A question for everyone who owns a Garmin/smart watch. I'm toying with the idea of getting one (Amazon have some amazing deals if anyone else interested) and I was just wondering: those of you who have a Garmin, do you wear it all the time or only for running/sports? Just trying to work out how much I would wear it and the trade off seems to be between size/style/screen and functionality.
If anyone (especially ladies with slimish wrists!) have any recommendations, I'd be really grateful to hear them too.
Thank you so much!
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NetCadet
Graduate10
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I have a garmin vivoactive 3 that I just got a couple months ago. I’ve never worn a sports tracker before and haven’t worn a watch in years! I wear it all the time, not just for running. It def takes some getting used to, when I first got it it was really annoying, it was always too tight or too loose etc. I still find myself adjusting the fit by one hole in the band a couple times a day. I haven’t looked into different bands but I may do that in the future.
The thing about wearing it all the time even though it’s sort of annoying is that it does so much more than just track my pace/distance for running. It tracks sleep, steps for the day, heart rate, max heart rate for the day, etc. Nothing I couldn’t do without of course, I was doing without it for the last 56 years! But now that I’ve got it I like seeing how my daily/weekly intensity minutes are adding up, I especially like seeing my heart rate at any given time. Don’t ask me why, I just do!
I have a garmin vivoactive 3 music and I love it. I wear it during the day only but it's really good as it helps keep track of hr, stress, hydration etc. There are fancier watches out there but I'm happy with this one. I do like the design and it comes in different strap sizes so you can find the right one for you. I haven't used all the features yet, like the workouts - just need to find the patience to find out how they work 😂
I am female narrow wrist - I wear my garmin forerunner 35 24/7 I love it. Prior to purchasing I didn't wear a watch at all and thought it would be too bulky but I quickly got used to it. Massive tan line though🤣
I can't bear the thought of everything being tracked! I have avoided tracking watches as a result and just downloaded strava. It is annoying because I have to run Strava and my musuc together which is fiddly, plus podcasts down work properly when I'm on Strava. But I wouldn't mind a watch which doesn't tell me everything which is going on with my body!
The fact it uploads automatically to Strava is great. You don't have to pay any/ much attention to the in-depth data unless you want to. If you choose a watch without heart rate options it will be cheaper too.
MapMyRun links to your music and automatically starts your playlist when you start. I think runkeeper does as well, but strava and Endomondo don’t. Seems a little thing but I’m all for less faff!
I've had my garmin forerunner 35 for nearly a year now and I love it. I do wear it all the time , even in bed. I thought the size of the watch looked a bit big at the time but now I don't even notice. Good luck with your purchase 😊😊
I have a vivoactive 3 and had it for over two years. I always wore a watch with a small face as I have skinny wrists so it took a bit of getting used to.
I wear it all the time and have occasionally got annoyed when I’ve forgotten to charge it!
I’m a bit of a data geek so love all the info it gives you. I’ve also been using Garmin coach through the app to help me get faster. I think now though I would go for the newer 4s.
I bought a Garmin Forerunner 45s (iris blue) a few months ago and I love it.
Initially I was guided by price as well as functionality, as I thought how much do I really want to spend on a watch to just track my runs? I didn't want music, but I did want decent GPS. I didn't set out to wear it all the time, but I do. I have narrow wrists, so the smaller watch face on the 45s is what attracted me initially, but the smaller size certainly doesn't compromise the visibility of the screen. It has all the functions I need for a running watch and more - I love the stats - it can become mildly obsessive!
If I had to go out and buy a watch today, I would buy the same again. Very happy with it 😍
I have a slim wrist and bought a Garmin Forerunner 45 which I wear the whole time. Needs charging every 4 days or so and only takes about 25 mins to charge. Very clear and concise app which you can link to Strava. Would now be lost without it.
I have a Garmin forerunner 245 music. I've had it for over a month now and I absolutely love it. I have a slim wrist but the watch had lots of notches so it's easy to find the right fit. It's very comfortable that I don't even realise it's there and can sleep with it on no problem. I wear it 24/7 except for showers etc. I had a Fitbit charge 2 previously so it might be I've gotten used to a watch on my wrist but I find the Garmin comfier. It's also very accurate and useful when it comes to running stats and it's GPS.
One negative I've found though is the watch is clueless when it comes to me sleep patterns. If that interests you or is something you want in a watch I wouldn't recommend this one. It'll say I'm asleep when I'm just lying down 😂
Hi I wear a vivoactive 4s whic isn’t too big and clunky I have worn it since mid January and love it, the s means it’s smaller than the 4 and looks more like a watch than a sport watch
I have tiny wrists but still wear my huge garmin 645m 24/7. You get used to it. The one thing I would say is if you're going to wear it 24/7 try to swap wrists a couple of days a week. The rubber straps can irritate over time... plus you'll end up with a huge tan line 🤣
My sons bought me a fenix 6s for my birthday. It has all the bells and whistles I could ever want - and some. I would have been happy with anything that supported spotify, but they chose it so who am I to argue.
It's smaller than a lot of trackers and it's grey and rose gold, so looks lovely as an everyday watch. I wore it to bed for a week or so, just so it could gather data, but I don't now. I'm lucky enough for sleep pretty well and I don't think I need it.
Apart from that I wear it all day. I've just started heart rate training, which is fun/annoying in equal measure. Only a chest monitor will record heart rate completely accurately, but the watch is accurate enough for what I need and so much better than my old Fitbit.
