Picky, picky Lulu finally picks a smart watch

I have been wanting a rechargeable watch ever since I reached my 40s and the time that an average watch battery lasts started to fly past me. Well, no, what I really liked was the idea of changing the watch faces easily. Um... no I think I craved a way to know whether fishing my phone out of my purse was worth it to talk to the caller I was getting. I was also feeling the peer pressure to get a fitness tracker. (Peers like my mother. And my doctor.)

I have been *thinking* about getting a smart watch for a long time. And reading reviews. And being stingy.

I also wanted to see what Apple would finally offer.

Apple is so annoying. They steal your music. Their products are too pricey. And they are the last to offer an option. Still I waited because clearly there is something wrong with me.

I settled on a Pebble, which as you know was one of the earliest smart watch offerings. I use a 4s because my Samsung Galaxy failed me, and my son had moved on to a 5s, leaving his old phone up for grabs. Yeah, it only has 8 GB. I use very few apps, and I sync all my photos to Flickr, and all my contacts to Google. This works fine for me.

The Pebble Time (Round) is compatible with up to the 6 (s?) and as far back as the 4s. This gives me space to upgrade to a newer phone at some point. And Target had one on clearance this week for $99.99. I had found my smart watch at last!

It holds a charge. It doesn't have a touch screen but this is good for my fumbly, middle aged fingers. It's fairly intuitive and easy to navigate. It has lots of free faces. (Shiny!) It syncs with Apple Health on my iPhone. It's lightweight, and very sexy.

I like to change my faces often, and show off my faces to friends. There's a quick launch for that! I like to review my notifications! There's a quick launch for that, too! It doesn't make a noise, it only vibrates. This is all I want and need.

But my 50 year old eyes need a thing it doesn't do. In the daytime, in order to read it without getting out the reading glasses, I need the backlight intensity set to "blinding" (yes, this is what they call it!). At night, in the dark, I need it set to "medium". There is no quick way to do this. "Display" is low on the scrolling menu, that doesn't loop, and "Intensity" is low on *that* menu... that doesn't loop. Quick lunch cannot be set for Intensity.

I looked on Pebble Reddit and saw that, so far at least, there is no app that can compensate for this.

So, though I know 50-somethings are probably not your target demographic, know that this 50-something appreciates the simplicity of the Pebble Time Round, but could really use an app for intensity toggling to set a quick launch to.

FYI, the Pebble Time Round is currently available at Best Buy for $150. The $100. one I got at Target? I think I snagged the last one. :-D