If you care about privacy, this might disappoint you — many cheap smartwatches don’t have any open-source companion app alternatives. Gadgetbridge reportedly works for some models, but it didn’t detect mine. And the default app, Da Fit, isn’t great and is likely not too privacy-friendly.
Worse yet, you have to use it at least once, because there’s absolutely no way to set the time directly on the watch. A one-time sync with a smartphone is mandatory.
Up to that point, though, things were still okay. It seemed like I had found an affordable watch with decent looks, great battery life, and on-device alarms. The watch faces were very limited and mostly unimpressive, but I managed to find one I liked — it looked a bit like an electricity meter.