im thinking about getting one of those timex gps watches. how accurate are these and how you feel about them?
im thinking about getting one of those timex gps watches. how accurate are these and how you feel about them?
I just picked one up. Seems pretty accurate from my eyeballing it, they claim within 3%, I haven't been able to go to a track yet to test it though. It's nice for the first time on a route to check the distance things are, but I wouldn't want to carry it the entire time. Get the one with a heart rate monitor added for only a little more and you have a nice system. Only problems are that it oesn't come with a PC link, which is $50 extra and that it takes 5 minutes to find a signal the first time you use it, and 30 seconds every time after. I just turn it on while stretching and it works.
I def. fell in love with the speed and distance system but i have decided to sell it because i have measured all of my runs and am now using a heart rate monitor instead. So here is the deal I will sell it for $100 it is 4 months old and i will even send you the rechargeable batteries and recharging unit. Retail $30. So let me know TIMEX....
Scott Bessette
singingloud wrote:
I will sell it for $100 it is 4 months old and i will even send you the rechargeable batteries and recharging unit. Retail $30.
Misprint?
no misprint,
I will give you the watch, monitor, rechargeable batteries and charger .... $100 plus shipping.
first come first serve.
Scott
I think he meant the batteries and stuff retailed at $30.
My bad, I thought maybe he meant to say the entire watch system was either $130 or $230 retail, not $30.
I got one about 6 weeks ago. Ditto on the thing taking forever to find a signal as you're starting out. Then again, I live in downtown dc...if I want to get it to work I usually go jog around a field and it comes in pretty quickly.
I think it's accurate to about .1 mile, which is all you really need anyways. Much better than that on straight, open paths. So I may use it to go measure out a 4-mile tempo course along rock creek parkway, plus maybe some 400m and half-mile hills for repeats.
The one annoyance other than the long lag in finding a signal is that the "current pace" feature is useless. When the thing is working it will take readings several times per stride, not to mention that it's bouncing around on your arm, so your pace can vary by a couple of minutes per mile just over a couple of strides. That is, when you're pushing off, you're moving at 5:30 per mile, whereas when you're floating off the ground you're at 8min per mile. While if the thing could just wait and take your average pace for 5-10 seconds it would decide you were going 6:45 or whatever.
So the "average pace" feature is much more useful for tempo runs and such, but only after a couple of miles. Less than that and the pace is still jumping around too much to be useful.
Bottom line: it's fun to play with, but you can get at least as good a workout with a $20 stopwatch.
Is it worth the money?
check out http://www.hdosport.com they've got the NEW PC Link GPS system and the old one on offer!
I've had a Timex GPS watch for about a year now. I love it and it is extremely useful for anal people like me who don't like fuzzy math. I tested it around a track and it said that is was .24 miles, which is accurate since .25 miles is more than 400 meters. The only downfall to this watch is that it seems to lose some accuracy when you run in heavily wooded areas. However, if you are one who runs on the road (with a constant view of the sky)or non-wooded soft paths, I highly recommend this watch.