Currently looking into getting a Garmin watch to hopefully do away with Garmin on the bars for ride tracking and exercise tracking. Looking at the Fenix which looks like it does more than enough for what I need but wondered if anyone has any real world experience of any of the Garmin watches ? Hoping to link it to my phone so can keep track of rides etc wirelessly ideally

Garmin 235 here. Does most of the stuff the fenix does at half the price, significantly smaller and lighter.

Vivoactive HR here it’s bloody superb.

235 here as well. Use it almost every day for running and riding.

It syncs wirelessly through my phone to Garmin Connect and Strava. Sometimes I need to open up Garmin Connect and tell it to sync, but more often than not it just finds the phone and syncs without anything from me.

Edit:
The older 220 and 225 are great watches, but they don’t have a bike mode. Not a huge deal, but you need to manually change the activity type on the PC or phone after it syncs.

Vivoactive non heart rate here and it’s great, does everything my edge touring does and the gps link on start up is much quicker. They aren’t backlit so the battery lasts ages. Seeing phone calls on your wrist is surprisingly useful too.

Bit of a PSA but there are a few cheap ex demo ones at Evans at the mo too….

I have the Fenix 3. I will not go back to a normal watch again.

The day to day usage is brilliant for me due to….

The size a clarity of the digital time display, excellent for my increasing age related myopia.

The alarm setting, I often need a couple through the day at work they are easy to set and loud.

The light is great I use this a lot.

Step count, did not know i needed this but I find it excellent although generally very busy i can find myself sitting on my ares a bit the step count gets me up ( helps that I have competition from wife and daughter.

The Compass has saved me a long detour ( only the once ) which is nice.

The sports tracking….

Excellent all I need, great for running as it gives stride length and ground contact time.

GPS acquires really quickly and is as acurate as i will ever need.

Stuff I dont like…

The display is excellent in bright light but a bit dim in darker gloomy conditions, the light sorts this out, I think this was a trade off to increase the battery life.

I dont tether to the iphone as it was always letting me know I had lost signal when not in the same room as the phone…the notifications are good but i found i did not need that function.

When tracking an activity I cant get access to the other functions ( this may be me not knowing how to do it ) but on a long walk or bike ride I would like to use the watch and compass etc but I cant.

Its a bit big, but this has not been a problem.

They brought out the HR version about 2 weeks after I bought Mine..I would go for that given the choice.

AS I knew I would wear it all the time I went for the slightly more expensive Sapphire edition, something I would recommend as being so big I do seem to bang it off things now and again.

I’ve had a vivoactive HR about 6 weeks now, used for running and cycling, I really like it.

I dont tether to the iphone as it was always letting me know I had lost signal when not in the same room as the phone…the notifications are good but i found i did not need that function.

You can turn that notification off on the 235.

Garmin Vivoactive HR for a few weeks now and I really like it.

I’ve had a Vioactive HR for a couple of months now. Happy with the GPS tracking accuracy and monitoring your heart rate from your wrist is nice. My only concern is the battery life, I’ve been doing some long days in the saddle recently and the battery’s nearly flat by the end.

Vivosmart HR – the non GPS one.
I decided against the one with GPS as I already have an 810, I wasn’t convinced I’d want to look at my wrist while riding over a glance at the bars. The battery in the 810 lasts longer than I ride for. Riding 2-3 times a week I charge the watch once a week and it broardcasts my HR to the 810. Syncs with Connect with no issues on my phone. Alerts are good enough to let me know whats going on. Not up for the all in on the wrist yet.

Fenix 3 user here. Big thumbs up from me, my biggest issue is the size on my skinny little girl wrists.

Tried a Viviactive, felt like an Xmas cracker toy. Wouldn’t sync properly with my phone, and the screen is laughably crap in anything other than a slightly dark indoor room.

Never liked the Garmin on the bars, I lost one in a crash and have had my wife snap the tabs off the back in another incident, and they are a bit of a pain with short stems.

My only concern is the battery life, I’ve been doing some long days in the saddle recently and the battery’s nearly flat by the end.

