I’m thinking about buying a smart type watch but not really sure which one or if I really need one?

I’ve looked at the iWatch 3 and it looks as though it has all the features I need but they appear to need recharging very often.

I’ve also looked at Garmin (I have a Garmin 520 bike unit) and they seem pretty decent.

Any views?

Garmin Vivoactive 3 looks pretty good for £240 on Amazon at the min.

If you want to spend more then the Garmin Fenix is probably the one to get.

My Apple Watch will last 2 days, about an hour to charge.
I got the LTE model, it’s the only thing a take on a ride, use strava, it feeds in my heart rate , can make the odd call and the mises tracks progress using find my friend on her iPhone just in case I have an off and need assistance.

Works very well, I used to use a bike computer, heart rate monitor and old phone.

Got first gen Garmin Vivoactive (second hand from here a couple of years ago). Lasts about 14 days without GPS, and about 10 hours with. Takes about an hour to charge. I’ve been really pleased with it. Looking to possibly buy myself the 3rd gen as a knee surgery present to myself, but solely due to the improved looks. Looked at Fenix but realised it really does more than I need.

Huawei Watch 2 sportwatch, on offer at mo , looks good

Or at other end of price spectrum a Pebble. Displays messages and emails, controls music playing, and various other things. More limited than those listed above, and needs to be paired to phone (won’t work alone). Can be had cheap used.

Forerunner 235 hr for me.

Got a fenix 3hr, a charge lasts a full week.

I use a garmin 735xt, i left it lying in the bedroom in 2016 while i was off on the sick, after six weeks it was still working, about 25% charge remaining.
Bit spendy like.
Id buy another.

clevertrevor – Member
Or at other end of price spectrum a Pebble. Displays messages and emails, controls music playing, and various other things. More limited than those listed above, and needs to be paired to phone (won’t work alone). Can be had cheap used.

love my Pebble Time,4 days without charge, screen always on, waterproof.

It’s really a smartwatch if you mainly just want notifications from apps, calls, texts etc etc but that’s all I want really.

Real shame fitbit bought them out meaning no more new models. 🙁

Real shame fitbit bought them out meaning no more new models

Or support, or spares etc. Fitbit didn’t but Pebble. Pebble went under and Fitbit bought certain bits of their IP but didn’t take on the liabilities associated with warranties etc.

I loved my Pebble – super thing but wouldn’t recommend someone buy one now.

but not really sure which one or if I really need one?

What are you planning to use it for?
A whatever pebble style smartwatches are for.
Or primarily as a health tracker/fitness recorder.

I have a garmin 235 which is fairly useful but dont bother using any of the “smart” watch part of it such as notifications and the like.

I got a vivoactive HR in the Black Friday sales for £139. Super pleased with it as I wanted something to give me daily activity, RHR and also integrated with my garmin activities, strava, my fitness pal and trainer road. It also has Ant+ and gps connectivity

Whichever you get I think a decent companion app is really important

Power consumption depends on use. My Apple Watch can last unto three or four days if I don’t touch it, but if I use strava, or some app that is running all the time then it can need an additional charge within a day.

Same with Garmin watches – use it to track a long few hours or so ride, then it will need charging pretty soon thereafter.

I can’t say which is best. My Apple Watch was a gift, I never felt I wanted one but since I’ve had it I’ve found it quite useful. But I wouldn’t use it as a serious training aid – it is fine for the odd strava ride or tracking a weekend walk, but if I wanted a more serious training tool I’d go for something more dedicated.

Same with Garmin watches – use it to track a long few hours or so ride, then it will need charging pretty soon thereafter.

That’s not my personal experience. I’m getting at least a full week of battery life in normal use and that is only shortened to 4-5 days when I use the gps functionality for a few hours

My wife’s Apple Watch only lasts a day at best.

Same with Garmin watches – use it to track a long few hours or so ride, then it will need charging pretty soon thereafter.

Not at all, my Vivoactive HR will run for about 12 hours with GPS recording with Bluetooth off.

No GPS and Bluetooth on it’ll go for over a week.

