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
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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.
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
Garmin Instinct 2 - There are different versions. Standard, Solar and 2x
Each have the same Optical Sensor as the Epix 2. Smaller watch face too so arguably even more accurate HR data than the Epix (if you’ve a small wrist the bigger watch might find it difficult to correctly record HR).
All for 200 euro if you shop around and you can live with a black and white screen. Fantastic watch and value for money. By basically all accounts, much more accurate HR data than Coros and Polar watches in the same price bracket. Someone mentioned an Amazfit - Never owned one but any reviews I’ve read re HR accuracy say that the Amazfit watches HR accuracy is so poor it’s worse than useless.
FR255 does/has everything the 265 does/has, except for the oled touchscreen, and cost less than the 165 when I checked.
Yeah it’s a great point, for what it’s worth it doesn’t have running power though
If you’re open to exploring options beyond the Apple Watch, you might find some great alternatives at https://replicapatekphilippe.io.
it does.
it even has running dynamics.
https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/GUID-676967A0-1B23-4384-9BC9-76F3D643F1C8/EN-US/GUID-62A09512-518A-424A-8491-FE2B80CD2091.html
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You’re right, I’m thinking 245 - sorry 
You can search on some online plattform for example :aliexpress,here is many smart watch from China can be choose , 
+1
I‘m „just“ a runner - and the „polar pacer pro“ does everything I need in a perfect way, also sleep-tracking and all this fitness-stuff is very good.
… recommend it
I kindly ask for advice,
I would like to buy a smart watch that allows me to monitor my heart with its parameters, HRV, sleep and everything else.
I am basically interested in this, while I don’t need the activity recording functions, I do everything with the apps.
obviously the integration with Intervals.icu is also very important.
What could be a good choice?
I ask you who are certainly more up to date, since I left competitive sports I have distanced myself from the Garmin or Polar world.
Thanks in advance
I personally use the Polar Unite basically for a similar usecase >> health and sleep tracking measurements but nothing more.
In my opinion it is a good budget option without paying a premium for functions (like GPS, the garmin TSS tracking stuff) etc. which i do not use. (Also i am not a runner )
For the price the quality is ok, no extra high quality watch though.
The measurements seem plausibly for me and integrate with intervals.
Drawbacks: Somedays for whatever reason the sync with intervals won’t work, but in general works fine. Base HR/Resting HR is not really calculated or the API pushes a wrong info there >> Sleep avg HR as Resting HR … so i do that update manually in intervals… not ideal.
Also regarding sleept tracking i do not trust the sleep phases or anything. I only look at HRV, sleep amount (and awake time)
Polar, interesting. I’ll try to do some research to learn more.
I don’t run either, so the only needs are HRV in particular, and something else that monitors health. I don’t need GPS or anything else. For weight training I use apps, as for bike racing. So the purpose is only to monitor health and see changes in my heart rate, to modify any ongoing training plans.
I use Amazfit Balance…fantastic