So way back in 2014 or 2015 (or 2016?) I decided to dive into wearables with the original Moto 360. It wasn’t a straightforward decision mind you; I had a number of mechanical watches that I liked to wear so the biggest conundrum was what to do with those watches – and the fashion options that they posed – if I went with the smartwatch.

Truthfully the two really are mutually exclusive. If you opt for a smartwatch it necessarily means that there are “smart” features that you want to use which would be unavailable to you when wearing a traditional watch. It really seemed like a one-or-the-other lifestyle choice.

I got around the problem at the time by thinking more about how I’d use those “smart” features. And it dawned on me that in pre-COVID times I would be sitting at my work desk Monday to Friday with my phone on said desk and within easy reach. If I wanted to check an incoming notification the phone would be right there, so there really was no need be notified on my wrist as well. And since this was before heart rate monitors and step counters, it really did come down to whether or not I was going to receive notifications on my wrist

BUT – on the weekends and on some evenings after work it made sense to receive notifications on my wrist, because my phone might be in my pocket where I either might not feel the vibration alert or might be otherwise engaged and unable to easily fish the phone out of my pocket. Given that I’ve culled my notifications down to only those that are most important (no Facebook or Twitter notifications here folks), having a smartwatch at those times actually seemed like a very good idea.

So that was it then. I wore the 360 on the weekends and stuck with my traditional watches while at work.

And this mostly worked. Eventually the 360 died – somewhat as a result of this schedule, but that’s neither here nor there – and I opted not to renew my membership in the wearables club.

Why?

Recall that the 360 was among the first group of Android smartwatches. And there were warts. Performance, battery life (both for the watch and the phone), occasional disconnects – those things weighed on the experience to the point that I couldn’t justifying dropping hundreds of dollars again.

That all changed a couple of weeks ago.

I’ve started seeing more and more people sporting smartwatches – both of the Apple and Android variety. I don’t tend to follow trends, but it had become clear that wearables were no longer a trend and had become much more mainstream. And I had kept abreast of developments in the Android Wear world – now called “Wear OS” – and the various hardware options.

In particular the Fossil watches had been getting good reviews for their performance – thanks to their generous memory – and all-day battery life. Sooo… I decided to wade back in once Fossil held their latest Black Friday sale.

And can I just say – I’m impressed!

It may be the perfect combination of great battery life on my phone (which is also fairly new) and on the watch but I can honestly say that I’m not experiencing any negatives after 2 weeks of sporting the Gen 5 Carlyle HR. I also imagine that COVID has contributed to the experience – imagine that – since all of my mechanical watches have dead batteries and going to a jeweller is both a safety issue and seems strangely antiquated.

I’m not one to use apps apps apps on my wearable, so it’s no surprise that battery is good. To me a watch needs to be a watch first, so to that end I’ve enabled the always-on display and actually disabled lift-to-wake and tap-to-wake. AOD takes a hit on battery, but turning off the digitizer and the sensors seems to counter that – so that I recently got 1.5 days at of regular use and threw the watch back on the charger after another 0.5 days in time-only mode. The battery wasn’t exhausted, but I did want the smart features back.

And let’s not even talk about the convenience of Google Pay on the wrist when going through a drive thru. And adding heart rate info to my fitness data is also a plus.

Yes, I’m very happy with the Gen 5 Carlyle. So much so that I’ve already ponied up for additional watch bands. I can see now why these things are becoming more and more mainstream. They serve their primary purpose as a watch, and when used properly they actually serve the additional purpose of simplifying your digital lifestyle. Win-win in my book.