Fenix 3 Sapphire user here. Get about a week with about 6 hours GPS tracking and 2 weeks plus as a normal watch. BT cuts battery life a little but it’s nowhere near as dreadful as Apple Watch.

BT cuts battery life a little but it’s nowhere near as dreadful as Apple Watch.

Not dreadful at all. All that is required is the battery lasts a day. It is no bother to charge the watch overnight. And an Apple Watch will easily last a day, unless you’re properly on it constantly. I’ve had 4 days out of my Apple Watch when traveling with work and forgot my charger. OK I wasn’t using the GPS functionality or interacting with the screen much so literally just using it as a watch and managing consumption, but it lasted for 4 days. Normally I’ll charge it every night, but it will still have circa 80% charge so on a ‘normal’ day will only consume 20% of battery life. If I use GPS tracking via Strava then from full charge (or near as damn it) I get about 5 hours of continuous use before I get the low power warning – so actually more than a Garmin Forerunner I used to use for bike duties too which lasted about 3 hours max when on continuous tracking – so not enough for me to run a marathon if I ever were to. However on the Apple watch you can extend this time by pausing tracking when you stop for a coffee or break and resume when you start riding again (just as with any other tracking device). My Brothers Garmin Tri watch will last much longer, but it is a lot bigger and bulkier because……it has a bigger battery (no shit Sherlock a bigger battery will make the device last longer!!!!). Also stuff like heart rate measurement comes form a separate HR monitor with its own battery, so not using the watch battery for that element.

So and Apple Watch is not dreadful in anyway shape or form for the overwhelming majority of Apple Watch owners despite what that the nay-sayers and those who love to slate them like to say with no context or supporting information. It is limiting if you want to use your Apple Watch as a hard core fitness tracking device, but it’s not the correct tool for that job and I would always use a more dedicated device for that anyway. The Apple Watch is fine for tracking the odd bike ride or walk, but for a proper long ride I’d use my Garmin and import data via the Garmin connect software.

So again it should be no surprise that an Apple Watch is not as good at a dedicated task as a device designed specifically for that task. It’s something that is trying to do many things at once so therefore has a lot of multiple demands on its resources. Choose the right tool for the job. If the tool you’re using doesn’t do the job you want it to do then it is not the fault of the tool, you’ve just chosen the wrong tool. Simple.

How does LTE work from a phone contract point of view? Do you have to pay for a new contract?

How does LTE work from a phone contract point of view? Do you have to pay for a new contract?

Sometimes, yes. I’m sure you can buy apple watches with their own contract. you could get a sim only contract. I use a free 200mb three PAYG sim card – monthly cost is 0, I can receive calls/texts and sync with my phone via the free data. I don’t use it for making calls so no need to pay for a contract for me.

This is on an android wear watch, LG Urbane 2nd Edition, which i love. I charge it daily when i get to work.

@Wobbli,

Glad you like your Apple Watch. I just couldn’t live with the extremely poor battery life compared to my Fenix. Apple have sold enough of them for me not to doubt it’s good for some; just not for me.

Anyone with the vivoactive HR, did the size of it bother you? It’s pretty chunky.
Would consider apple watch but sometimes I’m away from a plug for more than an hour or two.

I got the Apple Watch 3 (non LTE version – didn’t see the need for me and the normal version was top end of budget) for Christmas.
Never had a smart watch at all before. I really like it. More than I thought I would. Battery lasts 2 days in my experience. I’m marathon training so that’s including regular GPS tracking for training runs and odd 1-2 hour rides. You’d stuggle to drain it between overnight charges I reckon which is the minimum I think you need to demand.

Strava works well and now I’ve downloaded some music on to it, I can listen to that whilst running using Bluetooth headphones (Anker soundbuds) and don’t have to take the phone. Strava also gives audio cues for pace etc which come through the Bluetooth headphones so don’t even have to look at the watch. I play a bit golf and there’s GPS and other apps for that too but not tested them yet. Also nice to be able to swim with it.

