Dakota | Jan. 18, 2021

Ryan | Jan. 17, 2021

Doug | Jan. 12, 2021

Piece of cheap crap

WARNING: DO NOT PURCHASE

It took over an hour to figure out where the USB port was hidden.
It bricked after uploading half a dozen sketches
No support on their website.
Shipped default firmware not available in their library.

In the Arduino IDE the port lists as "dev/ttyUSBo". USBo? What noobs! Poor attention to detail! What else is messed in their code and hardware?

Purchase again? Hell no take them off Tindie.

Response from Lilygo | Jan. 13, 2021

Sorry for the inconvenience, thank you for your feedback, we have updated it.
Our products have firmware when they are shipped. When you connect the USB, it will start to run.
When you upload the program, please note that the power should be on , it will not be bricked. maybe you can try this .

Mark | Sept. 8, 2020

Fun, may not be Practical

I am enjoying creating some watch faces for this thing using the familiar Arduino IDE. Compilation can be very slow. I had a lengthy period of not being able to update the sketch on the device. Turns out it only works on ONE of the THREE USB ports on my laptop.
Weirdly it comes preinstalled with code that is not a functional watch. If you 're lucky you can synch to NTP via WiFi, but there's a hard-wired timezone, somewhere in China. You can not manually set the time. So out of the box, it's useless!
Once you get past that, and can update the code, you might find the sketch shown in all the photos (10:14, Water|GO|Resist along the bottom). Turns out that's also not a functional watch, more of a graphics sampler.
Documentation is sparse to non-existent. My sketches all have links at the top to the various headers in github.
There are quite a few samples. I hope to eventually work out how to make my sketches run in a way that sips from the battery.
I'm still at the development stage, so I'm not wearing it yet. Don't know how long the battery will last.
The single button on the side is a little finickity, doesn't always register a click, you need to finesse the angle.
I don't know how long the little pop-out cap over the USB port will last before the tether breaks.
The strap is weird, haven't go the hang of it. It seems to slide in to notches in the case, I'm hoping to swap it out.

But having said all that, I'm excited about this. A "smart" watch I can program myself is something I've long wanted. And this thing seems chock full of potential!

Response from Lilygo | Oct. 12, 2020

Hello , thanks for your feedback in detail , as it is a programmable watch, we just installed a simple example .
Due to space constraints, the battery capacity is relatively small, and the battery life also depends on how you use it .
We will pay more attention to buttons when assembling products ,please use pop-out cap over carefully, it will not break under normal use , for now we only have this kind of strap, in the future we will also try to find different types .
For program , maybe you can learn more about the products through this link if it is needed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg .

Jesse | Sept. 7, 2020

I got a lemon one

Purchased the watch for practice programming for a future project for a cosplay suit but the watch arrived missing screws so the band comes loose. I might be able to come up with a screw. However what makes the watch worthless is to discover the battery either is defective or isn't hooked up correctly so it doesn't charge. Works just fine when plugged into the usb port but does defeat the purpose of it being a watch. Email support about it weeks ago and have yet to receive a response.

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 8, 2020

Hello , we have reply you by the message you contacted , about more detail of the problem , we need to check according to your feedback and pay more attentiona about it.
You can check the message that we have provided you with a solution and wait for your confirmation to handle it for you , sorry for the inconvenience .

Marcus | Sept. 1, 2020

unreliable seller- goods received -tracking number invalid

No goods where not received after 10 weeks. Tracking number seems to be invalid and is not trackable over tindie. Waiting for refund

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 3, 2020

Hello , after checking with logistics company , they returned it because the package was overweight , we have help you apply the refund and give you suggestion about the order .. we are sorry about the inconvenience .

Michael | Sept. 1, 2020

Had it for over a month now, great development tool.

I've had this device for over a month now and I'm really enjoying it. I'm doing most of my developing using the arduino environment, which is ...ok but I'm going to use this as an excuse to practice micropython in the future.

The battery life is short, but given everything else crammed into the enclosure that is a minor complaint. It's actually been useful because I've had to revisit power management programming in a way I haven't in years.

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 3, 2020

Hello , thanks for your feedback . We have sample code in the listing detail about the arduino environment and micropython you can refer to , due to the samll enclosure , we can only use this battery for the time being .

Bryan | Aug. 30, 2020

Exactly as described, IoT watch with SmartWatch form factor

I was careful about reading the descriptions. I'm an IoT developer with a small pile of ESP32 and similar devices on my desk right now. I was looking for a portable device that I could program, and this fit the bill.

