Garmin watch?

I was never a watch wearer until now
My garmin instinct solar now only comes off during showers and charging.
I get about 20 days avg on a charge and charging is super fast. Great for tracking rides, I have a pretty good results with HR. Ox sensory destroys charge so only use to check and turn off. I like to track sleep as I'm usually lousy, I avg 1 night out seven with a good score. Steps are another thing I watch. Other then the watch going berserk on some mornings because my resting HR drops below 38 I couldn't be happier. I just bought the wife venu on Amazon which has a super sale or did on garmin watches for Christmas.
 
I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4 that I wear all the time. Good for tracking some things, but not good at other things. Works great for the HIIT and weight workouts that I do. Create them in Garmin Connect, download to the watch. Tracking hydration, steps, etc like @UtahJoe and @mattybfat mention. Garmin just announced the Vivoactive 5 and according to DC Rainmaker's review, some things have been added and removed over the 4/4s.

I keep seeing social media ads from Cabela's the Fenix 6 Solar can be had for $499.
 
OddTrickStar said:
I’ve been thinking of getting a fitness watch and started looking at Garmin. Not a big watch wearer or gadget guy in general but i want the sleep, heart and oxygen monitoring stuff to go along with the gps etc when riding. Overwhelming how much these things do, not sure how much I need a touch screen even. Looking at a venu 2 (maybe even slim version) or the forerunner 745, might go stop at REI to try some on. It’s gotta be comfortable.
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Figure out what definite features you want, and then take a look also at what those extra features are that are available that you think *may* be beneficial.

Garmin watches have come a long way and way better than their Edge series. At a minimum I'd say go for an x45 series watch as that's when they really began having reliability, basic good features, better form factor etc.

They're all over the place for features which is a bit annoying. Like what watches support which features. IE, my 245M has Wi-fi and Music but can't do Garmin Pay or power meters. But a 255/265 can.

Like @mattybfat mine only comes off when I'm showering which is when I charge it. I do a GPS activity 5-6 days a week and never have concerns about the battery. Only time I get low on the battery is on a 11+ hour activity.

There's a ton of "smart" features that I didn't buy the watch for but now use quite often. Certain messages from my phone like phone calls, etc. Vibration morning alarm is great as it's quiet and doesn't wake up others nearby.

No experience on the touchscreen but the Forerunner series has buttons and you can set it up so that during an activity only buttons work, or both buttons & screen.

My experience w/ heart rate is it's good for basic tracking and info but if you're doing HR workouts it's junk. The workouts from Garmin Connect loaded to the watch via the calendar is awesome. I'm going out for a run workout in a bit and I just have to hit start and it'll ask me if I want to do today's workout or not.

Definitely take a look at them in a store. They are all over the place in regards to case sizing and screen sizing. Some have a huge dead space around the screen, or weird colors on the start/stop button, etc.

Just be warned, if you have a rest week or tapering the watch will be an asshole tell you that you're lazy.
 
Santapez said:
Figure out what definite features you want, and then take a look also at what those extra features are that are available that you think *may* be beneficial.

Garmin watches have come a long way and way better than their Edge series. At a minimum I'd say go for an x45 series watch as that's when they really began having reliability, basic good features, better form factor etc.

They're all over the place for features which is a bit annoying. Like what watches support which features. IE, my 245M has Wi-fi and Music but can't do Garmin Pay or power meters. But a 255/265 can.

Like @mattybfat mine only comes off when I'm showering which is when I charge it. I do a GPS activity 5-6 days a week and never have concerns about the battery. Only time I get low on the battery is on a 11+ hour activity.

There's a ton of "smart" features that I didn't buy the watch for but now use quite often. Certain messages from my phone like phone calls, etc. Vibration morning alarm is great as it's quiet and doesn't wake up others nearby.

No experience on the touchscreen but the Forerunner series has buttons and you can set it up so that during an activity only buttons work, or both buttons & screen.

My experience w/ heart rate is it's good for basic tracking and info but if you're doing HR workouts it's junk. The workouts from Garmin Connect loaded to the watch via the calendar is awesome. I'm going out for a run workout in a bit and I just have to hit start and it'll ask me if I want to do today's workout or not.

