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I'm looking for a wrist-watch that can help me in various time-management tasks.

I'd like to

  • regularly write down what I'm doing (time logging) so I know where my time is going, the watch could beep or buzz every x minutes to remind me to do this
  • regularly remind me to relax/concentrate/stretch/something else, maybe on random intervals
  • remind me to go to bed on time
  • remind me to go home from work on time
  • remind me to wake up on time

I'd like to have a watch that

  • I can set to buzz instead of beep (vibrate)
  • has good batterylife
  • keeps time (some watches don't)
  • can be read in the dark (some form of backlighting)
  • repeats alarms
  • is user-friendly

A programmable watch would be nice, but not strictly necessary.

So far I've found a lot of candidates but none that I really like.

If anyone has any experiences using these watches or some magnificent watch I may have missed: please let me know :-)

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I don't have answer - I'm interested (genuinely) as to why you prefer a wristwatch for these sort of functions? I think many people would use their phone - what motivates you in the wristwatch direction? – Joe Jan 27 '12 at 13:06
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Pulling a phone out of my pocket, turning off the screen-lock is too slow. I want it to be like "Bzzz" -> Look -> Click/Write down – Niels Bom Jan 27 '12 at 13:15
Sounds fair - hope you find what you are looking for :) – Joe Jan 27 '12 at 16:12
I know exactly how you feel about the phone. I just can't bring myself to use my iPhone for task management. By the time I get it out, unlock it, wait for the small delay, swipe to the page with the app, open it, wait for it, then find my task...yeah. – CptSupermrkt Jan 30 '12 at 12:20

6 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It's still in development (the fundraising Kickstarter only recently ended), but if you have a smartphone, the Pebble watch will be all kinds of up your alley.

It remains to be seen what people will do with it (I'm interested in developing for it, once I get mine), but it's designed to communicate with your phone via Bluetooth and therefore it should, in theory, be able to port anything your phone can do over to your wrist.

If you don't have a smartphone, I doubt Pebble will be able to pull in all the features you're looking for. It will probably still work as a watch, but the power of it comes from its interaction with the attached device.

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I'm pretty sure that displaying calendar reminders will be a basic function of the pebble watch (or every other smart watch out there), so creating calendar events on your phone (or in your browser) will work for most of the non-random stuff. – 0x6d64 May 1 at 14:18
up vote 3 down vote

This is not a watch, but more of an old school pager: "Invisible Clock" Check out their 'Uses' tab for ideas.

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up vote 1 down vote

Well, you probably won't like this one, but I have purchased the Casio Frontier because I needed an alarm that would not wake my partner in the morning. It works well as an alarm clock and is affordable.

It has five alarms. It doesn't have a timer, but I wish it did. It's actually marketed as a fishing and hunting watch.

http://www.amazon.com/CASIO-Pathfinder-Vibrating-Alarm-Fishing/dp/B000TJUPFM

Good luck. I'm going to check out that I'M watch. That looks really cool.

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Ha, I've owned that exact watch for a couple of years. I wanted it for the vibration alarms. Great watch, but not sure how well it does what @Niels needs. I 2nd the smartphone app, but understand the 'pain' of unlocking it each time! How about an internet browser plugin? – Slydog Jan 27 '12 at 17:39
up vote 1 down vote

iPod Nano as a watch would solve that problem. However the battery life is going to be less than almost any other solution.

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afaik iPod Nano's don't have multiple alarms and or countdown timers – Niels Bom Jan 30 '12 at 14:53
up vote 1 down vote

How about the Mutewatch? http://mutewatch.com/

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Looks cool :-) And if it can be hacked/reprogrammed via the USB port it would be really cool! – Niels Bom Aug 8 '12 at 10:14
up vote 1 down vote

I own a watch from timex that covers all of your specifications. It has a vibration mode, two different repeating alarms, keeps time, indiglo button, battery has lasted for a long time. It has a few more features (including calendar alarms), plus the nice additional feature of being able to hide features of the watch that you aren't currently using. I got it for a break timer for situations where I couldn't use an audible alarm (work, exams, etc.), and it has functioned perfectly for the intended use.

Timex Expedition with Vibration Alarm (T49852GP) looks exactly like the one I have

http://www.timex.ca/EXPEDITION-Vibration-Alarm-SKT49852GP-P1024.aspx?l=e

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