While it *LOOKS* similar in size to an Apple Watch or Android watch, it is not. Clearly from the reviews many people were fooled by that. Personally I love this, as previously I have used shrink-tubing melted around soldered components, which does not look good.

It is an IoT device, and the advertisements focus on the hardware in the box. While I usually attach better sensors to my IoT devices, for example using a 9-axis accel/gyro/magnet sensor instead of a 3 axis, the sensor provides enough information for a range of IoT projects.

Most ESP32 boards come with 4 MB of flash space, this ships with 16 MB. By default the 16MB is partitioned as 6MB for the executable, 3.6MB for SPIFFS file data, 6MB for uploading/transferring a new executable, 8KB for over-the-air data updates, and 20KB for applications settings, but they are adjustable. My app is currently floating around 2MB, so I have been considering shifting 4MB from both the executable and transfer space, giving an extra 8 to SPIFFS for for 11.6MB of file data space, but so far haven't needed the storage.

Similarly, ESP32 boards have a variety of memory sizes and can come with as little as 520KB (a half megabyte) of RAM. The device ships with 8MB of ram. Due to ESP32's architecture and much like older PCs and Macs before around 1995, only part of the memory can be actively paged in at a time. Working with PSRam is very similar to working with the Expanded Memory System used by DOS. If you don't do anything special you get access to 4MB, but the paging system allows access to all 8MB.

I have used it to attach to other IoT devices, using WiFi, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Espressif's custom ESP-NOW communications system between ESP32 devices. It is a very convenient tool for connecting to my devices.

The screen drains battery like crazy, and WiFi has always been a power drain for ESP32 chips, so beware of both if you want good battery life. Dim the screen as much as possible, and don't use WiFi if you can help it. But even these are basics of IoT programming, not specific to this device.

I found the documentation relatively good in Github, listing all the pins and ports. You as the programmer still need to know what to do with them, but listening on interrupt pins and such works. The documentation is similar to the many other devices I program. It is available as a reference, it isn't a tutorial on how to program.

I had an issue with the shell having a manufacturing defect on arrival. The plastic back had a large crack which has now spread across the entire back face. I have contacted LilyGo who said they will make it right. I'm still waiting but hope that will be resolved soon.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 31, 2020

Hello , thanks for your feedback about our product in detail , we believe this will help others to understand our products better . about the back face , we have made improvement to it recently , it is PC+ABS material now , which will be resend to you later , we have also contacted you via email .

Nicolas | Aug. 28, 2020

Can't beat the price for the tech, but useless as a watch

I was very curious on what I would get for such a low price. Well, the product is very nice, touch screen, metal enclosure, bluetooth, wifi...
But the battery is the weak point. It can only hold for a few hours (about 5h with a full charge and stock software), even when not really using it (I mean, the screen is almost always off).
Therefore, you can't really use it as a watch as it will not last a full day. That's more for the geek inside of you who wants to developp and try stuff on this platform.

I think this is what this device is aimed at anyway : the maker/geek community. But in this case, why is there such poor documentation and support ? I don't consider myself a beginner on embedded system or programming, but LILYGO does not really make it easy for you to developp on the T-watch. In fact, it is really hard to gather enough information to get the code, compile and upload it to the T-watch.

The same watch with a decent battery (at least a full day) and an extensive documentation / community would make it a 5 star product and would sell like arduinos. Until then, it's just a nice looking thing that will probably gather dust on your shelf.

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 3, 2020

Hello , according to your feedback, we have sort out some doc about the product , you can also find it in the product listing if it is needed . we will continue to improve our products and documentation support .

Charlie | Aug. 21, 2020

Good product/hard to find documentation

Good product, mostly good build quality (solid body, nice screen).

Build quality exceptions are wristband and sturdiness of microUSB port (seems fragile, main method for loading data and charging).

Hard to find documentation (it's out there, but hard to discover). For example, no manual on how to use the software that comes loaded into the watch (how to set up WiFi, get time set, etc).

But there is a really cool code/examples/projects and programming environments out there: PictBlox (visual programming), Micropython, and Arduino IDE.

Hope new power options become available, as well (kinetic/sweat/Qi charging would be great).

Also due to pandemic shipping time was 6 weeks for me. Hopefully that will get better soon.

Overall, a fantastic value for $20, and a growing development community.

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello Charlie , thanks for your support , regarding these point you mention , we are constantly improving . about the pandemic , we also hope that will get better soon to save shiping time .

Matt | Aug. 17, 2020

Fun product for a hobbyist

This watch is very much for the hobbyist who wants to program and try new and shared hacks. It is not for a beginner programmer although it will challenge and stimulate you to become a better programmer. I am on the lower level of the learning curve so I continually pick it up and play with it to enhance my learning. I recommend it for any one interested in electronics and programming but not for anyone who just wants a "watch."

