Best Vivoactive 3 Watch Faces (2024 Updated)

I’m an avid runner (18+ marathons, 200+ miles/month) and I love my Venu for training/racing/sleep & stress stats with the added bonus being it is cute so I can wear it to work, etc. My only beef… the little o-rings that hold the loose end of the strap break and it is impossible to order just those anywhere, Garmin website included.

This forces you to buy a whole new band (which is easy to switch out) but comes with just a single O-ring, so I know I’m on borrowed time (pun intended). Garmin: include 1-2 extras with each band AND/OR make them available for separate purchase!.

I purchased this replacement band as a gift for my wife. She wears her Garmin pretty much everywhere and after two years of daily use the original band doesn’t have much life left in it. I can’t rate the new band since she hasn’t opened/used it yet – it’s a Christmas gift.

But I can say it arrived very quickly and in perfect condition after I placed my order.

To be honest, I was a little shocked by the price of this item. Paying $80 for a watch band is not something I would normally do, so I was skeptical. It arrived faster than expected. I opened the box and the leather looked so well finished, I thought it was plastic.

That did not last long. I used the easy attach system to put the band on. Once it was on my wrist I new this was a quality product. The leather was very comfortable and looked great with the black case of my Fenix 5X.

I use it almost every day. A couple of times, I accidentally wore it in the shower. It dried out fine and I had no issues with stretching or water staining. It looked pretty much like it did coming out of the box.

I would recommend this product to a friend.

Straight off the bat, this watch is NOT worth its asking price. Given that I purchased it for less than half RRP, it is slightly more palatable. It is suited for a small niche of people that really don’t want a smartwatch, but want the health tracking data.

Given you want a watch to track various strenuous activities, there are far better choices on the market. It seems to be fairly well made, though I question its longevity as a watch in terms of software updates and battery.

Talking of battery, the lifespan of 3 days is really quite disappointing for a hybrid. Though on balance, other watches on the market in this category have their own issues, it is a question of which issue you wish to deal with.

I hope in a few years the hybrid smartwatch will evolve into something better than all the current offerings. I’ve seen reviews complaining of the weight, but I guess this is relative, I normally wear a Citizen Eco watch, which is around 5 times heavier than this.

The leather strap is nice enough, though I could not adjust to it after years of wearing metal bands, so I replaced it with a Milanese stainless band, which really looks the part and is far more comfortable for me.

The Garmin Connect app really shines, it has all the data I need and more. I particularly like that itis also available on the desktop as a website. The AMOLED display is very pretty when you can see it; it is very poor in sunlight.

For me this doesn’t detract from the watch, it is still gathering data, whether I can see it or not.

Vivomove Luxe – really is Luxe ! What a stunning looking Hybrid watch. I love the fact that it hides it’s ‘Smart’ features, until you choose to see or use them, and that you have two screens/text areas with a better/easier to read screen definition and in colour too.

I also have the Vivomove HR and this watch takes things to a whole new level, you can customize and remove the widgets, so I have purple text with the Day and Time, that appear only when I double tap the watch (you can have this happening when you turn your wrist buts that’s a waste battery life and is annoying and distracting when at the Cinema).

The leather strap is comfortable and conforms to the wrist and sets off the Rose Gold watch face really nicely. This was going to be my posh ‘going out’ watch, but I have a feeling I will be wearing it much more often, already had several compliments.

Well done Garmin ! Fortunately First Class watches have this at a great price, as the actual RRP is a bit pricey.

I waited to write a review until a few weeks of owning the watch. Ultimately pleased i went the extra mile in costs as Vivomove Luxe a beautiful looking watch. I have had Fitbit, Withings and Huawei previously and this outshines them in aesthetics.

You still get the full Garmin ecosystem, which is pretty comprehensive with steps, workouts, SPO2, stress monitoring etc. I have had a few issues with Bluetooth connectivity coming on and off and intensity minutes went AWOL off the watch for a few days, but Garmin support is there and there is a 2 year guarantee.

Actually bought this watch twice. Returned (28 days) the first one after problems with it not always counting floors climbed accurately or sometimes not at all. It had also went down in price $20 during that 28 days.

Tried different watch and did not like it at all. Second Vivoactive 3 has basically performed like the first one for the last 24 days. I bought the watch for three activities, walk outside, bike outside and floor climb.

Watch performs well for the walking and biking, miles recorded are with in plus or minus 1. 5% and the same to actual. Recorded the same floor climb (16) times, average shown was 21. 5, low 17, high 25, variance 37%.

Does not include the last climb today that recorded zero! This problem (not recording at all) happened often on the first watch purchased. Would have to turn watch on and off, sometime more than once to get it to work.

Also noted intensity minutes are often off, heart rate appears more or less accurate most of the time, but not all the time. Did not check elevation accuracy on second watch. Spent two weeks at the ocean with first watch and it recorded sea level from minus 15 feet to plus 120 feet.

Only showing zero to ten feet about 10% of the time. Battery appears to function per stated, however twice had it lose 30% of the charge over night when turned off!?.

I use the vivoactive primarily for tracking distance and speed for running but also will strap it on to get a rough idea of calories burned during workouts. The watch itself looks good. You could wear it casually without looking weird.

Lots of different options for the display. Strap is durable but you may see the holes in the band wear. The run tracker works excellently. Distance is pretty accurate. Speed is typically pretty good but not perfect.

