Fitness/smart watch suggestions

Iron-man

Iron-man

Iron-man

Associate
Joined
27 Aug 2015
Posts
1,041
Location
UK1
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
 
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.
 
Iron-man said:
I have looked thus far at the apple watch(no sleep tracking short battery life)
Click to expand...
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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
 
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
Click to expand...

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!
 
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.
Click to expand...
That battery sounds terrible, mine loses about 4% a day.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
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 :(
 
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.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
Click to expand...
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
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom