Best fitness watch?

[YuleABUnREASTIEable]

My polar m400 has died and I need a new fitness watch.

After hours of googling today I’m no closer to finding a new one, can anyone advise?

Must have (or be compatible with) a separate chest strap heart rate monitor and be able to log lots of different exercise modes (not just run/walk/swim/cycle/other) and have gps.

Lots of the ones I’ve been looking at are either running or cycling based and I do a lot of different activities and would like to log as accurately as possible. It’s also hard to tell online if they work with chest straps as they seem to have the wrist heart rate which I don’t find as accurate so want the option of the chest strap.

I have only ever had ones from polar but have got through a lot of chest straps as they don’t seem to last long so ideally would like another brand.

I’m interested in the Apple Watch but I think it’s more for people who want the Apple brand and various extras from a watch rather than for someone wanting a serious fitness watch (?).

Any help would be appreciated as I need a new one ASAP, I hate working out without one [weirdo]

I have the Garmin Forerunner 735XT and love it. It is a triathlon watch with lots of extra sports - I do a lot of running (road, treadmill, fell), cycling (road and indoor on the rollers), swimming (pool and open water) and hill walking. It’s great for all those things. It also has lots of other sports eg stand up paddle boarding! You can add your own sports too.

It has an integrated HRM but I use a strap when working out as I don’t really trust the watch at higher heart rates. Also the new Garmin strap measures much more than the old one - vertical oscillation, cadence etc. Mine came in a bundle with the watch (I think it was from Evans cycles using Tesco club card vouchers which made it less painful on the pocket!).

I’ve had a few Garmins - I’ve liked them all and I also find the Garmin connect app quite motivating. I’ve never had any other make though so maybe I’m a bit biased towards Garmin!

I also spent ages trawling the net when I wanted to replace my last Garmin (packed up when it was just under a year old but I had been training for an Ironman distance triathlon in that year so it had some serious hammer). There’s a chap called DC Rainmaker who does loads of in depth reviews on sport tech. His site has a good comparison tool which is handy when looking at different brands:

www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator

Thanks, it’s the multisports thing that seems so hit or miss, so many just do swim/cycle/run and then random gym machines, I want one that does specific activities like hiit, body pump etc. Will take a look and see.

I have a Fitbit Versa. No chest strap but it gives me very similar readings during workouts as my old Polar with chest strap, so it might be worth reconsidering that requirement?

I absolutely adore my Apple Watch but it's a nightmare with a chest strap. It does running/walking/swimming/gym/weights quite well on my wrist - but I use it all the time so it's most useful for tracking everything; I wouldn't have bought it for just the exercise part.

Polar or Fitbit would be my bet.

Definitely don’t want Fitbit because of lack of chest strap compatibility, had a Fitbit a year ago and found hrm for me useless when exercising.

Ok, have gone for garmin 735xt following sheepy’s re ommendation. It’s comig next week, squeeee!