Heart rate is where it falls short. It can be all over the place. Ive been gasping for breath and sweating like a pig but its telling me that my heart rate is relaxed at a rate of a slow walk. I hear this is pretty common for wrist based trackers though and, if you want more accuracy, you need the chest monitor.

It also has different modes for different activities. I havent tried swimming but guessing it would work fine. It does have a weightlifting mode that is supposed to help track reps but its completely useless.

Battery life is good but, if youre just using it for exercise, turn it off when you take it off. Left on consistently, youd likely need to charge nightly. If youre looking for a good run tracker with some smart watch functionality, you wont be disappointed.

I returned the Fitbit Versa and got this Vivoactive 3 because: The Fitbit counts steps arbitrarily whenever you’re in a moving vehicle over a surface that’s not perfectly even, i. e. a car over a moderately bumpy road, a truck, a golf cart, or a motorcycle.

While all trackers do that do some extent, despite years of complaints on their forums, Fitbit refuses to resolve the issue on the device itself. Their ‘solution’ requires users to manually track the incorrectly tracked data and then edit it on their data page on the Fitbit website.

In other words, you get to write down all the steps your Fitbit Versa miscounts while driving and then waste hours of your life correcting that data manually after the fact. Alternatively, you can manually shut your Fitbit down while you drive or ride, in which case you don’t have a watch or HR monitor.

Conversely, the Vivoactive 3’s activity tracker is far superior at distinguising actual steps from vehicle-induced motion, and it has a setting to suspend the fitness tracking while leaving the watch and HR monitor on.

Other positives to this product: 1) the watch body has a round shape and lies flat against the wrist, so it rarely catches on long-sleeved garments while dressing. The Versa has a rounded rectangular shape that caught on the sleeve everytime I put on a shirt or jacket.

How annoying is that? 2) The Vivoactive 3 is always-on by default. The Versa display shuts off by default, so you have to quickly and jerkily rotate your wrist to see it, and that doesn’t always work, either.

3) All the fonts on the Vivoactive are large enough to read. The Versa’s fonts for everything except the watch funciton are so tiny that unless you are extremely nearsighted you can’t read anything but the time.

You can install custom watch faces but finding one that shows the activity and HR data in a large font is a chore. 4) The Vivoactive 3 display stays on during workouts and you can switch between clock faces that show large-font workout stats easily.

The Fitbit display constantly shuts off unless you install a Fitbit ‘app’ that will stay on while you work out, but then you have to scroll through screens of apps to get to one you want, and switching between them is impossible if you’re moving because the icons are so ridiculously small.

5) The Vivoactive 3 wrist band stretches to conform to your wrist. The Versa wristband doesn’t stretch, so it was too tight or too loose, and was very uncomfortable on my wrist. 6) Vivoactive 3 has onboard GPS.

To get GPS on a Versa, you have to tether it to your smart phone. Bottom line: The Vivoactive 3 is a far superior product to its closest Fitbit competitor, the Versa. If there were no alternative to the Versa, I’d have returned it and done without any fitness tracking smart watch.

But, instead I returned it and purchased this Garmin Vivoactive 3 which in addition to all its superior features also looks better, IMO. I understand the Versa 2 still has the same issues with the poor step tracking and lack of tracking-suspend function and many of the other Versa weakness still apply.

In closing — there’s a lot of hype surrounding Fitbit. Do your research before you make your product choice. The Vivoactive 3 was on sale for $119 here when I got it last week. But even at the current price, it’s a better buy than it’s Fitbit alternative because it’s just that much better a product.

I’m having issues with my vivoactive 3 music once again. The watch is not connecting to my iPhone. This is the 3rd replacement watch that has this issue. I thought maybe after the second watch, it may be the phone.

So I got a new phone, and the watch is still having issues. I’m also having issues with the watch connecting to gps and satellite before a run. I tried switching between the two satellite and gps options.

No matter what setting i pick, it seems to wait 5 minutes before it connects if it connects at all. I run with other people that have Garmin watches. When I run with them, they say we are at an 8:30 per mile pace but my watch says 9:00 per mile.

My roommate has a forerunner and doesn’t have these issues. I offered to pay to an upgrade to a better model but was denied by garmin customer service and given a defective replacement twice. Seems like this product is just a waste of money.

Pros: Light, quite stylish- if simple. Would prefer it to look more ‘masculine’ but I do have large wrists which made the strap look quite thin! Very easy to set up and sync with the Connect app on my mobile phone.

Cons: Didn’t record my HR with any accuracy whatsoever whilst I was using the indoor rower (this is one of my main and favourite forms of CV exercise). I tried it several times, adjusting the strap (looser, tighter, on different parts of my wrist) and on my opposite wrist (which I didn’t like and it still didn’t make a difference).

HR even showed to decrease even deeper in to my rowing session, thus throwing my kcals burned way out. The reps counter on a strength workout is a bit gimmicky, rarely accurate- which is okay if you can be bothered to edit and correct afterwards each set.

You can also add the weight used after each set, however this is in kg which is fine, but then the app showed lbs (pounds) which only confuses. The exercise recognition is not even close to being accurate (and my technique is impeccable, even if I do say so myself- it’s my job)! The watch only proved to frustrate me, lengthened my workouts due to tampering with it between sets (otherwise, what’s the point of having the features if you’re not going to use them) and failed miserably to live up to my (very realistic) expectations.

