Is there a future for smart watches?

I have had two smart watches. First was the Moto 360, which I returned after less than a month because it was simply unusable outside a building. I then got, and still have, an Asus Zenwatch 2, which could be read in daylight (though not always easily), was thinner (though wider) and cost half as much as the 360.

Left, Moto 360, right Asus Zenwatch 2. Not my pic, though. As you can see, smart watches
are large creatures. But both wore comfortably.

However, nowadays the Asus spends simply sits atop my desk at home, awaiting the call to go back into the game. Which it almost never does. The watch may be smart, but "smart" ain't brilliant. Is it actually helpful for incoming text messages to show up on my watch? Well, no, not really, especially since it displays no more than about 30-36 characters as a time. I have an app on my phone that automatically reads texts and email aloud, anyway.

And with my presbyopic eyes, it's still too invisible in bright light to be practical. For my last birthday my SWEDD (SWEet Darling Daughter) gave me a Timex Easy Reader:

It s my daily watch now while my Seiko, Pulsar and Wengers stay in the cabinet. So IMO the present shortcomings of smartwatches are too great to justify the expense.

Apparently I am not the only one who thinks so: "SMARTWATCH SALES APPEAR TO HAVE FALLEN OFF A CLIFF."

Has everyone who wants a smartwatch already bought a smartwatch? New data released by IDC on Monday shows a sharp decline in shipments, or “a round of growing pains” as the research firm puts it, for the quarter ending September 30, 2016.

The research firm said total smartwatch shipments reached 2.7 million units for the three-month period, marking a hefty 51.6 percent year-on-year decline.

I think one reason is that mechanical watches are mature technology. There is no upgraded version of my Timex on the horizon and it's has stayed the same for years on end. It does perfectly well what it's designed to do. But not so with smartwatches. For some reason, users find them serialized like smart phones. After all, if there was a Zenwatch 2, you can bet your next $229 there will be a Zenwatch 3.

And so there is.

But why? When someone buys a watch, they expect to use it for many years, not have it fall victim to planned obsolescence. After all, does the 3 actually tell time better than the 2? Nope. Does it have more or better apps? Nope. Well, not yet; it depends whether Android Wear will get upgraded and whether the 3 will accept the upgrade.

And doggone it, they must be fully, easily readable in daylight! Otherwise, I'll take my Timex.