Smart Watch Advice

[Electric_Andy]

As a general rule - what do you smartwatch owners tend to use the most? I've always fancied one but I usually have my phone by my side or in my pocket so don't know if it would be handy or just an expensive bracelet. I use my phone for messages, not many calls, paying for shopping and streaming music. Could any of the above be handled better with a smart watch?

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Health stuff.

 

[AlanW]

As a general rule - what do you smartwatch owners tend to use the most? I've always fancied one but I usually have my phone by my side or in my pocket so don't know if it would be handy or just an expensive bracelet. I use my phone for messages, not many calls, paying for shopping and streaming music. Could any of the above be handled better with a smart watch?

Very much the same as me really. But l wanted something to track and record my walks other than using my phone. I also wanted to explore my sleep pattern and also my heart rate.
Then, on the flip side, l liked the advantages of a smart watch where l could download music to it, pay for stuff and look at messages. Maybe take or make calls to with it.
Hence why l opted for the Venu 3, it's seems to tick all the required boxes, with a few additional nice to have ones too.

 

[Electric_Andy]

l opted for the Venu 3

£400, wow. I've decided I don't need a smart watch

 

[tom73]

For me it's fitness tracking , Apple Pay , controlling music and other apps, checking the whether , checking messages , checking notifications controlling volume , smart home stuff, timers, taking calls, sending messages.

 

[AlanW]

£400, wow. I've decided I don't need a smart watch

Currys have them at £348 at the moment, order on line via Quidco and get 11% cashback 😉

 

[Psamathe]

My experience with top of the range Garmin watch (Epix 2?) ... after a few months it went back to Garmin as it was a waste of time.

Excellent hardware but a lot of shortcomings in Garmin's software eg. it was recording me as having one or two 20 minute snoozes each afternoon and I never snooze and Garmin's software does not allow you to delete these "automatically mis-detected" events from your training record. Lots of people raising the issue on Garmin's and other forums and Garmin keep "tweaking" and failing to resolve the issue. They could have just put in a "Disable snooze detection" option and solved 90% of the issues but "Garmin know better" so it persisted.

I found it's heart rate recording unreliable. On a cycle first 20 miles makes sense but then it would start recording low heart rates eg around my resting hearty rate (as watching TV in the evening), around 60. So I'd start rerally pushing hard, leg muscles "burning" a bit, breathing hard and HR would stay fixed at the low level. In the end out of interest I got a cheap Polar chest heart rate sensor to see what was happening and the Garmin was just recording wrong.

A lot of what it seems to record are estimates based on readings so when those readings are wrong a lot of other data is also wrong.

Trouble is the watch wasn't "faulty" is just has too many shortcomings to provide any interesting data.

So argument with Garmin and returned for full refund.

Ian

 

[Chislenko]

As a general rule - what do you smartwatch owners tend to use the most? I've always fancied one but I usually have my phone by my side or in my pocket so don't know if it would be handy or just an expensive bracelet. I use my phone for messages, not many calls, paying for shopping and streaming music. Could any of the above be handled better with a smart watch?

I use it for recording rides / runs etc. Especially handy when running as I don't really want to carry a brick sized phone with me 🙂

And when riding the phone can stay in the saddle bag in case of emergencies.

The other advantage over the phone is that it gives heart rate without the need for a separate HRM

 

[AlanW]

And when riding the phone can stay in the saddle bag in case of emergencies.

Yes, that's another reason why l opted for the Venu 3. It's a right faff getting my phone out when wearing multiple layers this time of year. So utilizing the watch instead should make life easier?

 

[Big T]

I have the most basic Garmin smartwatch, a Forerunner 45 (now superseded by the 55). It records walks, rides, steps, heart rate, and a few other features such as Body Battery and also tracks sleep. You can use it without a phone and it will just upload a ride, run or walk, when next in range of the phone.
The Forerunner 55 is on sale for about £120 currently.

 

[HLaB]

Ive still got my Vivoactive 2 it was £160 IIRC and I think the newer models are not much more. It does what I want records sleep, HR and walks (no idea how good it is for the other sports it claims to track). More detailed stuff I already have in other apps. The only real thing that might see me upgrade eventually is the battery life. The new one looks good Amoled, HRV, Body battery etc added for £209

 

[SpokeyDokey]

As a general rule - what do you smartwatch owners tend to use the most? I've always fancied one but I usually have my phone by my side or in my pocket so don't know if it would be handy or just an expensive bracelet. I use my phone for messages, not many calls, paying for shopping and streaming music. Could any of the above be handled better with a smart watch?

Garmin Instinct 1 used for:

Activity tracking, - treadmill, turbo, gym, cycling, walking, mountain hiking. Distance, speed, average mph and heart rate zones. Great for zone training.

RHR monitoring and avoidance alarms for excessive heart rate during exercise.

Route navigation and pin-pointing map northings/eastings for paper map positional referencing.

Altitude & altitude profile monitoring whilst mountain hiking.

Compass.

Whatsapp & messaging notifications.

Livetrack (slightly flaky at times) shared position feature for eg spousal peace of mind!

Time of day, date, sunrise & sunset times (with audio alerts).

Quite a lot really.

 

[vickster]

As a general rule - what do you smartwatch owners tend to use the most? I've always fancied one but I usually have my phone by my side or in my pocket so don't know if it would be handy or just an expensive bracelet. I use my phone for messages, not many calls, paying for shopping and streaming music. Could any of the above be handled better with a smart watch?

Recording exercise (eg saves me having to count lengths when swimming ), measuring heart rate and AF (also recording AF episodes for cardiologist, hopefully now eliminated by procedure), telling the time, looking at texts and messages on the go without having to pull phone out, timer while cooking, sleep monitoring, medication alerts, secondary alarm for early starts 😴

 

[Drago]

Telling the time.

 

[Spartak]

Suunto.

I've been using a Baro 9 for about 18 months.
Excellent battery life and you can sync to Strava via suunto app on the phone.
Lots of details and information etc.
You can also create & import routes and navigate via the watch.

If you need anymore information, post here and I'll try to help.

£259 direct from Suunto ... 👍

https://www.suunto.com/en-gb/Products/sports-watches/suunto-9-baro/suunto-9-baro-black/