The screen is very poor (dim) and even though you could turn the brightness up it doesn’t have the clarity of all of its rival models. The colours just aren’t vibrant enough for this age and only bring down the user experience.

The watch faces included are low quality and ‘busy’ to see what stats you’d like on the lock screen. The App Store allows you to download others but the best one is in the format of the Apple-Nike style but nowhere near as good.

Battery-life was poor and now where near as advertised! I had been researching this watch and its rivals (Apple Watch series 3, Fitbit Ionic) for some months and was over the moon to find it on a Black Friday deal of £50 off but I was more than happy to return it and get my money back.

To say I was happier with my very old Forerunner 210 would be an understatement- the Vivoactive 3 did nothing new with any accuracy for me!.

I’m not a triathlete, nor more than a mere enthusiast for cycling, swimming and running/jogging. But the Vivoactive HR definitely makes me feel like I want to improve in each field. Thanks to the heart rate monitor and GPS, I’ve been able to push myself through segments where I thought I could improve, and I can see times times tumble and performance more consistent over time.

The swimming is a killer feature – it only works for pools, so not open water. However, whoever goes open water swimming on a regular basis in Scotland will probably want to invest in a wet suit first.

The FitBit Flex 2 is the only watch in FitBit’s arsenal to track swimming, but at the cost of having no screen, and doing very little else different to other trackers. I also have a FitBit Blaze, and although I love that as well, this is by far the better featured watch that gives me more visibility over my health and fitness.

Having a GPS on the watch saves me carrying my phone every time I want to log an activity. I integrate Garmin Connect with Strava (good for breaking down sectors and other common routes) and MyFitnessPal (food tracker) and they talk to each other like clockwork.

One of the things I didn’t like about the Blaze was that I never found the watchfaces to my liking, even after the autumn 2016 update. With Garmin, you can download a number of really useful and cool watchfaces.

On top of that, you’re able to download developed apps for the Garmin, which include navigation, specific sports tracking, recovery mode, just to mention but a few. Another plus with the Vivoactive HR over the Blaze, at least in my own experience, is that the Bluetooth connection is several times better than the Blaze.

The Blaze is capable of holding up to 4 days of tracking information, but it sometimes takes just that to get the Blaze to talk to either my computer or my Android phone, and that’s jumping through several hoops of restarting devices, switching off location service and Bluetooth and restarting them, etc.

With the Vivoactive HR, I sync virtually effortlessly and every time – it simply works, which has saved me so much time and no lost data! I’ve worn both the Blaze and the Vivoactive HR at the same time (setting them up for the appropriate hand) for a few times.

There’s no real science behind these claims, other than observations – I will end the day with about 10-15% more steps with the Blaze, and my heart rate is consistently lower on the FitBit, usually in the range of ~5-20%.

This does encourage me to do a bit more so I achieve my daily goals on both systems. However, there’s also more heart rate variance in the Blaze, where there are periods of unusually low or high spikes.

This skewers low and/or highest BPM, slightly. This is a common problem with optical heart rate monitors, but I feel the Garmin is better at perhaps better at reading and correcting these. Overall, I feel the Blaze flatters me, whereas the Garmin is more “tell it as it is” – I wake up with the Blaze telling me I’ve done 60-70 steps during the night and the Garmin gives me a straight 0.

I’m inclined to believe if I was sleep-walking, I’d know about it by now. There’s actually very few criticisms I have for the Vivoactive HR, certainly none which invalidate its value for money. My top “niggle” is that it doesn’t support Asian languages – I learn Japanese partially by having all my devices in Japanese, and I found out after buying it that you need the Asian version.

For something that can be easily resolved through a firmware upgrade (or so I believe), it’s just the one thing I wish Garmin would do. It’s a small point, but it’s kind of annoying because I can’t read notifications sent from my phone (as thats set to Japanese).

But that’s not the point of this watch. I am fitter and healthier, and feel motivated to improve all the time with the help of the data this device records and syncs. The battery even lasts for a few days even with the GPS being used every other day! I’d definitely recommend this to someone who’s looking for an amazing activity tracker and does at least two out of cycling, running, and swimming.

It’s great even as a smart watch, even if you don’t do sports, but it would be a bit of a waste.

To put it simply, it’s an activity tracker with a few smartwatch features. It’s NOT a tri watch, but can collect some tri TRAINING data. Good: -I like getting text alerts/notification from my phone on my wrist -The workout trackers do what they’re supposed to -Tracks steps, sleep, etc like an activity tracker should -Uploads my workouts to Garmin Connect, without the need of an ANT+ stick -Find my phone sets off a siren on my phone when I can’t find it -Sleek design is more good than bad (especially compared to the massive triathlon watches that are the 310, 910 and 920), but still not a great design -Cheap (relative to the Apple Watch and the 920xt) Bad: -No multisport (triathlon) mode, where I can easily click a button for the next sport -No Open Water Swim mode, which is kind of important for any triathlete -Low pixel count makes a lot of the font and icons look quite ugly -Can’t select what you want to display on the screen during a workout -Fairly bad UI between the buttons and the touch screen – needs to be more intuitive -Keeps telling me to move (it did this once on my drive to work.

gps should show that i was driving, so i think it wanted me to throw my hands in the air and start dancing in my car) -Although it’s waterproof (for swimming), the touch screen gets a little less sensitive with wet hands/in the water in general -Very few apps for the watch (not really surprising.

it’s a garmin; much lower on the list for developers, compared to android or apple watches) Overall, it does exactly what it’s advertised to do, but it’s nothing phenomenal. It works fine as an everyday watch, and since I forget to bring my tri watch to workouts all the time, it’s great that this one is always on me, when it’s not a race.

