Can you recommend a fitness tracker/watch

[andrewwillans49]

+1for Garmin Forerunner 45. £130 and excellent for recording heart rate, speed, distance, topography. Wireless synch to Garmin connect and Strava if you want that as well. I use mine ror walking, running, cycling and treadmill. Not keen on phone notifications whilst exercise ING as in the mode of the activity.

[PaulS]

I have a Polar M200. Battery only lasts about 4 hours so no good for those longer rides. Down to 3.5 hours in the cold. It is a good watch otherwise, and links with Polar and Strava on the computer easily.

[ChrisP100]

Fitbit Inspire 2 HR are currently on sale on the Fitbit site for £59.99 https://www.fitbit.com/global/uk/products/trackers/inspire?sku=413LVLV

It has activity tracking and heart rate, plus sleep tracking and step counting. Easy set up with Android or IoS. Up to 5 day battery life.

Can be linked to your phones GPS also for distance tracking.

[Bonefishblues]

I have a Polar M200. Battery only lasts about 4 hours so no good for those longer rides. Down to 3.5 hours in the cold.

That's a bit rubbish, surely?

[Ride-sleep-repeat]

Garmin Forerunner 45 here too.Big improvement on my old Fitbit.For your money I think Garmin are a better bet throughout the range.I was one of those unlucky enough to purchase a Fitbit Ionic.The GPS at best is poor but usually nonexistent!This has been an ongoing issue since February and Fitbit seem to have washed their hands of it. For features and value for money Garmin win every time IMO!

[PaulS]

That's a bit rubbish, surely?

I thought so too. I checked the manual (after I bought it) and it claims 6 hours, which is still not really enough. And those 6 hours will be with a new battery, in warm conditions. I should have done more homework. Shame, it is a good watch otherwise.

I checked the Garmin Forerunner 45, which claims up to 13 hours. That is better.

[Bonefishblues]

I think I am developing a bit of a thing about the lack of battery life on many (most?) so-called 'smart' devices!

[PaulS]

I think I am developing a bit of a thing about the lack of battery life on many (most?) so-called 'smart' devices!

Don't forget that the batteries deteriorate too. After 18 months they can be down to 60% capacity.

[Bonefishblues]

I think I am developing a bit of a thing about the lack of battery life on many (most?) so-called 'smart' devices!

Don't forget that the batteries deteriorate too. After 18 months they can be down to 60% capacity.

That too is a bit rubbish

[saudidave]

Garmin pay and Fitbit pay are just android versions of Apple pay, they are the same thing.
I use Apple pay, via my apple watch for more or less everything and it is actually more acceptable than contactless because it doesn't have the same pay limit due to the fact that it's the actual information in your credit card embedded in the watch and to activate the payment facility you have to input your pin number in to the watch every time you take the watch off or put it on your wrist, nor do you need your phone with you for it to work. I paid for £1,300.00 of camera equipment with mine in John Lewis and Evans cycles will happily accept it for several thousand pounds too.

The Apple watch is a great fitness tracker and I'm assured by several gym fiends I know that the information it outputs, calories burned etc are very accurate. The battery life is excellent; a couple of days easily and I don't perceive any deterioration in the two years since I bought it. It has built in GPS so no need to take your phone with you if you don't want to. The downside is the initial cost of the damned thing!

[keeldrum]

I have a Garmin Fenix 5S it’s good for gps although absolutely useless at measuring calorie burn etc ..... the figures vary widely from day to day for the same exercise routine

[Syd]

Unlike Apple Pay and Google Pay , Garmin Pay only have a few banks signed up in the UK at present.

https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garminpay/banks/

[PaulS]

Here is an update for my Polar M200 watch.

The heart rate monitor is a bit disappointing. It uses an optical sensor on my wrist but that has been unreliable for me. My old Polar FT1 watch with a chest strap was much better. So now I bought a Polar H10 chest strap to go with the M200 watch. That is much better. Maybe optical sensors on the wrist are not yet as good as a chest sensor. Here are the traces I get from the same workout. It is indoors, on a turbo trainer, 40 minutes at about 135bpm, with 3 sprints, 10 minutes apart. I did the same workout each day, so the traces are comparable.

Wrist sensor

Wrist sensor

Chest strap

The chest strap works much better. The wrist sensor misreads badly and sometimes loses the heart rate completely, especially when I raise my heart rate quickly.

I notice that the chest strap has an internal memory, so you can wear it without a wristwatch if you don't need a real-time display. Alternatively, it will connect directly to a smart phone with the Strava or Polar app, and the phone can provide gps tracking. So maybe a wristwatch isn't even necessary if you take your phone with you.

[mikeymo]

I use a Polar H10 chest strap heart rate monitor, coupled with a Polar M400 wristwatch.

It seems to be accepted that chest strap heart monitors are more reliable than wrist worn ones. I used to have a Polar H7, which I bought after reading this study, which compares it very favourably to an ECG:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6732081/

I found that occasionally, in wind, at speed, wearing a synthetic shirt, the H7 readings would go a bit wild, which was part of the reason I changed to an H10, which has a better strap (the H7 was bought used anyway, and the strap was a bit worn). The H10 hasn't done that.

[Bonefishblues]

I think I am developing a bit of a thing about the lack of battery life on many (most?) so-called 'smart' devices!

Don't forget that the batteries deteriorate too. After 18 months they can be down to 60% capacity.

That too is a bit rubbish

I have just bought a new smart watch with 30 days battery life. Am smugger than the smuggest person from the town of Self-Satisfied