So I’ve been watchless for a bit. Well, not completely watchless — I’ve been wearing this no-name activity tracker I bought ages ago that looks like it belongs on a child’s wrist. Purple deer on the watch face. You know the type.
Here’s how I got here.
My first Garmin was a Vivosmart HR. Loved it. Wore it for almost 10 years before it started showing its age. Ten years! I was impressed. So when it finally went senile, getting another Garmin was a no-brainer, right?
Got the Venu Sq2. Two years later, it’s dead. Not “the battery’s dying” dead — more like “looks fine at 100% until I unplug it and then immediately dies” dead. Classic.
So I went to the store thinking, okay, I’ll just have them fix it or replace the battery or something. Nope. Apparently that’s not a thing. The process is: you call a number, pay a not-insignificant amount (like over ₱7k), and they’ll send you a replacement unit. Not repair. Replace. The whole watch.
What a waste.
Meanwhile, I dug out my old Casio Baby-G solar. It’s about 15 years old. Still works. Never needed a battery replacement (solar, remember). Never needed repairs. The bezel’s gotten a little bloated with age, but it still tells time just fine. I brought it to the official Casio service center in Ortigas to get it sorted.
One Casio service center. For all of Luzon. Just one. That was a whole adventure in itself — I’d read the bad Google reviews and was expected unpleasantness. It was actually fine. They diagnosed the issue quickly: bezel bloat + nearly dead battery (even solar watches have a rechargeable cell that eventually degrades). Easily fixable.
So let’s recap:
- Garmin Vivosmart HR: ~10 years, no repairs needed ✅
- Garmin Venu Sq2: 2 years, effectively a brick ❌
- Casio Baby-G solar: 15 years and counting, minor fixes, still going 👑
Do I want another Garmin? Honestly… not sure. The Vivosmart HR era Garmin clearly had the build quality. The Venu Sq2 did not. And I’m not excited about the No Repairs / Only Replacement policy.
The activity tracking is the hard part to give up though. The Baby-G is great but it doesn’t track steps or heart rate or cycling distance. So now I’m wearing the purple deer watch for tracking and the Baby-G when I want to look like a functioning adult. 🙃