While I was repurposing some old tablets and phones recently, I stumbled across my original Fitbit One which I bought in 2012 - over 10 years ago.
At the time it was a pioneering product: a small, connected pedometer which keeps a record of your daily steps and uploaded the results to an app, allowing you to monitor your progress over time. You can clip it onto your clothes or even just pop it into a trouser pocket. As well as counting your steps, it also accurately estimates distance travelled, number of floors climbed (it incorporates an altimeter) and calories burned. And as it's worn next to the thigh, it count steps very accurately.
I used it for several years until, inevitably, other things came along and the urge to upgrade was difficult to resist. My Fitbit ended up at the back of a drawer, forgotten.
Fitbit's range developed first into wristbands and then smart watches, while a number of other tech companies - Apple and Samsung in particular - joined in and launched their own smart watches. Today’s devices can do a million things apart from counting steps. But in the end I never bought one.
The techboy in me would love to own a modern smart watch but I have a problem. I have a collection of conventional watches, with real hands, which I love: if I used a smart watch every day I'd have to say goodbye to my other watches.
