4 ms·

If you're in the market for a smart watch, and you're a cyclist, I'd recommend checking out Garmin. They have a massive array of sensors and record very precise

If you're in the market for a smart watch, and you're a cyclist, I'd recommend checking out Garmin. They have a massive array of sensors and record very precise data that is aggregated on Garmin Connect. It's been invaluable to me for assessing training effectiveness over time. They make Apple watches look like toys. If you want the latest and greatest, the Forerunner 945 is probably what you're looking for, but the older models can be found for cheap and are still solid watches. If you want emergency alerts, you'll have to stick with newer models though.

velp 7y ago
+1 on Garmin watches. The "smartwatch" functionality leaves something to be desired, but the watch itself is great, with helpful training features, a great screen, and good battery life. I have the fr645 Music, and can bluetooth to wireless buds for a run. The new Fenix 6 series is awesome, but they're a little bulky for my wrist.
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  >The new Fenix 6 series is awesome Just checked them out and my jaw dropped when I saw the +600 Euro price-tag. Since I'm not made of money, I hope some core tech from those quickly trickles down to some cheaper sports trackers from Xiaomi for example.
  - rdudek 7y ago
    I got the Vivoactive 3 and it has served me well with all its features, you can also routinely find it on sale too.
  - jniedrauer 7y ago
    The fenix series is a high end tool meant for serious backcountry use. The ratio of price to utility is actually really good when you compare it to other outdoor equipment. You could spend that much on ski bindings[0]. Not skis, literally just the bindings. If you just want a smart watch for training then a Forerunner 235 would work fine. [0]: https://www.rei.com/product/140950/salomon-slab-shift-mnc-ski-bindings https://www.rei.com/product/140950/salomon-slab-shift-mnc-sk...
    - velp 7y ago
      Yeah, exactly. Though even as someone who spends 40+ days/year in the backcountry skiing around the PNW, the 645m is plenty for me. That, combined with an inReach Mini incase shit hits the fan and I feel pretty well covered. As a side note, those bindings are incredible. Easily one of the biggest innovation in skiing since shaped skis. I put 30 days on mine last season and didn't have a single issue; really impressive for a lightweight, finicky, and brand-new piece of gear.
  - sh-run 7y ago
    Check out the Forerunner 945, it's near feature parity with the Fenix 6, but it's in a plastic body. I've got a FR935 (which is basically a Fenix 5 in a plastic body) and it's seriously great for anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors.
  - aembleton 7y ago
    Take a look at the amazfit pace. It's not as comprehensive as the garmins but does provide accurate data for cycling and running. You can also load gpx routes into it. It's £105 delivered from amazon in the UK. I expect a similar price in your country https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CRPSJJX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_KnXIDbXADQ1FP https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CRPSJJX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_...
noodlesUK 7y ago
Anecdotally +1 on Garmin as well. My friend was in a relatively severe hit and run when he was on a bike. His bike computer called emergency services. It probably saved his life. (He’s doing okay now)
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Wait, the bike's computer called emergency services, not the smartwatch? How?
  - noodlesUK 7y ago
    The bike computer pairs to the phone, phone (I believe) contacts emergency services. There was no smart watch involved, just saying their watches aren’t the only things they make with that capability.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
MereInterest 7y ago
How are they on privacy? The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers. At this point, especially with medical information such as heart rate, I do not trust it on any computer not covered by HIPAA or under my control.
- leppr 7y ago
  Or simply encrypt everything before it leaves the watch and decrypt client-side ala ProtonMail. I believe most people, if given a discrete choice, would sacrifice 2% of battery life and "forgot your password?" features for the privacy of such information.
  - kyralis 7y ago
    This is how HealthKit data works on iOS as long as you have two-factor authentication on for your iCloud account.
- djrogers 7y ago
  > The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers This is not the case with the Apple Watch - your Health data lives and dies on your phone unless you back it up or choose to share it with other apps.
  - ferongr 7y ago
    How do you know that? Have you examined the source code?
    - ihattendorf 7y ago
      How far do you go with that? Have you examined your CPU with an electron microscope? What about the motherboard? Every peripheral? Where does it end? At some point you have to trust someone.
nbanks 7y ago
I've been thinking of switching from an old Pebble to a Garmin because it has a daylight visible screen. Do they also have a system to text in case of emergency like the Apple watch?
