I'd expect a replacement for the 920XT to be released sometime this year as we're into the 3rd year of the product lifecycle. As to what form it i'll take, that's anyone's guess. Probably, lighter, thinner and possibly extended battery life with some other 'bonus' features thrown in. Optical HR is a possibility but given that it's not a happening thing with anything other than light activity maybe they'll hold off with that on a triathlon focussed device.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

I fixed the hyperlink. I'm hoping we are days or weeks away and it's not something that comes out next fall.

That website posted the pictures of the Fenix 5 well before release, so I'd be inclined to think the pictures are real.

Going to go out on limb and say 100% that is the next device.

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I seen the 935 last weekend. Release is a couple weeks. Look like the 735 with a round face. Something about that round face I don't like.

The 735 has a round face too though. It does look very similar to the 735. Button placement is different but that's about it, at least based on those pictures. I like the bright yellow.

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--Chris

Not sure whether or not it's because I've become accustomed to the non-round faces since the 305, 310, 910 and now 920 (and an Apple watch), but I prefer the rectangular design. Seems to be a lot less wasted screen real estate.

And for once I'm not in any rush to update. I really can't think of anything a new model would offer that I need. The 920XT more than meets my needs currently. And this from someone usually very quick to update to the latest and greatest. Just ask my long-suffering wife :-)

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

End of the month or early April I'm told. Saw the watch a few weeks ago. Garmin usually releases things on a Wednesday if I remember correctly. Unless it's at a show like CES.

So I would say March 29th or April 5th.

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blog

Maybe, but something here does not add up for me. Some think that the Fenix series *is* the replacement for the 920 series - i.e. no direct successor to the 920XT. So, right now, what does the 920XT offer that the Fenix3 does not have? Square face - yes, but the image here presuming to be the 935 is round - same as the Fenix3. No differentiation. So, why go through the expense of a new device if it is not an extension in capabilities of an existing device AND the form factor (square v round) is also the same? The other side - that *does* look like a new Garmin device... So, if not some photoshopped Frankenstein, what *is* it?

I don't mind a round face, but that doesn't look quite right.

If this is the new replacement of the 920, then could there possibly be a price drop for the 735xt. I'm about the drop the $$ on the 735, but would rather hold off and save some money if possible.

I posted a video yesterday of Clever training showing off the new Wahoo fitness bike computer. Well the guy in the video was wearing the new Garmin watch. I just clicked on the link again to watch the video and it has since been removed from youtube.


Edit: pictures from the video here....

https://appelmoessite.wordpress.com/...-garmin-fr935-video/

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blog

The 935xt could have some of the features of the Fenix 5. The 935xt could be some sort of consolidation of the 700 and 900 lines, so that Garmin doesn't have three lines of multisport watches going forward. I think there are reasonable explanations.

Garmin 935 in the Fenix form factor: huge monstrous, circle, bigger than my wrist. No thanks. Love my 735.

this looks like what I was told by a Garmin rep in Jan...round 735-like face, but thinner body. He said it would debut beginning of NA tri season.

If I remember correctly the 920XT made it's first appearance around October 2015.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

2014

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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Training/Racing Log - http://www.earthdaykid.com/blog --- Old Training/Racing Log - http://colinlaughery.blogspot.com

Oops! Brain fade on the maths! Of course I know it is in the 3rd year of it's life...

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

I just got my 735xt a couple of weeks ago and am pleasantly surprised. My interest with the F5 was peaked a little and interested to see the watch and how heavy it is. I don't think I would trade mine in for it but interesting to say the leave. I do really like my 735xt though as it has all that I need and most of the time I forget I am wearing it. The OHR actually has been working pretty well for me on my runs without intervals. For the bike and intervals I still wear my wahoo hr strap which I do like.

Thank you. That's good intel.

I have small wrists even though I am average size dude and I was glad that they reduced the size of the Fenix 5 over the 3. I was even considering going with the Fenix 5S but almost every review says it for the ladies and I couldn't get over it (plus the lower battery life). So, I am with you. I hope it's not bigger than my wrists and I hope I can get the wetsuit off over it.

Ditto.

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What happened to 930xt. Is it still on the roadmap?

Garmin will most likely just release a wrist heart rate version.

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I think the "FR930xt" or the "FR935" is just market confusion or speculation over what the actual name would be for the 920xt replacement.

As long as the battery can last a IM
Otherwise 920xt is still the king.

I have seen the 935 in person. Slightly bigger face, longer battery life and more recessed optical HR. Don't know release date.

Bigger than? 735? Or F5?

Surely not the 920? Because that's already a pretty big watch.

This is how it looks

Talked to 2 Garmin bigwigs at the LA Marathon expo this morning. They actually had a 935 in a bag but wouldn't show it to me. Yes, those are the pics, yes it's the replacement for the 920 triathlon crowd. Guy I talked to said the face wasn't that much bigger than the 735, it's thinner, altimeter, better battery life (said 20 hrs racing, but depending on connected devices and 1 sec/ smart recording). Said the optical hr will be updated from the 735 but he hadn't used it. It would record hr in swims and be viewable once files upload to garmin site. They still recommend a hr strap for accurate hr and run dynamics.

I told him I like the square face as it allows for a nice 4 quad layout and having the lap button on the face makes it easy to hit at intervals. He said their feedback is folks like the round face and more people like to wear the watch all day as a regular watch and somehow a square face detracts from that? I think garmin is trying to play to both the casual sport data collection person and the hard core tri/ ultra runner and may miss the mark former.

Since it is obviously out in the wild at the clever training store ( as seen in the now defeated video) and the fact it is traveling with the garmin big wigs must mean it's ready for prime time. I bet DC Rainmaker has one now and we'll start see more leaks. My guy was surprised when I to.d him I saw pics of the black and yellow versions.

I asked if it'll be another Kona fall release he said no. When pressed for a release date he said hemmed a bit but said plans were May.

Excellent intel, good job interrogating the reps. I appreciate it. I look forward to dcrainmakers side by side with the Fenix 5.

Yea, looks like a repackaged Fenix 5 to me.

Found another pic:

I think I am most excited about the price drop of the 920xt!!

And that's where I get a little annoyed. It's a training watch. If I want to buy a dress watch I'll buy one, they're cheap enough these days. But what I want from my training watch is function not necessarily form; although of course that does matter. As noted, the rectangular layout allows for easy display of 4 data functions. That simply cannot be done with a round face unless you either make the device monstrously large or the display font very small.

At the moment I cannot see any pressing reason to move from the 920XT. Heck, If the price is right I might even buy another to keep handy for when the one I have finally craps out..

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Who buys a dress watch these days? Seriously.

I don't agree with you regarding function and form - there is absolutely no reason why both are not fully considered - but I am on your side with the round watch face. It just doesn't seem to fit. Even if you like three fields the large text of the middle field fights for your attention first even if you want the top or bottom field.

Despite being an early adopter I am still on the 910. It's lasted years, never let me down and I don't really need to over analyze the vertical oscillation of my nutsack whilst running, or whatever semi useless data point the latest things are selling. Does anyone actually use that info? I quite like the look of the 920 and I think wifi sync would be better than USB. Things like that i would consider upgrading for but I would stall heavily at a round watch face.

On another note, I found this nice pic of the Garmin timeline.

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https://www.thisbigroadtrip.com

Sorry, bigger version of the 735XT

Maybe this week....

https://appelmoessite.wordpress.com/...er-935-all-pictures/

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blog

Any idea of the lead time Garmin had for other past models in regards to the FCC report?

So what is the price going to be? Wondering this as well? I have the 735xt and very happy with it but can swap it out at REI since I purchased it recently.

Past tri watches were $450 when they first came out. Except Fenix which was/is $500-600.

935 will have optical HR and a round face, which brings it closer to Fenix than the old square watches.

Purely speculative based on past prices: $500.

Maybe they're dumping the tri-specific watch? If Garmin are bringing the design of the 920 replacement into line with it's other devices, what's going to be the point of difference? Features? Price? Maybe what we are seeing is a track being developed whereby there will be a consolidation of device types to reduce the number of products in the range.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Yea, it's just another Fenix watch... rebranded.

935 on the left, 3 Fenix's on the right:

If this is the new replacement of the 920, then could there possibly be a price drop for the 735xt. I'm about the drop the $$ on the 735, but would rather hold off and save some money if possible.

Nothing compares to the Vivoactive classic for weight/thinness.

I'm tempted to go back to it from my F3HR. It's still such a bulky watch.

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2014 P3 DI2 - RT6, CXR80, Power2Max S, 820, Fenix 3 HR. (gone)

Looking at the timeline of all of Garmin watches it makes me think that they are looking to move towards a common form of hardware. This allows them to reuse various designs and manufacturing lines over a variety of product lines. Hopefully as an attempt to reduce costs so we don't end up having to pay $500.00 for a watch......maybe I am being too optimistic.

