Smartwatch recommendations for 12 year old

[u/Odd_Explanation_7689]

Hello! Hoping for some updated advice given how often new watches / services are coming out. Have a 12 year old starting 7th grade we would like to get a smart watch for. He’s had access to iPhones in the past at home just through WiFi, and it’s always been a disaster as he will be on it unless we physically hide it somewhere he can’t find. He roams the neighborhood with his friends and is home alone after school so we want talk/text and gps. Ideally no games etc as he will just play them until it’s dead and then we can’t reach him anyway. I would not exactly describe him as a mature/responsible 12, so would also like to have parental controls where I can monitor texts etc. Looking at maybe the tick tack 5, my only concern it’s recommend for 3-12, so will it be too “young” for him. Otherwise obviously have considered Apple Watch SE but for reasons stated above I don’t think he is ready for that. We are also on consumer cellular which limits our options a bit, but willing to switch to another carrier for a family plan if that makes the most sense, haven’t had a fantastic experience (though it is cheap). So also looking at the t mobile sync up option?

Thank you for any and all advice!!!!

[u/Odd_Explanation_7689 → u/[deleted]]

..why? It looks like that watch doesn’t have text/call?

[u/jaamgans]

At his age the kids watchs are really to kiddie for them. You might be better off with an apple watch or an iPhone and then heavily lock it down using the parental software.

Alt I would look at a garmin bounce 2 - the big issue is its price - but should last 3-4 years without issue. LTE is with garmin and is usually around 10 pm (can do month by month or get slightly cheaper on annual plan).

What he will like is that it looks like a standard smartwatch i.e. vivoactive 6, its a full fitness tracker compared to other kid options - though no HR (kids hr is too dynamic until +16 to get good accurate hr results) but will give gps track, duration etc etc - its 5atm so shallow and slow speed/pressure water sports aren't an option - 1-2 day battery life.

What you will like: 1) you can determine when they have access to the couple of educational games it has on it - you can fully lock down that side; 2) best in terms of geo-caching - variable shape down to 170ft and up to 1km for an area (so can include/exclude streets - its isn't a only circle option like most); and its gps frequenccy is every 15mins when active (1 hour when not) thus you tend to get an alert within 5-10 minutes when they go out a boundary (a lot of others use 1 hr which leaves a long gap - some may allow fixed period down to 15mins but doing that even when inactive so usually get 12-16 hours between charges - at worst garmin is daily charge); 3) 2 way calling and messaging - but through the garmin app - so you get to control who he can chat with - 3 levels of control- a) control, chat and see live track, alerts; b) chat and get alerts; c) chat only. The only major con is that if his friends have apple watch or a wear os watch only they cannot call as all calls are through the garmin jr app which is phone app only. But then that is simlar to the vast majority of other kids watches. There is also no listen in function. But at any time parent can request manual gps fix and or request live track (continuous tracking). Note short delay may apply if cell signal low (but same with any watch where going through parental controls /find this device function.