# HOW LONG WILL YOUR SMARTWATCH LAST?



## lvt

I know that most of people think smartwatches are disposable after a certain period of time. But when people buy smartwatches that cost $600 or more, some would consider the purchase like a small investment and the question about the item's lifespan suddenly become interesting, the same kind of thought you would have while buying your new smartphone.

So how long will a smartwatch last?


----------



## BarracksSi




----------



## kramer5150

Smart watches use lithium batteries, so mah storage capacity depletes with every charge cycle. Repeated over-charging and over-discharging more rapidly degrades mah capacity and therefore useful life span.

FWIW my WearOS watches would endure about 1.5 days between charges when they were new. This lasted about ~15 months, before the mah capacity noticeably started to deplete. So mine have been ~18 month disposable devices. My latest, fossil gen4 explorist is just shy of 2 years old. It currently lasts ~11 hours and switches over to dumb-watch endurance mode. This is with everything turned off. I am not a heavy-interactive user. They're just screen-off wrist buzz notifiers for the 5-6 text messages I get each day.

Other watch designs that endure ~7+ days between charges when new, start off at a major advantage in this regard. Their lithium battery mah capacity still depletes with every charge cycle, but since they start off life more power efficient... the useful life-span of the product can be much longer. My Amazfit stratos lasts a good ~4 days between charges, when used as a wrist buzz notifier. It has always been about a 4-5 day device since day-1. Its been outstanding in this regard. Unfortunately the accompanying phone app (now called Zepp) is buggy since the October update and it bricked my watch. So it too is looking like a 15~16 month disposable device, not because of the battery, but because of poorly maintained software updates.

For these reasons I would have a hard time justifying a smart watch purchase in that price range. If I had serious health issues that needed continual monitoring my views would probably be different.


----------



## BarracksSi

As Kramer said, the two sticking points are battery chemistry and software support.

Battery chemistry isn't going to change anytime soon, so expect no more than 3-4 years of usable battery capacity at most. It's possible to change some models' batteries (a new battery for my Series 4 AW is less than $30 at ifixit-dot-com), but because you'd need to pry apart some adhesive, they're not as dead-simple to change as the battery on, say, a Swatch.

Software support seems like it's more difficult for non-computer companies to understand. Traditional watch brands make one-and-done products, and they don't have to worry about third-party development platforms, either. This is why Google and Apple are the two biggest players in smartwatches (and why Samsung, an electronics powerhouse at heart, is also still hanging in there). Apple's Series 3, introduced in 2017, still runs the latest watchOS three years later, which is about the same amount of support given to the Series 1/2 and first-generation models; so in their case, OS support pretty much aligns with battery life.


----------



## Rocket1991

Software support is about 3-4 years. You may use it more but your smart watch will be dropped one thing at the time.
Battery will be more or less useful for about 3-4 years depending on type of the watch. 
Wear OS and Apple are first to go since they have highest charging cycles. 
It's not far fetched to evaluate average life of regular watch on the wrist somewhere between 4-8 years until normal person will get bored and get another one So smartwatches are not that different from regular watches in this regard. 
Many people on the forum seem to flip watches even faster.


----------



## lvt

I think it's worth mentioning the screen too.

Modern smartwatches mostly use AMOLED screen, it means that your watch's screen won't last as long as the traditional LCD screen. Even if you can replace the battery for the watch, the screen might not be as good as before, the AMOLED screen would deteoriote gradually with time. It's a natural process with AMOLED technology and there is nothing you can do to stop it.


----------



## impreziv

I didn't try a smart watch until June 2020. I thought it'd be great to receive notifications when I'm working or doing stuff around home. But then I'm literally receiving EVERY SINGLR notification that came through. It got annoying FAST.
I thought having all the heart features were great... but then it wasn't the sort of continuous measurements like I would have wanted. Plus the technology isn't reliable on a medical level, but more a novelty item.
Long story short, I sold it after 5 months and don't think I'll get another until the technology has greatly evolved.


----------



## BarracksSi

About this:


impreziv said:


> I didn't try a smart watch until June 2020. I thought it'd be great to receive notifications when I'm working or doing stuff around home. But then I'm literally receiving EVERY SINGLR notification that came through. It got annoying FAST.


I'm sure every smartwatch app has a settings page like this, but here's my example for emails. My AW doesn't tell me about an email unless it's from someone in my "VIP" list, which is just family members, my boss, and maybe a couple other people.


----------



## Rocket1991

Apple is very good. Not all are up to same standard.