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello , thank you for using and understanding this product correctly . Yes, it is not a smart watch but an ESP32 IoT development platform. If you have moe suggestions about the product , you can also contact us through the platform message at any time.

Dan | Aug. 17, 2020

The watch program that ships with the watch is lousy

I think this watch is an interesting idea so I purchased one. After receiving it I learned that the battery life is really bad. I also feel that the program that's burned into it when it's shipped is pretty lousy, I can't set the watch to my local time and the closest I can get to the right time is always off by 12 hours (and it's using NTP). That said I did set up the watch so that I can program it with the Arduino IDE so I am trying to correct the default shipping firmware and I'll be experimenting with the other example programs. I'd give it 5 stars if the battery life was better and if it shipped with a decent program burned into it.

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello

We will collect your feedback to optimize it in the next version , about the program , here is more detail you can find here :

T-WATCH-2020 document link : https://t-watch-document-en.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction/product/2020.html#description

Youtube Video(T-Watch 2020 Newer Reference Video) link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Gary | Aug. 3, 2020

It's not a smart watch it's a wearable computer

Was disappointed in what I got, while I did not expect to have a fully functioning consumer grade watch I did expect to at least get a watch that looked like the pictures shown on all the websites for the product. Or at least have that code available to install. What you get is extremely simple basic can barely tell time device. For the price it's not a total loss you do get a computer and a screen and a couple of buttons but I did find the sales pitch a bet misleading

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello ,yes , it is not a smart watch but an ESP32 IoT development platform , a Programmable Wearable Environmental Interaction device , which as we mark on the product link .
here is the demo you can refer to :https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/TTGO_TWatch_Library/tree/master/examples/LVGL/SimpleWatch

David | Aug. 2, 2020

Excellent device with great capability for experiments

Whilst the device looks like a watch it is really an ESP32 coupled with an RTC, TFT coupled with a touchscreen in a case that can be worn.
My background is python so I quickly installed micropython and started experimenting from there. The documentation is based around C for Arduino so in the python world of limited use. However there is plenty of third party documentation out there, just a google search away.
What am I using it for: My first application is a watch, that supports NTP sync and reading local news and weather.
Good points: Small, very light, flexible and lots to explore.
Bad points: Poor documentation if you are not using Arduino, touch screen seems a little bad at detecting touches in the bottom right of the screen.
Summary: The watch is less than 30 GBP to the United Kingdom shipped, so a great deal and plenty to experiment with!

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello , thanks for your sharing about your project here , we usually use Arduino as you saw , we also put a Micropython ESP32 firmware download address in the listing detail as a reference .

Jerry | Aug. 1, 2020

Great development platform!

This has been a great platform to develop with so far. The PlatformIO project builds and deploys to the watch perfectly.... change and add anything you wish. All of the software is there to play with. The firmware is very clean and easy to read... well commented. The watch also has a built-in "Update" feature where firmware updates occur often. Currently I am developing with the watch using the ESP32 port of micropython. There is an active community that is developing and exploring the watch using micropython. Currently I have the time and alarm working and I am adding power features to my micropython port.
The design of the watch is amazing... pop the back of the watch open and it is a beauty to behold. Very solid construction and the battery is removable. Amazing job the designers did. Well done!

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello , thank you very much for your encouragement and support , we will continue to work hard and improve .

Francisco | July 30, 2020

Software not developed, is not functional

Needs more and BEST firmware, still is a not functional product, to play whit it is ok, only a firmware pack and is not finish

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello , here is a video about our product you can know more about it :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

We also collected some great projects from other engineers for reference :
https://twitter.com/marvinjanssen/status/1289044819335983110?s=21
https://www.instructables.com/id/Lilygo-T-Watch-2020-Arduino-Framework/

Andrew | July 30, 2020

Very cool device

The Lilygo TTGO T-Watch-2020 packs so much into a small package that it's ridiculously impressive. I was able to get the samples running from GitHub on it very quickly, and also was able to use the Espressif ESP-IDF directly on the device and run RTOS. I'm very excited to play around with this device more. If you're an arduino hacker/enthusiast, you'll love this device. Note: It does not come with a full watch OS, so if you're looking for just a smartwatch, this isn't it.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 31, 2020

Hello , thank you very much for your support , we are also developing more products constantly for everyone to use , if you have any suggestion , feel free to contact us then we will collect it .

