this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2025
35 points (94.9% liked)

Open Source

43229 readers
505 users here now

All about open source! Feel free to ask questions, and share news, and interesting stuff!

Useful Links

Rules

Related Communities

Community icon from opensource.org, but we are not affiliated with them.

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Initially, I looked for an open source smartwatch that is sold with an opensource OS preinstalled. However, this was not really feasible.

  • PineTime had some really bad first hand reviews in addition to them being quite expensive in the EU.
  • Pebbles warranty is too low and it is rather expensive.

So as a second attempt I looked for operating systems that you can flash onto watches. I found Open-SmartWatch with OSW-OS and AsteroidOS. While I think that building your smart watch from scratch is cool, AsteroidOS looked more accessible and mature (just based on easy navigation and the feature list).

Sadly, the most supported watch is no longer available: TicWatch Pro 2018

So I thought I just mindlessly ask whether you have a different OS you would recommend or if you have a watch recommendation that is still available.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Most people won't agree with this but... Amazfit. About as closed as you can get. It has (depending on the model) about as many features as you might want. Mine, the GTR4, is circular and gives a decent watch effect with a dark watch face and a leather strap. It has GPS, can pair directly to Bluetooth earphones and has some internal storage you can use to upload your music so you can use it offline. No SIM/eSIM though.

Back to the closed part: You only need to install their app and pair it to theirs during the initial setup, once. Following Gadgetbridge's clear instructions, you can then get the login token, pair with gadgetbridge instead and just uninstall the official app. It then becomes your trustworthy watch that never sends any data out, because it no longer uses the official app. Not just amazfit though, I'd suggest to go to their supported devices list (which is... Comprehensive by now), and carefully check if a device you are interested in is supported and to what degree. Gadgetbridge might look ugly but it's 100% reliable and privacy friendly.

[–] paper_moon@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Ugly open source software is my favorite because i know the feature set is gonna be freaking awesome. I remember when I first started to transition to open source as an idea 15 years ago, and the sometimes ugly software was hard to get used to at first, but then I realized the ugly software did so much more than the fancy windows stuff and i really started to get used to and even like the ugly stuff. It's designed to do the thing it was designed to do, and stays out of my way, fantastic!

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world 1 points 3 weeks ago

I never said it was a bad thing. It's... Quirky. And I appreciate it. I love how useful it is, and how reliant I've become on it. I started donating to this project recently.