- jwineinger 7y ago
  They do on newer watches, like the Forerunner 945 (which I have). https://www.garmin.com/en-US/legal/idtermsofuse/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/legal/idtermsofuse/
- dwighttk 7y ago
  were pebbles not daylight visible?
  - donkeyd 7y ago
    Really depended on the watch face. High contrast ones were perfectly readable, low contrast really needed the backlight.
quietthrow 7y ago
I think you are missing the point here completely and utterly. Compared to what the Apple Watch can do (as mention on the post and several comments) the garmin watch may be the real toy here.
- mshroyer 7y ago
  Recent Garmin watches and cycling computers also have "incident detection" and can automatically send an alert to your emergency contact(s) after a fall. (I don't think any current Garmin models will directly dial 911, though.)
- sh-run 7y ago
  That's hardly true, the two devices have very different purposes. I couldn't run an ultramarathon (or even a shorter trail race) in an apple watch. That's before we even start talking about features. The battery would die long before I finish. The FR945 that was released this year has far more features than the apple watch (including the emergency features). Even comparing the Apple Watch 4 to my FR935 (released in 2017), the Apple watch would be a huge step down for my purposes. That's all without mentioning the fact that I'd probably break the apple watch on my first outing. The Apple watch might be a better smart watch for day-to-day use, but next to a Garmin it's pretty obvious which is the toy. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator?type=watch&ids=91895%2C102074%2C72457%2C97965#results https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator?ty...
  - floil 7y ago
    When I was a kid, my next door neighbor was an ultra-marathoner and the fittest person I'd ever met. He died suddenly one day of a heart attack while out on a run.
    - sh-run 7y ago
      When this happens it's typically due to undiagnosed cardiomyopathy (which is very difficult to detect). It's true that when something like that happens to someone they would've lived longer had they not been an endurance athlete, but most endurance athletes live about as long as their less-active peers. I get a yearly physical just to be safe, but honestly running is my favorite way to decompress and I'd need some kind of diagnosis before giving it up.
bartread 7y ago
NOOOOO! Do not do this. I have a Garmin Fenix 5X and it does not make the Apple Watch look like a toy. The Apple Watch integration is seamless, the Garmin Connect integration is a joke. Moreover the Fenix has a clunky user interface, and is bulky and ugly. The Apple Watch absolutely trounces the Garmin in every aspect, functional and aesthetic, except for two: 1) Water resistance: it's hard to argue with the Garmin's 100M water resistance. 2) Battery life, but it only does better here by being massive (ref. previous comment about bulkiness). Seriously, unless you're spending a lot of time in the water, and if you're able to put the watch on charge every night, buy the Apple.
- kingosticks 7y ago
  To be totally fair you purchased the 5X, the biggest one on offer. A comparison with the 5S (6S now?) would be more reasonable.
  - asutekku 7y ago
    Doesn’t really change the other arguments, does it?
    - kingosticks 7y ago
      No, but they are subjective anyway. But I do personally agree the Apple integration and UI is much nicer, they know what they are doing in that department. I would be interested to know how the multisport features compare on the apple watch. In my eyes the fenix series is for triathletes/endurance athletes and if you don't have excellent battery life it's a non-starter. And last I heard it doesn't have ANT+ support which is another blocker for me since none of my bike stuff has BLE.
  - bartread 7y ago
    Quite true. I bought it for the GPS, mapping, and battery life, but this was really a mistake. I have 8.5 inch wrists, and even though that's relatively chunky, the Garmin looks absolutely ridiculous. The thing about fitness and sleep tracking is it's only useful if you're wearing the device pretty much all the time, particularly for things like daily calorie burn. Whereas I found that there are so many contexts where it either wasn't appropriate, or I didn't want to, wear a gigantic activity watch. I slugged it out for a few months, but in the end gave up on it because it wasn't really practical or stylish. The maps are something of a wash as well, because the screen is so tiny. My other arguments stand, to the point where I wouldn't even recommend buying one of the smaller ones unless you really need the water resistance. I imagine even the smaller models still have better battery life than the Apple Watch, so that's another consideration.

velp 7y ago

+1 on Garmin watches. The "smartwatch" functionality leaves something to be desired, but the watch itself is great, with helpful training features, a great screen, and good battery life. I have the fr645 Music, and can bluetooth to wireless buds for a run. The new Fenix 6 series is awesome, but they're a little bulky for my wrist.

