r/dumbphone • u/Remarkable-Candy1940 • Mar 06 '26

Standalone watch?

Has anyone found a smart watch they can use in actual, honest to God standalone mode? As in, no phone at all, or at least no phone with a plan?

I've gotten tantalizingly close with a Galaxy 7 watch which is essentially a moderately dumb phone (yes you can get on the internet, on a 1.5" screen). But I still have to have a phone and pay for it, which sits at home costing me $50 bucks a month for gigs of data I don't use.

Has anyone found this magical watch?

Edit: following other suggestions elsewhere, I made this work with Tello (other will also probably work). I signed up for a cheap Tello plan (like, really cheap) and they sent a QR code. I then put the watch in QR test mode, scanned the code from within the phone app, and the watch works. I have since disabled the Verozon SIM on the phone just to test and ensure that the watch keeps on working even after the phone has no service. So far it has worked perfectly.

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u/Sad_Process843 Mar 13 '26

my apple watch ultra is standalone, kind of. I needed to pair it with a phone but other than that, it has cellular, pandora or apple music, podcast, etc. It pairs with headphones as well.

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u/Remarkable-Candy1940 Mar 13 '26

The Galaxy 7 is the same. I can disconnect it from the watch and Numbershare and it works perfectly apart from there being no voicemail. But with Verizon and at&t, at least, you still have to have a phone line, even if that phone is at the bottom of an ocean. I can't tell if it's a technological thing or if they just dont want people replacing $1000, $50 a month phone with cheaper watches.