[Closed] "sports" watch

If a Fitbit Blaze would be of any interest, we have one in the cupboard that could be yours for a very reasonable fee.

garmin 235 does all that.

garmin 35 probably does too.

fenix if you have loads of money.

this amazfit has interested me recently

The reviews appear to be either massively positive, or completely negative

Thanks for the replies - I'm hoping the GPS will be part of the watch, rather than using the phone. I'm aware the fenix does, what about the other Garmin's?

Garmin Vivoactive HR.

Garmin Forerunner 35 will do the job, mine is a very well used and appreciated bit of kit.

Vivoactive 3 - looks like a watch and does everything your asking for. I love my vivoactive (old square one purchased on here), but Garmin Connect seems to be detested by some.

Fenix has maps - very spendy though

I've got a garmin forerunner 235 recently and I'm really pleased with it. It does all the things you've mentioned.

https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/garmin-forerunner-235-as-non-runner-smart-watch/

I’ve been pondering this lately and having spent a few hours with some Google fu I have come to conclusion that an iWatch is probably the best choice if the budget is the same as a Fenix.

waterproof , good maps, hr monitor, perhaps a chunky strap for added butch..

iWatch if you want a smart watch that does a bit of sports stuff.

Garmin if you want a sports watch that does a bit of smart watch stuff.

Vivoactive HR here,  its bloody brilliant, though I hear the 3 is even better. Does everything my bike specific garmin ever did, but doesn't lie on the bike when I'm not using it. GPS battery life is excellent, frees up my phone on the very odd occasion I do use mapping.

I love the sleep monitoring, RHR etc, its with our doubt my best ever and most used gadget.

I have absolutely no use for a bike specific computer now, don't care how fast I'm going, no interest in power, and don't use mapping more than a few times a year.

I’ve been pondering this lately and having spent a few hours with some Google fu I have come to conclusion that an iWatch is probably the best choice if the budget is the same as a Fenix.

waterproof , good maps, hr monitor, perhaps a chunky strap for added butch..

charge every day...

Yep, should have clarified that my main driver was for the mapping, hence the deviation to the more ‘smart’ end of watches. But then, as you point out, battery life sucks.

I’ll be rocking my 15 quid Casio for a while yet and dig my phone out for a quick map read when needed.

I have a series 2 Apple Watch and it does everything well enough. HR and GPS tracking (i.e. Strava on the wrist) were my main reasons, Siri can be surprisingly useful and music remote is a nice plus. Dare say it isn't massively accurate but its good enough and I'm only looking for trends really anyway.

charge every day…

Not found this to be the case - every other day if I do a run or ride, but normalish use I'm getting 3-4 days wear. have to charge the phone everyday though anyway.

i've been pleased with my garmin forerunner 935. i charge it about once a week while i'm in the shower, using highest accuracy GPS for roughly 100k offroad/week.

Only charging once a week or so is another plus for the Garmin. Charging every or every other day is the one thing that puts me off other watches.

I have the Huawei watch 2 which I purchased on Prime day for £140.

An absolute bargain at that price but it's gone up to £189 on Amazon.

It has built in gps, heart rate monitor, rated ip68 and has nfc payment.

Loads of watch faces to choose from on the facer app as well.

Recommended.

Really pleased with my vivoactive 3, and crucially it's so much better than previous watches I've owned.

Can be had on offer for around £185.

Forerunner 30 here which is fine, but I fear it’s a gateway device.

Another plus one for the Garmin Vivoactive HR here. They're a great price at Halfords at present, particularly if you've got BC discount on top.

polar m430 here - if it wasn't so* chunky ...

HR agrees pretty closely with my strap (tiny lag), GPS tracks more accurately than my garmin 810

(don't think it does maps but I've never looked)

*to be fair to it, I've skinny wrists and it's not massive but most reviews seem to think it's bigger than many others

If the budget allows, the Fenix 5 is really good. I have one which replaces a 3. It gets used a lot and probably charged once every 10 days.

Tried a Vivoacrive and whilst it did most things I wanted, it felt like it came out a Christmas cracker compared to the fenix5. Cheap and nasty.

the fr 935 is a fenix 5 without the burly case.

lots of info on all these things on dcrainmaker

Garmin 735 here, does everything a watch does, but includes gps and optical hr.

used as a watch only, needs charging every 6-8 weeks.

use gps all day, then it will need charged every day.

Notifications from my phone, are surprisingly useful when riding.

i would recommend, but with the usual caveat that it’s not exactly cheap.

Having been interested in and researching a first sports watch over the summer, I ordered a Garmin Vivoactive 3 last night.  I've not been able to find one for the £185 mentioned above, though.

Vivoactive hr battery for this weekend passed, full charge on Friday morning (takes less than an hour) all weekend done, just down to 5% charge, and that includes using GPS for two hill walks of over 5 hours each.

Not bad IMO.

Having been interested in and researching a first sports watch over the summer, I ordered a Garmin Vivoactive 3 last night.  I’ve not been able to find one for the £185 mentioned above, though.

Price at Amazon and Halfords has bounced about daily.

Hovering around £210 now. I would've still paid that. In fact we purchased two and one of them was £215. When they came down at Halfords top £185 they price refunded me.