Recommend me a GPS/Running Watch

Jimmy King

I'm moving my running from the treadmill at the gym to outdoors because I'm tired of all of the time wasted driving to and from the gym. The one thing I'm missing is the ability to readily monitor my pace and distance to ensure that I'm pushing myself at the level I want to. The obvious solution is one of these fancy running watches with GPS. Unfortunately, I absolutely hate the styling of almost all of them. Most look more like cheap crap you'd buy at walmart for $20 and at best just don't look like something I'd actually want to be seen wearing. I want something I can wear when not running and have it look reasonable.

My favorites are the Sony Smartwatch 3 (I use an Android phone, so that has some benefits) and the Garmin Fenix 3. The Sony, unfortunately, seems to have a lot of issues with GPS when there's even a little moisture such as sweat while running. The Garmin, from what I've seen (haven't looked at one in person, just online) is stylistically pretty much exactly what I'm looking for but god damn is it expensive and all for stuff I probably wouldn't ever use. I really only need/want accurate GPS and showing my pace and distance and sync that to some sort of map stuff. Heart rate monitor on the watch (like very few watches have) would be a cool bonus but totally unnecessary. Heart rate via bluetooth and a chest strap is currently useless, I have no interest in one currently.

I really dislike the look of the less expensive Garmin ForeRunner series stuff I've looked at. Same goes for the timex ones. Any recommendations for something more along the lines of the Fenix 3, but close to that $200-$300 price mark? I know there's the Garmin Fenix 2 which is cheaper but still up there and I should look into it.

bowen

Fitbit Surge fits the bill, but it's a bit on the expensive side.

kaliyama

A modern smartphone + app will give you everything you need. You also can just use a running route map API and route aggregator to plan your run beforehand (e.g. http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/, http://www.mapmyrun.com/) and time yourself using a $10 digital watch.

Jimmy King

Ah yeah, the Surge also not quite what I'm looking for style-wise. It's not awful, but if I'm going to blow $250+ on a watch, it's not going to be one that I just think is ok so I'm being picky. Price (although obviously cheaper is better, all else being equal) and functionality-wise, it is pretty much what I'm looking for, though. If it were $100-$150 less, which it's obviously not ever going to be given fitbit device pricing, that's probably the route I'd go. It's not embarassingly stupid looking, just not what I want for $250+ and I'm loathe to spend even $100 on a watch I don't actually want to wear.

Phone + app was the initial route I was going to go. I've got a galaxy note 4, which is fucking huge and takes up pretty much my entire upper arm though, and so is annoying to have strapped up there. I may end up just investing in one of those running belts/packs which supposedly don't bounce around and just shove my phone in there. I can't easily look at it while running going that route, but it has the benefit of costing $25 or less and allows me to have my phone on me in case I injure myself or whatever and so may well end up being at least a temporary solution.

The cheap watch is my current solution. I'm just setting a 20 minute timer and I run until it goes off. Then I turn around and run the same route back. An awesome GPS watch thingy is definitely not a necessity, just would add some nice features/data to my run, which is why I don't particularly want to spend $500+ at all or even $100-$250 for one I otherwise don't want to wear as a watch the rest of the time.

I have discovered the Suunto Ambit series, which is stylistically much more in line with what I'm looking for and seems to run the gamut in price ranges. Anyone with experience with those?

bowen

Those look pretty nice, you'll probably want ambit2 for the gps/heartrate/clock/etc

zagdrob

I use my phone + MapMyRun now, but last year when I got my GPS watch I just got one of the cheap Soleus GPS watches ($70 at Kohls on sale, plus a 30% off coupon). I figured I'd try it out, and if I liked it I'd buy a better watch. I'm not a watch person anyway, but I think all the GPS watches look bulky / ugly so I only used it for running.

It worked well - kept pace, never lost the satellite (results may vary depending on where you run). I've read that's a big drawback of watches over phones - phones can use cell towers for location and are still accurate if you can't get a satellite fix (terrain, buildings, etc).

I really only switched to my phone this summer because my iPod crapped out and I just started using my phone (and if I'm using that, I might as well not bother with a watch). The phone doesn't take time to get my location initially (watches take a minute or two to get a fix when you turn GPS on). I already keep my phone charged, but if I forgot to turn the GPS off my watch would be dead the next day.

Plus, if I'm out for a long run and my wife needs to get ahold of me (or visa-versa) I can just call her.

If you don't like the armband, I'd say try the fanny pack / pouch and see if you like it. It's like $25 so you might as well give it a shot before dropping several hundred dollars on a watch. Depending on the app, you can get it to cut in with pace regularly, or even set a target pace and it'll tell you to speed up / slow down. Seems like the way to go.

Bloodycow

I use a fenix 2, love it and all the Garmin software is pretty in depth at analyzing your run. Plus it's awesome to have it paired with your phone and be able to read texts and see who is calling without taking your phone out of your pocket

Kick_04

I recently got the Suunto Ambit3 Peak watch and really enjoy it. I have not used it for running, but the gps tracking seems to work really well for hiking in the woods. It is a little on the larger side, so when sweating a lot can annoy me some.

My brother had a Garmin GPS watch, its about 5 years old now, but it had a terrible time trying to synch with a satellite and now the battery doesn't last nearly as long as it use to.

Fuzzy Cumulonimbus Cloud

kaliyama wrote: »

A modern smartphone + app will give you everything you need. You also can just use a running route map API and route aggregator to plan your run beforehand (e.g. http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/, http://www.mapmyrun.com/) and time yourself using a $10 digital watch.

I really recommend just using a smartphone. The tech has gotten really good. When you get right down to it, we all have a Jawbone Up on us every day.

SanderJK

Yeah I use my phone, it's pretty accurate. With an $10 armband I listen to podcasts. Also having your phone around is really useful in case you get in trouble.

For really efficient training you may want a heartrate monitor though, if you have ambitious goals.

Jimmy King

Man, got totally swamped at work for the last week.

I'll have to check out the Soleus watches at Kohl's. For that price, especially if I can get in on a good deal and/or use some of our Kohl's Cash, I may not mind it not being exactly what I want.

As to using a phone, I'm well aware that I can and what the capabilities are. Please just leave it at the fact that I do not want to, except as a temporary workaround, for various reasons. Primarily ease of being able to quickly look and see the numbers I'm looking for without trying to pull a phone out of a running pack/belt or arm band, fiddle about trying to tap icons while running, etc.

@Kick_04 slightly larger I can deal with. I'm a big guy anyway at 6'2". I currently wear a Timex Ironman (not exactly classy looking, but for $30 or whatever, it works for now), which isn't exactly a dainty watch, so that I can estimate current pace and timing when I know distances.