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>>Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches. I> assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch. It appearently can, this one claims 8 months: http://www.withings.com/us/wit...

The smart watches, as they are being offered right now, do not interest me at all. They look ridiculous, the battery life is horrible and they are not good at being WATCHES.

A "smart watch" which would interest me would have some or all of these features:

- looks like a normal, elegant watch - i.e. leather or steel wristband (NO plastic!), round, not too heavy, elegant design (either like a standard chronograph or some "bauhaus"-y look). Basically nothing which screams "I am a geek".
- long battery life. By that, I mean AT LEAST a week, better a month or more.
- maybe health monitoring features (pulse, steps, ...)
- shows time without having to be "activated" (i.e. no having to touch the screen or hit a button to show something)
- best "display" option for battery life would be standard hour/minute dials plus a tiny little LCD screen for text (a line or two)
- possibility to link to a smartphone to show notifications (e-mail subject lines, sms), but nothing more, since tft/amoled screens plus touchscreen features plus voice recognition plus apps mean low battery life, so it's simply a no-no. Basically, I just want to have a look at the watch to see if it is worth taking out my smartphone to read the e-mail which just arrived or not. I do not want to actually read the e-mail or type a reply or make a phone call via the watch. Especially NOT make a phone call. Holding your watch up to your face and talking to it might look cool in some old James Bond movie, but in reality it is just stupid.

something which is kind of there, except for the little LCD display for notifications, is the Withings Activité:

http://www.withings.com/activi...

Looks like a standard, expensive watch. Has health monitoring which can send data to an app on your smartphone. Has a battery life of A YEAR with a standard CR2025 battery, despite low energy bluetooth connectivity to the smartphone.

http://www.withings.com/activite/en-US

Interesting that didn't take my link.

When I step on my scale, it tells me if I need to carry an umbrella today (based on the weather forecast it downloaded). Then it sends my weight etc. to my iPhone where it's merged with information from my fitness wristband and my diet tracker. Based on that, I get suggestions like "you've been going to bed a little later than usual. You should catch up." or "drink more water today" or "try to walk this much further than you did yesterday".

I think that's not so shabby.

Not too shabby, but now you're not the only one who knows you've been losing weight. Could be the exercise.... could be the heroin since you've been tracked running by the local crack house you didn't know was there on a regular basis. They've determined you'll be extra tired Tuesday morning, so they bust down your door at 4am. You hear them yell police and make your way towards the living room with your hands up. Unfortunately the local water supply company has overshipped your cases of water because of "drink more" notifications, the cops mistakenly see their own reflection with their guns on the bottles thinking you're armed and proceed to fill you full of lead.
You're dead- welcome to the internet of things.

When I step on my scale, it tells me if I need to carry an umbrella today (based on the weather forecast it downloaded). Then it sends my weight etc. to my iPhone where it's merged with information from my fitness wristband and my diet tracker. Based on that, I get suggestions like "you've been going to bed a little later than usual. You should catch up." or "drink more water today" or "try to walk this much further than you did yesterday".

I think that's not so shabby.

For something that could be attached to my wrist most of the time i would expect that it would check me (i.e. pulse, blood pressure, temperature, etc). And of course, have longer battery life. Qualcomm's Toq smartwatch have at least better battery life and can be read at sunlight, or something with more sensors like Whithing's Pulse (that is not a smartwatch, yet).

Anyway, it could be a hint for things to come, more devices that uses the computer power of our phones (or at least, devices that we carry with us but hidden, or in a pocket, or whatever) and via bluetooth or similar have satellite devices around us.

and gave it up.

http://blog.withings.com/en/2011/12/13/mylifebits-%E2%80%93-storing-every-moment-of-your-life/