I am researching smart watches to buy and was wondering if anyone has recommendations.
My primary reason is heart and sleep monitoring for purposes of lowering the blood pressure. In addition it would be great to have a watch I can use for running and such that can sync with Intervals.
My wife has apple watch ultra. It’s great but I am wondering if having to charge it every 3 days will bother me.
I have a whoop which is nice and it is the reason I finally got off the couch and started exercising again - but now that I’m into cycling and running it isn’t as good as the Garmin products it seems.
When my whoop subscription expires I’m going to grab a Forerunner 265, but lots of high quality runners have Coros watches - I just like the seamless integration inside of the broad Garmin ecosystem.
My wife has an Apple Watch (non ultra) and I have a Garmin, which considering I’m completely Mac based otherwise may seem a bit weird. But I just couldn’t deal with the charging and I don’t need a smart watch in that sense.
I use Garmin because I had an early Garmin edge and stuck with it from there. I have to say I don’t love the company or the ecosystem or the way they work - I find the device’s expensive and unintuitive and have never had a good experience with customer support either.
But they do what they do pretty well if you end up with the right one within the bewildering array of options and are happy it will only be properly supported for a brief time.
Have never tried anything else but each time I’ve researched - and there’s a full world of YouTube out there covering everything - all the rivals have some other flaw that would annoy me.
I see there are watches from amazfit etc that are very good value and well featured but not sure what they’re like in practice.
I’ve bought and sold a few on eBay too as I’ve moved up the range - just do your due diligence.
If it’s for health and running then you have so many options. Sorry that’s not a helpful post really but check out chase the summit or dc rainmaker videos I’d say.
Recently upgraded to an Garmin Epix 2 and could not be happier with it - it was even at heavy discount.
Previously I had a Garmin Vivo Active 3 which was very basic and needed charging every few days…this Epix needs charging every 10-15 depending on usage.
It comes with all the latest features (HR, HRV, Pulse Ox, etc.) and as I am already invested in the Garmin ecosystem (with a EDGE 530 bike computer) everything works really well.
If cycling isn’t going to be in your repertoire, Coros watches are in my opinion a very good choice. Price/quality/features and battery duration are very good. But they are very basic when it comes to cycling. I have Garmin Edge for cycling and Coros Pace 2 for running and health. For running, the lowest priced Coros Pace 2, is doing all I need/want. There’s a Pace 3 now. It’s of course not really fair to compare a cycling head unit to a watch…
The downside of having 2 different brands is that Health data isn’t centralized in one location. But I found solutions to gather all the data I’m interested in Intervals.
If you have the need for multiple devices, it’s easier to stay within one eco-system. And Garmin has devices for just about anything. I have always been happy with the hardware quality of the devices. Out of the four I owned, one got lost, one was destroyed by my dog and the 2 others are doing just fine. When it comes to software platforms, that’s something entirely different.
For what it’s worth my customer service experience with Garmin has been great! Guess it depends on who you get from the CS team
Yeah I guess so. But my experience has never been good in 15-20 years of aviation and sport products. So I find them an awful company, so frustrating in so many ways, but mostly just manage to hold the lead in the hardware…
I’ve owned Forerunners my entire GPS life, from the 205 to the current 735XT (2016). The battery on the 735XT currently lasts about 4 hours after 8 years of recording almost every activity. Initially it was 8 hours of continual recording with live tracking, following a route and 1s recording all active. The newer devices offer better battery life.
I used the Apple Watch 9 for the first time today, and was left a little disappointed. 13% after 24 hours of continuous use, compared to my series 3, which could go 2 days on the same conditions. Also learnt today that Strava can’t retrieve the power stream from the file as they say power on Apple devices is a new feature that they aren’t ready for.
If you want a smart watch with fitness abilities use an Apple Watch. If you want a fitness watch with smart capabilities get a Garmin or Coros.
Side note:
My medical aid wellness program doesn’t support activity uploads using a Coros device, so it’s either Garmin or Apple, or both in my case. The benefit is they offer upfront discounts (Garmin) or fully funded over 24 months (Apple) based on engagement and achieving the weekly fitness goals.
