WatchMinder 2 Silent Alarm & Reminder Watch System

I would almost go so far as to say that this watch is keeping me from getting fired. The vibrations are gentle, yet strong enough to snap you out of whatever is distracting you. It is extremely customizable in the messages that are displayed and the frequency of the alarms. The 30 programmable alarms are separate from the training mode, too, so that can save you from having to reset the training mode for other times when an alarm is needed.I have mine set to go off every 15 minutes during the workday (8am - 4:30pm). I've had it about two months, and there is no sign of the battery needing to be changed yet. When it is time, I am confident about being able to change it, as the instruction book is quite thorough.The watch is packaged very well in a nice tin, and includes a replacement battery and screwdriver to change it.Kudos to this company. This is exactly the type of watch I have been looking for.UPDATE 11/1/10I've been using this watch for a long time now, and I still love it. After getting used to the vibrations with the training mode, I switched to customized reminder alarms for my specific trouble times during the day. IE, starting the work day, coming back from my lunch break, etc. I turn the alarms off over the weekend to save on the battery life. The battery is easy to change, but you have to be very quick if you want to keep your alarm settings. I usually use battery changing time to re-evaluate what alarms I use, and to tweak the ones that don't seem to be working or necessary as the case may be.

I got this for my Mom, who has to take many medications throughout the day.. and she's a little hard of hearing, so the vibrate system on this watch would be great. It IS great.. she DID feel it... but the battery lasted exactly 4 weeks. Programming all the alarms is VERY difficult and requires someone with technical saavy and patience.. and worst of all, when the battery dies, unless you switch out the battery in, get this, 6 seconds or less, all the alarms are erased, forcing you to reprogram it all over again. My mother, needless to say, is NOT able to reprogram it herself, and I am on the other side of the country... so with battery performance like that... I would probably have considered something else.It DOES, however, work. So if you aren't afraid of programming it, can be there to change the battery every 4 weeks... then it does work.

This is very helpful for organization and reminders throughout the day for my 11 year old son w/ADHD and Asperger's syndrome. It is very quiet when it vibrates, so it does not call attention to him, which is a big plus. If it was easier to program, it would be better, but once you can get it programmed, it is very helpful.

I read other reviews which said that this was very difficult to program nearly to the point of being unusable. I just received the watchminder and i was able to set up time and date and some reminders very easily. The vibration and the reminder message are great. The only problem is that it is WAY too big for my 8 year old son.

Instructions and trying to get the thing up and running was very complicated, ended up throwing it away.

don't remember ever getting it

As somebody with ADHD who has serious difficulty with time management, staying focused and on-track, this device sounded like a life saver. Unfortunately, it has some major flaws that make it extremely ADHD unfriendly. I'm really disappointed. After trying it for 4 weeks, I'm returning it.The vibration is very quiet and is a very useful feature. There are two types of alerts you can set: training and reminders. The only thing I've successfully programmed is a training alert..."relax". It goes off every hour during the times I'm awake (you can set whatever times you want and make it recur at various intervals....such as 15 or 30 minutes or random intervals). Once it was set, it repeats daily without further programming of that particular reminder (unless you want to change something). "Relax" had been helpful for 2 reasons; I use it to check in and see if my body is relaxed (it never is)...to take a deep breath and intentionally relax my shoulders. It's very grounding...before using this, I might only think to do this every few days or weeks. The second benefit is that it lets me know how long an hour is. That may sound silly, but if you have ADHD you probably already know that there is a tendency to have an elastic sense of time, which causes a lot of problems.My major issues with the Watchminder:-setting it is very frustrating and confusing. I'll try to keep this as simple as possible, so I have to omit a lot of details. I'm pretty good with tech things, so I was hoping I wouldn't have too hard of a time with it. Unfortunately, other than "relax", I've gotten too frustrated every time I've tried to set it and after 20 minutes or more, I've always given up. When it first arrived, I spent a few hours reading the manual and trying to figure out how everything works. It isn't an intuitive program and is inconsistent. A button that you need to program one thing, pushed while trying to do another thing will bring you back to the main watch screen, undoing what you were trying to do.You can add short customized reminders, but you have to program them in by scrolling through the letters one-by-one and there apparently is no "back", so if you make a mistake and choose the wrong letter (which is very easy to do), you have to figure out how to delete the entire entry (another confusing task) and begin all over again. There are only 5 buttons, one of which is just for the backlight.-the instruction booklet does not make things very clear. There is a lot of "press this, go back to pages 12-14 and do steps 2-8 for such-and-such, then press this and this", so you end up flipping back and forth in the tiny manual, trying to follow the directions.-it is heavy, bulky, and hard plastic. As a petite adult, it looks absurd. That I could deal with, but the plastic bothers me a lot. The company clearly didn't take into consideration the fact that many people with ADHD have hypersensitivity sensory issues (to fabrics and such, to sounds, etc.) and will have trouble trying to wear something uncomfortable all of the time.-the backlight only stays lit for a few moments...not nearly long enough to program anything.-the stopwatch and timer are useful. But, if one of your alerts comes up while using the stopwatch, it takes priority and the stopwatch turns off completely as if it was never on.If it was as effective a tool as I'd hoped, it would have been worth the high cost. But, considering it's short-comings and the quality of the material used, it is WAY overpriced.

Please be aware that the "WatchMinder3" watch is not resistant to rain intrusion.Condensation became visible on the inside of the screen the first time my watch got exposed to rain.Placing it on vehicle windshield defroster vents with the defroster running for a time seems to have dried it out successfully. I am now unwilling to wear it during inclement weather.I realize that this review is of a newer watch than the one which Amazon used to sell. However I trust that the review may prove helpful to the potential purchaser of Watchminder products.