Trying to buy GPS smart watch as a tracker

[Minxminnie]

Dad has been saying he needs a watch, and I am thinking this would be a good way to get him to wear a GPS tracker. He doesn't use a smart phone, and would just remove an actual tracker from his pocket.
I am quite tech savvy, but clueless about smart watches. Preferably I would install Life 360 as it is apparently a good way to track him. Can you install apps on all smart phones, or do I need a particular type? Do all smart phones have GPS? Has anyone found this a good option as a tracker?

 

[Cap'n Grimm]

In order for you to use a watch as a tracker there are certain requirements for the watch assuming the way you intend to use it is to have the watch on your dad linked to a phone you own. You will need a watch with gps and cellular data. A lot of smart watches take there gps data from the users phone. And a lot of smart watches only communicate over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.

The Apple Watch SE is available with cellular data. Obviously being an Apple device it will only work with an Apple phone. I’m not very knowledgeable about android devices being an Apple user myself.

Because the watch will need to use cellular data you will need a phone plan that includes data for the watch. I’m not sure if you can use a pay as you go sim because I believe the watch uses a digital sim card that’s link with the phone.

in all I would say that using a normal Commercially available smart watch as a tracker is doable, although there maybbe a couple of hurdles to jump to get there.

There may be smart watches specifically designed for use with dementia. I’m not up to date on these sort of things. Worth a Google though.

 

[Bettysue]

I used a tracker watch for my partner. I got it from a company called Techsilver. I was able to track him via an app on my phone and he just thought it was a fancy watch. It cost something like £9.99 per month for the subscription fee.

 

[Minxminnie]

Oh that's good info thanks. I didn't think of it using the phone data. I will look into the Techsilver one.

 

[Tillytoo]

I just got a techsilver pendant for my mum, I can track her when she goes for a walk, it also has a button on it that when pressed calls my mobile and I can call it, it answers automatically and I can talk to her through it, it was £124.99 and £14.99 per month. It's early days so I can't really say how good it is but I rang them for some help and a lovely guy spent ages on the phone explaining it all to me.

 

[RuralTownie]

We tried CPR Guardian which is supposed to be for this very purpose. GPS tracking, fall detection, emergency calling... But it has been terrible for us and they are not honouring their money-back promise.

For starters, it doesn't keep the bloody time accurately - often out by half an hour, which is ludicrous!
The screen is black until you press a button on the side, which is unhelpful for someone who can't remember how to do that, and inaccessible for sometime with arthritic fingers. It should be on the face if they can't make the battery sustain an always-on display.

Tracking was hopeless. I watched him (via the app) on an outing with a friend and saw they made it to the hill they were walking up. Then the tracker showed him as remaining on the hill until half an hour after he got home. So that's useless.

It claims to have 'geo-fencing' whereby I'd get a notification on my phone if he leaves a defined area. But that area is so large that it basically covers the whole town. He could have walked for at least 20 minutes (probably more) before he triggered the warning.

The emergency calling doesn't work in our house because it can't find a signal. To be fair, we do have thick stone walls, but my mobile phone works here and so does my brother's. We're both on different networks and this CPR Guardian watch claims to be on a 'chameleon SIM' which can switch between the major networks to get the best signal.

And trying to return it had been a nightmare and we're having to go through a claim via the credit card company.

I strongly recommend avoiding them!

 

[Palerider]

We tried CPR Guardian which is supposed to be for this very purpose. GPS tracking, fall detection, emergency calling... But it has been terrible for us and they are not honouring their money-back promise.

For starters, it doesn't keep the bloody time accurately - often out by half an hour, which is ludicrous!
The screen is black until you press a button on the side, which is unhelpful for someone who can't remember how to do that, and inaccessible for sometime with arthritic fingers. It should be on the face if they can't make the battery sustain an always-on display.

Tracking was hopeless. I watched him (via the app) on an outing with a friend and saw they made it to the hill they were walking up. Then the tracker showed him as remaining on the hill until half an hour after he got home. So that's useless.

It claims to have 'geo-fencing' whereby I'd get a notification on my phone if he leaves a defined area. But that area is so large that it basically covers the whole town. He could have walked for at least 20 minutes (probably more) before he triggered the warning.

The emergency calling doesn't work in our house because it can't find a signal. To be fair, we do have thick stone walls, but my mobile phone works here and so does my brother's. We're both on different networks and this CPR Guardian watch claims to be on a 'chameleon SIM' which can switch between the major networks to get the best signal.

And trying to return it had been a nightmare and we're having to go through a claim via the credit card company.

I strongly recommend avoiding them!

After some considerable trialling of these gadgets they failed and my advice is also to avoid them recognising they give a false sense of security/safety and are also not dementia proof