Thomas | July 30, 2020

Nice but OK for programmers only

T-Watch-2020 is not a ready to use smartwatch...not even a watch. That's a "wearable" shinny ESP with touch-screen, USB and a set of sensors.
You will need to program it to use it ( even as a simple watch ).
The battery looks short.
Github and readthedocs pages are clear and give acces to a set of small demo projects. I wish a mind-blowing big demo soon...
Contacted Support via e-mail was reactive ( reponse in less than < 12h ).

Response from Lilygo | Sept. 4, 2020

Hello there. This is a programmable watch , what you see now is just one of our routines. We demonstrate through simple examples so that beginners can understand how to operate , some customer has shared their demo here for reference .

Lasse | July 29, 2020

Lack of quality, battery time and robust firmware

The product is quite bad build quality as the micro-usb connector is not aligned with the slot in the casing and there is white areas in the display due to pressure from the parts inside.
The battery time is terrible and the wifi falls out even when I'm close to my router.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello friend , thank you for your feedback, we have collected it to our production department.

Your feedback will help us collect and avoid the same problems in production and assembly .

Could you contact us by message and tell us your order number ? Our after-sales customer service will contact you to help you solve the problem. Thank you!

Tim | July 29, 2020

Great little toy

I found this watch by accident, It sounded great and was very low cost, so I ordered it.
It took a while to get one ordered, every time I went to the site they were sold out.
The good thing was they had a 'notify me' link and it worked.
But if I didn't see the email quick enough a few times and I missed that batch.
Within a week of trying I got mine ordered.
It arrived in the predicted time and I was very happy.

All pictures in the ads show a functioning watch. The one I got just shows the time, and I cannot find a way to set it.
There are menus but they seem non-functional. Like selecting the WiFi network, asks for SSID and Password but never connects.

I contacted them for more information and after several days they send a link to basically useless information.
No source code, not even a skeleton starting point. just the references to the chips and display.
I have search the web and have found very few links that provide any useful information.
It seems that there is more information about an earlier model but hard to find anything about this version.
I did find a reference on how there are several code blocks and that they all need to be loaded. I found no reference to source code or what IDE was used.
I don't mind writing code but I was hoping for some starting place, not having to start from scratch.

Battery life seems very short. Playing with it trying to setup WiFi and exploring the non functioning other menus consumed about 20% of the battery. I guess I could live with this if I could make the watch useful.

It's been a week, I guess time to start looking again to see if any new information is available now.
I love it's possibilities.
Tim

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you very much for waiting patiently for our product and giving us feedback about the it .

It is only one of our routines at the moment, and we have adjusted accordingly based on your feedback .
The following is youtube you can refer to , here will introduce our products in more detail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

John | July 29, 2020

It's an empty esp32 waiting for you to fill it up

I got it to learn how to program it. It is not a suitable project for an absolute beginner like me and the website documentation is a mess. So, sad to say but this is just a piece of junk for me until I go away somewhere else and become a reasonably proficient programmer. Then I might be able to sort through the chaos of the website documentation.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

As you said, it is flashed a simple program here as a programmable watch , the main purpose is to learn programming.
We try to make the document concise and easy to learn for beginners . the following is the video we make for this, you can refer to it first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Till | July 29, 2020

A product with potential, if they enhance this further.

I was frankly a little surprised that Lilygo does not provide a programming ecosystem for this watch. Something like a standardized GUI framework where people can plug in their own applications. In fact there is almost no documentation or any usable examples except for rudimentary stuff. This product has a lot of potential, if done right. As it is now it is just a gimmick.

BTW real-world battery runtime, without running anything but software it ships is less than a day... So, reallllly bad.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello there. Thank you for your feedback. We have been making and optimizing usage routines, and we are starting from the basics . here is a video about our product :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

We also collected some great projects from other engineers for reference :
https://twitter.com/marvinjanssen/status/1289044819335983110?s=21
https://www.instructables.com/id/Lilygo-T-Watch-2020-Arduino-Framework/

Jim | July 29, 2020

Hopeful, but disappointed

The display is beautiful; high resolution with vibrant colors. After charging, I was able to get time sync with my WIFI network. But, I couldn't traverse many menus/submenus. I have no idea why. So, there it sits. I've been too busy to request an RMA or to take the time to download the toolchain in hopes of debugging the menu problem.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you very much for buying our products and supporting us.

It's a programmable watch , the main purpose is to learn programming .
For now it just one of our routines , there are more programs on our GitHub, you can also update the program and make different interesting functions by yourself .
Following is the youtube for reference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Joseph | July 26, 2020

It's total garbage.

