Sports/Fitness/Cycling Watch

[HammerCJ]

Am giving my watch situation an overhaul. Have decided on my 'main' watch, now need one for going to the gym, cycling and possibly diving.

Was thinking Casio G-Shock, as I love the look of some of them on the thread on here, and they seem to tick all of the boxes. However, can't help thinking I should get something with a heart rate monitor too, or maybe GPS. I do quite a bit of cycling - both Road & MTB.

Any experience with Polar or Garmin watches? Or should I just stick to G-Shock as I want to wear casually too? Am I missing other contenders? Ideally want to spend £80-£150.

[Snubs]

Nike might also be worth considering. This would come within budget and do everything you've mentioned:

http://store.nike.com/gb/en_gb/pd/sportwatch-gps/p...

Very different look to the G-Shock, but I prefer it myself.

I've got a Garmin Forerunner 305 and based on my experience with that I'd say Garmin make good quality sports watches. The only trouble I've had with it is that it's a bit slow to fix the GPS location compared to more modern equipment, but i think that's more to do with its age than the quality.

[troc]

I love my Suunto Ambit sports watch. Quick GPS location, accurate heart rate monitor and excellent battery life.

For 'proper' sports/fitness/training watches, the main choice is really between Garmin and Suunto and the way I see it, is that Garmin have taken their knowledge of GPS and mapping and added training and monitoring functions whereas Suunto have taken their expertise in training and monitoring and added GPS functionality.

For running-based training, the Garmin Forerunner series is hard to beat but I wanted something that would also be useful hiking, skiing and trekking as well as running, cycling and training - there are really only 2 products that fit this bill, the Suunto Ambit and the Garmin Fenix. The Suunto is a better device for the non-running stuff which is most of what I do. The Garmin is a better runners watch. I think they are pretty similar as bike watches - both support the same ANT+ data pods these days.

[Adrian W]

bit pricey but I use a Polar RX5 TDF

http://www.polar.com/uk-en/products/maximize_perfo...

[andy_s]

I think that's spot on troc.

[Vladimir]

I have the Garmin Forerunner 910xt which does running, cycling and both indoor and outdoor swimming. It's utterly brilliant.

[Craikeybaby]

The other option is getting a GShock and something like a FitBit for the fitness tracking stuff.

[benny.c]

troc said:

I love my Suunto Ambit sports watch. Quick GPS location, accurate heart rate monitor and excellent battery life.

For 'proper' sports/fitness/training watches, the main choice is really between Garmin and Suunto and the way I see it, is that Garmin have taken their knowledge of GPS and mapping and added training and monitoring functions whereas Suunto have taken their expertise in training and monitoring and added GPS functionality.

For running-based training, the Garmin Forerunner series is hard to beat but I wanted something that would also be useful hiking, skiing and trekking as well as running, cycling and training - there are really only 2 products that fit this bill, the Suunto Ambit and the Garmin Fenix. The Suunto is a better device for the non-running stuff which is most of what I do. The Garmin is a better runners watch. I think they are pretty similar as bike watches - both support the same ANT+ data pods these days.

I use an Ambit too, also being a non-runner. I use mine mainly for cycling and hiking and I don't think there is much else out there that does so much in one, neat package. Although quite big, I find it comfortable to wear and it doesn't look overly geeky either (quite stealthy actually).

[SVS]

What's a FitBit?

[Craikeybaby]

A small fitness tracker that you can leave in your pocket all day and it syncs back to a web application so you can track where you have been, calories burnt etc.