Yeah I would hold off.

Who buys a dress watch..?.?

I do. I have a beautiful U-Boat which is my daily wear. I'm not particularly interested in a smart watch as a daily wear. Am very happy with my 920 so will stick with that for a while now.

I actually bought a Garmin 230 as a dress watch that doubles as a running watch.

I know, kind of warped sense of fashion.

Check out Garmin fitness' Instagram story...

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blog

The suspense is high...

Whether it's tomorrow, next week, or the week after.... can we all agree not to start another thread on this watch whenever it's released?

There are enough threads on this already. We don't need another one.

(Paging BryanD)

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blog

There's an advert for it on about page 4 of the May Edition of Triathlete..................

+1

This really annoys me because invariably it carves the discussion up into loads of different places and all because someone wants everyone to pay attention to their wonderful insights on whatever the topic is.

The number of separate discussions on the Brownlees after ITU Cozumel was just ludicrous; if I was Slowman I would start handing out bans to anyone who creates a new thread unnecessarily.

Is anything here necessary?

The problem is every dipshit on here thinks they got the scoop or the first to read something... which is rarely ever the case. A simple search usually does the trick.

For example, Ed Whitlock died last week and there was a thread about it soon after the news hit. Didn't stop some other dummy from starting another thread five days after the news broke. Five fucking days later. Of course it had already been talked about here. A simple search of Whitlock would have revealed that.

So yes, this thread should be the be all and end all Garmin 935 thread but it won't be. In fact, someone already started another thread a couple days after this one.

Whenever I read something tri newsworthy and think about posting on ST I always do a search. Sometimes it's contingent on how well a previous most may have been crafted as to how well it shows up on a search. For example, if the OP just stated "New tri watch" with a link then a search of Garmin 935 would reveal nothing. This thread has Garmin 935 in the title so there should be no excuses in that regard.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Perhaps one more thread? I find it thrilling having multiple threads on the same topic. If I find no new information in one thread, I can excitingly jump into one of the others in the vain hope they have updates! The fact they never do is a moot point.

It could be argued that the thread title is misleading. There's no official GARMIN naming of the 920XT replacement. It might not even be 935XT. Perhaps to avoid confusion the title should read GARMIN 920XT replacement .

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Start a new thread with this title.

Besides the T.O. ad above which says 935???

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The GMAN is about to kick someone's ass...

Do you believe everything you read? LOL! I'll wait until I see the official Garmin release information. I don't think that's going to be too many months away, especially as you folk down under in the Northern Hemisphere are coming into Summer.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

If it's on Slowtwitch it is TRUE! Always! Just like the time they said your seat was too high! :)

So Garmin releases an ad in Triathlete magazine with the name of the product and you don't believe it?

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There's a post that is supposed to be of an ad in Triathlete Magazine that purports to be of a Garmin 935, but nothing officially from Garmin anywhere else? Do you really believe it?

Yes I am a little sceptical.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Quoted because this is just too much

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Really too much?

Nothing comes up after a search on Triathlete Magazine's website. Nothing official from Garmin anywhere else in the world as far as I can see. No other ads have been reported in any other magazine, either here or in the Garmin forums. Nothing on Garmin's Facebook page. Nothing on Garmin's website. All we've seen are sketchy photos of quickly deleted web information that may or may not be real and some possible conversations supposedly with Garmin staffers.

Surely, if Garmin had posted an advert, DCRainmaker would be publishing his review? After all, he's bound to have had/got one to play with pre-release. And surely, Garmin would have posted more ads in better mainstream publications than a triathlon magazine.

I think I'm entitled to a healthy dose of scepticism.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

It's called release schedules and information restriction. When you are meant to know, you will. D.C. Rainmakers reviews normally come out the day a product launches. Garmin's Instagram showed the 935 recently.

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Exactly. When WE are meant to know WE will.

And until then it's all guessing and speculation. There is nothing there, that I can find and please feel free to prove me wrong, that is persistent and other than rumour or speculation. Nothing factual. Nothing actual.

I can't find any official Garmin Instagram picture. Please post it. The picture that comes up following a search on Instagram is NOT an official Garmin one as far as I can tell - https://www.instagram.com/..._3/?tagged=garmin935 Of course I could be wrong.

Fuck! I can't believe I'm wasting so much time! I'm done. You stick to your imagination. I'll wait until something more factual and tangible appears.

