RUNNERS! Wrist watch advice?

I have a garmin fr10, its the most basic model available in a garmin and was under £100. It does everything I need, tracks distance, time, pace, calories. It has a virtual pacer and a run walk interval option. Can be paused and resumed during runs. Can be uploaded to garmin connect (have to use lead on pc though as no bluetooth but only takes a few minutes). Garmin connect then syncs in with MFP.

Only downside is that is sometimes takes a long time for GPS to kick in although I've realised that its a lot quicker if I stand still rather than try to get it going when I am doing my walk / warm up (doh!)

I love it, does everything I need at a reasonable price.

+1 for dcrainmaker, lots of good reviews from someone who actually uses the kit in anger.

Had a few Garmin Forerunners and they're good (still got my 100 that runs on AAA's, my 305 died within less than a year of purchase though, the battery was a real weak point). Even a cheap Polar HRM will be enough if you don't want to stretch to a GARMIN GPS.

I'm currently using a MOTOACTV, its discontinued now, and what a shame, but also, what a bargain if you can find one still. GPS, HRM, MP3 player, Bluetooth, it even talks to you as you plod along to give you advice.

Garmin FR 220. 620 is awesome, but double the price, with only a couple extra features that you probably won't use anyway.

The FR10 lacks heart rate - it's just a GPS tracker. The FR15 adds a HRM, but the feature jump from the 15 to the 220 is worth the price jump. Theres the old 210 and 110, but the 220 blows both out of the water. And they haven't been made for a year+, so they might be hard to find

TomTom, Timex, Polar all make running watches too, with a variety of success...

Polar needs a GPS pod ($$$) on top of the watches that cost the same as a FR220.
Timex has a cool watch coming out, the One GPS. It's got everything, PLUG a 3G chipset, so it's always on the AT&T network in the US (don't know if it's even coming out elsewhere though). Their Run Trainer GPS 2.0 is worth looking at too. Same price as the FR220. Same basic features. Not as popular, but you should be able to find it along side Garmins at a good running store.
TomTom is cool because they have the aforementioned optical HR in the watch strap itself.

If people at a race wear a GPS watch, 90%+ of the time its a Garmin.

Another vote for DC Rainmaker - really great reviews to help you get exactly what you want

I love my Garmin FR610- I've had it for a few years now. It probably has a bunch of features you don't really need right now though.

Thank you all I am reading this thread with interest as I have downloaded Runtastic on to my phone, however I had problems today removing the screen saver continually to read it (guess I could over ride that) but I would love a vibrate to tell me how i'm doing and when I reach my goal which will vary from day to day...I nearly bought a tom tom runner a bargain, as going out of stock, however I don't think it has the vibrate feature.

I still want that bargain, with vibrate, and GPS any further suggestions would be appreciated from those that have done a full investigation, I am losing the will to live!

Thank

I love my garmin 230 (the vibration for the interval vs the beep was the biggest selling factor for me among garmin models). I just got my hubby the garmin 25. It counts steps and he can get text messages on it (in addition to the gps running functions).

I agree with checking out dc rainmaker. He has very in depth reviews on anything active. I personally have the garmin 235 and like it very much. I'm a runner and use it for HR training.

HR wrist monitor is accurate in determining resting HR.

During every day movement I find the HR monitor isn't inaccurate just not consistent. I'm a big fan of chest HR strap and paired to my garmin.

Happy running with whatever watch you end up purchasing.

I'm another Garmin user. I want to upgrade to one with the HRM built in. Mine has the chest strap. Chest strap HRMs on girls are just dumb. Especially if you have any boobs at all.

glevinso wrote: »

I haven't seen the Garmin 225 mentioned but that is a solid option.

Zombie thread, the 235 hadn't been launched when the question was originally asked

Whoops!

MeanderingMammal wrote: »

glevinso wrote: »

I haven't seen the Garmin 225 mentioned but that is a solid option.

Zombie thread, the 235 hadn't been launched when the question was originally asked

Oops!

I should make a habit of checking. Why do people drag up old threads?