He's a 13 year old eighth grader. He ran cross country this year and he's continued running 2-3 times a week. He also swims 6 days a week. We go to Michigan for two months in the summer, the nearest pool (Alpena) is a little over an hour away, and the team there doesn't practice in the summer any way.

I'd like him to stay in shape over the summer. We are on Lake Huron, so he can swim and run on the beach if the lake levels go down. I could probably take him to Alpena once a week to practice turns and drills. I'm thinking a sports watch could help him keep track of how he's doing. I've been looking at Garmin watches, but there's a gazillion models and don't really know where to begin. Plus there are other brands as well.

What should I be looking at to keep track of running and swimming for him? Budget is somewhat flexible, under $300 would be preferable, but no more than $500 and even then there'd have to be a really good argument made for me to consider it.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

I’ve been wearing a Garmin Fenix3 HR for a few years now. It’s been great. I use it to track my mountain biking and running. I think it has the ability to track swimming, but I’ve never used it for that.

There are newer models available, but the Fenix3 fit my needs and budget.

Second on the Garmin. I don't think you can find a better all-around sports watch.

I use a Garmin Vivoactive 3. Not as rugged as the Garmin Fenix series, but also not as much money. They are under $200.00 on Amazon right now as the Vivoactive 4 has come out.

I have been wearing mine for about a year and have yet to scratch the crystal.

Battery lasts anywhere from four days to a full week depending on what I am tracking.

Dave

My wife and I both have the Garmin forerunner 645 music (under $300 on Amazon). It’s a good watch, not huge like my Fenix 5 which I only use for hiking/Nav. The forerunner has all the first beat running metrics (V02 max, intensity, impact score) which both my wife and I find useful. Garmin has coaching programs that download directly to the watch, I did a 10k one last year and liked it. My wife is doing the half marathon one now and likes it enough. It keeps you on a program and keeps your workouts top of mind. You can get the same model for cheaper without the music function, but I like to be able to use it with Bluetooth headphones and not have to run with my phone.

You can also get a chest HR monitor for swimming and running, it will record data and pair the watch. I’ve found the wrist HR to be a little twitchy as I have small wrists and wear my watches a little loose. Not a great combination for accuracy with the wrist HR monitor.

Really depends on what you want to track. The garmin is really great if you want GPS data and put it into an app. I use it for biking since I love the data you get including elevation and speed. But when I'm swimming I don't give a hoot about that and in that case I use a polar, gives me the heart data I want and I have found it way better at getting good data while in the water.

G-shock

I'm not aware of any Gshock that does even basic heart monitoring or GPS tracking? Is there one? Otherwise doesn't seem close to the OP request?

I'd like him to be able to keep track of how far he runs and swims. He'll be swimming in open water, so he can't count laps like he can the pool.

Which Polar?

G-Shocks are a whole different can of worms. I looked at them for myself, but the model that does what I want isn't available in the USA.

I used to buy my wife Garmin watches but the constant sweat and water seemed to kill them in under 2 years. She’s had 3 different models (5 watches including 2 warranty replacements) and worked well when they worked.

I have a Suunto Spartan HR that I am quite pleased with.
Looks like they now call it the Suunto 5

https://www.suunto.com/en-us/P...uunto-5-black-steel/

Apple Watch. I had a Garmin didn’t like it much. Ver slow to find satellites as it aged. Not that fast to begin with. Apple Watch starts immediately. Works in water. Stores a small amount of music if you want to listen to earbuds. Can connect to phone when you get back home if you want to see bigger presentation of data. Plus, it’s a good watch the rest of the time. Don’t overthink this one.

Given his age and your somewhat limited needs I'm going to suggest something I recently found that is simply awesome.

Around $150 and has 2+ weeks of battery compared to many other options costing a whole lot more that maybe get a day (or two) on a charge.

quote:

Which Polar?

I have quite a few of them. But when I'm swim training in open water (tri prep) I don't actually care at all about how far just about how much time at what heart rate. They all do that well. If you actually want to know how far for some reason you need one with a GPS. I don't have any experience with the Polar products that do that. ON land for that I use a garmin (biking). But for me the kind of training you are discussing can easily be done by HR type training and that's modestly priced.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I'm not aware of any Gshock that does even basic heart monitoring or GPS tracking? Is there one? Otherwise doesn't seem close to the OP request?

