Fitness watch with GPS and in built HR?

daymouse

Im looking for a fitness watch which has HR built into it as i know i just wont use a chest band every time!

Theres some due out soon such as the Fitbit Surge but wanted to see what was already out there. Im geting a little lost theres soo many out there!

Ideally would be great to have GPS, HR, waterproof and a decent iphone app to see data.

Is there such a thing out there?

Thug

There are some around, I looked into them prior to buying my chest strap.

The reasons I went for the chest strap was because most of these watches require you to press a button to read your heart rate and don't do it constantly. Not much of a problem, but I use MapMyRun which shows a graph of my heart rate for each stage of a run. A watch wont provide any information for this.
Secondly, most of them have a very short battery life, some are less than 1 week, so you must remember to charge them regularly because I can lay a weeks wage that the day you want to use it it wont have any charge.
Check out my post about using a HRM or fitness band.

daymouse

Thanks, Is there such a thing as a HRM that goes on your wrist instead as i just cant see myself using a chest strap.

I think the idea of these bands/watchs coming out is to give take timely readings of your HR to give a general measure of health then you can change it to constant when doing an activity.

What you recommend in my case if its at all possible to get a HR for wrist instead of chest?

Thug

Really don't know.
The problem you may have is that those that go on your chest measure electrical pulses I believe where the ones that go on your wrist use light to measure small changes in colour due to the electrical pulses being weaker at this location.

I didn't think I would use a chest strap but find myself using it all the time.
The other problem with a watch is that I would wreck it in no time in the gym.

daymouse

If im going to use a HR monitor properly for trainig then i really need to see my HR in real time dont i and for that i would need to see it on a watch wouldnt i?

Thug

I just use mine on my phone, using MapMyRun, so you don't NEED a watch.

southeastjedi

The Fitbit Surge is due out soon enough, I got the Flex for Christmas which is OK but very limited in what it does. The Surge will be £199 on release.

Fitbit Surge™ Fitness Super Watch

daymouse

Yeah after going back and forth ive reliased i will always have my phone on me for music and so got GPS there. Along with this i want general helth through the day so I've decided to go for the Fitbit Charge HR. Just a case of holding out for the release.

PSM1

I believe the TomTom watch will do all that you want. It is marketed as a multi sport watch so will do swimming and biking as well. Although you may not use these features it does mean it is fully waterproof and robust. It uses the light method for HRM as well. Battery life is not as good as Garmin products but I believe it is still over 12 hours (so just not very good if you are doing long distance triathlons unless you are  quick!!!). However, as long as you get into the routine of charging the watch after each session or end of week etc. then you should have no issues with battery life. The TomTom will also display HR in real time so should be good while training. How good the light based systems are I am not sure as I have read mixed reviews. Garmins are some of the best wrist based GPS systems around with good functionality etc. but all use chest straps. I have a Garmin and was worried about using the chest strap but I do not even know I am wearing it now and it is no hassle to use. Chest straps also give good reliable measurement.
GPS Watches - TomTom - for running, cycling, swimming

Martin.D

Not sure how accurate a wrist worn device would be, I have the Fenix 2 with a HR strap and it does a fantastic job. There are much cheaper devices on the market - my wife has the Garmin Forerunner 110 and HR strap and shes very happy with it. Once fitted the HR strap is hardly noticeable!