Fitness/smart watch suggestions

Iron-man · 15 Jul 2018 at 15:47

I am after a new watch and I am wondering if anyone has any suggestions or maybe advice based on a watch they have etc.

from the watch I am a heart rate monitor, sleep tracking, watch, notifications from iPhone.

Interesting to hear what else works on these watches and what good features are out there

I have looked thus far at the apple watch(no sleep tracking short battery life)
Fitbit Ionic looks reasonable

Cheers

BattFink · 15 Jul 2018 at 16:01

I've got a Garmin VivoActive HR

Does everything you've listed

robj20 · 15 Jul 2018 at 16:44

I have a Garmin Fenix 5. My main use is hiking I can view maps on it, follow courses. Tracks everything.
Connects well with my phone and gives me sunset sunrise times. The watch gives me weather via its barometer and so on.

MM-Seat · 15 Jul 2018 at 17:42

There is a thread in mobile phones and tablets section which may help!

Impy77 · 15 Jul 2018 at 18:33

Amazfit Bip. Less than 50 notes and does all the above. Also 30 day battery life.

Feek · 15 Jul 2018 at 19:33

Iron-man said:
I have looked thus far at the apple watch(no sleep tracking short battery life)

For reference, both of these are incorrect. The sleep tracking via the AutoSleep app is superb and my watch gets around twenty minutes charge while I'm in the bathroom each morning and then I charge it again in the evening for another twenty minutes or so. It's never below 70% when I put it on charge in the evening.

Vanquish-Storm · 15 Jul 2018 at 21:20

Impy77 said:
Amazfit Bip. Less than 50 notes and does all the above. Also 30 day battery life.

I got one of these a month ago, cheap simple but has all the features. Looks pretty smart too.

weringo · 15 Jul 2018 at 22:16

Feek said:
For reference, both of these are incorrect. The sleep tracking via the AutoSleep app is superb and my watch gets around twenty minutes charge while I'm in the bathroom each morning and then I charge it again in the evening for another twenty minutes or so. It's never below 70% when I put it on charge in the evening.

So it drops 30% in 12 hours? That seems pretty poor. Comparatively the battery on my Garmin Forerunner 645 lasts for 10 days in normal smartwatch mode.

SpeedFreak · 15 Jul 2018 at 22:53

Wife had a fitbit Blaze. Get a Garmin.

Guest2 · 15 Jul 2018 at 23:26

Is the HR monitoring on watches still rubbish for fitness other than jogging? I.e does not properly track sprints or other high intensity workouts

I have a Garmin 920XT (no wrist HR but links to standard and swim chest straps for HR monitoring) Garmin/other company still need to come up with a watch that can properly track HR on the wrist and that is also waterproof. I owned a fitbit alta but took it back as HR monitoring was a bit all over and it was not waterproof

Hamster · 16 Jul 2018 at 01:05

Guest2 said:
Is the HR monitoring on watches still rubbish for fitness other than jogging? I.e does not properly track sprints or other high intensity workouts

I have a Garmin 920XT (no wrist HR but links to standard and swim chest straps for HR monitoring) Garmin/other company still need to come up with a watch that can properly track HR on the wrist and that is also waterproof. I owned a fitbit alta but took it back as HR monitoring was a bit all over and it was not waterproof

The chest straps are the ones which maintain most accuracy and reliability whilst exercising. I use a Polar bluetooth one in the gym which connects with my M400 watch as well as shows heart rate reading on the machines. Waterproof and constant monitoring on the wrist would be a tough ask for a watch, i'd have thought!

robj20 · 16 Jul 2018 at 05:25

Feek said:
For reference, both of these are incorrect. The sleep tracking via the AutoSleep app is superb and my watch gets around twenty minutes charge while I'm in the bathroom each morning and then I charge it again in the evening for another twenty minutes or so. It's never below 70% when I put it on charge in the evening.

That battery sounds terrible, mine loses about 4% a day.

Feek · 16 Jul 2018 at 06:56

weringo said:
So it drops 30% in 12 hours? That seems pretty poor. Comparatively the battery on my Garmin Forerunner 645 lasts for 10 days in normal smartwatch mode.

I’m guessing you don’t use the GPS. I see Garmin quote five hours use for the 645 with the GPS enabled (and reviews tie in with this). I track walks and cycle rides on my watch for generally about four hours/day with the GPS on.

Jimbeam3678 · 16 Jul 2018 at 07:38

Feek I'm sorry but what you are saying is misleading. I'm a huge Apple fan but the Apple watch doesn't come close to a Garmin Fenix and the like as a fitness watch. The integration into Garmin connect and the software itself surprised me. The battery without GPS lasts about 10 days, with GPS on a typical 5-6 hour bike ride I'll still not have to worry about charging it for at least 4-5 days.

The Apple watch is a great piece of kit as an extension to your Iphone and is indeed a great smartwatch with limited battery life. Where as the Garmin devices are limited as a smartwatch but a superb fitness watch and is a more wear it and forget about it type watch.

Just realised you charge your watch 2 x 20 mins intervals a day - that is just ridiculous in my mind. I put mine on then forget about it for a week then charge it for an hour on a Sunday.

I have owned 2 Apple watches series 1 & 3 I really want to like them but as a fitness watch they aren't there for me. I really wish they were

Iron-man · 16 Jul 2018 at 08:00

Thanks all for the responses I hadn't even looked at Garmin's so will take a look at those.

Jimbeam3678 · 16 Jul 2018 at 08:14

All depends on your budget, one thing that is worth thinking about is Apple's no quibble 14 day return policy (you have to buy direct from Apple).

The biggest question is what do you want? Smartwatch then an Apple watch is a no brainer. Fitness watch then a Garmin device again is a no brainer. If you want a step counter/heart monitor then you can get all that on a fairly small budget.

Guest2 · 16 Jul 2018 at 08:20

Personally i have a mechanical watch and garmin 920xt. I tried a smart watch and it just seemed like a faff and jack of all trades.
Mechanical i used the divers bezel to time rest/cool down then the garmin to record fitness data.

Question to those with an Apple watch - how well does it record HR in pool swimming and water in general? I thought they didnt at all but soneone had one on swimming, he showed me and it was actually quite good for the minute odd he was showing me

Paradiso · 16 Jul 2018 at 11:10

I use a Fitbit Ionic, it has HR monitoring, sleep duration and quality, apparently waterproof but never tested it, step count is rubbish for me as my hands are moving all day at work on machines so I wear a Fitbit one in my pocket and they both sync with the software and it seems its clever enough to take steps from the One and everything else from the Ionic.

The charge on both will last a good week. It has notifications and also you can store mp3's on the watch but I've not used that.

Yaayuh! · 16 Jul 2018 at 11:15

Probably a better place to ask: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/threads/smartwatch-thread-news-apps-updates.18610138/

Iron-man · 16 Jul 2018 at 20:38

Paradiso said:
I use a Fitbit Ionic, it has HR monitoring, sleep duration and quality, apparently waterproof but never tested it, step count is rubbish for me as my hands are moving all day at work on machines so I wear a Fitbit one in my pocket and they both sync with the software and it seems its clever enough to take steps from the One and everything else from the Ionic.

The charge on both will last a good week. It has notifications and also you can store mp3's on the watch but I've not used that.

Cheers this is one I was looking at, also looking at the charge 2 as that is on prime day at the mo for decent money