Ta ta!

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Go pay $5 for the Triathlete mag and see the ad for yourself. It's on my copy here in North America. The image posted above is as concrete as it gets.

Garmin 935xt will be out shortly. I bet we can expect an official announcement and DCR post within a week.

Not when it comes with a healthy dose of stupid.

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DCR did a FB live session today in which he was asked about the 935. He gave a lengthy and careful answer about the importance of embargoes. He basically suggested that the Triathlete ad appeared sooner than Garmin likely expected it would appear. But no denial that the 935 is coming. Next week or two seems likely.

FWIW, he also said that the Fenix 5 would be his long course tri watch of choice. Not clear whether he was saying that even knowing that the 935 is coming or whether he simply meant that the Fenix 5 is his choice *now* but that could change as soon as the 935 is formally announced.

I agree and I am the one that started the new thread. I had done a search on "Garmin 935" and no threads with this as the subject came up (and this is still the only thread). I did see it mentioned within other threads but not as a standalone subject...I didn't think to search 930 though. Oh well.

VVV pink!

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/...twats-20161024115895

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https://www.thisbigroadtrip.com

>>Sales manager

HAHA! It's a stereotype for a reason though. At every sales meeting where I work first thing they do is roll up their sleeves and compare wristwatches. Tacky materialistic possessions are poor people's ideas of how rich people live.

I've heard it said that if you really want to live like a rich person, go spend money on a high end mattress. It's not exactly conspicuous consumption though, but will make you feel like you're rich.

Looks like its out today - you can order it on Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/...words=forerunner+935

I don't believe you, Amazon or anyone else; those are just pictures and words on the Internet. I refuse to believe it exists until I can hold a device in my hands and even then I might still be a little bit skeptical; I might need a representative from Garmin on-hand to verify it.


[/PhilipShambrook]

And from Garmin too - https://buy.garmin.com/en-US/US/p/564291

Hopefully they'll being back the square shape next time.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nNfQNTRfCgE

Must be fake news :D

Well spotted!
YouTube little intro

Now THIS is interesting:



It sounds like they've linked up the new "TP Workout Builder" behind the scenes to sync with the FR935, rather than all that faffing with exporting files and copying them over as there was previously. That's definitely a step in the right direction! I really hope that feature comes across to the fenix 3, although from some of Ray's recent comments lead me to believe the fenix 3 is dead in the water now as far as new features go.


Edited to add: on second thought, considering it would be via a TrainingPeaks CIQ app then I guess there's more chance of that functionality making it over to the F3, so long as the F3's hardware can support it and TrainingPeaks make the app compatible with it. No sign of it on the CIQ store yet, but it'll be interesting to see how that pans out.

Also the new running dynamics pod is interesting, allowing running dynamics without the chest strap; kind of predictable given the widespread implementation of oHR in all the new units.

Not sure I want to scroll to see things like average run pace- I wonder if that is a data field u can set on the run homepage. I assume u could. I like having 4 fields

It doesn't look like you can buy it from Garmin yet.

"e-mail me when this product is available"

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blog

Looks like dcrainmaker has a review up already.

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...35-depth-review.html

If you're a TL;DR type: it's a Fenix 5 in a more sporty shell. And it *will* have a quick release (though not available yet), unlike the Fenix 5.

And WiFi

In the market and unsure if I want to the 935 or the Fenix5. Currently have a 920. #triathleteproblems

"But I suspect there will (probably rightly), be some disappointed people with one area: The size/form factor. Specifically that for triathletes, many have actually enjoyed the larger/rectangular display seen on the FR920XT and the umpteen generations before it"

from DC review

I'm one of the guys that are disappointed. the rectangular display is one of the things that differs the 9** family from the other watches. i can't understand why the new one is circle..this is only a plastic fenix 5 even in DC opinion.

I never liked the square design so I'm good with the direction Garmin is heading.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

i obviosly respect your opinion but with the 90% of garmin watches with round design maybe just one with a square design is not so bad.

In my opinion it could be a way to have something that is not a 'cheaper fenix 5'

You can. 1-4 fields per page with multiple pages. Very customizable.

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--Chris

Maybe. Or maybe they've realized that they haven't sold any 920xt watches since the 735 came out last year. (Think about how inexpensively you could get the 920xt last Christmas.) I suspect the market is telling them that we like round watches with HR in them. . .

yes but exactly as it happens with the fenix the 4-fields combination is not very 'readable' (sorry it s a brutal translation of an italian word :) ).

with a rectangular one every field has a greater font size.

