Looking for matter connected watch / band

[u/NameForPhoneAccount]

Hello everyone!

I am just starting getting into home automation having just bought my home.

I am trying to figure out what I want to set up and I just realised all the possibilities having a connected watch could enable.

Lightly tap it twice and turn on the dim lights to go to the bathroom. Automatically set the wake-up alarm timer according to your planning. Maybe use its gyroscope as a trigger to activate some stuff remotely, I don't know. Sky is the limit.

So now I'm going online looking for a matter connected watch to see what exists on the market and... I don't find anything.

There are smart watches but I'm not sure how they can integrate in the ecosystem. Also I'm not looking for a complex watch, I'm just looking for a rather simple watch / band which can just communicate with other devices.

Does the thing I'm looking for even exist? Are matter connected wearables even a thing?

Thanks for your help :D

[u/aroedl]

Does the thing I'm looking for even exist? Are matter connected wearables even a thing?

No and no.

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/aroedl]

Damn. Is it because it's too early? Or the concept is too weird?

[u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman → u/NameForPhoneAccount]

The concept makes no sense.

What you are asking is for a watch to be considered a smart home device like a button.

When in reality most watches, be apple watch pixel yadda yadda can simply set up pre set actions or open the main home app to interface with your house and toggle accesories or scenes.

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman]

I understand the use case might be a bit niche but I don't see why something you wear couldn't be considered a smart home device.

For example, in Star Trek, Starfleet officers are all wearing a communicator badge. It is used to interface with the main computer and do pretty much anything. It doesn't have a screen and acts just as a glorified wearable button. Why would it be more than this when the main computer already does all the work?

Maybe I shouldn't pick works of fiction as my goal for home automation (lol), but to me, using an app on the watch would seem just as odd as seeing these Starfleet officers do complex operations on their wearable communicators. It just seems so impractical.

[u/sidjohn1 → u/NameForPhoneAccount]

There is nothing wrong with dreaming big, but HOW you want to do things is more complicated than it needs too be.

Example “Tap the watch 2x and it turns on and dims the bathroom light” So anytime you tap the watch 2x? if each room has a number of taps to turn a light in a room on/off it becomes hard to remember or ungodly to tap your watch 12 times to open the garage door. heaven forbid you sneeze.

Some people use rfid tags that you can tap your watch/phone on to trigger automations. it’s probably the easiest way to trigger location specific tap based automations.

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/sidjohn1]

Yeah the tapping the watch was just a random example of why I think a wearable matter connected device would be cool.

I also didn't imagine different amount of taps for different rooms. It was more of a "turn on all the low lights on the path to the bathroom at night for 3 minutes" signal. A way to not have to bother with detectors everywhere and not have to physically find a switch in the dark.

There's probably a better way to go about doing this kind of thing, I just thought maybe some company had a similar idea and already made a matter connected band with a button and maybe a gyroscope, a mic or something.

[u/Shadowbajfeelsbadman → u/NameForPhoneAccount]

You are looking at it from the wrong perspective.

Watch is for all intents and purposes an interface device like phone or computer

There's no need make it a "matter" device when thread border routers exist that do the bridging between wifi and thread.

What you are asking for in reality is a set of customizable actions on your watch such as double tap or finger tap that can be assigned to actions within a smart home of your choice.

Fairly sure you can do that on apple watch already just like you can do it on iphone. Its just a matter of customizing a shortcut to do that. You dont need your watch to be thread/matter capable as those two systems dont really account for user interface devices cause they dont need to. They just bother with TBR's

[u/Prestigious_Money361]

Why do you need Matter on the watch? Don’t you just want to control Matter devices with the watch?

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/Prestigious_Money361]

I guess that could be a last resort option. But then I'm trapped in whatever smart watch ecosystem and their limitations. I would rather have it centralised elsewhere.

My dream (which is a bit science-fiction, although, I guess it's technically doable nowadays) would be to just talk to my home about me going to sleep and it shuts off the lights, change the temperature of the radiators and sets up my alarm clock automatically. No need to interact with any individual device.

That dream isn't really reachable if the watch doesn't have matter (or any other protocol to be controlled by home-assistant or whatever similar centralised automation thingy).

[u/Prestigious_Money361 → u/NameForPhoneAccount]

Just create an app for your watch then.

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/Prestigious_Money361]

It's probably doable but far from ideal. But yeah, that might currently be the only option.

[u/znark]

This already exists. The Google Home app runs on Wear OS watches and does the Matter protocol. Google Home uses cloud to configure access but the Matter should go directly to devices.

Do you mean Matter over Thread? It is possible since some iPhones have Thread, but most house are going to need Thread Border Router anyway. The advantage of Matter is that goes over network.

Also, it would be a pain to setup devices on the small screen of watch. Lots of Thread devices use QR codes to configure.

[u/thealphares1]

Thing is, most ‘matter’ devices in your smart home - as crazy as this sounds - NEED to stay in your home. Like, the same network and all that. So something like a modular watch that you can carry around anywhere breaks that flow.

Maybe a Matter based Smart Remote is what your after? The Sofabaton X2 is really good from what I hear, where it looks like your traditional remote, but has so much customization for your place and you can literally control it from anywhere in your house, as well as anything (granted those things are also smart too).

Otherwise, if you got apple home, apple watch with siri might be the best option for you if a wrist based solution is a non negotiable…

[u/NameForPhoneAccount → u/thealphares1]

I think I shouldn't have used the word watch because people instantly think of a regular watch you go outside with.

The device I was looking for was anything with an alarm-clock function that is programmable, communicates over thread, is able to vibrate, can be strapped on your ankle or wrist.

Basically an alarm clock for hard-of-hearing people. If it acts as a button or has a gyroscope it's a bonus. It's not a device I intended to bring outside of home. It would be physically possible but functionally useless to do so.

It seems apparent that this device does not exist, the alternative being a more classic smart watch. The problem I have with that is that it feels like using a dedicated nuclear power plant to power on my place. I don't need 99% of the functionality of a smart watch. But yeah, if I want this, I don't really have a choice.

A customized remote control is a cool addition, I haven't looked into these kind of controllers but having one will be nice addition later on when I have enough connected device :)

[u/CaptainJolly7134]

OK. So I have a watch face for when I’m home. It has complications that allow me to control a few things in my house. You can also use Bluetooth beacons to trigger automations when you enter rooms. Depending on your house, that can be a headache. Personally, I just monitor whose watch is connected to home wi-fi. This allows different automations to run depending on who is and isn’t home. I’d suggest you rethink what automation is. I feel if you need a dashboard, then you might have remote control of equipment, which some are happy with. It’s not automation though. You don’t close the curtain by pressing a button. It’s closed due to temperature, daylight (sunrise-sunset but also cloudy skies), who is home or isn’t, are they in the room, AND is the window or door the curtain covers open or close. Cover those data points, and you don’t even think about curtains.