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
>The new Fenix 6 series is awesome Just checked them out and my jaw dropped when I saw the +600 Euro price-tag. Since I'm not made of money, I hope some core tech from those quickly trickles down to some cheaper sports trackers from Xiaomi for example.
- rdudek 7y ago
  I got the Vivoactive 3 and it has served me well with all its features, you can also routinely find it on sale too.
- jniedrauer 7y ago
  The fenix series is a high end tool meant for serious backcountry use. The ratio of price to utility is actually really good when you compare it to other outdoor equipment. You could spend that much on ski bindings[0]. Not skis, literally just the bindings. If you just want a smart watch for training then a Forerunner 235 would work fine. [0]: https://www.rei.com/product/140950/salomon-slab-shift-mnc-ski-bindings https://www.rei.com/product/140950/salomon-slab-shift-mnc-sk...
  - velp 7y ago
    Yeah, exactly. Though even as someone who spends 40+ days/year in the backcountry skiing around the PNW, the 645m is plenty for me. That, combined with an inReach Mini incase shit hits the fan and I feel pretty well covered. As a side note, those bindings are incredible. Easily one of the biggest innovation in skiing since shaped skis. I put 30 days on mine last season and didn't have a single issue; really impressive for a lightweight, finicky, and brand-new piece of gear.
- sh-run 7y ago
  Check out the Forerunner 945, it's near feature parity with the Fenix 6, but it's in a plastic body. I've got a FR935 (which is basically a Fenix 5 in a plastic body) and it's seriously great for anyone who spends a lot of time outdoors.
- aembleton 7y ago
  Take a look at the amazfit pace. It's not as comprehensive as the garmins but does provide accurate data for cycling and running. You can also load gpx routes into it. It's £105 delivered from amazon in the UK. I expect a similar price in your country https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CRPSJJX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_KnXIDbXADQ1FP https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CRPSJJX/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_...

noodlesUK 7y ago

Anecdotally +1 on Garmin as well. My friend was in a relatively severe hit and run when he was on a bike. His bike computer called emergency services. It probably saved his life. (He’s doing okay now)

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Wait, the bike's computer called emergency services, not the smartwatch? How?
- noodlesUK 7y ago
  The bike computer pairs to the phone, phone (I believe) contacts emergency services. There was no smart watch involved, just saying their watches aren’t the only things they make with that capability.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

MereInterest 7y ago

How are they on privacy? The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers. At this point, especially with medical information such as heart rate, I do not trust it on any computer not covered by HIPAA or under my control.

leppr 7y ago
Or simply encrypt everything before it leaves the watch and decrypt client-side ala ProtonMail. I believe most people, if given a discrete choice, would sacrifice 2% of battery life and "forgot your password?" features for the privacy of such information.
- kyralis 7y ago
  This is how HealthKit data works on iOS as long as you have two-factor authentication on for your iCloud account.
djrogers 7y ago
> The issue that I have is that every wearable device expects you to allow upload of sensitive information to their servers This is not the case with the Apple Watch - your Health data lives and dies on your phone unless you back it up or choose to share it with other apps.
- ferongr 7y ago
  How do you know that? Have you examined the source code?
  - ihattendorf 7y ago
    How far do you go with that? Have you examined your CPU with an electron microscope? What about the motherboard? Every peripheral? Where does it end? At some point you have to trust someone.

nbanks 7y ago

I've been thinking of switching from an old Pebble to a Garmin because it has a daylight visible screen. Do they also have a system to text in case of emergency like the Apple watch?

