The Man with Many (watch) Faces 

     Well, it has been a while since I am back with a new post, and I thought I might start blabbering about my other passion, besides cycling and coffee, I love getting tech gadgets! 

I had been recently hooked on finding crowd funded products that looks new and interesting via Indigogo and Kickstarter, but that will be on another separate post when my funded projects really materialize. I had been told this is the easiest way that peeps now gets their funds for their big dreams but sometimes, we might just be the victims of their empty promises and bubbles. 

Back to my most constantly interest in smart watches, which I had 3 pairs so far, namely the earlier Samsung Gear I in 2013 , the original crowd funded Pebble watch , and an almost a year old Moto 360. 

my earlier Samsung Gear I

Well I will miss my Gear for its capabilities to take photos /videos stealthily , a.k.a. James Bond ..but it does not really have an attractive watch face. It does have a plain LCD black/white watch face, although I did have it rooted and ROMed with so you can change it to a much better interface. Interested folks who still loves your Gear I can try having some fun here. Flash-custom-rom-samsung-galaxy-gear-video/

The other smart watch would be my alternative side kick to Moto360, which is the Pebble watch. I bought it after the KickStarter campaign ended, so it was non discounted retail price online, but still a very affordable and functional watch which serves my needs for a cyclometer during my cycling trips as it is supported on my android app , MapMyRide. It does have its aesthetic appeal as well, given multiple watch faces to choose from, and I had applied a metallic "onyx" sticker skin on it so it doesn't look too "cheap" haha... So besides my Moto360, this is my other daily watch.

pebble with "onyx" skin applied

Now comes the main guy, my daily "watch", the Moto360 android wear based watch from Motorola , which I had gotten almost a year ago. I had saved on shipping charges with the blessings of a friend who traveled over from the States, so it was nicely around $320 SGD then.

I had changed the strap from the regular one with the stainless steel upgrade, and it is  an absolute beauty.

absolutely a "dress watch"

The fun part of this watch is besides all the functionalities which I will highlight below, the best being able to customize your outfit of the day with matching "watch faces". The flushed stainless steel with watch bezel gives a great industrial look and and a "clean cut stylish" look. This is definitely one of the best looking watch in the market now, compared with other Android Wear watches from makers such as LG's G , Urbane watches and Huawei's Watch. A comparison between these other two android wear makers can be found here Smart watch showdowns

Nevertheless, take a look at some of the watch faces here and you will know why I had fallen in love with this watch. 

a "Tag Heuer" watch although due to copyright issues the "brand" is now Android...Zzzxxx

a Breitling with "wifi" signal widget

One of my faves, a LONGINES watch face. It has Battery level indicator, as well as the number of steps taken, and weather/date widgets as well. 

you can even own a "Rolex" finally! It does really complement well on the steel frame and easily mistaken for a real watch face.

All the watch faces are easily found in Reddit groups or Google Plus pages and you will need the Android wear application such as "WatchMaker", available on Google Play store. All kinds of watch faces to match your outfits, and the guys have something now, our very own "Watch Face of The Day" , vs #OOTD , haha.... 

adding watch faces that you can import from or even design yourself

Besides this, let's talk about some specifications,  functionalities and how this fits into the urban men's lifestyle.

Battery Life

Sad to say, this is one area the Moto360 fails to excel. Initial battery life was really bad initially , but after a few firmware iterations, and some choices not to accept all notification alerts, now on a normal day, it can last a full working day usage without charging,  with some juice to spare. I can probably use it between 1 to 1.5 days before charging now. (But this is also dependent on some watch faces that runs widgets, as this will definitely reduce battery life) 

Docking and Charging

So this brings us to the next topic, Charging the phone.

 Well, they made charging the Moto360 an elegant display, which can be charged wirelessly via the docking station. This turns the watch into a clock, a.k.a. your bedside clock. After a day out, you probably will place this watch on the bedside table as a clock for charging, or so what was expected.

it comes with the wireless docking station, and turns your watch into a clock

Alternatively, you can also use one of the "Qi" charging pad, that can be purchased from any 3rd party vendor, and it works as well. The charging took less than 3 hours to give your watch a quick boost enough to last another day.

using 3rd party "Qi" charging pad works as well

Useful Apps to run 

This is subjective, but based on my usage on this watch, more and more android apps are supporting android wear so you get a similar yet customized experience suitable for your watch face. 

MotoBody  - This is a built in app for Moto360 watches and it utilizes the heart rate monitor sensor at the base of the watch face, as well as calculates the number of steps taken, just like most of the health or fitness bands sold on the market now. Take a look at the introduction here.

At the end of the week, it gives a very nice report of your heart rate, steps taken and calories burnt. (Although I greatly doubt the accuracy of this report, since there will be considerable times un monitored as you will not be wearing the watch 24 hours a day) 

my weekly Motobody report 

Endomondo for Android Wear

As a  casual rider, I also would like to view some stats on my weekly cycling trips, and this is one app that I love to use if I am wearing moto360 during cycling, or I would be alternating to the Map my Ride app that works well on my Pebble watch.

the Endomondo app interface on Moto can be set for monitoring speed or distances

Citimapper for Android Wear

This is another useful app that works well between your android phone and moto360. 

Just key in your destination and the screen will show up useful directional information and map as well as public transport such as train stations and bus stop and available bus numbers for directions. I had tried this more than 3 times will pretty satisfying results helping me to get to places I am unfamiliar with. 

showing the map as you walk or travel

Spotify for Android Wear

While this works generally for all android wear based watches, and not just for moto360,  you do get very limited functionality.(So far it just shows the pause button, so you can stop your music via the watch). It is my daily music companion, and it is next to glance at the music artists or album on your watch face. 

So what's next ? 

With the android wear update months ago, more enhancements had been added ,notably having wifi connectivity on the watch independently of your mobile phone now, as well as some of the following. More details here : Android wear Updates

Emoji

You can now draw your own emoji on the screen of your smartwatch and Android Wear 5.1 will convert it into the actual emoji you were after.

Gesture controls

The Android Wear 5.1 update adds gesture controls so you can simply flick your wrist to scroll through the stream (the vertical cascade of screens)

I have been happy using this watch so far and it does seem more and more like a "real " watch with its beautiful round watch face and quality build. There is much fun too changing watch faces, so you feel like you are having multiple watches to suit your wardrobe. Only minus to me would be its battery life, unlike a Pebble watch that can last 7 days on a single charge. But you cannot compare a black ink display over the vibrant and near real watch face on the Moto360.  

If there is anybody wanting to get this watch, I would say, find a good deal as the prices will be dropping soon for sure with the next moto360 2 on the horizon. 

Daniel Foo