----------



## kramer5150

I haven't worn the Fossil gen 4 explorist much lately. It's been about 3.5 weeks. It just sat on my desk on the magnetic charger. During that time apparently I got a WearOS update, and now my watch battery life has significantly improved. Now it will last about ~28 hours. Take it off the charger at 7:30 AM, and it will last until mid morning the next day before it switches to dumb-watch mode.

So... it just further illustrates what was being said above. Your device can come and go with the app software updates.


----------



## AtmosFearIC

I’ve got a near 18 month old Apple Watch 4 and still only charge it every second day. For me this Smart Watch is what has got me back into wearing watches. It goes on when I get up and comes off when I go to bed (and shower and the like).

I personally find it interesting being able to track my movement throughout the day as I work outside in a physical job. Also like to go for runs so it’s great for that too.

I have a Skagen Quartz as a dress watch as the Apple doesn’t fulfil that function. It’s a large black box that sits there most of the time haha


----------



## Mr.V1984

Certainly not as long as my grandfather’s Longines from the 70’s. By the time an Apple Watch reaches 40+ years old, it’ll be recycled into a can of tuna fish many times over. Never had a smart watch. Never will.


----------



## kramer5150

Just thought I would share my latest battery usage graph from yesterday. Took my Fossil off the charger in the morning at 7:30 AM. Wore it all day as a wrist buzz bluetooth notifier for txt, voice, Gmail. I did some screen interactions and watch face changes too. Ended the day around 10:30 PM with battery at ~50%. Wore it over night, but did not use it to track my sleep or heart rate. Battery depleted to 20% by 8:30 AM, where I re-charged back up to 100% in a little over an hour.

This is outstanding for a 2 year old WearOS device. It has only behaved like this for the past ~2 weeks. Prior to that it would only last about 10~11 hours. I dont know why or how it has more than doubled its battery efficiency. I have not changed any settings or altered my usage in any way.

The further take away from this is WearOS consumes a lot of battery unaccounted in the background and for idle processing. None of which benefit me... as near as I can tell. There is no way to throttle down background & idle battery consumption while keeping the bluetooth connected. I suspect switching it to airplane mode would help, but then it becomes a dumb watch.... which may or may not be a bad thing. Overall thats 80% depletion over 25 hours. But the total usage graph only shows 42% (28+4+4+3+2+1). So 38% of the total 80% depletion seems like completely wasted battery.


----------



## Peter_Nik

Well, +/-600 USD or Euro is more or less the price for an above-average smartphone, IMHO. I don't think that you'd call it an "investment" .
I think that smartwatch is just another gadget, sometimes it could be an expensive one.

Regarding how long does it last - indeed, it mostly depends on the battery charging cycles and its overall degradation with time. 
I charge my Garmin Fenix 6X Sapphire every 2 or 3 weeks, so I believe it should quite easily survive for a several years degrading to a weekly charge or so, which is not too bad _now_.

I believe that I'll buy something new earlie as upgrade due to new functions etc. availability, though .


----------



## eudaimania

I have a Garmin fenix 3. I bought it maybe 4 years ago. It still works fantastically, and I haven’t noticed any substantial reduction in battery life.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## kramer5150

Yep, Garmin really has their act together for smart-fitness-GPS watches. The 5X sapphire is down to $299.

FWIW... my Fossil gen 4 has been stable for the past month. Take it off the charger at ~8:00 AM, use it moderately through the day for text & gmail notifications and at 10:30 PM its down to 50%. I wear it overnight on airplane mode as a dumb watch and the next morning at ~8:00AM its about 45%. I usually drop it back on the charger at this point. If I wear it throughout day 2, it will last into the early evening. This is outstanding for a 2 year old WearOS device. This is how it used to perform when it was new in Jan - 2018.

One WearOS update has significantly extended the lifespan of a 2 year old device, _without damaging, breaking or terminating something else in the process_. I have used WearOS / Android Wear since 2015, this October release is by far the best update Google has ever released.


----------



## eudaimania

Mr.V1984 said:


> Certainly not as long as my grandfather's Longines from the 70's. By the time an Apple Watch reaches 40+ years old, it'll be recycled into a can of tuna fish many times over. Never had a smart watch. Never will.


I get this perspective, smart watches aren't things of beauty. But for any sort of sustained fitness activity smart watches are invaluable tools. Perhaps one on each wrist...!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Dwijaya

still doing everyday exercise run - cycling - strength - swimming and sleeping with my trusty Garmin FR935 since 2018 and still performing very well....it does what is should, hopefully as long as it could


----------

