, Pebble and Garmin Instinct. I liked the Galaxy watch because of the practicality of using the bezel for interaction. I set it up to have the touch screen activation off to prevent unwanted wake ups (think crossing arms and at night). The Tizen platform is really well done although I hear they might ditch it. 

In the end I have found that I just cant live with the Galaxy. The way all oled watches handle things for battery saving is quit annoying.

For example:
You can't always see the screen in certain conditions
The screen always on is often not bright enough and consumes copious amounts of power
When you get a notification it goes away too soon, I am always fiddling with it to see what I missed
I often can't just tell the time, which is the primary reason to wear a watch
To get the big battery you have to get the big watch
Needs to be charged every other day
Mine glitches often when tracking exercise, common issue that can be found online

For these reasons I have moved on to the Insinct. I have not had it long enough to give you a good idea of what its like but so far its better than the aforementioned. I truly hope Samsung can figure out that most people do not need a small phone on their wrist. IMHO the Pebble should have set the standard for the way Apple developed what we all think of as a "smart" watch but it just wasn't meant to be.


----------



## romig (Mar 4, 2021)

ugawino said:


> Sold off most of my watches in an attempt to de-clutter and simplify. Now I've just got the Galaxy, a G-Shock for camping and a Luminox I inherited when my father-in-law passed away.
> 
> Downloaded the Facer app. Holy cow, what a rabbit hole that is. Thousands of choices. For now, I'm just sticking to what I can download for free.
> 
> ...


Looks Nice. I ordered the same watch (trading in my Gear S3 classic) and plan on buying a Ringke Bezel cover to maintain the same look as the classic: https://www.amazon.com/Ringke-Adhesive-Stainless-Protection-Accessory/dp/B08MQSH8DN


----------



## lvt (Sep 15, 2009)

> Other suggestions for dials?


The simpler the better.

It's highly recommended to use a dial with as much black color as possible to save battery and to prevent screen deterioration.


----------



## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

Congrats!


----------



## Rocket1991 (Mar 15, 2018)

lvt said:


> The simpler the better.
> 
> It's highly recommended to use a dial with as much black color as possible to save battery and to prevent screen deterioration.


We only live once!
Twice in case of 007.
Black on OLED going to save battery though makes a lot of difference in always on mode.


----------



## wease (Feb 26, 2012)

I enjoy this one as well, for my older eyes

Check out this watch face on Facer! ArjenD - Large Time v2 (Beta) - watch face for Apple Watch, Samsung Gear S3, Huawei Watch, and more - Facer

#facer #watchface









Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk


----------



## noodlenoggin (Jan 24, 2011)

Almost same here. About a month ago I started watching carbs, trying to lose weight, etc and wanted an activity tracker...I hate _adding_ a Fitbit to my "other" wrist...and found the Galaxy Watch on sale for less than $200 so finally jumped into the smartwatch pool. Agree, hate the silicone band. It looks okay, but chafes my wrist something fierce. Yesterday I got a pair of metal bands from a popular buy-everything-here website. I haven't dabbled in Facer yet, but have mined the Galaxy store for free watchfaces. Anyway, here's my Galaxy Watch with the metal bracelet and a cool Orange Monster face:


----------



## ugawino (Jan 20, 2019)

Mediocre said:


> What are your thoughts on it? I have been considering a smart watch for exercise purposes


So, after 2 months or so, I feel like I can give a semi-educated opinion on the Galaxy Watch. I really, really like it. I don't in any way regret selling off most of my watches and just wearing this every day. The dials are easy to download and match to whatever I'm wearing. After trying a number of different straps, I've settled on the Barton leather/rubber hybrid as my favorite. I have a black one and a brown one that I choose between each morning before picking out a dial on the Facer app.

I like the look and heft of it. Feels solid on the wrist, and the bezel is nice and crisp. Looks so much more like a "normal" watch than my wife's rectangular Apple Watch.

Like my phone, I'm sure it's capable of a million things that I'll never use it for. I choose to keep the number of apps to a minimum. I can check Facebook messages or texts, but I have no interest in learning how to respond to things like that on a watch when I'm never very far from a phone or computer.

I basically use it for keeping time, tracking pace/distance of my daily walk and listening to music. Yes, I pay extra to have it linked to a data plan so I can listen to Spotify on my Bluetooth ear buds on walks. I always hated having to have a phone in my pocket for that. Yeah, first world problem.

I paid $150 for a brand new one on Amazon and I think it was a great purchase.



lvt said:


> The simpler the better.
> 
> It's highly recommended to use a dial with as much black color as possible to save battery and to prevent screen deterioration.


Absolutely agree with this. As I mentioned above, I like the Facer app when it comes to picking dials. I've got about 10 or 15 saved in my "watch box" there and most of them are a black background with primary colored highlights and a digital display. I loathe the fake Rolex, TAG-Heuer and Hamilton dials. So tacky.


----------



## Hasaf (Nov 29, 2010)

What sold me was the number of alarms. I am a teacher at a middle school and I want an alarm one minute before the bell. The kids get conditioned to it and instead of starting to pack up, for the next class, 3. . . 5. . . 10 minutes before the bell, they know ow that my alarm will sound when it is time. Then there are other things in the day, like taking them to lunch in the middle of the third class block (we do not have a set aside "all student" lunch block, we just don't have the facilities for that).

On a normal day, I have eleven alarms set just for school. While I am a G-Shock fan, they only allow for five alarms. That makes no sense with the Bluetooth watches they have. However, It is a business decision that they have made. The result is that I use a Smartwatch. I don't use many of the features on it. I tried playing Tetris on it and didn't like it.

About the only other features that I use are step and sleep tracking. While wrist sleep trackers are quite inaccurate, at least it is consistently inaccurate. The step tracker also seems to count many movements that are not steps. I do like that it automatically switched to "bicycle" mode when I start riding.

So, how many of the features am I at:

Alarms
Sleep Tracking
Step Tracking
Bicycle record
Timer 
That is pretty much it.


----------



## jar (Dec 24, 2013)

I started wearing smart watches around 2015 with the Samsung Gear "S". I had some health issues and needed to be sure I always had a cellular connection even if I was away from my cell phone and the Samsung Gear "S" was the only choice at the time that had it's own sim card and phone line.

I loved it and since then I have been only rearing Samsung smart watches. Currently it is a Gear "S3" Classic and a Galaxy Watch that I alternate. Charge last slightly more than two days and so I swap out every two days. That lets me be connected 24/7 even when away from my cell phone. In fact, the cell phone most often simply gets left home and the watch connects to the main phone number remotely.


----------

