I bought a refurbished Instinct Solar from Garmin’s Amazon shop. I went for the Instinct because it’s a rugged unit and I do come off the bike every couple of months at least. It’s quite chunky and the display is monochrome, so looks a bit old fashioned, but I only paid £100 for it, so for the money, I’m happy - I record walks, runs and occasionally rides and keep it on over night to help monitor recovery.

EDIT: I use a HR strap if I use the watch to track runs and rides as I had one anyway to link to my Edge Explore

original instinct solar? if so it's an older chipset now. not necessarily bad but just something to be aware of. in the usual 'recommend what you own' way i'd heartily endorse the FR255. inexpensive (IMV), has most of the latest whistles and bells, and doesn't need to be charged all the time. modern garmins are fast to charge anyway but when it's doing that it's not measuring you. 🙂 mine get's charged around once every ten days and that's tracking ~ 85-90k of riding and 15-25k of 'running' a week.

if you want to really get in to the pros and cons of these things DCRainmaker is the man for all the detail.

Definitely get a HR strap for it, the wrist only sensors are wildly inaccurate.

I videoed this climb and checked my HR on my fenix 7 solar with frankly laughable results as you can see

Even in crap UK weather the instinct solar has a better battery life.   I had a vivoactive 3 before the solar and also found the touchscreen a bit annoying.

I think all the watches you mentioned are gps watches.

Unless you really need the battery life or ruggedness, I think I'd get the vivoactive.

Funnily enough Just flogged my old Vivoactive 3 on eBay for ~£40, because I don't really need a backup for my Instinct.

It was good in many ways, but my instinct is far better on battery life alone. Not a fan of touch screens on watches generally either and despite being a relatively 'dumb' smart watch the instinct is a very good sports watch...

My recommendation, get a cheap Vivoactive 3 or 4 off eBay, see how you like it and if you're happy stick, if not, flog it and see how much you can score a used instinct V1 to try off eBay.

Or look at a forerunner (45/55?)

Edit: to clarify I've got the V1 Instinct solar Which they apparently updated the HR sensor on to improve battery life over the non-solar version, the Instinct 2 is allegedly pretty much as good on battery, the solar bit doesn't actually bring a huge amount to the party (IMO) but will keep the watch topped up in normal mode on nice sunny days when you're outside.

Definitely get a HR strap for it, the wrist only sensors are wildly inaccurate.

I find mine pretty accurate. Seems to take a few seconds to "lock on" to my heartrate immediately after setting off, but after that it's good.

You do have to wear them right though, it looks like you wear yours pretty loose - you shouldn't be able to slide them up and down your arm, and they shouldn't be able to rock from side to side. If that's not comfortable for you, then yeah, use a chest strap.

Hmmmmmmm. Choices choices...

So after the first few response I got to thinking a vivoctive and a chest strap might be the best option for me then. Vivoactive for most of the time, chest strap for riding...

Then the last couple of posts flip me back to an instinct 😂

I'll get there eventually!

it's true that watch HR sensors don't work well for some people, but they work well enough for the majority and unless you need the speed of response a strap will give for short intervals or something they're good enough. you do have to have the sensor in contact with your skin though, otherwise of course the flipping thing won't work! 😀

I have a vivoactive. The battery life is rubbish

Sorry. My bad. Meant the vivofit as the basic watch instead of the vivoactive

Instinct 2 solar is good.
I've had good results for hr and GPS.
A few things DCRainmaker's noted on the HR topic:
It's a combination of the watch and the individual - some people get better results than others with each watch.
Wear it tight - bounce is the enemy of accuracy.
Often the smaller cheaper watches give better HR accuracy than the big expensive ones. Heavier watches bounce more. Bigger watches let more outside light in.

I’ve got a vivoactive 4. Have really enjoyed owning it, battery life for me is around 4-5 days I think. Tracks everything I’d want it to and only every now and again I just need to turn off/on if it doesn’t connect to phone but that’s pretty much standard with every single Bluetooth device ever! Well worth the money, they’ve been replaced by something else now I think but I’ve really enjoyed mine. I even track my TT times and speed with it and it’s as accurate as my head unit says usually

Just to counter the above, the Instinct solar is one of the best solar collectors.   I upgraded a 2 solar to a Fenix 6 pro, and  excuse I wear normal watches most of the time I which I'd stuck with the instinct - the solar on the Fenix is rubbish and for my use - cycling only - its just a heavier less efficient thing.

Had a Vivoactive 3 since 2018 but it died late last year. Replaced it with a lightly used Fenix 5 for £100 from eBay, been absolutely fine. Prefer the bigger screen on the Fenix as I can read it at arm’s length while kayaking.

I've always used wrist based heart rate with my Garmin Edge bike computers and never had a problem with inaccurate recording. (check them every so often with a chest strap)

By and large just don't get on with chest straps, although mainly when really blowing as it is then when I find them annoying and want to rip it off - bit odd maybe.

Now I broadcast from a 965 watch and it works superbly with the 530 computer.

In the past I used a Mio Fuse strap that was about £50 from Amazon years ago. The battery is now weak and they are not made any more, so use my watch instead.

On the HR point.  I've used chest straps for years (decades). But the straps themselves die after a few years (due to the fine electrodes / wires in them corroding I think)..but not expensive to replace.

Correct that if you're doing intervals the lag / slow respinse to change in the wrist based HR is a real pain. But for more 'steady state' they're not that bad.

I've actually abandoned the chest strap and use my garmin 955 watch to 'broadcast'  the wrist based HR to my bike computer as its just some much more convenient (and I'm not training using HR on intervals).

I’ve got a FR255 and the HRM is spot on, it even gives an alarm for high stress when I’m playing chess matches 🙂

Fantastic watch IMO, streets ahead of previous generations. Had it over a year now.

I haven’t noticed a problem with slow response during intervals but I’m usually doing 5 mins or thereabouts so I don’t care about a few seconds lag.

Ok. That's a good response for a decent watch then.

Back into the solar instinct it is then. Cheers folks

Chest strap for hiit, sweaty activities. Most outdoor activities, less intensive activities like running and cycling, wrist based hr works fine for me.

I should have said earlier, I also have a bar GPS (lezyne) which I only tend to use when I might want a navigational device and/or to see HR and cadence (mostly on road/gravel rides) in which case I prefer to use a chest strap.

I still record those rides on the Instinct (and also the bar GPS as a bit of a backup) but I do tend to only upload the instinct's record to Strava.

The rest of the time I'll just use the instinct, today for instance I went out for a couple of hours of unplanned local trundling on the Gravel bike. Hit record in the instinct and basically don't bother looking at it till I get home, Same for commutes, no need for another device then.

It's the watch I wear the most because it's reliable and I can record a ride or run pretty much any time the Battery goes a couple of weeks between charges typically (depending on how active I am). It's become my 'Beater' to the extent I have to force myself to wear my other (non-smart) watches now and then.

Edit: forgot to say the altimeter is wildly inaccurate, I just use the altitude correction feature on Strava now

Thanks everyone. Decision made.

There's a used instinct solar on its way to me 👍

I just got a forerunner 55 for 100 quid using the Singletrack discount if that helps 👍🏻