It’s not a great watch and I wish I could customize what is on the screen (Heart Rate, bike cadence, etc) because I do a lot of data-drive training, so I need to know that stuff while I’m doing it. As my title says, this is just a “good enough” watch.

If you’re looking for a tri watch, get a tri watch. If you’re looking for a smartwatch, get a smartwatch. If you’re looking for daily watch that has a few extra features to cover your workouts and activity tracking, then this is probably for you! Additionally, I think this would work fine as a swim or bike or run or golf single sport watch.

I went back and forth for about a week on whether or not I should risk buying anything refurbished. With the push of my husband, I finally bought the vivoactive and I have to say, it was absolutely worth it.

It looked brand new, and so far, it seems brand new as well. The “move!” Mode is part of the reason why I wanted it, and it’s gotten my lazy butt off the couch and has me moving more to clear the move bar.

So far I’ve used both treadmill modes as well as swim. Great so far. The notification alerts are super handy as well. There’s downloads in the app for it to change the watch face, which I was surprised to find.

Makes it a bit customizable. The battery lasts pretty well, as long as you turn off the gps mode when you’re not using it. Shipping was fast. I live in a rural part of southern California, so the fact that it got here fast was impressive.

Very very VERY happy with my purchase. I’m a rather petite female (gained a few lbs since getting married) with very thin wrists and the watch is not bulky on me at all. Oh, and if anyone is curious to the longevity of the waterproofness, I spend several hours floating in the Colorado river recently, and this baby is still perfectly functional.

I love this watch, upgraded from one of the older Samsung watches to the vivoactive. Best decision. It just enough, shows you who’s calling, text messages, and app notifications that you choose to see.

All while tracking your steps, heart rate, VO2 levels, stress levels, and sleeping pattern. I like that it looks like a watch and has a small screen so that you aren’t completely attached to technology.

Before I was catching myself texting from my Samsung watch at work and school, even talking on the phone. I didńt like how distracted I became, this watch gives you the same things without getting that technology addiction that it seems so many of us have.

I’ve used this to track my running, it is wonderful. It alerts you of every mile and your lap time. You can even set up other alerts when you reach a time goal, heart rate and distance. The app for this watch stores your activity and will keep track of your PRs.

Also you can track weight training works and the watch will begin to learn your movements and try to guess the action you did. It´s pretty smart but it does lack identifying to some ab and leg movements.

The one thing I would change about this is the watch band because I tend to get a small rash on my wrist after a few days on consistent wear.

I have been using this for about two weeks and have been blown away by its overall quality and ease of use. I have yet to look through any online help or documents in setting up any of the features so it has been an easy experience to get started with almost all of the major features.

The GPS and Glonass (Glonass is Russia’s satellite system equivalent to GPS) enabled watch is able to pick up my location usually in about one second in downtown Chicago which is a big improvement over my last Garmin Forerunner 410’s approximate 30-second connection time.

Turning on the GPS feature was as easy as selecting my sport activity (like Run or Bike) and just hitting the green Go button. And the G & G automatically deactivates after the training event is done.

The wrist-based heart rate monitor activated the moment I put it on. No chest strap has been needed. The Vivoactive HR easily synchs via Bluetooth to a smartphone after you have installed the Garmin Connect app, which displays metrics of your activities and heart rate.

This watch has stayed connected to my phone since setup and I have not had any issues with battery drain because of this connection. Once connected I have evn been receiving phone call notifications on my watch faster than the phone’s ringtone and where I usedto miss a call because I was in a noisy area, the watch’s vibration and notification makes it almost impossible to miss that same call.

Garmin’s free Connect App will constantly try to synch with the watch and automatically captures the watch’s data and displays your sleep behavior by the minute so you know exactly when you fall asleep and wake up, and even if you wake up in the middle of the night.

It even attempts to record your sleep quality in three categories of light, deep, and awake. Comparisons with the Apple Watch are favorable as an activity monitor but the Vivoactive HR does not have the same music tools out of the box, though I haven’t explored Garmin’s App store yet.

Nor can I talk on my watch as you can with the Apple Watch but I prefer speaking on my phone anyways. The battery life on the first charge lasted over 10 days with two 30-minute training runs. The second charge is holding well thus far and seems to be on pace to last about as long.

I have been raving about this new smartwatch for the past week to my friends and colleagues. It does seem a little blocky and may not appeal to the fashionistas– but you can categorize its look as modern and definitely metro.

This watch seems to be on back order at many online stores because it was just released this month (May, 2016) so good luck finding one to up your training. Its starting MSRP of $250 is a bargain with many of the same features compared to watches at more than twice this price.

After reading through various reviews including Consumer Reports I decided to try this unit. It has much more fitness tracking than I’ll ever need, but I definitely wanted a big screen to see because I’m older and wear glasses.

Also, wanted something to use as a pedometer and to track my progress. This unit meets those requirements. There are some drawbacks, thus my 4 star rating. First off, the screen is not backlit very well.

