Timex GPS watch (Read 857 times)

My old Garmin FORERUNNER (circa 2004) is on it's last legs.  While I appreciate all the bells and whistles of the new watches ...  I came to the realization that all I need is the basics ...  time, pace, distance ... anything beyond that confuses my simple beer addled mind. 

Anyone seen this one?  Comments?   Received the ad from ACTIVE.COM.     

http://www.heartmonitors.com/timex-marathon-promo.html

Personally, I'd pay extra and get a Garmin or other non-Timex unit.  While I have always and will continue to buy Timex Ironman watches, it's because they are only $30 so I am ok with throwing them away when the battery goes dead (replacement has never led to a watch that lasted more than another month).  I owned the first Timex GPS that came out; it only lasted a bit over a year.

Like you, I have an early Garmin GPS that is still limping along 7-8 years later.  I'd bet good money no Timex unit will do that.

That, and I would not do anything that may send 1 cent the way of Active.com.

I've been using it for a month now after only using polar heart rate monitors before and I think its the most and most useful piece of kit I've owned. I was sceptical at first as it has gotten a lot of bad reviews but I cant see why, it gets satalite fix quickly and anywhere and I haven't lost signal as yet, has every bit of information and customization I could ever need, good battery life and I love being able to upload all the data here and check my routes, HR, Pace intervals ect. Big thumbs up from me.

I've never owned a Garmin watch, so I can't compare, but I do own a Timex Global Trainer with GPS, heart rate monitor and recently bought the Timex foot pod. I paid 175$ for it in a New Hampshire outlet  in august 2012. I bought the foot pod separately afterwards. It has not passed the endurance test of time yet, but 14 months and 1500+ miles later it has been very reliable. The GPS fixes fast enough (before I'm done stretching), it obviously supports the foot pod for indoor running or I wouldn't have bought one.

Because of all the reviews I read, and because I prefer Garmin for car GPS's, I was planning on buying a Garmin watch at first. But at 175$ I'm pretty sure the Timex is advantageously comparable to Garmin watches of that price range.

If someone read DCRainmaker's reviews on the Global Trainer, be aware that Timex have released new firmwares that fix some issues the article is mentioning, like the GPS problems and the support for foot pod.

Bottom line: if my watch got lost or stolen or run over by a car, I would consider a Garmin watch but I would also consider buying the same watch again as it gets the job done very well.

I got mine (the GPS Run Trainer) in August.

The configuration is not so complicated technically speaking.... but it has a few things that are extremely confusing. Specially f you are used to Garmin gear.

First and foremost  the intervals:  Intervals can only be configured for TIME. Yes, there is a distance setting and one for HR and pace, but these are only meant to tell you when the target is reached, the interval itself only changes after the time you set. This can be utterly annoying for those of us  used to do distance intervals, but it doesn't seem to bother trail runners the slightest. And once you get used to it it has it's logic: You set a distance and estimate the time you will have to try running it in this time. It's pretty logic if you consider it: If you are too fast you can slow down and if you are to slow just sprint to get it in time.

Another annoyance (this time a bug) is that some time it shows an alert of "target distance reached" at exactly 1 mile, no matter which mode you are in and no matter that your system is set to metric: At 1.609km it shows the alert. Fortunately it doesn't stop counting or anything.

There is a piece of software from Traininpeaks.com to set up the device, so it's easy. Once you get used to it it's even easy to set up on the run.

The GPS is very good, I was reticent to GPS vs. foot pod because I mostly run in the woods, but the routes are accurate.  I was so annoyed by the above hat I was going to ditch the thing but I kept it because of the GPS.

The use is very easy, you can change displays (configurable) on the run, the buttons are huge so that you wont miss them even with gloves or in heavy rain (tested).

And a little feature that's not documented: You can indeed set up and use several modes at the same time, you can for instance start the chronograph and set laps of 10 minutes, at any time start the interval timer, finish the intervals, start the timer, and so on... this allows you to do complicated fartleks or combined trainings sessions.  You will get 3 different datasets though with duplicated data, but that's not an issue as long as you recall to empty the memory of the watch.

So,. all in all I am quite happy with the price / quality relation.... I'm now just wondering about the dreaded battery lifetime issue...