Looking for recommendations for a GPS watch.

Battery life is important as is the ability to turn on and off the GPS.

So any real world experiences of a good one?

Apple Watch 2?

Got mine yesterday and I’m already incredibly happy with it. Looking at the plot of our Parkrun under the trees this morning, it plotted a more accurate GPS track than a Garmin Forerunner 630

Strava still need to implement the local GPS API, though, so I used Apple’s own activity app to record. I imagine they will be implementing it right now…

Rachel

I’m pretty impressed with my Forerunner 235 so far apart from occasionally having to turn the heart rate monitor off and on to get it to pick up my heart rate from the built-in wrist leds.

The battery also lasts several days particularly if you disable the Bluetooth link to your phone. I did use that for a while for it’s ‘smart phone notifications’ ability but rapidly realised I wasn’t really that interested in getting text / whatsapp / weather / etc messages on my wrist!

Fenix 3 here. Barely seem to need to charge it but average about 1hour/day riding.

Loads of other functions too.

G/f has a TomTom Spark Cardio which needs charging after about 10 hours tracking use but does have an inbuilt HR monitor.

I use a Forerunner 25 day in day out as my normal watch – step tracking and sleep tracking always switched on, I also do 2 or 3 5 to 10km runs a week with it. It’s solid, reliable. It’s pretty much an Edge 25 on a wriststrap. I only need to a charge it once a week – which involves taking it off and connecting it to a PC or charger with a little USB cradle thingy.

Garmin Connect software on your PC is not to everyones taste and can be flaky but my runs get fed through to Strava instantly anyway with no drama – so I’m quite pleased with it. Having said that if I was looking to buy one now I’d check out the Forrunner 35 which has built in HRM and livetrack. As ever check DC Rainmaker blog for most thorough reviews

Im using a forerunner 230 after not likimg the weight and bulk of a fenix 3. Does all i need for my biking and lasts days on one charge. Its so light i can hardly feel it.

Unless things have significantly improved over the last 2 years with Garmin watches the GPS takes several minutes to acquire the signal and the battery life won’t last much more than 2.5 hrs, so conks out on longer bike rides. My brother has just got the latest Triathlon model and from the sounds of it the time it takes to acquire the GPS signal hasn’t improved that much.

I haven’t got an Apple watch, but that would be my choice. Does heart rate without the need for a silly strap, instantly acquires a GPS signal and battery life will last one day – maybe more with the new version I don’t know.

The Garmin Fenix3 works well, picks up satellites pretty much instantly and has a decent battery life.

Vivoactive here.
Small light, battery lasts a good week, not tested how long with GPS tracking on but ive done 4 hr rides and its still going strong.
GPS lock is really quick, generally ~10 secs or so unlike my old forerunner 610 which could be 5-10 minutes.

Im tempted by Fenix3, as the Vivoactive doesnt do 1 sec gps tracking so loses dostance on twisty running but really ita just because the Fenix is shiny…

Fenix takes about 15 seconds max to locate GPS, including some very remote places.

I use mine for about 10 hours a weeks worth of GPS, plus constantly linked to my phone, does steps etc – I probably have to charge it once every 10 days.

When I was injured, and couldn’t ride for a month I don’t recall it needing charging at all.

The only negative for me is it’s quite chunky – and if you’re doing 10 hour days out in the Alps or somewhere rough, it starts to hurt by the end of it.

Garmin 735XT is superb. Doesn’t look too bad on the wrist, almost discreet unlike the Fenix 3. Heart rate monitor on the wrist which is good for general use although chest strap is much improved on an off road bike.

Battery lasts a week easily even when using GPS for at least an hour everyday. GPS can be used in an eco mode to conserve battery or is completely off when using the device just as a watch.

GPS fix pretty much instantly.

Good smart notifications, text msgs, phone calls etc so phone can always be on silent and just have watch on vibrate which is nice. Good general activity / sleep tracker.

Also has triathlon setting. Useful as I’m stupidly doing an Ironman next year after a year with minimal training due to injury. Battery life when using full GPS full time is roughly 14 hours, I’m aiming for sub 16 hr on the Ironman. Doh.

I’d go with the Fenix3 too, I’ve had mine ~18 months now, and it’s been outstanding throughout (Mine mostly collects running data for me, but it’s been plenty of cycle miles too, as well as open water swimming / hill walking / ultras … all been great).

It anything happened to mine I’d get another one without even thinking about it.

Tomtom Runner £60, so far much more reliable than Garmins I have used

Suunto Ambit 3 Peak … very versatile, very useful and so far has been very reliable.

Fenix 3 here. Love it. Didn’t love my Apple Watch though but maybe the new one is better

Fenix 3 here as well. Had it for a year and can’t fault it apart from it being a bit bulky, but it is a pretty solid pice of kit. I bought a screen protector for it so save getting the glass scratched. Battery last about 18 hours on normal GPS, and probably double that on Ultratrac. It only uses GPS when you have an activity running. Without GPs the battery is meant to last 4-5 weeks

another vote for the garmin 235 here. its significantly lighter and slimmer than the fenix. wear mine pretty much all the time. get about week between charges with 5-6 of GPS a week.

only paid £160 for it as well as picked up a killer deal from HDUK.

I like my TomTom Multisport. Current versions have music storage as well. I think they look good as a watch as well.

Gps watch with a big battery? Suunto ambit 3 peak. Over 20hrs of gps in the highest gps sampling rate, many times that on lower rates.

Suunto Ambit 3 is undoubtedly the most reliable GPS watch on the market. The 20h battery life at 1s recording is phenomenal.

Vivoactive here. Did a 2.5 hour ride and the rest of today’s step counting, notifications, etc and it’s got 80% left. Should be good for much longer rides than I ever do. I wear it as my everyday watch and it usually lasts a week with a couple of shorter rides and runs. It’s not the quickest sampling but good enough for me, on the MTB if I know where I’m going I tend to use it for logging rather than take the Edge.

Golf stuff works well too if that matters to you.

I like the watch part of my tom tom multi sport. But they suck at software, especially the phone app. Not convinced by the accuracy either as my half marathon logged as 12.6 miles and on closer examination the track was off in places. For the money though not so bad.