It won’t make a difference when you’re outside because the screen shows up excellently. However, when your sitting in your easy chair the screen shows up poorly, even with a light on. You can touch the screen and it will get a little brighter, just not as much as it needs to.

Reviewing the activities on the watch is also challenging because there are times when the touchscreen has very little room to actually touch what you want to review. (Fingers are bigger than the place to touch.

) I wore it for about 4 or 5 days before I recharged it (but still had 25% of the battery left. ) I cannot figure out how to check the charge so that I can charge it when it gets down to 10% or so. That is, I’d like to touch the watch and have it show me how much charge is left.

That being said, it does have a very good cell phone app that is easier to use than the buttons and screens on the watch itself. For owning it a week, I’d by it again. I will tell you that I bought this online and saved $70 because the store wouldn’t match the online price.

But that’s okay – just went to the Pick-Up kiosk and picked it up the same day.

Absolutely love this watch. It looks like an elegant analogue watch, the brass colour face is really nice. And then incoming – a notification! And then someone says wow! I didn’t realise it was a smart watch! It’s fantastic, tracks sleep, heart rate, breath rate, body battery, and you can reply to texts (texts only though) with some present responses.

I like that I can see all my notifications come through and read them on the watch, even when my phones in the other room. It’s also really subtle – I feel like it can often be obvious when people are flicking through messages on smart watches.

Doesn’t have as many features and ones with digital faces, but I don’t miss anything. I mostly just love that it looks analogue, and then the hands move and the led text pops up and its smart. Would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a professional looking analogue watch but also wants smart watch features.

(Garmin support is also fantastic if you do have any issues). And such great value for money compared to other smart watches.

I really wanted this watch. My husband and son got me this watch for Christmas and it is a piece of junk! They sent a used watch, the screen doesn’t work, hold a charge and that clear information they show you in the picture is not true, it is so blurred and bled out that you cant read it.

The box looks like it was torn and has some type of mold or water damage. I WISH I COULD LOAD PICTURES. YOU WOULD BE SHOCKED. THESE WATCHES ARE NON-REFUNDABLE AND NON-RETURNABLE. DO NOT BUY THIS WATCH.

SAVE YOUR 500. 00! this 100% ruined my Christmas over a watch! A 500. 00 WATCH!.

Great watch with great monitoring sensors. Software if ahead of most smart watches. The only problem is the OLED screen is blurry and unreadable especially at night. Had to return for a replacement. As it turns out, a number of other users have had the same issue with this colour model.

It is most likely a manufacturer fault or a design fault due to the Color of the watch face and the OLED. I have another grey silver version without this issue and I am loving it.

It’s pretty good watch. It was my second watch I’ve used for tracking activities. Unfortunately it stopped working after I was snorkeling with it. It’s waterproof but i assume the impact of hitting the water surface was too strong? Fortunately garmin replaced my watch for free!! After 2 years from the time I’ve bought it!! They paid for return shipping and shipping of the new device.

5 stars for service! As of the watch itself was good but it didn’t fit my wrist perfectly (i have really small wrist and it was too wide). Also the screen wasn’t super bright.

I love this watch. I bought it on a whim in order to better track my activity, sleep, and overall health and so far it has done a superb job. I don’t have any way to determine how “accurate” this watch is overall, but it does maintain GPS more effectively than my Fitbit Sense.

The display is vibrant and enjoyable to look at, especially with one of the many watch faces available via the ConnectIQ store (something for everyone). The thing that stands out the most about the Garmin ecosystem is the sheer amount of data they make available to you.

THIS is what I wanted in a smart watch – the ability to export my data at will and not be stuck behind a paywall (looking at you fitbit) for many of the “insight” features. The watch is much more comfortable than other smart watches I’ve worn.

I’m absolutely in love with the watch band and the metal / carbon fiber case is excellent. It doesn’t get freezing cold in the winter and it’s light enough for me to set it and forget it all day. If you like data and don’t want to pay for or get ads for extra features, go with a Garmin.

Overall, I think it feels a little less “fancy” than the Fitbit sense, but it does not feel cheap. It’s a great watch that I would recommend to anyone, especially around the $200 price mark. I will be looking at picking up a new Venu once my Geek Squad coverage runs out on this guy.

The short story; get this if you want a watch that gets the out of the box things right along with a good music-on-watch experience and don’t need/care about apps that works great on iOS or Android. This or the apple apple watch are the only good ones that cover all the basics.

This is fantastic alternative for other smart watches. Yeah there’s the samsung wearables, the apple watch, fitbits, and WearOS might as well be dead until google gets interested with it again, but this gets enough right.

While samsung’s wearables get the basics right out of the box, their appstore for the watch might as well not exist and I have never gotten Spotify to work on any of them which should be simple enough.

Sure apple by far and way makes the best smart watch, buts it means you’re tied to the ecosystem and Spotify doesn’t like to stream from my apple watch without my iPhone around even though it is the cellular watch.

I have not used fitbit but it seems they have been falling behind and are charging subscription fees for things that these other watches offer for free while trying to charge comparable prices so no thanks.

Finally WearOS is functional, more so than samsung or fitbit, but you need the latest Qualcomm chips to not have a laggy mess of a time. Now for Garmin watches. The bad is the appstore is also laughable but thats because there just isn’t enough there.

Getting watchfaces and music services like Spotify or Amazon music is really easy and works just as well as on the apple side, albeit with not as much of a polished look, but don’t expect anything beyond that.

