My Watchy Broke

I like coding. I like tinkering with hardware. I like a good gadget. Watchy is a great way for me to satisfy all of the above. But mine broke yesterday.

Watchy is a wristwatch for hobbyists that runs on an ESP32 microcontroller. It's described as "smart", and has wifi capability, although the default firmware's smartest trait is performing a web request to collect weather information. It's a development board so users can modify the existing firmware, or even create their own. It also has a gyrometer that counts steps, and a motor that adds vibration.

It's not incredibly advanced out of the box. But that's fine by me. I like simple things. I'm not a fan of smart watches, I don't want another channel into my phone - phones already have enough ways of drawing in attention. I don't want my watch telling me that something is happening on my phone. For my Watchy, I took someones code that allowed them to change between multiple watch faces on the fly, and adapted it to run modes for my Watchy; I have an analogue face mode, a digital mode that includes day of the week and date, and a steps mode that just shows my step count so far for the current day. I did plan to make a travel mode, that allows you to set a time offset, and will display the adjusted time for when you are in a different time zone, to save having to change settings if I am travelling.

But yesterday, one of my buttons stopped working. I took my Watchy apart, and after inspection I saw that a tiny piece of plastic had snapped off, that secures the button mechanism in place on the board. I couldn't find a way to secure it. Darn. It still works, but to set the year I will have to scroll down to go up - assuming that it even cycles once it reaches the end. No thanks.

It looks like you can only get them in the full kits now, so I've had to order the entire starter kit for about £50. I had read online in forums that a button breaking is a common issue. My Watchy didn't get the easiest start. I'm a youth worker and I also skate. It's been dropped, whacked, and had footballs kicked in to it. Once a ball hit it while I was still using the plastic case, the whole thing exploded, and the board flew out - and to my amazement it just keep running like nothing had happened. I have since switched to the gun metal alloy case with fastening screws. I've had mine nearly 2 years so I just assumed it would keep going. Bad luck.

I did look at the BangleJS 2, from Espruino, which retails for around £100. It looks good, but seems a fair bit smarter than I actually want my watch to be. The battery life is apparently quite good at 4 days between charges. But my Watchy, with it's e-ink display, and with me removing any functionality that relied on wifi, was lasting about 2 months between charges (no joke!). I like simplicity, and I like having a watch that is just a watch, and not a portal to my phone. Counting my steps? Yeah sure, nice to have, not invasive. But I don't want my watch flashing or vibrating whenever my phone demands my attention.

Anyway, I've opted to go for a replacement Watchy. If the button breaks on the new one, I'm hoping my hand is steady enough to solder one from the old board. That should give my next Watchy about 3 extra lives if they're needed.