Garmin vs Nike Apple Watch

Reptilians wrote:

I recently lost my Garmin Forerunner 235 and am now looking into purchasing a new GPS watch to run with. I was going to buy the same watch I had before but the new Apple watch with the Nike+ integration caught my eye, as it is in the same price range and offers more features outside of the running functionality.

Has anyone tried the new Apple watch with Nike+? I know that Nike's GPS system through TomTom has been known for it's unreliability in its previous watches, but now that Apple is making the watch, I figured it might be better than the old ones.

Thoughts?

so i have been a long time garmin user. recently my 610 died. i ordered a replacement and a few days later the apple2 watch was announced, having built in GPS. i returned the garmin i had just bought and waited to get the apple2 watch. this would have been my 3rd garmin in 5 years. i was kinda pissed they keep breaking down.

i have had the apple2 for a few weeks now and been running with it quite a bit. a few thoughts, in no particular order...

1. GPS acquisition - super fast, no more waiting to start a run to acquire satellites. its 3..2...1.. GO. really nice.

2. Data viewing - one are i'm not thrilled about is seeing info on the run (e.g. current pace, distance, etc). the garmin was fine for this. that said, there are many apps for running available on the apple watch and i'm still working thru them.

3. Calories - while this generally makes me sad, the apple watch differentiates calories burnt (active) as a result of running vs. net calories (active + BMR). I say this makes me sad as i'm not burning as much as i thought so i'm having far fewer cookies these days. but seriously, its good to know.

4. podometer - the apple watch though is capturing my all day mileage vs. just run. sat i did 11 miles but ended up walking around all day and the apple watch captured this. same for sun, 8 mile run but actually spent 11 walking around. i 'count' the run miles but its good to see total active time (back to those cookies, i did spend the calories afterall!).

5. phone integration - i love the running info integrated with an iphone. it gives you lots of nice stats. map. etc.

6. other apps - the key for me was the apple watch also does tons more. its not just a running watch. the garmins were/are only that. i use tons of other apps on my watch.

7. durability - this is still TBD. i don't know how durable the apple watch is. that said, i'm still pissy the garmins broke down as fast as they did. i need to get thru a tough winter of running in snow, sleet, etc before i can judge the apple watch in terms of durability.

8. pause - i don't find the apple watch near as easy to pause a run say at a stop light or such. its a few clicks vs. the garmin which was an instant button away.

9. track - i haven't done a track work out with the apple watch yet but i can't imagine it will be as usable to get splits on a 200/400 with the apple watch vs. a garmin. the garmin supported hitting my splits. i might end up going to a brainless old school timex for track workouts. we will see though.

i think that is my immediate list. i will post if i think of anything else....

Thanks for the thorough review of the watch.

Do you have any level of feel for how the GPS accuracy compares to that of the Garmin? i.e. if you run the exact same familiar route do you get pretty close? (Or better, if that's possible to evaluate?)

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one more thing. you asked about reliability. to directly address that, the apple watch seems just as reliable, if not more, than my many garmins....imho

oh yeah, a few more

1. treadmill - i have ran on a treadmill now a few times and found the apple watch much more accurate than the garmin with foot pod and you don't need to move the stupid foot pod from pair of shoes to pair of shoes. it just works on your wrist.

2. Heart rate - i never liked the garmin chest strap. after a long enough run it would wear a hole in my back. thats not as much fun as it sounds. the apple watch does a decent job from your wrist. i don't know how accurate it is though.

3. Strap - The garmin straps suck, imho. for a year i have had to use tape to keep my 610 strap together. i have noticed this same thing at races with many other people. the apple2 nike strap is very nice. i like it a lot.

4. charging - the charging on the apple watch is much better as well. my stupid 610 charging had been a problem for a year as well. kinda connect, but not really so it decided to drain the battery instead of charging it. nice job stupid watch. nothing like putting your device on to charge before a race at 50% and waking up to find it bone dead.

I'm currently running with both a Garmin 620 (G620) and an Apple Nike Watch (ANW). Here's a few things I've noticed, with a focus on what might not be apparent from the specs.

- ANW consistently reports slightly shorter distances than the G620, circa maybe 0.05 miles per mile. This seems to hold true whether I'm running in the open (should be good GPS reception) or in the woods. I suspect that this means the Garmin is slightly more accurate because I assume that if the GPS signal drops out, then is picked back up, the software fills in the missing bit with a straight line, which might be shorter than actual path. But I don't actually know that, and the difference is pretty small anyway. To me, there are bigger issues with the ANW.

- The heart rates reported by the ANW and the G620 sometimes match exactly, but other times do not. I haven't yet compared them systematically. I use a chest strap with the G620, so my guess is that it is more accurate.

- Remember that all Apple Watch displays, including the ANW, are "off" until you tap the screen or turn/raise your arm. In practice, this means that checking your ANW requires taking your eyes off where you are going for longer than with a regular watch. Whether this bugs you, and to what degree, is probably a matter of individual preference, but it's something to consider and (of possible) try out with an Apple Watch, even just standing in the store.

