My watch is pregnant?

It officially took my Damusy Fitness Tracker nine months to have the band start breaking. As in, the snaps were starting to disintegrate.

Upon looking, and linking, to the tracker right now (starting this post at 6:00pm, January 7, 2019), the watch band is a regular band, plus it's $2.02 cheaper than what I purchased it for, almost a year ago. And, it comes in another color, which is $3.98 lower than what the black band currently is.

Would I trade it for the world? I don't know - maybe, but it's because I like the normal watch band better than the snap it came with. But, there's a stipulation: there has to be more bands readily available for future purchase. On top of the "minor" quirks being fixed (better opportunity to see outside, the ~2,000 step difference between my phone [in my pocket] and the watch on my wrist. It also should change the sleep settings - it currently senses "sleep" as staying sedimentary for 30 or more minutes, after 8pm. But some nights the watch thinks I've gone to bed at midnight, so it woulre record sleep from 12am to 6am - when I get up / start moving around. I sometimes am in bed and asleep by 9pm. So it misses up to 3 hours of time), I don't see this being completely horrendous.

I must point out, that I have talked to other people who own other trackers, but of similar shapes and color. They too, say the same thing - the white text on the black face is hard to read in direct sun light. I don't ask about the sleep cycle because that is not a big part of the conversation. They say they've tried their tracker everywhere - around their ankle, on their wrist... and (not) surprisingly, the ankle gets more tracks. I've seen people with these off market brands on ankles, and kind of wish there was a bracelet long enough to fit my ankle. Maybe I'd like it better? But then I'd need to go back to my normal watch. Can't win, but it's worth a try?

Anyway, I haven't contacted the company for a replacement band, only because I feel it's not a pure defect - the band falling apart on the snap is "normal wear and tear"; not something I purchased and it shipped to me that way. The watch functions like it should - I can set an alarm (and it goes off, silently buzzing my wrist), it syncs to my phone. I can tell what time it is, and track some steps if I decide to not carry my cell one day. I can see calls and texts. It still lasts more than a week on a single charge. So if I were to change anything, maybe I'd not be so quick to purchase something "cheap", but I also wanted it at a lower price because I don't feel I need something fancy. Fitbits are too wide looking for me - I will wear a watch if I want a watch. And they're significantly more expensive. Like they can be over $50 more. This thing I am wearing, is a slim, attractive tracker, and sure; the band is breaking, but that didn't stop me from not using the actual time piece. And it was under $20.

When it came time to really figure out I needed a new band, what I did was research the hell out of the it. I was worried about buying something because a lot of reviews said this particular model needs a certain band (it's an ID115). The heart rate (115HR) takes a slightly wider band, so I'm reading. Everything that looks like this watch, all say similar things - replacement bands are horrible and nothing fits. People are saying they feel powerless and scammed because the descriptions say "ID115" but they got something different. Most say the band falls off on one side - it doesn't attach properly to the tracker. This is also why the actual tracker varies in brand. The HR is wider on the clip for some reason, yet, it still fits in a USB port?

So I carefully sought out something that would be reasonable. I found a 5 pack for $11.99 (and it's currently out of stock until the 11th!). People have reviewed this, saying they didn't get all the colors described. I did. Others mention one end slips off all the time. I've been wearing the teal for almost a month (sorry, I've been delaying this post) and I've no issues. I think people are putting the band on their wrist too tightly. That they are trying to go to the last holes, when you shouldn't be, unless your wrist is that small. I noticed that if I tighten the strap to have 1 hole visible, the band looks like it's going to start tearing away from the tracker. But if I have 2 holes visible, it's fine.

Sure, maybe the tighter you have the watch, the better it senses movement, but it also starts tracking steps at 10 paces. It has to know you're really moving in order to count your steps.

I guess in the end, I'll have to continue to wear this fitness tracker and let it die naturally. Like I said, I wear it every day, so the only times I really take it off is to change the band (and wash the dirty band... it gets rough around the edges from sweating in the heat, some days) or charge the tracker. I also take it off to shower, so I'm not wearing completely 24/7, but I'm wearing it majority of the time. Like all things, this will fail one day, and at that point, maybe I'll buy into "the more expensive" models.

Until then, always do your research, and don't be afraid to try something. Like Andrew Zimmern says in his travel show, "If it looks good, eat it". So if it looks good, buy it!




Cheers;