Yup, I’m sold. Building out a theme in React (w/ Frontity.org) is a lot of fun. I work with PHP all day, so building w/ JS is really refreshing/revitalizing. Got about a dozen more things for this site, then will launch the site decoupled and push the code to Github. 👨‍💻

Playing around with code-server, it was pretty cool to see VS Code in the browser with github.dev, but to have running in Docker on my Raspberry Pi for my local projects – that’s really cool.

Not totally sure this is a solution to any problem I have.. it allows me to code from the iPad I suppose, but I’d rather have a full macbook for all the other dev tools I need (Alfred, text expander, better multitasking / window management, the esc key [instead of cmd+.], the “next” song button, etc). But still. Cool. 😎

In 2019, I got this Nixon Serenity Leather watch as a gift from my family – beautiful watch, well made, felt heavy in a good way. It had a 2 year warranty. The leaflet said the battery would last 2 years.

A couple months after the two year mark, the band started to really deteriorate. I looked for a new one on their site and it was reasonable around $50 after taxes & shipping. That’s about $0.07/day over two years, which I think is a pretty acceptable replacement cost for a part of a watch that gets that much of a beating from wear.

Waiting for backorder for this band, the watch died. I replaced the battery myself. The watch did not tick or tock after, still dead.

Either I messed up replacing a battery (entirely possible – though it’s a fatter 42mm watch, the guts of it were so very tiny I could of set something wrong or pulled/pushed too hard on something else):

You could store a boat in here there’s so much hallow space.

Or, this is !$#%$#@%$!@# Planned obsolesces at its finest (also, entirely possible, given it died just after warranty).

Either way, I’m disappointed. In my opinion, a watch should be:

  1. easy to replace the components that inevitably wear (both band & battery), and
  2. built to last at least 10 years and have the manufactures stand by it for that duration

To their credit, Nixon has a repair/service deal on their site for a cost, with an option to replace entirely if ’unrepairable’ (so that must happen often enough to have it as an option?) – in my opinion the service just feels like another pathway to buying the product again, which all circles back to the planned obsolesces theory. Keep that money coming in.

If they made a watch that worked amazing, for a decade at least, with a battery that was easy to replace – but wanting my money still (graphs gotta go up), charged $70 for a band that only lasted every 2 years – I’d be more inclined to stick with them, because I’d want to support them for making such a kick ass watch. But, this 2 year baloney, just really bugs me.

When shopping for my next watch, I think I’ll avoid Nixon and focus on brands that offer lengthier warranties. Not that I care about leveraging the warranty or having to pay for a repair if needed – just the principal that the manufacture intends andor expects their product to actually last and know their customers will change the battery without risk of possibly breaking the watch. No way am I going through this annoyance again in 2 years.