The charger is proprietary and not magnetic like the apple one but the watch charges fast and you can get a USB c one on Amazon (all hail USB C). The animations might be slightly slow, but nothing that would anyway ruin the experience.

Now, the upsides are the screen is great, the battery life is superb even with using the GPS and playing music over Bluetooth, it can hold up to 500 songs, and it is great for an amateur athlete. If you’re going for a professional training watch then use something like the Garmin Fenix or Forerunner family.

The watch has a bit of a learning curve but it becomes intuitive and the accompanying connect app is competitive with the apple watch one. A great overall watch.

After a recent health scare, my family insisted that I wear an activity/heart rate tracker as encouragement while I made some lifestyle changes. I absolutely hated the black band, so I ordered the white set from Heart Rate Monitors.

They offered a discount on the purchase and I received them within the designated time frame. I’m happy with my purchase!.

My new Garmin smartwatch strap was delivered quickly and easy to replace. Very happy with it. Thank you for the fast delivery and good service.

The one that comes with the Garmin Forerunner 935 is in black and I like this color more. Very happy with the purchase.

Colour is awesome, unique and so many compliments have been received. I would love Rose Gold hardware. Quick and easy release so easy to use. Looks great at the beach where I do most of my daily activities.

I’m 40 and my daughters and their friends comment on this band. I would definitely recommend to anyone with or thinking about purchasing this product.

good quality and quick delivery. Even the shorter of the two bands is VERY long though, the loose end nearly wraps all the way around to the watch face. Bit silly given there is a long and short option, but the long one is only a fraction longer.

the short band should suit people with small wrists. I’d only recommend it for people with large wrists.

I was so excited to replace my old supposedly white band with a shiny new beige band… The colour of the band looks amazing. It took a day or two to “wear” the band in and for it not to be so stiff… has revamped my watch to look brand new instead of old and tatty.

Service was fantastic and delivery was speedy 🙂 will definitely purchase from here again. Great service, great pricing, great all round!!.

I purchased my Garmin 255S about two week ago. The smaller size in gray is perfect for a small-framed person and the gray is nice. Initially in love with many of the sweet features (much faster GPS acquisition, improved sleep info, training guidance, HR based suggestions, etc), that love diminished when the watch started glitching.

At times, the originally blazing fast GPS acquisition takes significantly (seriously, almost 5 minutes) longer from my driveway and steps don’t show up for long periods of time BUT the kicker is heart rate zones.

The reason I use a watch with HR zones is to train effectively. Many of the features are based on those heart rate zones and time spent in them. Unfortunately, after attempting to customize my zones, they are now stuck on seemingly random numbers and cannot be altered (my zone 4 won’t budge from 140-145 bpm).

Garmin is aware of this problem as it appears many purchasers are dealing with the same issue. They are working on it but I’ve been told that it’ll be “a while” before engineers have the problem fixed.

Customer service, always stellar, can’t fix the problem as it seems to be a software issue. This watch has a ton of exceptional features that I expect runners ranging from weekend warriors to locally competitive racers will find very useful… once the software glitches are worked out – which I hope will be soon.

Until that time, its usefulness may be much more limited.

I came to Garmin after being a long-time Fitbit user. The latest Fitbits seem less focused on health and fitness and more on being ‘smart’. I am mostly happy with this model. I actually prefer the buttons to the touch screen – it is more reliable to use for me, between sweating on the summer runs and wearing gloves in the winter.

The GPS, HR and altimetry are very good. The UI is well thought out and a pleasure to use. The selection of watch faces is just enough for me – I strongly prefer the analog look and there is one that is very pleasing.

The only imperfection is that the sleep tracking is not as accurate as the previous fitbits were, mainly in the area of tracking time when I am awake but laying quietly. It consistently underestimates the awake time by up to an hour.

This is puzzling since the sensor suite is the same or better than the old fitbits. I can only guess it is the data analysis algorithms. Fitbit required a subscription to get the accurate analysis. I would be willing to pay for a similar subscription with the Garmin if I could get comparable accuracy.

As it is I have bought an Oura ring to get the sleep tracking accuracy. I’m looking forward to when I can give that up and get back to just one tracker!.

I bought this a few weeks ago as a replacement for a Forerunner 35 that I used for at least 5 years. It is quite an upgrade. I’m still learning my way around it, but here are some of the features that I like so far: GPS seems quite accurate, Garmin pay is handy, morning report is nice, you can choose from a bunch of customizable watch faces, I’m getting a little obsessed with my sleep score.

I need to try some additional running features. Here’s what I don’t like: The color of the watch is integral to some of the face so you can’t really change the color by buying a new band. If you do you end up with a two tone watch.

That was hugely disappointing. Also, the pulse ox readings shouldn’t be counted on. Mine were consistently low to the point that I got concerned and bought a pulse oximeter. My readings were fine on that.

Don’t trust the watch readings. I got the 255S which is the right size for my 5’4″ frame woman’s wrist. However, some of the readings are hard to see as I’m getting a little farsighted in my age. I wish it was just a tad larger.

Garmin needs to add the Les Mills lineup of classes to the activity options you can select so we can get more accurate readings on those. Overall, I’m enjoying the watch, but for me I’m not sure it was worth the money.

The Garmin 5X is working well for me. I like the larger display as it is easier for me to see, even if I am not wearing reading glasses. The display is easily seen , even in bright sunlight which is great.

