After almost 2 years and 6 months my Garmin Forerunner 935 seems to have finally clocked its last activity:
What I Need a Sports Watch For
I do a fair bit of outdoor activities (From Jan to March 158 hours) mostly Running (trails 80%, Road 20%), Cycling, Golf and Swimming. I NEED a watch with the ability to track all of these and I WANT one that will also include Music, GooglePay and Triathlon Functionality. It’s also important to consider future goals, I’m considering doing an Ironman (Full or 70.3, tbd), so for this I will need strong battery performance and triathlon sport function is preferred.
Here’s the breakdown in a (simple) table: Garmin Compare March 2021
The Selection Process
seemed difficult at first, but once put in an orderly spreadsheet, it becomes a simple process of elimination.
This simple process put me down to 4 watches (non-greyed lines) which then I had to determine if the additional features of the more expensive watches was worth it. A simple way of doing this is allocating each (useful) feature with a $ value and then using a more comparative price. The additional features (additional to the more basic and cheaper Vivoactives) were – Full Map Functionality, GP accurate, Extra battery life, Triathlon ability and ‘future proofing’. These are very subjective and up to each individual to allocate the $ values.
An honourable mention to the other major brand – Suunto. A really great watch (Suunto 7), however let down severely in Battery life.
Conclusion
In the end, I went with the Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. It houses everything I need and then some. I’m also wary of the value I gain from having such an important tool to my health, fitness & Goals, so even though I would consider it a significant price tag, it will be a worthwhile investment.