It is said that all good things must pass, but this is not that story. Almost exactly a year ago, I bought a Google Pixel Watch, a smart watch. I tried it out for a while and, really, there is not much benefit. Clocks are everywhere including one on the phone in your pocket, so the timekeeping function is not really useful. Various notifications come up on your phone in your pocket, thus notifications on your wrist are just a minor benefit. The step-counting feature is wildly inconsistent and the heartrate info is only mildly useful. The sleep tracking is not particularly reliable, so the inconvenience and discomfort of wearing a watch to bed is not helpful for sleep. And, finally, you have to constantly charge the darn thing - at least daily - and if you wear it to bed, you cannot charge overnight so you have to take it off during the day but then all the other advantages are shot while it sits on the charger for an hour or so.
In the end, the $200 cost is simply not justifiable. The $40 smart watches are no better. And who really needs a watch these days?
With all this in mind, I am sad to report that my Pixel Watch baked itself on the charger: it swelled up and exploded itself. It was not a violent explosion, there was no shrapnel, but the watch seal is broken and it is no longer waterproof or even water-resistant. The guts are just hanging out. I played 20 Questions with Pixel Watch support. They have been very responsive, but they only want to ask 1-2 questions at a time, so our email exchange went back and forth over several days. They now seem to have everything they need, finally I thought, and so they have passed the support case to the next level for a decision in yet another deferral.
I am expecting them to offer a refurbished Pixel Watch as a replacement. I am happy to return the dead watch to them. We shall see how this plays out.
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