I mostly run and do some biking and it has handled all of my runs, where ever I have been as I travel for work and end up running in a variety of locations. I downloaded the maps which is very handy to have.

The stairs up/down count is not very accurate for some reason but it seems to measure elevation okay. My wife loves the tracking feature as she can watch my progress on a route. I was looking at a forerunner to replace my old one but upgraded to this watch and just love it.

Have started using the Garmin Coach feature to train for my first half marathon and it is going well.

First off, I am NOT a techie and am in my middle 60’s. I was happy with my existing watch, but as I like to hike, mountain bike, and paddle, my kids decided that I should have a GPS watch. I really wasn’t convinced that I needed one, or more importantly, even wanted one and figured that they were kind of a gimmick.

However, after continued urging from my kids who had pooled money for the purchase of a GPS watch, some internet searching and also advice from others who own GPS watches, I settled on the Garmin Fenix 5X, even though I thought is was unlikely it would supplant my trusty Timex Ironman.

When I got it, my first impression was that it was huge and that I would probably be really uncomfortable wearing it. I put it on and it turns out that I was wrong! Aside from when I wear shirts that have tight cuffs that don’t slide easily over the watch, I don’t even notice that I have a larger watch on – it is very comfortable.

Even though comfortable, I was still not sure that I would use it much, and am the first to admit that the capabilities of this watch go far, far beyond what I will ever use it for! However, I have found that I use it all the time.

Its handy as its always there on my wrist and I can use the activity widgets to track my walks, hikes, bikes, and paddles. (Note that it will track many, many more activities that this, but these are the things that I use if for.

) Often before getting the watch, people would ask me how far I went when I did my activities and I never really knew but would give them what I would call a mental estimate. Now I know! And, while doing my activities, I can monitor my elevation changes and pulse in real time.

I have to say that I find having the kind of information the watch delivers a very positive motivator for being active and I never would have expected that. Another nice feature is having the GPS map right on my wrist.

Often I will hike or mountain bike into areas I am not familiar with. (The GPS map even includes many local trail names that are not on my Oregon 450 GPS with Canada TOPO map. ) Having the map allows me to see at a glance where my wanderings have taken me relative to trails and as my route is constantly tracked, I can easily see if there are shortcuts to “get home” when the daylight is beginning to run out or I’m getting hungry! Likewise if I am ocean paddling and the fog comes in, I have my route out right on my wrist and I can follow it backwards to get safely back home.

I have not had the watch long enough to make much use of all of the parameters regarding training and physiology that it tracks that get downloaded to Garmin Connect on a smart phone (which I don’t own) or computer.

I am sure that I will never really scratch the surface in that department, however just the simple day to day information that I get from the Fenix 5X is impressive, and it gives me self satisfaction that I can see it at a glance.

Who doesn’t want to know that the activity they just did burned off 1057 calories! For me, one of the highlights of the Garmin Connect is that the download shows what you have done. As an example, for a hike, some of the things shown are a map of your route and it gives metrics along the way including elevation, pace, heart rate, and temperature (not sure how accurate this is based on the fact that the watch is often covered during winter), calories burned, distance travelled, Aerobic and Anerobic Training Effects, steps per minute (average and maximum), speed (average and maximum) and of course elapsed time.

I don’t know how long it will run on a charge and from what I have read, that depends on what you are using it for. Use of the GPS function will use up battery much faster than if it is just being used as a watch for example.

I do find that as I am active every day or so, I connect it to my computer through the USB cable supplied with the watch and when that it connected the watch charges up quite quickly. So as an early user, I would say that I am very surprised just how much I really like my Fenix 5X and the information that it provides! Knowing what I know now, I would strongly recommend this watch to anyone who goes in the back country or out on the water as a valuable tool – not just a gimmick! The added benefit is that getting all that information it can provide is kind of fun!.

Watch is feature-packed, without anything I really didn’t need. And it looks sharp, to boot. Pros: – Accurate GPS & HR. – Very usable interface & button layout. – Highly, higlhly customizable layouts for clock, activities, widgets, apps, etc.

– Very rugged watch. will be difficult to stress or damage this thing, even with all the outdoor activities I do. – Battery life. 1-2 weeks of daily use between charges?. Yes, please! Cons: – Heavy; I’m getting used to it, but would love to shave some weight from it.

If you don’t have it cinched to the right spot on your arm with the right pressure, it’s going to flop around. – Wide & tall. It’s a good thing it’s rugged, as I do bump it into things more than my old (smaller) watch.

– Display. I’m whining here, but it could be a bit brighter or have more contrast without backlight (the backlight strength is adjustable, but not the standard display brightness). – Font size: For some secondary data fields, the aplhanumerics can require squnting.

wish these were bigger or adjustable.

Confession. I have used Suunto watches for ages (Ambit 3 Peak) but with the transition from Movescount to SuuntoApp I thought I’d have a backup if syncing routes became a problem. What can I say. This is a superb product and very easy to use through Garmin Connect.

Huge feature set and an incredible level of detail, but it can be customized to individual needs anyway, so not really a problem. The ONLY real issue is the green colour of the navigation route, which isn’t the easiest to see in some lights, but that’s nit-picking.

Otherwise it’s faultless.

I’ve been searching for a replacement watch for my beloved Suunto for almost a year, feels like I went through the entire Suunto line looking for a comfortable, good looking watch that ticked all my boxes.

