Smart Watch/Running Watch Recommendations

Soldato
Joined
14 Jul 2007
Posts
3,443
My wife enjoys a bit of running and has completed a few 10km races and is looking to up her game by training for a half marathon next year. She has just said that she would quite fancy a new watch for Christmas to aid her in her training. I really don't have much of a clue so thought I would ask if anyone has any recommendations. Here is the situation....

She hates technology so any smart watch will be frowned upon for any of its other features. She will NEVER use a watch to answer a phone call or text message! However if an app on a smart watch is the best solution then fair enough!

She doesn't actually wear a watch right now so if there was one that was aesthetically pleasing enough to be worn day to day that would be good but its functionality is whats important so if the best solution is a bit cumbersome then she will just use it for running.

She has a very old Garmin that she currently uses that she likes but its very outdated. She wants to measure the usual things, distance, pace, time etc and then be able to download and compare it to her other runs to track her improvements and plan what she is doing so something with a decent app/website is required. This is for me what takes the requirement beyond the normal fitbit etc - or maybe it doesn't?

Happy to answer any questions and hear to pro's and con's of what you guys all use. Budget wise we are probably at the lower end of the market, certainly not more than a couple of hundred, so the all singing all dancing ones are out of the question right now but would probably be overkill anyway.

Many thanks in advance.
 
I have this, and rate it highly. I have occasional disagreements with it, but these are usually down to user-error.

I did need to delve into the instructions a bit to start with but it is feature-rich and the web-based Garmin Connect service is very good too.

I have been genuine surprised by how much I have got from training with it, and I feel it has helped my fitness considerably.

I use a chest strap as (like all other watches, I understand) the wrist based monitor isn't great when you're tearing around.

Thanks, this is the favourite at the moment.

Annoyingly she prefers the ones with the coloured strap but its only the black one that has any sort of Black Friday discount from what I can see!
 
The better specc'ed Garmin Forerunner 735XT is £190 at Amazon today, with the option of turquoise strap if that's of use ...

(I'd definitely pay extra for the chest strap which I consider essential)

I just bought the turquoise 235 for £149 this morning on Amazon before I saw your post!

£149 is still the cheapest by miles that Ive seen the turquoise 235 anywhere and that price is also the cheapest ive seen any of them by quite a distance so feel ive actually got a bit of a Black Friday bargain!
 
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