I have a U8 Uwatch, only £24.
It lasts about 3 days before a recharge and runs beautifully with my Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3
Can send all notifications, emails, calls and texts and you can easily change what notifications come through via an app on the phone.
Does not have a heart rate monitor, but not interested in that anyway.
Has a number of clock faces, ringtones and a configurable vibrate.
Control the music on the phone with it and play through it if you like
Stopwatch, alarms, altitude, barometer, and pedometer
An alarm to tell you when the watch and phone are out of range (good for when you wander down the street and leave your phone in the house)
Dial and receive calls from the watch, your phonebook is available to you on the watch.
Love listening to the calls through it and leaving the phone in my pocket.
It has been 100% reliable.

Its this one if anyone is interested

Agreed.

1 day is a minimum really to make it a worth having. The Moto 360 (I believe) gets about a day, i get 2 days from my LG Watch R, and many days from my (now fairly unused) Pebble. If the reports are correct then thats very poor. I cant see Apple releasing something with such a limited battery !!!

As far as you are aware of it before you buy it and can make an informed choice. A mechanical watch that needs winding daily is okay with me, a smartwatch that needs charging daily is not.

Will it charge in the same time as it takes you to wind a watch? That's great.

Why, do you sleep with it on? The supplied Qi charger of the 360 will be near the bedside table so charging is brain dead easy.

Reviews managed to deaden it pre-update by having both the pedometer on alongside the laser HRM.
But to be honest, for fitness tracking a pedometer is very limited compared to the always on HRM. The Heart Rate Monitor laser operated sensor can do both calorie and exercise counting far more accurately.

I can't decide if the 360 or round LG watch is the most fashionable looking watch around.

No, but if you travel, which I do, it's just one more thing to schlep around.

I agree with that. Traveling is becoming a bit silly with the amount of things needing charging.

do you think a watch has to be round to be fashionable, or is that a limitation you have set yourself?

http://androidcentral.com/comparing-...r-and-moto-360
You can decide yourselves if anything else should be alongside in the pic comparisons.

Funnily enough, that cheap £24 U8 watch (it is £20 if you look) mentioned prior has the most sensible everyday use feature, call answering.

Surely that's you being very picky kidspud. He stated that he couldn't decide which of the round phones was most fashionable. His opinion. Clearly stated. Personally I agree with him that the round watches look better. I have both round and square "old school" watches but on the smart watches so far I much prefer the round. The only square one I link so far is the Asus one. Regardless of the brand I don't like the styling of the apple ones. They look too much like the android first gen ones. But that's a personal opinion that is just as valid as yours which will (I'm sure) be the complete opposite.

I also, as stated, have a pebble (kickstarter edition) and whilst its a great bit of kit its not a style "icon" in my opinion.

If I wanted a smartwatch, it would be one of the round ones, Moto or LG. I do not like square ones.

Someone mentioned a U8 Uwatch
We got alibaba to get us a supplier to create and make slight adjustments for a fitness test watch based on one
Had about a year now using it, UI is luverly, attracts a lot of attention, batch of 100 and put well through their paces

General consensus on these compared with Gear and Apple watches from most was easy UI and price
Their main fear on the high end ones was it being lost, stolen or easily broken
Being gym/fitness clientele its a common problem I know all too well

The apple battery life is poor though, bit like older phones when you keep checking screen is not on
Frustrating, but you could carry one of those quick chargers around in your bag along with where your phone would be now when you have the watch

I've already stated my opinion, I don't like smartwatchs as I think they are pretty pointless.

Thanks for answering on behalf of AW, it's the clearest response I've ever got

I'm not sure it's that much of an issue... even if the 2.5 - 4 hours of "active use" report is accurate.

The watch is going to be a sporadic usage device used in short bursts. For example when receiving a call.. text.. notifications.. sending messages. Even when used for the fitness purpose the watch won't be in constant active use via the screen. The only active usage periods would be playing games, using apps or browsing the web.. but if you're going to sit gaming/browsing for 2.5 hours you're more than likely to simply just pull your phone out and use that instead of the watch.

So the above battery life prediction might not limit users at all. Granted if someone is sat on a train and they're messing with the watch non stop for the entire journey then sure they're going to probably run into an issue. But most users would just use their phone instead which will be the saviour of the watch battery.

And then each night the user just charges it similar to charging their phone.

Personally I'm yet to be sold on the watch as I'm not sure I see a great need for it or it's rivals but who knows. A lot of people are buying wearable tech for fitness.. if Apple can convince people that their fitness solution is cutting edge and throw in a whole load of other daily useful features they could tap into that growing market quite nicely. If any company is going to pull it off.. Apple will.

How do you know what the battery life is like on a device that hasn't been released?

No different from the rest I imagine.

The media contrived to have the 360 as the worst but real sounding users appear to near always manage a full day. Personally I'd expect the same with the Apple watch.

The 360 has an always on heart rate monitor (so can you Qi charge it on your wrist?) and unlike the LG R, a non OLED screen.

What I'm left wondering is, who apart from Sony is using a low power transflective (Igzo type) screen?

True. But I guess I've gotten used to the battery life of the Pebble which I only have to worry about charging every few days. Even after warning that battery is low it will run happily another day without charging.

I know we're unlikely to ever expect that level of battery life from a full featured smart watch with a decent colour screen. It's almost like comparing the basic mobiles of yesteryear with smartphones. But at the very least it should be able to at least manage the same or preferably better then the typical smart phone.

Not sure about this, but I suspect it will charge very quickly though having such small battery. But they may have an option for a slow trickle charge to ensure battery longevity.

Well, thinking on how Apple do things, of the three iWatches the Apple Sport is the one most likely to have a heart rate monitor built in.

And if a GPS too it could be the priciest by an even better margin.The Smartwatch 3 whilst having GPS, an always on transflective screen for the best battery, still misses out on that high tech HRM such as on the Moto 360.

Again, you haven't read the Apple site. They all have a heart rate monitor etc. and it's just the casings and straps that are different.

http://www.apple.com/uk/watch/technology/

Well I really can't get past the utter drivel it has.
Everything already in exstence seems to have to have a new bull***t word invented for it.

'Taptic Engine' - they have them in $10 Fitness Bands, just without the bull.
However, I did get down to 'See Every Apple Watch' where it leads to a page of all 3 Watches.

So,with no GPS it is like the Moto 360, but for squareheads rather than 360 roundies.
And if I wanted only a general smartwatch I'd really want that squarehead one lettice has.
Call answering, its easiest most useful function to implement. Why on earth do the others leave it out ?

I'd say that tends to cover the whole smartwatch market. Its a load of rubbish.

Although my son seems to think that they're cool - but he'd never go near an Apple Watch, as Apple is (apparently) seriously uncool. I think that is down to his mum having an iPhone.

I have the Samsung Gear Live which for e is an excellent watch. Tracks my fitness, heart rate monitor, lovely display and now that it's been updated to Lollipop, i can squeeze 2 full days out of it easily.

Charging it nightly though doesn't bother me in the slightest. I do it when im sleeping along with my phone.

I have many watches ranging from £50 to a grand or so but I love my smart watch the most and it gets the most use. Brilliant for when I'm at work, i can glance at texts, news etc without taking my phone out. Listening to music, i can adjust the volume, select track without taking the phone out.

Different watch face daily if i choose as well adds to the appeal for me. Current one is a Star Trek LCARS face. Looks fab

Link, please, for ten dollar fitness bands.

Don't get me wrong. I'm sure smartwatchs are considered very useful to some (although you've not really sold it to me).

Not sure about the Star Trek face, but I do have a vintage Micky mouse watch if I feel the need.