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I’m (a bit obsessed) a fan of watches and fell for an ad and pre-preordered the Atari 2600 watch (mine arrived July 2025). The Atari 2600 My Play Watch is not a smartwatch. It might have a full color screen, wallpapers, and a heart rate monitor. But it doesn’t sync, notify, or pretend to care about your calendar. It’s a watch. It does play Pong. It tracks your heart rate and steps. That’s the pitch.
Released by Atari as part of its retro hardware line, the My Play Watch includes four built-in games (Centipede, Missile Command, Pong, Super Breakout) and a fitness tracker that’s about as smart as a 1980s pedometer. There’s no app. No cloud. No updates even though you charge it via USB, there’s no way to do a firmware update. If you want to share your heart rate, you’ll need to write it down and message it to someone.
How to Use the Atari My Play Watch Fitness Features
While most of the watch is intuitive, the fitness features are not in the main menu and the instruction guide tells you nothing. If you want to get to the fitness settings, the watch face (when the time or time/wallpaper displays) is your starting point. From there:
- Swipe right to left to access the heart rate monitor. It starts reading automatically. No setup, no permissions, no app pairing.
- Swipe again to see your step count. It resets daily. It won’t win awards for accuracy.
- One more swipe shows calories burned, calculated using a method that is neither explained nor adjustable but resets after midnight (it seems).
There are no graphs, no trends, and no historical data. If you’re looking for insights or track progress over time, you’ll need to bring your own spreadsheet.
Other Notes
The rotating crown doubles as a paddle controller in-game. It’s surprisingly responsive, though not recommended for competitive Breakout. The included bands are interchangeable and feature Atari 2600-era graphic designs. Battery life is decent unless you play Missile Command like you have a pocket full of quarters and a whole summer ahead of you. I probably didn’t need to buy it, which is true for almost all the watches I own, but it’s cool and nostaligic, available on Amazon and only US$80. It’s a fun weekend watch and gets more questions and conversations than a premium watch. Now, I want to own and build this C64 watch.
Hope this helps someone else!
Any and all advice, guides, and reviews are unbiased and based on my personal experience. If you buy through affiliate links, I may earn commissions, which helps support my website. This does not have an impact on posts or my opinion of any reviewed products. If you find this post helpful and want to say thanks, please buy me a coffee or take a look at my book on Amazon. It keeps this page ad-free. Thank you!