So a year ago I'm riding with a couple of guys in a brevet. Near the end of the ride, one guy's watch beeps, he takes a quick look at it, and tells it to read the text to him. It does, and he replies by talking into it.

Yeah, I know Siri's been around for awhile, and there are other options. I started using Siri on my iPhone to read and respond to texts, but it doesn't work well with my phone in my shirt pocket.

I'm not interested in the fitness apps at all. I don't track my mileage, my heart rate, or how many steps I took today. It appears that most (all?) of these watches have that functionality, so be it, I'll just not use it.

What I would like is a smart watch that can:

1. Send and receive text via voice commands
2. Has Siri or Google assistant like functionality
3. Can give turn by turn directions from ridewithgps maps
4. Can act as a cyclometer via GPS
5. I can ride in the rain and not worry about it
6. Works with my iPhone
7. Works when my phone is in my handlebar bag

Would love to hear from someone that's actually using a smart phone.

Mark, I've had a Garmin Vivoactive watch for a little over a year now. It does #4-7 on your list (texts do show up on my watch, but only who the sender is and the first line). I also have a Garmin 520 for the bike, and thus whatever I track on my watch or on my on-bike device gets all synched via the App on my phone.

I am thinking about upgrading to the Garmin Fenix series watch, which can do a bunch more things on your list (though I don't think it can do voice commands).

I'd look at the Garmin Fenix 3.

Can't do voice, but would still knock off a lot of numbers on your list.

Neat watch for the $$$. imho

I've just had a helluva fight with Apple via my ipad. They seem to want to change my life with every update. I'm done with smart stuff. I'll have a watch that gives me the time of day. Thank you.

Do you really want to spend a ton of money on a watch that will be out of date in a year?

I'm not an early adopter. I'm not a "gotta have the latest and greatest" kinda guy - I'm posting on the C&V site, right?

The laptop I'm typing on is woefully out of date, but it still works for what I want it to do just fine.

Not having voice activation is a deal breaker for me. Just about daily on my commute either I want to text my wife or she wants to text me about something or another. I just realized that #4 on my list is accomplished already with my iPhone and ridewithgps, but having interaction with the turn by turn directions via the watch is what I want.

I think you should PM Maxwell Smart and see what he uses.

I'm pretty sure the Series 2 Apple Watxh meets all those. You can swim with it. I bought one for my son and researched it quite a bit but not an actual user.

I get on a bike to ride AWAY from reality. My voicemails generally sound like ...."I guess you're out riding. Call me when you get in."

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For the last 7 or 8 months my sweetie and I have each been wearing a Pebble Time. Alas, Pebble went out of business maybe two months ago. Real bummer because the Time was great and the Time 2 promised to be even better, even if they did sort of insist on providing a health app (which you can just ignore). Completely submersible to 30 meters.

Mine works much better with my Android-based Samsung Galaxy S7 than my sweetie's does with her iPhone SE. Apple ios does not like to play well with other children.

The bluetooth range is nominally 10 meters, which in practice means anywhere inside the house and certainly between the watch and anywhere you carry it on a bike.

I would think any smart watch which has a built-in mic will be able to do voice-to-text messages, which is a really really really nice feature, probably the one I use most often. Most any smart watch will display on the screen any alert or related notification the phone can show, so it will display text messages you receive and then you can replay. I understand that the Apple Watch can actually do real phone conversations, which means it must have a speaker too. It is also expensive. At the very least, the watch display incoming call info, which means you can check who an incoming call is from just by checking the watch. That's nice for putting the watch on mute while in a meeting at work but still note any calls you receive.

Most other functionality will depend on how the app on the phone behaves and what kind of notifications it sends. Some phone apps can simply send notifications and the watch will display them. Some functionality requires that the phone also have a partner app to what the watch runs. You'll have to do your homework to see if anyone has written the watch app or the watch/phone pair to do whatever you want. Google Assist-like voice commands can be done on my Pebble only via watch apps that support it, not so much AFAIK but there is one that I know of. There is a Pebble app called Nav Me which does turn-by-turn instructions on the watch, really nice, but it works though Google Navigation and I don't know how well GN works for cycling. There is an app that displays weather radar from Weather Bug, really nice for checking the local rain clouds when you are commuting and stopped for a stoplight but don't want to pull your phone out. You need to go to the iStore or Google PlayStore and see what kind of apps are available.

Have you looked at the LG Electronics G Watch? It seems to do what you want, and it is inexpensive as far as these things go. There are fancier models also. I suppose there are a quite a few Android watches do what you want. Going with Apple may save you some compatibility bugs. Let us know what you find out.

I have a Garmin Vivoactive also. I like it. Even though it doesn't do voice command, it is a good simple unit and easier to deal with than a cyclocomputer. The GPS function isn't really useful beyond telling you where you went after you're done.