jwineinger 7y ago
They do on newer watches, like the Forerunner 945 (which I have). https://www.garmin.com/en-US/legal/idtermsofuse/ https://www.garmin.com/en-US/legal/idtermsofuse/
dwighttk 7y ago
were pebbles not daylight visible?
- donkeyd 7y ago
  Really depended on the watch face. High contrast ones were perfectly readable, low contrast really needed the backlight.

quietthrow 7y ago

I think you are missing the point here completely and utterly. Compared to what the Apple Watch can do (as mention on the post and several comments) the garmin watch may be the real toy here.

mshroyer 7y ago
Recent Garmin watches and cycling computers also have "incident detection" and can automatically send an alert to your emergency contact(s) after a fall. (I don't think any current Garmin models will directly dial 911, though.)
sh-run 7y ago
That's hardly true, the two devices have very different purposes. I couldn't run an ultramarathon (or even a shorter trail race) in an apple watch. That's before we even start talking about features. The battery would die long before I finish. The FR945 that was released this year has far more features than the apple watch (including the emergency features). Even comparing the Apple Watch 4 to my FR935 (released in 2017), the Apple watch would be a huge step down for my purposes. That's all without mentioning the fact that I'd probably break the apple watch on my first outing. The Apple watch might be a better smart watch for day-to-day use, but next to a Garmin it's pretty obvious which is the toy. https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator?type=watch&ids=91895%2C102074%2C72457%2C97965#results https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator?ty...
- floil 7y ago
  When I was a kid, my next door neighbor was an ultra-marathoner and the fittest person I'd ever met. He died suddenly one day of a heart attack while out on a run.
  - sh-run 7y ago
    When this happens it's typically due to undiagnosed cardiomyopathy (which is very difficult to detect). It's true that when something like that happens to someone they would've lived longer had they not been an endurance athlete, but most endurance athletes live about as long as their less-active peers. I get a yearly physical just to be safe, but honestly running is my favorite way to decompress and I'd need some kind of diagnosis before giving it up.

bartread 7y ago

NOOOOO! Do not do this. I have a Garmin Fenix 5X and it does not make the Apple Watch look like a toy. The Apple Watch integration is seamless, the Garmin Connect integration is a joke. Moreover the Fenix has a clunky user interface, and is bulky and ugly. The Apple Watch absolutely trounces the Garmin in every aspect, functional and aesthetic, except for two: 1) Water resistance: it's hard to argue with the Garmin's 100M water resistance. 2) Battery life, but it only does better here by being massive (ref. previous comment about bulkiness). Seriously, unless you're spending a lot of time in the water, and if you're able to put the watch on charge every night, buy the Apple.

kingosticks 7y ago
To be totally fair you purchased the 5X, the biggest one on offer. A comparison with the 5S (6S now?) would be more reasonable.
- asutekku 7y ago
  Doesn’t really change the other arguments, does it?
  - kingosticks 7y ago
    No, but they are subjective anyway. But I do personally agree the Apple integration and UI is much nicer, they know what they are doing in that department. I would be interested to know how the multisport features compare on the apple watch. In my eyes the fenix series is for triathletes/endurance athletes and if you don't have excellent battery life it's a non-starter. And last I heard it doesn't have ANT+ support which is another blocker for me since none of my bike stuff has BLE.
- bartread 7y ago
  Quite true. I bought it for the GPS, mapping, and battery life, but this was really a mistake. I have 8.5 inch wrists, and even though that's relatively chunky, the Garmin looks absolutely ridiculous. The thing about fitness and sleep tracking is it's only useful if you're wearing the device pretty much all the time, particularly for things like daily calorie burn. Whereas I found that there are so many contexts where it either wasn't appropriate, or I didn't want to, wear a gigantic activity watch. I slugged it out for a few months, but in the end gave up on it because it wasn't really practical or stylish. The maps are something of a wash as well, because the screen is so tiny. My other arguments stand, to the point where I wouldn't even recommend buying one of the smaller ones unless you really need the water resistance. I imagine even the smaller models still have better battery life than the Apple Watch, so that's another consideration.