I've been thinking about getting one of those smartwatches for a while now because my girlfriend has an Apple Watch and says it helps her a lot with tracking sleep and calories. But I'm not sure if it actually works or if it's just an expensive gadget that'll end up in a drawer. Does anyone actually use one and find it useful?
Don't get swept up by the hype if you don't have a clear use in mind, because yeah, you'll end up with it sitting in a drawer. That said, if you actually want to track sleep patterns or daily movement, current smartwatches work pretty well for that, it's not snake oil. The thing is, the value depends on whether you actually look at that data and change something based on it; if you buy one and never pay attention to it, then obviously you're just throwing money away. My recommendation is that you try your girlfriend's for a couple of weeks and see if checking that data gets you hooked or if you couldn't care less about it.
I think the other guy is underselling it. A smartwatch isn't pure marketing if you actually use it for something specific, but it's not a miracle either! The sleep and calorie tracking works pretty well on decent models, though the data isn't 100% accurate - they give you a general idea of patterns, which is what's actually useful. The difference is whether that motivates you to change your habits or you just see it as another number on the screen. If your girlfriend actually acts based on that data, then it's worth it; if you're buying it expecting it to automatically transform you, yeah, it'll end up in a drawer!
The question is whether you're actually going to look at that data or just let it sit there. I've seen people who buy one fully intending to monitor calories and sleep, but then they never even open the app. That said, if you already have the habit of constantly checking your phone, a watch that alerts you to your heart rate or shows you how much you slept without having to grab your phone makes more sense than just marketing hype, though it's not going to change your life if you're not doing the actual work behind it.
Before you drop the cash, try a week with a free app like Sleep Cycle or Strava on your phone and see if you actually check that data or if you just forget about it. If after a week you're not opening the app anymore, the smartwatch will end up the same way, because the device is just the messenger - the hard part is getting yourself to change your habits based on what it shows you. That said, where they actually do work pretty well is with passive reminders: notifications like "you haven't moved in two hours" or "your heart rate looks weird" are things you see without having to open anything, and that can be annoying enough to get you to stand up or go see a doctor if you need to.
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