With all the hype around the Apple Watch and Android Wear, I wanted to share my thoughts on the current crop of smart watches. I have been using a smart watch since I got a Fossil/Abacus watch back in the mid-2000s. Well, actually, I had numerous Casio Databank watches back in the old days, but they aren’t truly considered smart watches.

After my Abacus stopped working, I got a Motorola MotoActv, which I liked, but had horrible battery life.

I ended up breaking the screen on it, so I tried a Sony Live View. That was so bad that I sent it back as soon as I could.

I went a few years without a watch after that. I thought about getting a developer’s version of a watch made by TI, I think. Then I thought about getting a MetaWatch until I saw the Pebble Kickstarter. I jumped on as soon as I could and got a pebble watch a few months later.

I have been wearing the Pebble as my primary smart watch of choice. I also ended up with a Samsung Galaxy Gear and a Moto 360 since then, but I always come back to the Pebble.

I have three major reasons to do so:

1. The Pebble is always on. It doesn’t have any crazy turn-your-wrist to turn on motion. Well, it actually does, but it is more of a shake and it turns on the backlight. With almost all of the other watches out there; Samsung, Sony, Android Wear and Apple, the wrist motion is never fast enough for me. If you only use the watch for notifications, it probably won’t matter. But to actually use it to tell time, you can’t beat the Pebble.

2. The Pebble has four physical buttons. I can’t tell you how annoyed I am with every other watch relying on a touch screen or voice. I drive a lot and I listen to Podcasts most everytime I drive. I can’t easily pause, FF or RW on a touch screen. The physical buttons work and I can do it without feeling like I have to look down at my watch to find where to press.

3. Last of all is battery life. My Pebble goes for at least 5 days without a charge. It could go longer, but I have a watch face that tracks the weather, so it cuts a few days of battery life out. This is number three on my list though, as it isn’t a huge deal to charge a watch every night when you plug in your phone. However, I tend to think about my battery life available too much, so I get anxious when I see the charge level so low on the other watches.

There you have it. And Yes, I am getting the new Pebble Time, sometime this month.