Definitely take a look at them in a store. They are all over the place in regards to case sizing and screen sizing. Some have a huge dead space around the screen, or weird colors on the start/stop button, etc.

Just be warned, if you have a rest week or tapering the watch will be an asshole tell you that you're lazy.
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Well said. Follow the same charging routine. I don't use the music or pay functions. Track my daily hydration as I make a habit of drinking 1gal min. a day. Connected to my phone for text, calls, and email.
 
So much good info! Appreciate all the feedback, thank you all much.

I stopped in REI to look at them, the larger size definitely fits my wrist fine. They have all the newest ones, the ones I’m looking at online are evidently older models but they’re affordable at around $300 give or take.

Power meter features would be unneeded for me, cadence and/ or heart strap possibly and they almost all seem to have that. Hydration monitoring would be helpful, I easily lose track when I’m not active.

Is it safe to assume that those HRM straps are a more accurate sensor for use with a watch? For use when working out and an improvement over the built in HRM?
 
OddTrickStar said:
So much good info! Appreciate all the feedback, thank you all much.

I stopped in REI to look at them, the larger size definitely fits my wrist fine. They have all the newest ones, the ones I’m looking at online are evidently older models but they’re affordable at around $300 give or take.

Power meter features would be unneeded for me, cadence and/ or heart strap possibly and they almost all seem to have that. Hydration monitoring would be helpful, I easily lose track when I’m not active.

Is it safe to assume that those HRM straps are a more accurate sensor for use with a watch? For use when working out and an improvement over the built in HRM?
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Yes to the HRM strap. Add it as a sensor to the watch and it will tell you it's connecting to it and override the wrist based HR of the watch.
 
JDurk said:
Well said. Follow the same charging routine. I don't use the music or pay functions. Track my daily hydration as I make a habit of drinking 1gal min. a day. Connected to my phone for text, calls, and email.
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I got mine when BCBS was doing 30% off so it wasn't much to get music functionality, turns out I think I've used it once or twice. I run with "music" but use my phone and typically it's podcasts. I use GooglePay on my phone pretty often while on bike rides or runs when I don't have my phone with me, so Garmin Pay on the watch would actually be nice.

@OddTrickStar If you're just using HR as a # to look at, the watch HR is fine. It's only really an issue if you're doing true HR based interval workouts where it has issues. Or if you have dark skin, boney wrist or tattoos HR will suffer.

Just go baller: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/783448 Garmin Marq 2
 
Santapez said:
I got mine when BCBS was doing 30% off so it wasn't much to get music functionality, turns out I think I've used it once or twice. I run with "music" but use my phone and typically it's podcasts. I use GooglePay on my phone pretty often while on bike rides or runs when I don't have my phone with me, so Garmin Pay on the watch would actually be nice.

@OddTrickStar If you're just using HR as a # to look at, the watch HR is fine. It's only really an issue if you're doing true HR based interval workouts where it has issues. Or if you have dark skin, boney wrist or tattoos HR will suffer.

Just go baller: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/783448 Garmin Marq 2
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I can see me doing interval workouts once I get used to the watch, and I do have bony wrists.

That Marq 2 is baller for sure, would need an upgraded wardrobe and carbon fiber wheels to go with it.

At my 50+ age I’m not sure how much use I would get out of the more advanced workout features of the Forerunner 745, compared to the Venu 2. I’m not training for racing (although I could very well find myself doing just that) but I want to get back to the best shape I reasonably can. I’m sure either watch would be good for helping me get there while monitoring sleep etc. Leaning towards the cheaper Venu 2 knowing I could upgrade in the future if the need is there. Maybe I’m wrong and the advanced training features would be best for my age. 🤷‍♂️
 
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I was a huge FitBit fan for over 4 years, started with a Blaze and 2+ years ago my kids got me the Versa 3. In general it was fine for what I needed it for, which was tracking off bike activities such as sleep, steps, HR, non Bike workouts, walks (especially when I walk the dog I track it) and the occasional mow the lawn LOL). I dont use it for any indoor cycling or connect any sensors to it other than track my HR in parallel to my chest strap. I also dont use it to record any outdoor rides (Garmin Edge for that).

