I’m a privacy focused individual, I run GrapheneOS on my phone & self-host as much of my tech stacks to avoid sharing info with. I’m looking for recommendations of smartwatches that align with the ideals of this community. What watch do you use? What do you recommend?
Look out for devices supported by Gadgetbridge, completely frees you from any intrusive manufacturer clouds!
Seems like Garmin fits the bill, I am still figuring out if that’s my future solution for NFC payments.
Garmin is what I was looking at, but it seems to only have experimental support in GadgetBridge
You can also just use your Garmin watch on its own without any app. You can plug your Garmin watch into your PC and export your data into a self hosted fitness tracker like endurain for example.
Does a Garmin watch by itself share any data with Garmin servers?
I’m not sure about all Garmin watches, but most of them don’t have wifi. So in those cases their only way of getting data to Garmin servers is via syncing with the app.
That’s a good point I hadn’t considered! The biggest take away from this thread is I need to explore GadgetBridge
Garmin Vivoactive 6 works extremely well with Gadgetbridge. Looks like it would check each of your requirements.
I have been using my Garmin Fenix 7x for over a year with GadgetBridge. 10/10 recommend it
Check out the Huawei Watch Fit 3. Amazing battery life even with AOD, very accurate fitness tracking, and it’s cheap af
I’ve got Monzo working with my Garmin. I use Graphene, so it’s literally my only option for payments considering Curve failed my ID check and refuse to reply to my emails trying to sort it out.
I had this exact problem with Curve on graphene back in September. Curve didn’t even ask for an ID and the app just kept saying my ID (the one it didn’t ask for) couldn’t be verified.
But a few weeks ago I tried Curve again, in exploit compatibility mode, and this time it worked. And NFC payments are working for me.
Might be worth trying it again after some time has passed?