I would recommend it as a ladies watch if you have the money to spend; I'm not sure I would have paid for it, especially as I got a pair of aftershokz to go with it. 😊
That's the same for me, but this was a big round birthday. We were supposed to all be in a villa in France but covid put paid to that. And I do have three sons to share the cost. 😉
I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4s. Very nice looking and looks like a normal watch. Wear it all the time. I was using my Fitbit Versa for watch/running but the lack of gps annoyed me. So I got the Garmin. Now I just press run on the Garmin and it gets going. However it is actually worse than the Fitbit at auto recognising walks ( not on auto for runs) so that’s annoying as I dog walk most days. The screen is not as clear as the Fitbit either. The stats are a bit more advanced than the Fitbit- I mean we all need to know how many breaths a minute we take😂😂 most of all though, when a run auto uploads to strava from Garmin it is more accurate than Fitbit and for that reason it is better for me than the fitbit. Lastly my AirPods work with it so I can listen to music without relying on my phone. It’s a good looking watch, not too big, with loads and loads of stats so you won’t be disappointed!
I bought a basic Forerunner 30 watch during my C25k and liked it so much that when I saw a good deal on a Fenix 5plus last month I had to get it. I’m a bit of a stato anyway but I love the Spotify integration and, as I mostly run off-road, having the ability to plot a course and have the watch show it on a map while I’m running is in absolutely brilliant 🙂 However one thing it isn’t is slimline - in fact it’s downright chunky and quite heavy too. Having said that I believe the Fenix s versions are smaller in size and weight.
I’m on my second now... forerunner 35 hardly off my wrist for a year, until the 245 arrived a couple of weeks ago. I like having all the data... and any dataset that becomes irritating can be turned off 🤣
Mine’s a Forerunner 235. I have small wrists and I used to only wear it for running. However lockdown left me not needing to wear my nice watch so much and I began wearing the Garmin 24/7. I only scratch the surface with what it can do, but I love it and it tracks my running, yoga and walking perfectly. 😍
I’ve got a Fenix 6S. I certainly don’t need all the features just for my running but it was on a super super discount. I love it. I’ve got skinny wrists but quite like the fact it looks chunky. It doesn’t feel it. I wear my other watch on my other wrist as well even whilst 🏃♀️
I know it’s silly 😂 The other watch feels like a piece of jewellery though and the Garmin does what it needs to do. I did the same with my Apple Watch before I got the Fenix. If I had to choose only one watch; it would be my Garmin🏃♀️
I have the Forerunner 235 - wanted a round face. Thought it was huge at first but don't think about that now. It does a lot more than I use it for. I tend to take it off before bed. The strap irritates sometimes but I find that with any watch. And I have a big tan line!
I was looking at this sort of thing when I started running but was unsure whether I would wear it much so I decided to get a cheap amazefit from amazon instead just to see how it went before buying a better one.
Nearly 2 years later I am still using it all the time it works so well and the app with my phone is great and easy to use.
I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4 Music. I'm female with a slimish wrist and it's fine. I trialled it out wearing my son's. His was black, and it felt clunky at first but I got used to it. The white strap with the rose gold bevell is the same size, but being paler it looks less clunky. I'd have happily bought a black one if they hadn't had the white and rose gold. Although it's fairly large, it's sleek: a circular watch face with only one neat little button. It weighs very little, it's far lighter than it looks.
I wear it all the time. I adjusted the screen display to make it look more like a traditional watch (analogue with just the three hands and sixty notches). It doesn't look like a sports watch.
When I go for a run or whatever, the display for my activity is nice and clear. It's activated by a tilt of the wrist so I don't have to tap the screen or press buttons to see my data.
The GPS is pretty good. If I go out on one side of the road and come back on the other you can see the bifurcation on the map later on, but it might not start at the right place. It recorded a 5k parkrun as 4.91km, even though parkruns are typically slightly over the distance. Very few GPSs are much more accurate than that though.
Garmin watches offer a lot of basic data on pace, cadence, heart rate etc, and then far more data if you go onto their website and open up submenus. Posher ones do more than the Vivoactives, but I never felt a lack of data. I'm a massive fan of data, spreadsheets and graphs are heaven to me, and my Vivoactive sends enough data to the website for me to make many graphs.
Another lovely thing is that it holds Spotify playlists. I don't have to take my phone with me to listen to music on a run. If you don't need music then you can get a cheaper Vivoactive, but for me it was definitely worth spending the extra.
If you bank with Santander you can use a Vivoactive as a contactless payment device.
Whatever you get, I hope you end up loving it like I love mine.
I have really small wrists so I went for the Garmin Vivoactive 4s. Its a bit pricey (although not top of the range) but I absolutely love it and wear it all the time.
I've had a garmin 35 for over a year. I was concerned as I have slim wrists and thought it would look huge on me , but it's great, I love it and wear it all the time. It's simple, straightforward and accurate (I'm not very technical). Its also easy to read when you're out running. Have fun choosing 😃
Did you ever buy a watch, NetCadet? I've been toying with the idea for months now and am back on the chase.
I think I've narrowed it down to the Garmin Forerunner 245 (huge plus is the cadence tracking) but I also like the Vivoactive 4 which tracks many more activities (like SUP). I searched on Fust today and the Forerunner 245 was CHF269 but on other websites (like the Garmin website), it is more expensive (CHF350+). Not sure why.
Just wondering if you made the decision and if so, what you decided.
Hi sofaspud yes, I did! I went for the Vivoactive 4S. My hubby bought it for me in June I think when the shops were open and he had to hunt around as there weren't many left for some reason. I think he got it from Fust I think or maybe Dnac for around CHF280. Is the difference in price because one is the music model? Sounds about the right difference.
Did you know you can also order one from Amazon UK and have it delivered. They take off the UK VAT and add the Swiss VAT which is less. I ordered a Garmin 735 for my stepdad's birthday that way and got an amazing deal. They are pretty cheap on Galaxus at the moment too.
I don't think you will regret it whichever model you get! It has really helped to motivate me and it looks like a great to boot
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