Really everything about this is terrible. lets start with the barely functional touch. The low res display looks a lot worse than in the product photos so they are photoshopped. The software is a glitchy mess and nothing works, between the tiny battery and high current draw you drop a few % every time the display is on for a minute. While i didn't expect much i did expect it to at least function as a basic watch which it fails at with its 2 hour battery life.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you for your feedback, we are sorry for the unpleasant experience .

Sinc it is a programmable watch , so we just flashed a simple program here , in this way it will also convenient for beginner to learn how to program easily and simply .
Here is our youtube you can refer to :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Due to the limitation of product space, we only have the battery of this capacity currently , the battery life is also depend on the way of use . According to your feedback , we will also try to improve our product to make it more convenient for everyone to use .

Daniel | July 25, 2020

Great programmable watch....once you get it programmed

I love this watch. LilyGo is an amazing company who finally gave us a reasonably price watch that has a open source community processor (ESP32 vice MTK6260) and a watch that we can really write programs for. Like other reviews have stated, the documentation is poor and the sample apps are pretty hard to work through for non C++, real time operating, LVGL knowing programmers. Consequently, I wrote an Arduino framework for this watch to make it a little more accessible to those of us who aren't professional programmers. See it here:

https://www.instructables.com/id/Lilygo-T-Watch-2020-Arduino-Framework/

Hope this removes a little of the fear of getting this watch because it is very well done and LilyGo has produced a really good platform for your wrist.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello Daniel , thank you for your understanding and support of this product. You are right. it is something we are doing, it may be updated slowly. We are also optimizing these sample programs so that everyone can use it conveniently.

The arduino framework is very good , thank you for sharing , we will collect it on our github and share it with more people .

Could you contact us by message and tell us your order number ? We will give you a small gift , hope you'll like it .

Manuel | July 25, 2020

Great product

Great product. An intuitive and easy to develop programming interface. Many examples included with the libraries. Highly recommended. For my needs it would be better to have more autonomy and a memory where I can host files, but otherwise great.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you for using T-WATCH and support it .
We have collected your suggestion and will try to do it according to your feedback. Thank you very much.

Dan | July 23, 2020

Great ESP32 gadget

If you are looking for a finished smart watch then move on, this is not for you. If you are looking for a small, battery powered ESP32 platform to develop any number of super cool gadgets then this is definitely the kit for you. The 2020 version packs a useful set of features into a reasonably attractive enclosure (probably the hardest part of many DIY projects).

Pros
* ESP32 with lots of memory - 16 MB Flash + 8 MB PSRAM
* Good looking LCD with capacitive touch
* Real power management with AP202
* Built-in USB-UART so you don't need external programming hardware
* Useful peripherals: audio, accelerometer, battery-backed RTC, IR receiver and vibration motor
* Enclosure - great to get a gadget that one doesn't need to come up with a case for and that can also be worn on the wrist or easily embedded somewhere
* Good software support - libraries supporting all peripherals + GUI (LVGL) - makes writing code pretty easy

Cons
* Short battery life - Only a few hours running the watch constantly, a couple of days if it's in active sleep and much longer in deep sleep (power shut off). You'll definitely want the watch in active sleep as much as possible.
* Enclosure - Although I'm impressed that they fit all this kit in a watch sized body, it's a big watch and will be awkward on some wrists. The rear cover is pretty thin plastic. Mine cracked immediately and never really clicked fully into place.
* No schematic - The diagram showing ESP32 pin assignments and the software libraries make it easy to write code for the device but often it's useful to be able to see a schematic to answer some question one has. For example, it has some sort of auxiliary power source for the RTC (you can remove the main LiPo and the RTC still runs) but I don't know if it's a primary cell, a rechargeable cell or a cap.
* Gets a bit warm while charging. Not really much of a con but the first time I charged it I was surprised at how warm.

Overall I think that Lilygo did a very good job on this year's watch. I already have many applications in mind.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you for using and understanding this product correctly. Yes, T-WATCH is not a smart watch. It is an ESP32 IoT development platform.you would be an engineer who understands it. Thank you for the product shortcomings you feedback , we will collect and add to the optimized list for the next version update .

Siddarth | July 23, 2020

Quite a disastrous experience

Things that are bad:
- Quality
- Price to Quality
- Battery life
- handling

Pretty much everything is bad. I bought it because its cheap. But its a total waste of money. The quality is apalling.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Sorry for the unpleasant experience, we have received your feedback , and we will continue to improve it.

Marco | July 23, 2020

Great tinker product

Really nice, I just don't believe how it is possible to put so many stuff inside the case and still have a wearable. Te documentation is great and easy to use. I tried a few things and all worked like a charm. The one thing that may enhance it even more in the future is a global positioning service with a reasonable accuracy for sports or games.
What amazes me the most is the price for all the stuff you put in there!

