# SQFMI Watchy

6 Hacker News commenters recommended SQFMI Watchy and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Open, hackable e-paper smartwatch that you can program yourself, with reliable timekeeping. The most common caveat is that it is bulkier than expected and not built for daily wear.

## Why people recommend it

- Open to custom firmware and apps (1 comments): "You can flash your own firmware, call HTTPS endpoints, parse JSON, and render custom UI without a phone in the loop." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47105924))
- Reliable, good timekeeping (2 comments): "its a bit bulkier than I'd thought it would be, but its a fine piece of timekeeping" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887328)) "Otherwise a great reliable device." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47146784))
- Unique e-paper smartwatch design (1 comments): "the only actual e-paper smartwatch I ever wanted to have" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50303511))

## What people warn about

- Bulkier than expected (1 comments): "its a bit bulkier than I'd thought it would be, but its a fine piece of timekeeping" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887328))
- Screens break with daily wear (1 comments): "broke 2 screens before I gave up wearing it... It's really not meant to be work in daily life" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47889735))
- Firmware can be hard (1 comments): "I remember struggling a bit with firmware." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45974802))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Pebble Time 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-time-2.md): 53 recommend
- [Pebble Round 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-round-2.md): 38 recommend
- [Pebble 2 Duo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-2-duo.md): 17 recommend
- [PineTime smartwatch](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pinetime-smartwatch.md): 12 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=SQFMI+Watchy+e-paper+smartwatch&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://watchy.sqfmi.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "SQFMI Watchy", https://hackerapproved.com/p/watchy/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).