- I have not found a running app for the ANW that I like, and I think I've now tried most of them except Strava (built in Apple Workout, Runtastic, Nike Run Club, iSmoothRun, MapMyRun, RunKeeper). Obviously, this is partly a matter of personal taste, and I don't have the time now to review each app individually. But I assume you have an iPhone (need one for an Apple Watch to work), so you can go on the App Store and look at what running apps also offer watch apps and check out the screen shots. My big issue is that the interface during a run almost always highlights total elapsed time, which I don't really care about. With the G620, I can configure the displays so that they show me the info I'm interested in (pace, heart rate, distance). Not so with ANW apps, at least that I've found. Also, many of those apps charge a monthly fee.

- Beyond the "in run" interface, the Nike Run Club app that is featured on the ANW is a total dumpster fire. Good luck pulling up completed runs, for example.

- The "auto pause" function for at least some ANW running apps seems to be based on arm movement. It's surprisingly awkward to keep one arm still while waiting at a stoplight. Of course, you can use the manual pause function, but that requires one or more screen presses on most apps (which, in turn, means that you have to look at the screen rather than feeling for a button). To me, the mechanical button press to pause on the G620 is way better, though I'm also more used to that.

- Overall, I'd say the Garmin versus Apple Watch question is case of a specialized tool versus a general tool. For running, I think most people would find a Garmin to be better. But a Garmin obviously can't do texts, phone calls, emails, or hail you an Uber when you bonk, all of which an Apple Watch can, so it is the better general tool. Of course, to do all that stuff with an Apple Watch, you also need to have your iPhone with you (and have cell reception), so the Apple Watch isn't really adding any functionality ... it just makes it more accessible by putting some of it on your wrist.

Hope this helps.

Forgot to mention:

1. I generally agree with the previous posts in this thread.

2. The Apple Nike Watch is 99% identical to the current Apple Watch (series 2). The only difference is the straps and two custom watch faces featuring the Nike font. So you aren't losing any running functionality if you get a different "flavor" of Apple Watch series 2.

3. For running, I would strongly advise getting the larger (42mm) Apple Watch rather than the smaller one (38mm). It's a small difference in absolute size, but having tried both, the larger is much easier to see and work with while running.

Anyone have any good suggestions for apps to use for interval workouts? I use Strava for runs, but don't think that supports manual laps. The apple workout apps is okay, but I have a hard time getting the lap function (double tap screen) to work while running fast (

I run with my 735xt (12+ miles) or my Nike Apple Watch 3 (with LTE). Garmin (and Strava) are my end data repositories. Here's some notes from a hobbyjogger:

1) For the most part, the GPS tracks have matched within a percent or two on 3-10 mile runs. I have my Garmin set to sample every second, however.

2) The Nike band is why I went with the Nike one, since NRC sucks bigtime. If you want to get an Apple Watch tax free, look at BH Photo Video (tax free for most places).

3) Wrist HRM seems to be good enough. Not as good as a strap though (I tried Garmin strap vs Apple and it was 5% off maybe?).

4) The Apple Watch did get good cadence info from my runs, so I can not have to worry about the stupid Garmin strap.

5) The LTE is not too bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. I'm never going to have an indepth conversation on it, but will use it to quickly call someone or send a text or two. It allows me to leave my phone at home, which is nice. But that's about it. Is it worth $10 a month? Eh.

6) I record my AW runs with the native app, then send it to Garmin with RunGap. Strava is basically worthless on the watch, so I linked Garmin and Strava together.

I've only just gotten the apple watch last week but so far it doesn't even compare to garmin for activity tracking/fitness. Apple health is just downright awful and if you don't want to use it you need to track everything via multiple apps so you can't just see everything in one place. There isn't one app that even comes close to garmin's new beta app. So you need to rely on multiple companies to track everything and none of them can even track one thing as well as garmin, its really annoying. While I do trust Strava, nike, and such will the company that I bought my sleep app from even be in business next year? Who freaking knows. Its a total crapshoot and I think apple did it on purpose so that we buy 3rd party apps otherwise no one would download/buy them as there wouldn't be a need. I have never hated an apple product (the health app) so much and I have been using apple products since the apple 2e and even stayed with them in the late 80s/90s when no one would buy their stuff. So...I am wearing the new garmin vivosport as my activity tracker, to sleep, run, bike, lift, etc. and my apple watch as my actual nice watch and for times I need LTE without a phone, like pool/beach, etc. When garmin comes out with an LTE device I will ditch the apple watch in a second. I also don't like that I need to own an iphone for apple watch. While I do have an iphone now I am not married to apple and was looking at the google pixel 2 but now have to keep the iphone since I just got this watch. I only originally got the iphone for facetime but now facebook video is just as easy so there was no reason for me not to go back to android. One thing I will note that I have learned from this experience is that wearing a band (vivosport) all day and to sleep is 10x more comfortable than the apple watch or my garmin vivoactive hr. The idea of having 2 for different purposes is really growing on me. Even if garmin comes out with an LTE vivoactive or fenix I will still probably keep using a band activity tracker and wear the LTE device as my nice watch when needed.

Anybody double up with both a garmin and an lte apple watch? Garmin for tracking the run and apple watch for the communication/connectivity just to leave the phone home. I hate dragging my phone out on a run, but usually do "just in case" and to make the wife happy when the run is 90+ minutes and/or live tracking during a race.

I do that with a series 2 -- for music so I can leave my phone behind.

Sometimes I wear it as the garmin wrist hrm doesn't like humid/wet weather and the apple watch seems to do better. Otherwise I'll take off the strap and stick it in my pocket.