What's your favorite watch for running and why?

JennysSeven

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 18, 2015
My husband bought me a Garmin fenix 5 for my birthday a few days ago, and while I like it so far, it is a little bit large on my wrist. Before I go back and just exchange it for the slightly smaller 5S, I wanted to ask here what the favorites are because I could technically return it and get something completely different (as long as it is a similar price or cheaper) instead.

Right now I'm mostly interested in having on-board GPS so I don't have to carry my phone in my hand when I run. As I get farther into this running journey (I'm a relative newbie as I only started running earlier this year) I'm sure I'll want to be able to look at all the fancy stats and what-not.

So, what are your favorites and why?
 
I really like the Garmin 935, which is very similar to the Fenix 5, but I found it lighter/smaller than the Fenix when I tried it on. The 935 and Fenix 5 are what I would consider "luxury" models. They have about every bell and whistle you can imagine (which I love). I really like the transition from a heart rate chest strap to wrist based heart rate tracking. And the battery life is amazing compared to previous models I've owned.

My wife has a 235, which she loves as well. She doesn't want to "geek out" with all of the data I do, so she's found it great for her needs (and I think it is less than half the cost of the 935 and Fenix)
 
I have a Vivoactive 3 and really really small wrists. I tried on the 235 at Best Buy and it was comical how big it was. The VA3 is also large but not overwhelming. 4C92F318-8830-4AD3-A046-593A69B19BD2.jpeg
 
I have a VA3 and a 910XT. I wear the VA3 daily and really like it but I would happily go with a Fenix 5 or 935 if I had that opportunity. If you want the added features of the Fenix, especially multisport, I would recommend going with that. If you want a daily GPS watch and want to go with something simpler I'd go with the VA3. Both of those recommendations are assuming you'd be wearing the watch all day and not just for activities.
 


I love my Garmin 935. I upgraded from a 235 a little over a year ago and would not go back. The comfort, HR monitoring reliability and satellite acquisition time were all big improvements.
 
My Garmin 920XT. Great battery life, huge screen, and can display pretty much any metric or data field you desire.
 
I have a Fenix 5s that I barely use (only for brick and bike workouts, lately) and a Vivoactive 3 that I wear daily. I'm thinking of selling my Vivoactive 3 to get the VA3 with music, but I really don't want a black watch ...
 


I wanted the Fenix 5S, but then prime day had the VA3 on a super sale so I went with that. It does almost all that Fenix does, except for some of the "training load" and race predictor stuff, which I consider silly anyway. Its lighter than fenix too. What sold me was a review I found on Amazon from a woman who had both, and preferred the VA3. It gave lots of real life examples of both in use, which helped me decide. For the price, its a perfect watch.
 
I have the Fenix 5s sapphire and I love it. Even with tiny wrists I wear it all day because it looks so good. When I run it does move around a little, but I wear my Momentum bracelets which help keep it in place. Terrific at tracking all my runs as well as daily steps, heart rate etc. Worth every penny!
 
Garmin Forerunner 235. It does everything I want it to do. In black, it looks decent enough to wear all the time (note: I don't have a lot of dress-up events. Wait, I lied: I don't have ANY)

I have had an issue with cadence lock, but I think it is me and not the watch.
 
Garmin 645 music. Now that I can download my Spotify playlists onto the watch I don’t bring my phone along as much. You need to have a premium account to do that though.
 
I upgraded from an old school Timex Ironman to a VA3 Music. I don't always run with music but it works great when I do. I am a runner only, and the VA3 gives me all the metrics I need, and not a lot of metrics I don't need.

Previous discussion on this topic involved whether you carry your phone with you, as that may impact what watch to get. I leave my phone in the car / at home so the VA3 Music works well for me.
 
I really need to order the VA3. And given it's my birthday on Saturday (MATH WARNING: one that is divisible by 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30,XX), I think I deserve a present.
 
I am one who doesn't have a dedicated running watch. I am an apple watch user and it works great for me.

Me too. It has really improved with the recent updates. I listen to podcasts as I run and it's great streaming them through my watch. The running statistics and GPS seem to work well for me.
 
I am one who doesn't have a dedicated running watch. I am an apple watch user and it works great for me.

Me too. I used to use a Garmin. When I first got my Apple Watch, I wore both. That didn't last long. Now, I only wear the Apple Watch.

I also upgraded to the series 4 recently. :)
 
Me too. I used to use a Garmin. When I first got my Apple Watch, I wore both. That didn't last long. Now, I only wear the Apple Watch.

I also upgraded to the series 4 recently. :)
How’s the 4? I have the 3 and didn’t feel it was enough to upgrade. I’ll wait and see what the 5 is like.
 
I am one who doesn't have a dedicated running watch. I am an apple watch user and it works great for me.
I traded my Apple Watch for the Garmin Vivoactive 3 as my everyday smart watch and have been pleased with the switch.
 
I traded my Apple Watch for the Garmin Vivoactive 3 as my everyday smart watch and have been pleased with the switch.
I’m very much sucked into the Apple cloud universe. I like having my watch, Mac, and iPhone all connected. I don’t think I could go to another smart watch unless I got rid of my iPhone.
 
How’s the 4? I have the 3 and didn’t feel it was enough to upgrade. I’ll wait and see what the 5 is like.

I like it so far. I had a Series 1.

The new heart health features appeal to me. And I love the sensor for falls (I know it seems silly to some, but not to me). I do like that it prompts you if you start a workout without starting the workout app. But, I usually already have it started anyway. And I LOVE the new face! It actually made me switch from Jesse and Bullseye.
 

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