Last week, I sank into my living room couch and watched a bedraggled, nihilistic Matthew McConaughey take a drag of a cigarette in season 1 of True Detective . “You know, someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve done, or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.” I assume most people aren’t thinking about fitness trackers or gadgets while watching that scene. But in that moment, I couldn’t help but think about the Fitbit Edge on my wrist.

The $179.99 Edge is a modernized version of the 2014-to-2020 era of fitness bands — your Charges, your Altas, your Inspires. If you’ve ever owned one, you already know the vast majority of what the Edge is like. It’s lightweight. You swipe on a small display that shows you basic health and fitness metrics. It lasts for about a week on a charge — though that shrunk down to about a day and a half with the always-on display enabled.…