Then there’s other bits like getting your messages, emails etc and telling the time! It’s a smart bit of kit and I’m sure there’s more i’ll make use of in the future. It’s not life changing but it’s nice to have. Was showing it to my mother-in-law over new year and it completely blew her mind what it could do.

I’m happy with the size of my vivoactive hr, I wanted a fenix, but they’re really big, probably too big for me but too expensive anyway.

I can happily hide my vivoactive hr under a shirt sleeve at work.

Size is fine don’t find it chunky at all even on my skinny wrist.

Hmmm was looking at the vivoactive HR but skinny wrists and its size put me off. Need to rethink maybe.

Huawei Watch 2 sportwatch, on offer at mo , looks good

I’ve got the original Huawei Watch. It’s great. Not too chunky on my girlie wrists either. My first one packed in after about 6 months, replacement sent immediately without quibbling. The only criticism I can level at it is it doesn’t have NFC. Oh, and charging can be finicky if you don’t line it up quite true on the magnetic charger. Battery life is about a day and a half, which is ample so long as you don’t forget to charge it overnight.

Hmmm was looking at the vivoactive HR but skinny wrists and its size put me off. Need to rethink maybe.

For size info. 170mm wrists.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/anyone-buy-an-apple-watch-series-3#post-8750882

Anyone got a ticwatch S or E? £150 for the S with supposedly better GPS or £120 for the E is good value.

Wondering if the GPS is accurate enough to use instead of a proper computer like a wahoo bolt.

Thanks guys.

I think the Forerunner 35 would do everything I need (other than stress tracker function that is on the Viviosport) and comes in at under £150.

I do get the odd time with tailored cuffs when the garmin won’t fit.

I think the Forerunner 35 would do everything I need (other than stress tracker function that is on the Viviosport) and comes in at under £150

I was all set to buy the forerunner when I saw the discounted vivoactive HR

Recently bought the hauwei watch 2 sport with android wear 2 installed. It was only £180 on offer and I’m impressed so far. You can load music onto it, Strava, and android pay too. Also easily changeable straps. You can also buy one, for about £30 more I think, that takes a SIM card so doesn’t need your phone. Battery lasts about 2 days if not using GPS too much or there are various power saving options, including watch mode where it can last up to 22 days I believe. I’d recommend it and had considered the more expensive Garmin ones but liked the idea of some of the android wear apps.

Fenix 3 here – S/H, only cost me £150

It’s fantastic and does everything – it’s my day to day watch, exercise tracker, bike computer etc. I do use the smart watch features but could easily live without them and have turned most off anyway.

Battery life is outstanding – I charged it up on Friday and I’ve been out for two rides this weekend, total approx 5 hours using the watch for navigation (I.e downloaded gpx track into it and then had the track showing on the display) – it’s now on 55%. As a trial to check the battery was still good when I got it I left it tracking until it died – a bit over 20 hours on high accuracy mode.

Think long and hard about what you want it to do before you shop and apply a big dollop of reality.

I bought a smart watch two years ago thinking i’d use it for Navigation mostly, in the end I used it more for email (notification not reply), Googlemaps (as I travel around a lot and it prevented me looking like a tourist), music control (bluetooth) and as a watch.

Depending on what you want it for will quite severely restrict choice potentially.

I’m looking to upgrade mine as after two years of life I bust it on a rock in Wales (bugger) but I want the next one to have NFC so I can wave and pay with watch as opposed to pull out wallet, swipe, replace etc as well as my previous things but the upshot of this is think about what you want it for before what device 🙂

Makes the choice easier then.

James

I have a Vivoactive. It’s not really a smartwatch, but it will give you notifications. I wanted something with HR and GPS and decent battery life. It ticks all those boxes, battery lasts at least 5 days, no problem. It’s not horribly uncomfortable, but you do know it’s there. The Garmin app and website are not that great, but you’ll mostly want to upload the data to Strava etc if you’re using it as an activity tracker.

If you actually want a smartwatch (i.e. to run apps), it’s not for you. If you want an activity tracker, it’s worth looking at.