Cheap and working smartwatches for 25$ already exists, they are flooding the markets of developing countries and they are of a OK quality for a smartwatch, they mostly originate from Shenzhen China, problem is there are no software engineers to hack these smartwatches and pair them with open source software instead of chinese spyware smartphone apps.
I’ve got myself one of these watches hoping I can learn to program something for it, After extracting the facecwatches I found out those were binary files, After many hours searching the internet for help or people who might have already hacked them. I’ve given up because I knew that even If I start learning assembly, there is no guarantee that I can build my own watch faces using that knowledge, it’s a shame cause Chinese gadget are a treasure trove for hackers and people looking for good deals.
I’d recommend checking out Gadgetbridge. It is an open source app, with no network permission requirements, that replaces the OEM app for a large number of watches. I’m running an Amazfit GTS 4 with it and it has been almost flawless.
Tried it, doesn’t work with these smartwatches, they are shipped with proprietary OS and proprietary OEM apps, the Face-watches are also proprietary formats.
So Pine 64 has a PineTime watch that is pretty nifty if people want sans spying techwear. Very basic and very alpha/beta mode…but it gets better every so often! More people use it or know about it, the more development it gets!
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