Probably the Least Useful Gadgets, Ever
Some people say they wish to "invest" in exercise or running or health or whatever. They sometimes conflate consumption (such as gadgets) with the simple action of doing something with their bodies, as if without shelling out some money they'll be unable to run outside or do push-ups/sit-ups at home. We recently wrote a number of things about this topic.
About 2 months ago while my wife was busy in some boring (to me) store I went to another store and checked out gadgets that were 'smart' wrist-worn "watches". I was astounded by how worthless, stupid, and clunky they were. Some were Garmin, some were not. Some had a "touchscreen", some did not (one had to rely on buttons/dials). Trying to test some use cases on 3-4 of those devices (offered on display) I simply could not see how they would be better than a stopwatch; they'd just take far more time to operate, not to mention heavy batteries that need recharging often. Browsing through menus and more menus and moving dials... just to present some stupid timer.
Unbelievably stupid! To be clear, I'm not a Luddite or anti-gadget person. I think my objective/subjective assessment of these things would be shared by many.
Today we both went to that same shop again. Some of the "watches" were gone and almost all of them now had touchscreens, so I assume the ones that lacked it didn't sell well and were no longer stocked (or put on display). The conclusions that we - two people, not one - reached were the same. What sort of person would need this or benefit from this? Someone who wants to upload one's trajectory based on GPS? Or keep track of the pulse for some vanity reasons? (That would likely require add-ons, regardless).
Gadgets are not bad (per se). Gadgets like these, however, seem worse than useless. All those "smart" watches never truly caught on. Like VR, there were attempts back in the 90s to make them "hip" - attempts that largely failed.
The "Tech" industry (with capital T) sometimes feels more like a cult than a solution-building endeavour. Apple convinced many people to grossly overpay for things to signal a belonging to a "class". Garmin et al seem to be trying to emulate this, as if a "smart" thing worn on the wrist is the "new Rolex". █