I don't see either of those requested features in the original post.

Well if you are a runner (or swimmer I suppose) GPS tracking is required. Going running you want to know distance, pace, etc. Its kind of a given.

The sleep stuff is pure nonsense. Tracking sleep off an app doesn’t do you any good. It’s a weird set of data that doesn’t translate well into usefulness. I cringe every time someone talks about how good or bad their sleep was based on watch data. How do you incorporate that information into anything useful?

If he’s a runner/swimmer the watch HAS TO have a self contained GPS. Otherwise he has to carry a phone on his person for this data. Some people don’t mind carrying a phone while running (I hate it) but doubtful he wants to swim with a phone attached.

quote:

Originally posted by Scurvy:

I don't see either of those requested features in the original post.

I'm sorry I wasn't specific. It was clear in my mind that gps tracking for the distance ran or swam was the main feature of a sports watch I wanted. My son will be on the high school swim team next year and probably run cross country as well. I'd like him to be able to keep track of time and distance.

Apple's website says the Apple watch will only keep track of distance for freestyle. He also doesn't have an iPhone, if that makes a difference.

Bigdeal's suggestion looks pretty good, but I'm having trouble finding more specifics for it and a reputable retailer. The battery life for it using GPS is 20 hours which is in line with similar watches.

I guess I'm behind the times. I see sports watch for tracking and I'm thinking a watch with a chronograph/lap timer haha.

I'm a big mechanical watch guy so initially I was thinking about what mechanical seiko would fit.

Thanks folks!

I ordered a Polar Vantage V for $220 on Amazon, sold by Amazon. It can't use a chest strap heart rate monitor (HRM) while swimming, but does my 13 year old son really need that? It still does wrist HRM while swimming.

The Garmin Swim 2 has limited running features and none of Garmins watches under around $450 have an open water swimming mode.



SIGforum wins again!

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
I'm not aware of any Gshock that does even basic heart monitoring or GPS tracking? Is there one? Otherwise doesn't seem close to the OP request?

There is one coming out soon. It looks attractive.

https://world.g-shock.com/asia...s/g-squad/gbd-h1000/

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhe888,

Get a Garmin, in terms of bang for buck nothing comes close. BTW, without using the GPS my forerunner 235 will go for nearly a full week before needing charging. Compare that to Apple which needs to be charged every 18 hours, yeah it won't even last for a full day.

For your needs I would suggest the 645. it has swimming apps and also allows the use of GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo location services simultaneously. With that many satellites to use to track your location locking on and maintaining location accuracy will stun you. BTW, I started with the forerunner 15 that was GPS only and getting a location lock took 5 to 10 minutes at times. Then I steeped up to the 235 with GPS and GLONASS and getting a location lock usually happens before I can get my back door locked. With all 3 services running I would expect that getting a location lock will take about as long as flipping a switch.

Cost for the 645 is about 400 bucks if you get the base model, get the music and it will cost more. In addition to the watch you will also need the HRM Tri Heart Rate Monitor so you can track the heart rate while swimming, In addition this monitor can provide addition running metrics such as foot strike info and other specific stride information. So budget for about 550 dollars for the complete setup.

BTW, IMO wrist based LED heart rate monitors are JUNK. What they really are is a flashy light and a program that guesses your heart rate based on how rapidly your wrist is moving. Yeah, I know, that LED is supposed to be reading your heart rate. Problem is that in actual function it's a flashy light thingy with really poor estimates of your heart rate. Thus the reason for spending 130 dollars on the HRM monitor. BTW I use a HRM every time I work out and having accurate data allowed me to get medical attention for my heart before having a heart attack. Note, ended up needing a Mitral Valve Repair and triple bypass so that heads up from my HRM was likely a life saver.

PS; I am a fan of Garmin's hardware, it works well and does what I need it to. However not a fan of Garmin's software side. I suspect the software is farmed out to an outfit in India and as a result the updates to fix "bugs" are continuous and typically have new "bugs" to balance out the "bugs" removed. A corrupt way for that outfit in India to make sure the checks will always keep coming. Good news is I haven't had an update kill my watch yet but wont bet on that not happening at some point.