It seems to work out at about 8-9% of the charge per hour, probably ways to make it last longer such as disabling phone notifications or Bluetooth.

Without using GPS I can get a week out of mine.

GPS question – how good is the Fenix for navigation? Or do you need to use it in conjunction with a map?

Looking at the nav screen shot

I reckon you want a map….

Vivoactive HR here too…

I use it mainly for those days when you go for a spur of the moment ride and haven’t got the HR strap and Edge gadget at hand, and now I’m starting to do some swimming (slowly)… Does the job well, and like Drac, I can get the best part of a week out of it if I need to.

What I don’t like is that I feel like I’ve got an ASBO tag on my wrist.

I’ve got the Garmin 920 Xt as i do triathlon and stuff like that and wasn’t going to be an everyday wearer. I love it, loads of functionality, easy to use, nice and clear, decent battery life.
One critisicm is the screen is a bit soft, it does mark easily, my wrist hit the lane divider in a pool shortly after i got it and it left a decent scratch, doesn’t affect operation though.
I’ve recomend it, i did see the HR version available for £279 the other day instead on the nearly £500 it normally is.

Vivo HR+ (based on a recommendation from Drac!). It’s a good activity tracker/smartish watch. The Fenix etc are way more activity focussed. I don’t think it looks that bad but I had a TomTom Runner before 🙂

GPS seems accurate. HR works well. Integrates seamlessly with Connect App/Web. Seems pretty robust. Power management is very good. I ran GPS for 12 hours one day and it just got through.

Vivoactive HR here too.

I wouldn’t recommend it for constant MTB as it doesn’t do 1 second recording but for general stuff its awesome.

I got a Vivactive HR as I do all sorts of sports n stuff, and it has been brilliant. Had it a few weeks, and it pretty much does everything I need. You can put it on the bars of you wanted to, and use an ANT+ chest strap for heart rate if you wanted. No GPS map, but I don’t need that; I know my way around here 🙂

I’ve been using Garmin 310XT for running/cycling and even swimming.
Cost me £100 2nd hand a few years ago.
It is a bit of a brick but waterproof and pretty indestructable and does all the stuff i need
Only thing that annoys me is there is no way of keeping backlight on for night riding.
If i was buying a new watch now I would be tempted by the tomtom spark/runner 2 with optical hrm and mp3. As listening to a bit of music on wireless headphones and not needing chest strap is attractive.

Fenix 3 user here. Absolutely A1 piece of kit for all activities.

Fenix 3 user for a year.

No issues, lots of crashes needing hospital attention and the watch only has a few scratches.

I use the majority of the features regularly.

If you’re riding proper long and rough trails with lots of breaking bumps, I find its best to put it in me pocket as it can bruise the wrist after very little time. I did 4 runs of pleney black a few weeks back and had no flesh left in two areas of my left wrist.

Otherwise its spot on.

vivoactive, bought for £99 on boxing day, great watch, waterproof and pretty robust although ive scratched the screen a few times, gps works great and last 7-8 hours, non gps usage the phone lasts 5 -7 days.

only failed once on a ride (due to user error), 3 click start and gps is instant, great for swimming lengths too

now want the HR version

920xt here, would have gone for the new 735xt but I’m fat and slow so the lower battery life wouldn’t see me round an Ironman triathlon.

Wear it as my day to day watch and very happy with it. Taken a few knocks at work and there’s not a mark on it. Picks up GPS quickly. Only thing I’d fault it on is Bluetooth connection to my phone sometimes takes a while to connect, not sure if that’s the watch or phone at fault. For navigation I’d stick with an Edge unit of some sort.

Cheshire Cat and jam bo , looking at getting the 235 now , does it track rides ok ?

yup. just as good as my 520 was.

Fenix 3 HR user here. Absolutely fantastic do it all watch. Even had it on in the pool the other day. Righog is you want time of day or compass just enable extra screens and change fields to show TOD (time of day) or connect IQ app for compass (download one or use inbuilt) or other downloaded apps.