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Your recognition is a powerful encouragement to our LILYGO team, and we will be confident to do better. thank you very much.

Jon | July 23, 2020

I liked it so much I bought another

This is my first time with Lilygo and the Espresif platform. The first thing you need to know is that this is not a watch, its a wearable compute platform with very minimal software installed. You **WILL** have to do some programming to do anything with it, unless you live in China. The installed firmware has lots of settings screens that are nothing more than an icon, but thankfully the WiFi and NTP settings work out of the box. However there is no way to set a time zone in the UI. The firmware installed on the watch is simply to give a developer ideas. I was disappointed that that firmware didn't look like what they showed in the photos, but that is apparently the "LilygoGui" example supplied in the SDK. The software that is installed at the factory appears to be the "SimpleWatch" example.

I wanted a watch I could completely customize and had been contemplating building an ATmega based solution but I can't build a wearable case at this time. This was definitely what I was looking for and the ESP32 and supporting hardware is way more than I was thinking of, unless you compare it to a wrist worn OrangePI Zero... The quality of the watch case is superb, feels nice on the wrist and is solid.

As a programmable computery thing on my wrist that can be a watch too I find this was everything I wanted and more. I have only two complaints: documentation and battery. The battery issue is two fold: so far I have been hard pressed to get the battery to last the daylight hours. Definitely have to charge it every night and you might have to get it to that charger sooner than you wanted. I have hopes I can alter the firmware to stretch that out.

The second problem with the battery is getting it to charge. This seems to be a common problem with anything using a micro USB connector, now days. I have several devices that charge this way and they are all fiddly. If you don't do something to put and maintain the proper stress on the connector it simply won't charge, or it will start to and quite while you aren't looking. The cable supplied with the watch works pretty good but is only about 8 inches long. Opening the USB port on the watch can also be a bit of a challenge unless you have fairly thin finger nails. A plastic case opening tool, like those sold to fix iPhones, will be of benefit here.

The documentation, as is so often the case, is lacking. Hence the guess work about what software comes shipped on the device. Be prepared to go spelunking through the source code. And by source code I mean: Lilygo's source code, the Espresif board support code and the GUI and other supporting library sources. All told there is a lot of code to dig through. I spent a month of spare time just trying to figure out the secret of setting the timezone. And I don't believe my hunt is completely over. My original intent being to just use it as a watch until I had the time to really get to know the uController and supplied accessories. Actually it was easier to make visual changes than set the time zone.

So for others who want to use this as a watch to set the timezone you'll need to copy the SimpleWatch example app, open the "gui.cpp" file and change the "RTC_TIME_ZONE" constant. This has a weird format and is exactly opposite of what you want. Use something like this: "UTC7DST8" (US Pacific Time). You can add "+" in front of the numbers or leave it off. If you need a negative offset use a dash prior to the number. The two three letter sets seem to be meaningless other than as separators. The UTC time offset is reversed. The pacific timezone is normally UTC-8, but its +8 in this string.

The eagle-eyed among you will also note the standard time and daylight savings time offsets are backwards. I kept coming up with time an hour off in the wrong direction without doing that. I might have to swap those when daylight time ends as I still don't know what its using to determine if its DST or not. I also tried specifying a single offset ("UTC7") and it still shifted the time an hour. One could simply compensate for that but I have hopes that it will return to standard time automatically... we shall see.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you for purchasing T-WATCH, yes, it is an ESP32 development platform , we have installed one of the routines, and we are also optimizing and updating more routines in future . about battery, we will also add this part in the next routine.

Ralf | July 14, 2020

death hardware, no working watch, no smartwatch function

LILYGO was not able to provide only one working watch example to start with a working and usable watch.
The examples only contain static (and cheated) pictures loaded to the screen and one demo with a item wheel with only WiFi setup 'is working' but not used.
There is not one simple example using the low power facilities, showing the correct time (i.e. NTP sync) and switching the display on and off. I estimate not a lot of clock faces or a large config interface on the watch screen, but the base functions in combination has to be implemented in a sketch. And where is the Smart function ? The Smartphone sync !
Btw, die display gets hot - so, the battery will be discharged fast if on. The watch is not water resistant, the knob is only a button, nothing with rotation, ...

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thanks for your feedback , Here is our youtube you can refer to , maybe it will be more easier for user to know more about it here :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Adam | July 14, 2020

Nice hardware, but not usable without a lot of work

What the description and the other reviewers don't really explain is that, out of the box, this thing can barely tell the time. As others have mentioned, the installed firmware supports WiFi and NTP, but there's no way to specify your timezone. So if whatever magic it uses to geolocate you is wrong, you're out of luck.

