Why did I buy the Redmi Watch 2? Mainly because my Fossil watch went in for repair, and they said it’d be at least a month before it came back from the factory. For a month I’d have nothing on my wrist to check the time, so I had a fresh excuse to buy this thing. I got in on the first batch, paid around 299 yuan—retail was supposed to be 399. The packaging is nothing fancy. Open it up and there it is. Gotta say, even though it’s basically an oversized fitness band, the build quality is genuinely nice. From a distance it really looks like an Apple Watch. Up close it still looks like one. As long as you don’t swipe, you can pretend it’s an Apple Watch. I’ve used it for about two weeks now, and I’ve got some thoughts, so I figured I’d write them down.

For various reasons my Android Wear watch died. I figured fine, whatever — I never used to wear a watch anyway. But it turns out that suddenly not wearing one threw me off; I kept glancing at my left wrist for the time… so I guess I’m used to wearing a watch now? So I started looking for a temporary replacement, and the budget was definitely low because I’m broke. Eventually I spotted a Pebble Watch 2 Heart Rate Edition on Amazon for a bargain $25. Shipped straight to me, and it wasn’t even hit with customs. Really lucky.