This is where I'd start
are there any decent wrist watches that respect your privacy and don't send all the dam data home?
I've heard Garmin is decent, and Pebble is coming back
this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2025
96 points (99.0% liked)
Privacy
48093 readers
552 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Personally, I'm pretty excited about the Pebble coming back. Cautiously optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless.
Garmin sends all your health data to the cloud and the app won't work without an Internet connection.
On the plus side, they're not part of the Google/Apple/Samsung data ecosystems, and I don't think actually they do anything with the data, beyond computing statistics for you.
Depends how much you're prepared to trust them I guess.
Gadgetbridge supports a good chunk of their watches. Completely offline and you can configure watch settings through it.
Garmin sends all your health data to the cloud and the app won't work without an Internet connection.
However, unless something has changed with newer models, you do not need to use the application or connect to Garmin's servers to use the watch.
however if you want to change goals (eg steps per day) you have to use the app
I consider that quite a minor feature (that I don't use) as a Forerunner owner who bought mine specifcally for running and other activity tracking, but Garmin does have a wide range of models so I'm sure there are people who would require the app for other things like you say.
Their privacy policy is good
there are different approaches to this, but some of these links should help:
Hardware:
https://pine64.org/devices/pinetime/
Gadgetbridge:
I personally use a garmin, which is paired to gadgetbridge
+1 for PineTime. I have had mine now for 3-4 years. Love the little guy
Been curious on pine time. But I'm no developer, just a tinkerer. What can you do on it now?
+1 for the BangleJS. So open hardware, you can buy it as a kit you assemble yourself. Or, prebuilt.
I have every model of þe Pebble, including þe absolutely horrible Round. BangleJS is better þan Pebble was, and completely privacy friendly.
Pebble has an open source OS and companion phone app.
It's made for developers, tinkerers, and tech enthusiasts. There are many community made apps and watch faces available in the phone app, and fairly good documentation and examples if you want to make your own.
Man I adored my Pebble back in the day, and I'll never forgive FitBit for buying the company just to kill off competition. I kind of want to buy the new one, but with them being based in the US I'm a bit scared of getting a nasty surprise due to import taxes...
Iirc the watches ship from China, international buyers won't get hit with us terrifs
Whoa! I didnt know they brought them back! I may have to order one! Thanks!
I guess nobody here knowing about "lilygo t watch" which u can buy on aliexpress it based on esp and entire firmware can be recompiled modified from source code in github https://github.com/sharandac/My-TTGO-Watch It can integrate in gadget bridge too
https://lilygo.cc/products/t-watch-ultra
There's also a Plus version.
Also: https://open-smartwatch.github.io/
If you search for "ESP32 open source watch" there are quite a few out there.
I have a few Seiko watches, a Citizen, a couple Casios. All of which respect my privacy.
AsteroidOS is a linux based replacement for wearOS (android for watches) which is FOSS and removes all the google privacy issues.
Mechanical ones, sure. :)
Daaaaaaaaannnngggg...
https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/CC4075-50L.html?cgid=mens
+1 for banglejs. Been loving mine
Not to sound stupid, but it really depends on how smart you want the watch to be. From connectionless firmware device to fully-featured Android. +1 for gadget bridge either way.
I have a Fossil Hybrid, that combines physical hands with a 2-color e-ink display. It can't do apps, but it has standalone timers, notifications, media control, pulse/oxygen and step counter. I personally don't need more. It's cloudless and lasts a week.
If you need full Android/WearOS check AsteroidOS and specific ROMs. Hardware tends to be on the older side here.
The only thing that's hard to do is sleep tracking. That tends to rely on proprietary algorithms and cloud compute a lot.
I suppose you're talking about smart watches?
sensorwatch.net is the only one I'd want. Note it doesn't have any data communications to speak of. It's an old fashioned digital watch with some cool features including software thermocompensation for accuracy within a few seconds per year. And it runs on a regular coin cell for a year or so, not a stupid nightly recharge like it thinks it's a phone.
I've heard of the SQFMI Watchy and the Bangle.js but I haven't used them myself.
Bangle.JS seems interesting and more capable than Watchy. But guess the latter's battery lasts longer because of sink screen?
I would assume so, but I haven’t used them myself to confirm.
Overall the bangle seems better built.
I've not played with it and don't know much about it, but maybe the pinetime?