GPS Watch Discussion

Hey just to give you a response GPS watches is a touchey subject that should always be taken with a grain of salt you'll never have a watch that marks your every movement to the .00000001 mile but most watches on the market are accurate to a pretty respectable degree I've been using the Garmin 405 for about 6 years now and it's always pretty accurate sometimes I know its alittle long (.26 for 400 meters) but nothing to cry home about. A good example is my gf has the 220 you were talking about getting and me and her ran a warm up mile were her watch recorded her at 8:15 pace and my was 8:35 pace certainly if this was race pace I would be concerned but it was so no biggie.

tldr: GPS have their upside for day to day use but don't go in with high expectations and you'll most likely be satisfied.

check out dc rainmaker's site. all your questions answered.

I just got a Garmin 220 after 2 Garmin 405s. I like the 220 much better, and it seems a little more accurate.

Don't get your hopes up for accurate real-time pace. Current lap time is pretty accurate, but there are just too many variables for instantaneous, real-time pace to work well.

If you want instantaneous pace, get the 610 and a food pod. You can use the GPS for distance and the pod for instant pace, which gives you the best of both worlds. The 620 does not have this capability, which is just silly. The 620 also has seriously inferior GPS accuracy as compared to the 610. Every GPS watch looks ridiculous for day-to-day use, but the 620 looks decent.

I'm not an expert on everything, but I really enjoy my fr220. It's a huge step up from the Timex IR I'd been using.

I have the Garmin 610. Love the size, and ease of downloading. Pretty much everything except for the fact that the minute i hit single track trails in our local park it says i'm going 20 seconds per mile slower than i was before i hit the trail. Knowing pace pretty well, i know i'm not slowing that much if at all, but outside of that I love the watch.

I bought the Ambit 2S a few weeks ago after using the Garmin FR610 for a couple years. It's on a pretty good discount at the moment $220-240 because the Ambit 3 is coming out soon (but not the 3S?). The Ambit 2 or 3 don't seem to add any useful features for me, so it's a great deal for what it can do.

Things I like about the Ambit 2S over the Garmin 610 or more 220/620:

-Elevation is pretty darn accurate even without the barometer of the Ambit 2 from my experience (Also see dcrainmaker review). You can have an elevation profile on the screen, and have ascent and descent, which the 610 won't do. The 620/220 don't have elevation at all. I'm running a lot in the mountains, so this is great.

-Reliable. I kept on having glitches with my 610, ranging from strap pins falling out to frozen screens and losing charge when plugged in to charge in some circumstances. The firmware on the Suunto is much more stable. Be sure to upgrade the firmware right away, as it is missing basic features like daily alarm out of the box.

-It's nice being able to wipe rain off the screen without changing screens like on the touch screen Garmin.

-Very customizable setup.

-Navigation features that work well - nice for mountain/trail running/hiking or saving waypoints for whatever reason - 99% of the functionality of the Ambit 2 and much more watch than the 220/620 for only about $220-240 now.

Disadvantage:

-no vibration. My hearing isn't that great, but the Suunto alarm is pretty loud for a watch.

I bought both the Suunto Ambit 2S and the Garmin Forerunner 220 today. I really wanted to like the Suunto more, but I'm keeping the Garmin. Suunto goes back tomorrow :(

Deciding factors:

- The Suunto is a little too big for me. This was less desirable than the silly red coloring on the Garmin.

- Most of the extra features on the Suunto are things that I'd love to see myself using (being out the mountains, etc.), but the reality is that I live in the flat Midwest and rarely actually get to travel to elevation.

Garmin 220 here.

Great watch. As others have said, fairly accurate and once you upload your data you can real analyze it on garmin connect. For my training this watch has all the features I could ever want.

The best thing is though...it's a great looking watch! I have non-runners (both friends and strangers) come up to me and compliment me on my watch. They ask what kind it is. Good luck!

I have the Garmin Forerunner 10. It's their most basic model and looks the most like a normal running watch. I really like it because it's basic. The other features on other models just looked like extraneous stuff I'd never use.

All I want is time, distance, and current pace. The current pace seems to be pretty accurate too.

But look at the rain maker site, he gives the best info on GPS devices.

GPS watches. I sell them at the running store I work out. They are most accurate at 3 years old or younger. Anything over 3 and stuff just doesn't work properly. (This is something the reps from Soleus, Garmin, and Mio tell us.

IF you go Garmin, go with the 300 series watches or higher. It allows for more display functions and makes it really nice.

The Suunto 2s is great! I have been pleased with mine.

Stay away from TIMEX.

I just bought a Tom Tom Cardio runner. GPS so far has prooven very accurate. I like the built in heart rate monitor on the wrist function. Well worth $270 if it holds up. Battery life is 10 hours or so in running mode.