Then I stumbled upon this Garmin and, after way too much time watching youtube videos and reading reviews, made my purchase. I love being able to easily track my activities. My wife and I do a lot of hiking around our homes in Park City and Santa Barbara and being able to track distance, altitude gain/loss, trail via GPS and times has been a lot of fun.

The sleep tracker was a big surprise. I don’t usually like to wear a watch to bed, especially one this big, but having had sleep trouble over the last few years, I’ve been able to get some interesting insights about the quality of my sleep and being able to compare good days and bad days side-by-side has in a really analytic way helped me improve my routine for better sleep.

I find that I walk/hike/ride farther and harder knowing there’s going to be measurable data about my efforts at the end of the activity, and that has been a really fun motivator to get me onto longer hikes, runs, walks and rides.

I also used it to track my snowboarding over the back-half of the winter in Park City, Tahoe and Jackson Hole. Being able to see a map and analytic data about a day of riding was cool, and things like max speed and run length were insightful and fun to share with friends after a day on the slopes.

The watch is amazing. Although labelled on the internet as a triathlon based watch. Its not, it can be used for so many things. You can customize all the APPS and Widgets on it to really work for anything you are doing.

Battery: Using the watch, as just a watch, the battery charge time is better then I expected. The simpler you have the main watch face, the better the battery life will be. I have it on, digital, with date / day of the week on the main screen.

GPS: amazing! I was in central america, worked perfectly. hiking, walks, ziplines, ATVing. You can GPS map anything. If you set up an APP for it, it doesn’t change your fitness monitoring and doesn’t see it as a 25 KM run, when you go for a quad ride and want to map it.

The battery obviously looses % faster when on GPS. But that’s only when completing a function (run, walk, hike etc). But not too bad. I used it for 2 hours mapping a quad/ATV ride and when I was done the battery had only used 20% battery.

Again, you can change the rate the watch logs your GPS position too. The ONLY negative I have, is with how Altitude. com labelled this watch. “Fenix 3 Sapphire HR” I bought the watch expecting the watch to have the optical heart rate sensors on the back given the “HR” tagging to the label.

It did not have the sensor and I have since bought the heart rate chest strap. I was going to return the watch, but after reading more reviews of the HR optical sensors, I’m keeping it! I love it and I dare someone to try and get it off my arm!.

Perfect for tracking my marathon training and more! Garmin did not disappoint with this fitness tracking stylish watch. It’s definitely a nice upgrade from the Garmin forerunner 235. The colorful display makes it easy to read while running or during activities for someone with slightly less than perfect vision.

The touch screen responds well even when wet. Its functions are pretty simple to navigate through even though there’s a lot of useful data! Easily connects to Bluetooth for phone and earbud or headphones on my android.

Definitely recommend it for someone wanting to track their progress on a non professional but serious level.

Works as described. Looks nice. Feels comfortable. Recorded bike ride within 10ft of a Garmin 520. Battery life is good. Heart rate monitor is not as accurate as a chest strap. It is fine day to day, but on my ride, the watch jumped to a max of 160 (completely unrealistic) while the chest strap showed a max of 124 (much more likely accurate).

Pulse Ox requires download of a special widget that i have not been able to find. Basically I like the watch quite well and think it is very good for the price.

Got this for running so i didn’t need to carry my phone to listen to music. Getting the thing to synch with spotify was very cumbersome. If you are using WIFI, and there are other devices connected, the syncing will take forever, or just fail.

It took a lot of research to find the workaround (make your phone a hotspot). Once i finally got all my music on the phone, which was STILL a pain after figuring out a workaround, it last 1 freaking month before i needed to go through the entire process again.

Additionally, i’ve found the GPS is not remotely accurate. I have done the exact same run multiple times (same side of street entire way, etc) and it comes up with different disances that differ by 1/4 to 1/2 mile (after 2-5 mile runs).

I was really hoping this thing would help me get healthy, but the frustration has raised my BP more than any amount of exercise could ever lower it.

I used Garmin Vivoactive HR with its transflective screen before, so this Venu with Amoled screen looks much better indoor. However, once outdoor, this Amoled screen is harder to read and also it drain battery much faster, and might not even last during your 5-6 hour hike or bike ride.

you have to make sure you have the watch 100% charged before you start, whereas with Vivioactive I did not have to worry about it.

Very good smartwatch at a reasonable price. No more charging the battery every day. The charge lasts for around 5 days.

This is a great watch. Easy to customize, had built in workout types, download music so no phone needed, I really like it! So far, heart rate is accurate. Only thing it lacks is a widget for sleep so I don’t have to look at the phone app.

The replacement band for my Garmin S2 is perfect. Actually much softer than the original. Strapsco have been excellent to deal with. The band arrived shortly after I ordered it. All the necessary parts and tools came in a plastic folder.

Garmin Vivoactive watch is great to own, the only problem is the lighting is too dim, that is needing to be improved, there are a variety of apps which you can download, the capacity it large, I owned my watch for 5 years now when the band broke in half, that is what I am placing an order for a new smartwatch band, oh yes one more thing the smartwatch needs to have it where one can except calls and to be able to talk from the watch, so far the Vivoactive watch does not communicate from the watch.

Perfect strap and grateful I was able to get replacement pins. The silicone rubber is durable and the mint green that I selected is just as it appears online. VERY HAPPY and will order again.