Hi all. Considering getting a GPS watch for my wife as she is getting back in to running and likes using Strava to record what she’s up to.

Now, I have not taken any notice of GPS watches up to now but my mate has just got one and told me about how it linked up to Strava and updated it that way rather than having to lug about your phone. Our lass would love that but I know his is a super, duper £700 job and I’m looking at the cheaper ones for now.

Do they all do the Strava thing? What essential features do the more spendy ones give? What recommendations do you have and is there anything else I should know or watch out for? Thanks in advance. 😀

https://buy.garmin.com/en-GB/GB/p/164366

Have a look at that, will pair with a smart phone and upload to strava once she completes the run and syncs with the app.

She won’t be taking her phone out with her?
There are loads of cheap ones on ebay.

Some homework for you.

After a couple of months deliberation I ended up going for a Garmin Fenix 5, purely because I want something that doesn’t look like a fitness tracker and nothing else. The Fenix 5s looks good too for those with daintier wrists than me. They are spendy, admittedly, but when paying for it I did notice a cheap finance option if that sort of thing floats your boat. It did make me consider the Fenix Chronos, briefly, but that sort of money is daft for something that will likely be obsolete in a couple of years.

If it’s just for running the Forerunner 25 above looks good, as does the 35 with optical HR for another £50.

What functions does she require?
I recently bought a Tom Tom Spark via the official website for £60. Records all my runs and cycle rides, can be used in the pool,measures daily activity, calories and gives running pace,splits,etc.
Do you need any more than that?

Just bought a Tom Tom Spark Cardio GPS watch from their outlet for £85. Bargain multi sport tracking etc.

Jolly Green Giant – Member

What functions does she require?
I recently bought a Tom Tom Spark via the official website for £60. Records all my runs and cycle rides, can be used in the pool,measures daily activity, calories and gives running pace,splits,etc.
Do you need any more than that?

I did this a few weeks back.
It works, I can sync rides/runs through my phone to Strava.
Its also actually nice and comfortable to wear as an every day watch.

You’ll only need to connect it to a computer once to get the initial set up sorted – after that you can just connect to your phone via Bluetooth and the TomTom app.

The only thing it won’t do is give you notifications on screen about emails and texts etc. but that doesn’t bother me.

Also has a treadmill and pool mode for indoor training – not tried either yet, but seems a handy function to have.

TomTom Outlet Store:
https://www.tomtom.com/en_gb/outlet/

ive had a garmin 910xt for a few years now, got it from an amazon crazy sale just after xmas one year for really silly cheap money, and apsrt from garmin’s appalling customer service (mine leaked after a few months) i really like it as i can use it for running, bike and swimming.

i’m not at all one of these strava divas but i do find it useful to log all my activities and see how i’m comparing to past runs etc.

Sony Smartwatch 3 – old, but cheap and does everything but HR, but will link up to all types of HR devices. (and will also hold music).

Garmin forerunner 735xt does all that for me! Got it with a HR strap (it does monitor at the wrist too) from Blacks on a we beat any price by 10% deal, so it was less than £300

Having just bought a fenix 5, I now need to sell my old watches, a 910xt and a tomtom runner 2 cardio + music. Open to offers.

The Forerunner 25 has been working for me very well. I don’t train, so I don’t need HR (which is possible anyway, with an optional HR strap) and a lot of numbers – I just needed something to give me distance, time, pace.

And this watch does it perfectly fine. And it syncs to a phone via Bluetooth, it also uploads the runs on Strava automatically.

The Garmin Connect app on the phone provides a lot of data afterwards, including the stride length and cadence – can be useful I suppose!

Samsung GearFit2.

Has it’s own HRM, lasts 9hrs GPS tracking, will do auto-activity tracking so it’ll realise you’re riding/running/etc without you telling it to start. One downside mentioned is that the HRM data doesn’t upload to starve. That must have been fixed on an update because it did this morning. 🙂

Does all the call/text/whatsapp notifications/replies/etc if you want that too. The samsung App Store lists you choose from loads of different screens, apps, etc.

RRP is £180 but there are loads on eBay for half that as they have been given away with S7 Mobiles over the last month.

Thanks for the comprehensive replies.

All she really needs is something that will do what her phone does when using strava but without having to take the phone. Sounds like the forerunner could be just the job.