I failed to mention Polar in the list of devices. Not sure how smart they are, but as a fitness watch, they are very good/reliable.
I’m very happy with my Polar pacer pro. It always works, I find the gps is better than you see on lots of reviews, I like the sleep analysis very much - as a result I have cut down on my alcohol consumption, which is probably not a bad thing, and, depending on use, I charge it between 5 and 7 days. I’ve now had it for nearly two years. I find the Polar running program is good for reining me in whilst I am recovering for my Achilles tendon problem.
I have the first polar v with I bought used. I switched to the Apple Watch last year on survive from my cardiologist as it monitors fibrillation (with I don’t have). The good thing about the Apple Watch is that it’s the most accurate wrist monitoring device, as accurate as the polar crest strap, which I wore with the polar v. Maybe the new dedicated sports watches are also very accurate. I liked the polar environment, I think I would like Garmin as well. I didn’t find a good running app for the Apple Watch until I bought a Stryd, and I like that a lot. I added some other apps to help monitor things, intervals.icu for one. The polar watch has lots of bells and whistles with polar flow, but I’m used to the multi functionality of the Apple Watch now and am very happy with Stryd. I link different with a free Strava account.
Have been a fan of Garmin for years. Currently have Fenix 7X. Chose this over Epix for increased battery life. Also strap it to my bike. Amoled displays (epix) need to be strapped to a human in order to light up. You also mentioned Blood Pressure. Garmin’s BP cuff is super easy to use. All your data is also imported into intervals.icu
I see now that I can get the fit file for the Apple Watch workouts from TrainingPeaks, which can then be imported here. A little better than missing data from Strava.
Thank you so much for great advice. Since I use Garmin Edge for biking I decided to go with Garmin Venu square version. I choose it because I wanted something light and good battery life. I just picked it up today so hopefully I don’t mind wearing a watch. Haven’t worn one in years.
The Garmin 165 was just announced - seems like a great watch if you don’t care about triathlons, the training readiness feature, and own a bike computer!
The watch has all of the running metrics, bike stuff handled by the bike computer, and training readiness is basically just Intervals “Form” chart with HRV and a couple other metrics roped into it (which the 165 also shows independently).
Probably the watch I’ll go for instead of the 265 like I was planning!
I’ve read through all of the comments and no one has mentioned a biosensor ring such as an Oura. I personally do not like to wear a watch to bed or even for good chunks of the day. However, I always have my wedding band on. My wife bought me the Oura Ring and I’ve swapped out my wedding band for the Oura. Tracks sleep, HRV, etc very well. Not a great fitness tracker so while performing particular activities I want to track, I’ll throw on my Scosche forearm HRM when I’m on the bike. Otherwise, my old Garmin Vivoactive 3 for hiking, walking, etc. Good luck with your decision and please keep us posted.
I am even more fussy than you as I don’t even wear my wedding band, I hated taking it off when in the gym and always forgetting it, I was terrified that I will loose it one day. So the smallest watch I could find was Garmin Venu Square, it feels very light and I even slept with it last night without noticing it much. I also used it to record my bike workout along with Garmin Edge 1030 and it was pretty close, heart rate was a few beats off which is understandable compared to chest strap.
So far I feel I made a good decision finding something light, that measures basic metrics and I could stay in Garmin system which integrates nicely with Intervals.icu. Next I am testing Garmin training plan builder to see how it works with what I have in mind for my training. At first glance it looks like it has generated some interesting mountain bike specific intervals which seem less monotonous than what I was doing.
I went through a similar search recently and ended up with a Garmin Forerunner. It’s been a game-changer for my running routine, and the battery life is impressive, lasting up to a week without charging. Plus, it syncs seamlessly with Intervals.
Yeah the Garmin FR series is hard to beat! Especially the FR165 for its bang for buck. So long as you have a bike computer, you don’t necessarily need one on your wrist as well, so the 165 works.
That said, if you have the cash, going up to a higher X65 is probably the best option. It is mildly annoying that my watch doesn’t account for recovery time etc even though it says it on the bike computer. For some reason the Edge and FR don’t communicate with one another through the Garmin ecosystem…that is a Garmin fail for sure