Gentle reminder that you should not use this as an excuse to buy things imo. I see too many people just replacing perfectly good items. It's much better if there's an anti consumption stance (use what you have, repair, buy used, buy, local, buy regionally) in that order.
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Buy European
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Exactly, if you already have American stuff that doesn't depend on them making still money on it right now, no need to replace it ASAP. Buy when it breaks or need to change, don't buy American again.
Love how even digital clocks are still set to 10:08 on all promotional materials. It's become a standard because that way the hands are facing up, are symmetrical and don't cover the company logo on analog clocks.
I guess there's value to all digital clocks showing the same digits to easily compare fonts etc, but it's neat they keep the 10:08 thing alive.
I just wish that Polar had a bit better quality.
I can't speak to their current products, but my M400 is still going strong after 10 years of daily use. My wife's Garmin stopped holding charge after 2 years.
Polar's app leaves something to be desired, though.
There’s also suunto, which is Finnish
Suunto is owned by Chinese company Liesheng. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suunto
Oof.. I got a Suunto smartwatch few years back. Build quality was really good with titanium & sapphire glass. I guess when it's time to buy a new one, I'll look somewhere else. Such a shame, the company has a bit of history.
Good to know, Polar shall be my Garmin replacement I recommend going forward. I was otherwise also recommending Suunto
Garmin is very good privacy wise as I understand. How is polar in that regard?
https://believeintherun.com/gps-run-tracking-privacy-policies/
Polar is based in the EU, which has the strictest privacy laws in the world under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). However, this only applies to data subjects within the EU, so if you’re using a device in the United States, you’re not covered by the GDPR (even if you’re a European citizen). The likely reason Joe Rogan received an updated notice agreement was because he was within the EU borders at the time. Companies based within the United States also must comply with GDPR data protection when gathering data from European data subjects.
Does Polar sell your data? No. According to Polar, “the data is used only to offer you the service in question, nothing else. Polar does not disclose, give or sell your data to anyone unless [they] are required to do so pursuant to a mandatory provision of law. [They] may use some of the data in research and development work to improve [their] services, but for such purposes data is cleared from identifiers to the maximum amount possible.”
According to their policy, data is transferred outside your country of origin because they need the data to give you accurate training metrics and recommendations. All their servers are based in Finland, Ireland, and Sweden, so your information only goes to those servers, all under the EU/EEA umbrella. When transferred, “Your data will not be disclosed or given to any third parties; it is still under Polar’s control and under your ownership.
Now, data may be transferred to Polar’s subcontractors that carry out tasks related to Polar, though it doesn’t say who those contractors are or where they are located.
The good news is that you have a lot of rights under their policy, including access to the personal information they have on you, the right to object to the handling of personal data, and the right to refuse profiling and automated decision-making. There are far more rights granted by Polar than other companies.
No contactless payment feature unfortunately. Polar watches need a special wristband for that.
Garmin Pay supports only american cards anyway. There's much more options for contactless European payments using your phone and bank apps.
I urge you all to do your homework. All these devices are dependable on GPS (which is EXCLUSIVELY US system and a present/gift to the world) and/or your Android/iOS phone (again, EXCLUSIVELY US Systems).
So... replacing those products, just because they are associated with US companies, does nothing. They are produced in Asia, anyway.
It is like refusing to use american spoon to eat american eggs. The eggs are still american.
Don't get me wrong, I am proEU and domestic production, but ditching companies like Garmin has nothing to do with empowering EU production and everything to do with spite. Same goes for Tesla (which, quite honestly, really IS a crappy car).
OPs particular watch (and many others, Garmin included) also supports Galileo, Glonass and Qzss. Same goes for smartphones. The term "GPS" these days is used for all kinds of satellite based positioning, not exclusively the American one.
And I think there's nothing wrong with a little spite in these times. I'd rather my money go to an european company than to an american one, even though some of that money goes to asia further down the supply chain (which it does for almost any electronics, no matter where the company is based)
But I agree your comment about EU production!
"Multiband GNSS" is what this is called.