However, back in Nov 2022 something at Fitbit changed (after Google bought them) and it no longer would sync ANYTHING to Garmin connect, strava or anywhere else. I opened about 100 support tickets and they went nowhere. I know this is a 1st world problem but I especially like/need to track the things I'm not doing on the bike so this bothered me to the point I ditched it.

Around the same time a good friend of mine was updating to a newer garmin watch, so I traded him doing free service on his gas powered mower and back pack blower and he gave me his old but factory refurbished under warranty replacement Vivoactive 4S. While I liked the FitBit software on my phone and the way it presents the data better, the Garmin is solid and does what I need. If I had one complaint its the screen size is a little small for my bad eyesight compared to the Fitbit Versa 3. I down loaded some free watch faces to make things easier to see but my eyesight still sucks.

Now that I am used to it its OK, I would look to upgrade it maybe for the holidays and having everything in the Garmin ecosystem is an advantage too.
 
iman29 said:
I was a huge FitBit fan for over 4 years, started with a Blaze and 2+ years ago my kids got me the Versa 3. In general it was fine for what I needed it for, which was tracking off bike activities such as sleep, steps, HR, non Bike workouts, walks (especially when I walk the dog I track it) and the occasional mow the lawn LOL). I dont use it for any indoor cycling or connect any sensors to it other than track my HR in parallel to my chest strap. I also dont use it to record any outdoor rides (Garmin Edge for that).

However, back in Nov 2022 something at Fitbit changed (after Google bought them) and it no longer would sync ANYTHING to Garmin connect, strava or anywhere else. I opened about 100 support tickets and they went nowhere. I know this is a 1st world problem but I especially like/need to track the things I'm not doing on the bike so this bothered me to the point I ditched it.

Around the same time a good friend of mine was updating to a newer garmin watch, so I traded him doing free service on his gas powered mower and back pack blower and he gave me his old but factory refurbished under warranty replacement Vivoactive 4S. While I liked the FitBit software on my phone and the way it presents the data better, the Garmin is solid and does what I need. If I had one complaint its the screen size is a little small for my bad eyesight compared to the Fitbit Versa 3. I down loaded some free watch faces to make things easier to see but my eyesight still sucks.

Now that I am used to it its OK, I would look to upgrade it maybe for the holidays and having everything in the Garmin ecosystem is an advantage too.
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My wife uses a Fitbit and I heard her complaining about problems since Google took it over. Pretty sure she wants to switch brands when it’s time to replace her current watch. Larger easier to see display appeals to me too, especially with using regular smart watch functions.
 
JDurk said:
Yes to the HRM strap. Add it as a sensor to the watch and it will tell you it's connecting to it and override the wrist based HR of the watch.
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Very much agree...yesterday I went to grab my 530 and it was dead so I just used the watch with no HRM strap....I looked at the top of every climb and my HR was WAY WAY off.....showing like 135 when it was more in the 155-160 range. My watch just doesnt keep up with my HR during a workout.....like 30 seconds later after the climb was over, then it starting tracking correctly.
 
UtahJoe said:
Very much agree...yesterday I went to grab my 530 and it was dead so I just used the watch with no HRM strap....I looked at the top of every climb and my HR was WAY WAY off.....showing like 135 when it was more in the 155-160 range. My watch just doesnt keep up with my HR during a workout.....like 30 seconds later after the climb was over, then it starting tracking correctly.
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Have to laugh when I'm on our Stages spin bike with power meter and using the 520 to follow a workout. Using Bluetooth, I can connect power meter and cadence, no speed to the 520. Garmin HRM strap connects to both the 520 and Stages. I'll see 135-140 bpm and 255w on the screens, look at the watch and it says 75 bpm.
 
OddTrickStar said:
Just ordered a Venu 2, should do everything I want/ need. Oddly, it also has a disc golf activity profile which is something else I enjoy.
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post up your review - interested to see which device i should go to next after the Vivo 4S theres so many choices and this is one of my shortlist choices.
 
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