More importantly, when I read "smartwatch", I assume the thing will interface with my smarphone and display notifications and such. Since the TTGO has WiFi and Bluetooth support, that's technically possible. But there's nothing in the example code for this. I'm sure that would make a wonderful project for someone, but that someone isn't me. I've searched and searched online, but I found only one or two examples of software for this watch that does anything more than display the time, neither which was of interest to me.

I really hope that in a few months time, there are lots of cool firmwares for this watch that make it actually useful. But until then, this is just something for serious coders to tinker with.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thanks for your feedback , We are also trying to develop a communication routine with mobile phones , for now here is our youtube you can refer to , maybe it will be more easier for user to know more about it here :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg

Michael | July 14, 2020

Nice project

I just got going on this project and now have the correct library in Arduino and reading next steps.
I do enjoy designing my own smart watch.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Thank you for your recognition of T-WATCH , we believe that for those engineers who like to design their own smart watches, it is very suitable for you, looking forward to your sharing about the routine :)

Christopher | July 13, 2020

Fun curiosity, but frustrating in practice

Messing around with the T-Watch 2020 over a long weekend, I come away from it somewhat impressed but my experience with it has been frustrating enough that I can't recommend it without some revisions. First of all right out of the box, the power button didn't work at all. I took the thing apart and the switch just falls out, wasn't soldered to the board. I'm sure that's not a widespread problem and it was easy enough to solder it back on, but not a great first impression.

Second, some ESP32 boards can be temperamental about flashing them, but this thing is ridiculous. I've spent hours staring at esptool watching it try and fail to flash until you get lucky enough for it to hit the bootloader. If you tear into it, pressing the flimsy little membrane reset button underneath the speaker can more reliably get you there, but pressing it all weekend I already feel it getting flimsier, don't see it surviving many more presses. If there's a revision of this thing I'd like to see gpio0 brought out to an accessible flash button, or at least to a pad somewhere that can be shorted. To anyone out there that buys this thing, I highly advise using the ESP32's OTA mechanism and writing your own updater rather than relying on the bootloader.

The positives: the design of the thing is pretty nice actually, its not a bad looking cheapo smartwatch. Backlight is fairly bright and you can see the screen just fine in daylight. The TTGO Arduino library gives you everything you need to get up and running pretty quickly. Not much help if you aren't using the Arduino environment, but you can glean enough out of the documentation to get you going in whatever else you want to use. Once you manage to actually get something flashed to it, there's a pretty interesting environment to mess around with here, with some frustrations.

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello there. Thank you for your feedback, , we have submitted your question to our production department, which will help us to avoid the same problem from appearing on other customers in the next production .

Could you contact us by message and tell us your order number ? Our after-sales colleagues will contact you to solve the problem for you .

Regarding the problem of uploading program failure, we already have automatic download in the circuit design Circuit, we will also collect your question to our hardware engineer.

Bruce | July 13, 2020

Ordered two units with black bands

I got two units... With white bands.

I was notified of June 29/2020 and shipping status sat at labels printed until the evening of July 6.

This is not the first time I've ordered from China

An operation manual would be nice to get started even though I do intend to program it

Response from Lilygo | Aug. 4, 2020

Hello , here is our youtube about this product you can refer to if it is needed : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ5tdedHOkE&lc=UgwaQApoQboa5GDhHHB4AaABAg ,

Ronald | June 29, 2020

FYI: Full Color TFTLCD

Based on the pictures, I assumed I was getting an older style segmented or pixelized monochrome LCD. However the TTGO-TWatch-2020 has a full color TFTLCD. Pros and Cons to that, but it's at least worth knowing.

The TFTLCD has a capacitive touch interface which is pretty effective for such a cheap, tiny screen.

The documentation online is _fine_ but not amazing. It's not organized at all really. The repo labeled TTGO T-Watch-2020 has firmware examples for a ton of hardware that the T-Watch doesn't have. As other reviews stated, I wasn't able to find an actual schematic of the board (edit: manufacturer sent me a schematic after seeing this review).

Out of the box it comes loaded with a firmware which I found here: https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/TTGO_TWatch_Library/tree/master/examples/lvgl/SimpleWatch -- It has a wifi manager with a really terrible password entry keyboard. It _does_ have an NTP function but I wasn't able to get it to connect to wifi so I have no idea if that works.