9 of 10 times my smart watch is a Seiko 5 mechanical. Like many C&V'ers I'm also trying to get a break from tech immersion.

Every electronic device that you buy is already obsolete. There is no way to keep up.

Electronic devices now-a-days actually stay up-to-date way more than the devices in the "old days". With firmware updates, you've mostly got nothing to worry about. I used the same iphone for 4 years. same ipad for like 6. I wouldn't worry about buying a watch and feeling like it would be obsolete in a year.

Fair enough, but that's like saying we are currently living in the past...

Five letters for you.

SWMBO

Not exactly a C&V topic, but.... My kids gave me a MS Band a couple of years ago. Since I was using a Windows phone (still do), it was well matched. It is a product that was not well designed. I went through three of them within the warranty period +. If the phone is within blue tooth range, limited voice was an option.

Nice first gen product with the typical MS approach of letting the customer be the beta test environment. The Band 2 was an improvement but they recognized their limitations and pulled it.

Use case: We drive to a supermarket. Sweetie goes to buy groceries, I go next door to buy some, ah, "boutique" beer. I finish up, put the beer in the car, start going into the supermarket. I speak into the phone "What aisle are you in?" A few seconds later I see her reply on my watch. Neither of us had to pull out our phone and thumb out a txt msg.

Use case: I've just finished my homeward commute. It's dark and cold, my hand are encased in winter cycling gloves. I pull into the front yard, dismount, turn off my battery lights. My house key is somewhere at the bottom of my handlebar bag. I could pull the bike up onto the little porch and ring the doorbell but instead I press a button on the watch and speak "Sweetie's home", then press Okay. By the time I've lifted the bike to the porch she has the door open. Marvelous!

Sometimes new technology really is all it's cracked up to be.

Mine is even less tech-centric than I am. She got her first smartphone in October.

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I recently bought the Apple Watch...I love it. Send and receive texts. Control my music. Measure my rides. Never tried the maps...I will have to look into it. All the things I do with my phone...without having to pull it out of my pocket.

I bought matching Apple watches for my wife and me. I bought it for some of the same reasons you stated. Especially the fact that when I am riding and get a call or a text I can check to see the source and not to have to reach into my back pocket. If it is my wife or kids I can always stop and answer, if not I just keep on riding.

Also, with regular firmware updates, my "older" Apple watch has essentially the same functionality as the newer versions.

I only wish that I could get firmware updates for myself.

This.

After doing some research, I was hoping some of the cheaper off brands would fill the bill, but they all seem to have some sort of issue. The Apple Watch 1 can be had for $200 nowadays, no compatibility issues, and it's water resistant
it's water resistant "enough" to ride in the rain.

Done! Thank you all for playing.

I know you don't want to hear this, but you've become overly tethered. Unless you're someone on call 24/4 who might need to respond immediately to an emergency, any texts can wait until the end of your commute.

The need to text your wife is a management problem and can be dealt with by saying "I'm heading out, anything you need to tell me before I go?"

We got by fine before cell phones, and no great loss will happen if we turn them off for a while now and then. If you're really worried about a critical emergency program a special SOS ring tone, and stop the ride to deal with it.

I'm pretty sure the series 1 is basically the same as the series 2 without the "water proof" for swimming. I wouldn't swim with it anyhow, so I bought the series 1. No regrets.

I work in the semiconductor industry. Moore's Law makes it a 24/7 operation. It's rare that I need to respond quickly, but when I do, it could mean saving literally hundreds of thousands of dollars of lost production an hour. When I go on vacation, I make sure everyone knows who my backup is. And I have no idea who could be calling or texting me, and most of the time when I'm contacted by my co-workers, it's not an emergency - we don't have a special "bat phone" to use.

I have a "glass half full" way of looking at it. My "tether" frees me to move about the country. I can leave my place of work to do personal things, like dropping off a frame at the powder coater, or maybe going on an afternoon ride and still stay in contact. It's not a business for those that can't easily compartmentalize work.

That said, my wife tends to text me sometime on my ride home when she thinks of something to pick up at the store. And you don't "manage" a wife - at least not mine. She doesn't mention it very often, but she does worry when I'm riding home in the dark, or in the rain, or recently, in the snow. Being able to reply quickly gives her peace of mind.

Technology can work for or against you. I choose to use it in my favor. One of the main selling points for smart watches, it would seem, are the fitness apps. I have little interest in using those. I don't track my cycling mileage, but it is good to know how many miles I have to go to finish a ride to plan for stops, eating, etc.

YMMV

That's my thinking as well. I was worried about using it in the rain, but online reviews give me confidence that it won't be an issue.