The watchband is terrible. Perhaps because I have small wrists which means a lot of overlap in the band. It's fiddly attaching it them to each other because the silicone is so taut, and trying to slide the tail through the loop is an exercise in pinching. I didn't have any issues flashing or with build quality as others have mentioned.

The example sketches on Github are also fine. I was able to get it up and running with PlatformIO after a bit of tinkering, but the examples don't have the functions in the right order to be compiled without Arduino's magic. Simply hoisting the methods up above cleared the errors and allowed me to get them running in PIO.

After some time tinkering, I'm able to get a passable watch out of it. I read through just enough of the UI framework they imported for use with SimpleWatch to decide that I didn't want to take the time to digest what it was all about. I put together a couple freeRTOS tasks which show the time, animate a background, and manage the power/sleep state and I think the battery will last me at least a day. Good project to learn freeRTOS on as far as I'm concerned.

Edit: after uploading a custom hex which had the ESP wifi.begin() with my network and password, and by default the esp libs store that in nvram, I'm able to upload simplewatch and see that ntp works.

Response from Lilygo | June 30, 2020

Hello, thank you for your feedback on the use of our products, we will collect your comments, we will consider it in the design behind, T-watch-2020 is not a segment LCD screen, but it can make this An effect interface. Because it is mainly used for programming and learning, you can program the ideas you think of on the watch and show them. In fact, for the hardware information, we made an obvious functional pin diagram on the packaging box for your convenience. When you start programming, you only need to open the lid of the packaging box to see the corresponding programming GPIO. Save the time to view the schematic, of course, if necessary, our schematic is open! We can send it to you! As you can see when you turn it on, it is just one of our routines. We are constantly increasing its usage routines. We also hope to see everyone make their own programs.

Shane | June 27, 2020

AMAZING PRODUCT!!!!

I tried 2 times previously to order this ESP32 watch both times to find it sold-out. I was 15 minutes after I read the email notification one morning, jumping out of bed and booting my computer only to STILL find it sold-out. I FINALLY was able to purchase 2 and although shipping took longer than I would have liked I was so happy to receive them. Immaculate design and packaging. The demo really shows off the color display!

It took me awhile to get Micropython onto it (I had to resort to using Esptool.py but once it was done I was ready to try it out in uPycraft where I was quickly able to get a REPL and verify that my Micropython load was successful. Since there is no LED to toggle for the usual "Hello World" test I decided to toggle the buzzer on pin 4. JOY!!!!! I think the buzzer toggle is going to be the "Hello World" for this little gem.

I am over the moon happy with this purchase! I am going to use mine in a project at work and I am going to have so much fun this weekend. Now I have to figure out how to access and code for the color LCD

This was my first ever Tindie purchase and I absolutely could not be any happier! (Maybe easier to find documentation.) I cannot rate this product any higher than I am. FANTASTIC!!!!!

[EDIT] The lack of an actual schematic is making this much more difficult than it needs to be. There does seem to be a decent amount of example code in the Git repository. I'll just need to rewrite the Arduino C LCD library in MiroPython for my uses. Not looking forward to that but I still feel fortunate that we have such a compact piece of hardware as a hackable wearable.

Response from Lilygo | June 30, 2020

Hello, thanks for your feedback on the use of our products. We will collect comments for everyone, and we will consider them in the future design, because it is mainly used for programming and learning. You can program the ideas you think on the watch and display them. In fact, for the hardware information, we made an obvious functional pin diagram on the packaging box for your convenience. When you start programming, you only need to open the lid of the packaging box to see the corresponding programming GPIO. Save the time to view the schematic, of course, if necessary, our schematic is open! We can send it to you! As you can see when you turn it on, it is just one of our routines. We are constantly increasing its usage routines. We also hope to see everyone make their own programs.
This is our open source library.
https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/TTGO_TWatch_Library
There are some examples in the link, you can try to burn and use.
https://t-watch-document-en.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction/product/2020.html

Response from Lilygo | June 30, 2020

Hello, thanks for your feedback on the use of our products. We will collect comments for everyone, and we will consider them in the future design, because it is mainly used for programming and learning. You can program the ideas you think on the watch and display them. In fact, for the hardware information, we made an obvious functional pin diagram on the packaging box for your convenience. When you start programming, you only need to open the lid of the packaging box to see the corresponding programming GPIO. Save the time to view the schematic, of course, if necessary, our schematic is open! We can send it to you! As you can see when you turn it on, it is just one of our routines. We are constantly increasing its usage routines. We also hope to see everyone make their own programs.
This is our open source library.
https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/TTGO_TWatch_Library
There are some examples in the link, you can try to burn and use.
https://t-watch-document-en.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction/product/2020.html