As far as visually seeing 3 fields, doesn't the square display allow for bigger size even though the area of the display might be equal to the new circle one? I really like that for my 910xt as I have the activity time in the bigger top while, the 2 smallers ones are for less used split and mileage.

I don't think Garmin took a look at the 735 sales figures, had an epiphany and ran to the manufacturing and production department and yelled "scrap everything, make the 935 ROUND!!"

This was probably in the design process for a couple of years and the decision was made then.

Totally agree, with having a larger font size. I have eye issues so the larger the font the better. To have everything stacked on a round display makes it harder to discern data.

Product design cycles are planned out years in advance. The 735 was just the stepping stone.

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Unfortunately the Fenix 3 doesn't support the newer ConnectIQ 2.2.3+ so the TP app will be compatible with the following out of the gate.

Edge 520/820/1000
935
735xt
Fenix5 (all variants)

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-----------------------------------------------------------------
Founder: BestBikeSplit
Amazonian

Thanks for taking the time to reply to this.

Do you think there's any chance of fenix 3 support down the line? Just off-the-record... ;)

I would never say never, but I know the hardware on the 735xt (and newer devices) is much faster than the Fenix 3, and they pushed the specs on the 3 pretty far from my understanding.

The ConnectIQ Developer section has a bit of the roadmap/devices on it link below:

https://developer.garmin.com/.../compatible-devices/

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-----------------------------------------------------------------
Founder: BestBikeSplit
Amazonian

That's a shame, but I'll look forward to trying it out on my Edge at least!

I won't believe it until its on my wrist...who knows it could be an early April Fools joke

hahahahahhahhahahaha

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

This is what annoys me. I don't wear my 920 every day & I would not wear any Garmin as my daily watch. It serves a purpose & that is to track my workouts. At my peak, I will be putting in 100+ SBR miles a week. I don't need to wear an activity tracker to tell me if I walked 10,000 steps today. The Fenix Sapphire is the closest thing to a smartwatch that I would wear daily, but even that is more than I want or need.

The square face on the 910 & 920 has been a proven standard for years. Why they want to mess with that is beyond me. I get that they say that it makes ConnectIQ development easier when all faces are round, but when they are charging what they are charging for these devices, they should deliver on the core needs for the core purpose of the watch, not on ancillary BS like making the watch stylish for everyday use. Oh, and the #1 smartwatch on the market today has a square face. Just saying.



I wear a Rolex GMT-II every day. I have a second Rolex that was passed down to me from my grandfather that he got in 1964 & I wear that for special occasions. I get that millenials have their phones to tell time & think mechanical watches are pointless, but Swiss watches are still a $6B+ a year industry. In the first year of the Apple Watch's explosive growth, they still fell short of one brand. While they have since surpassed Rolex, no one will be passing a smart watch down to their grandchildren for the next 60-80-100 years. Smart watches are $600 disposable goods with a lifespan of 3-5 years. When I look at my wrist, I want something that will reliably tell me the time, and will also be (ironically) a timeless work of art.

You are making my point there. If you make a device that has what the customer wants, the shape is not an issue. Garmin is saying that they are going to round faces because it makes the watch more appealing to wear all the time. I argue that if you give people what they want in a watch, including a more readable display, they won't care about the aesthetics.

I actually didn't care for the square face of the 920. I wear my watch 24x7 and the 920 looked odd/archaic......I dumped it for the 735 (I only use the watch on the run, I have a separate bike computer). Glad the 935 is round.

I love new gadgets, but this looks like a POS. A "plastic" version of the Fenix 5? This is no upgrade from the 920, imo.

---

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Now how long until we see the 920 price drop!?

It's already dropped.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Where? Places I've been watching have been the same...

http://www.clevertraining.com/...isport-fitness-watch

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

920 has been around $260 on Amazon for a while now.

$300 for the run bundle (accelerometers in HRM) which is great value considering that strap is over $100 by itself.

Feature comparison chart vs a few other Garmin models, including the 920

GMAN. What happened to Texas?

Any reason to keep my 735xt? I may swap it out for the 935. Longer battery life is the biggest deal for me, but altimeter is nice too.

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2017 races: St. George 70.3 May 6 | Madison 70.3 June 11 | IM Zurich July 30 | Chicago Marathon October 8

I'd sell it. I passed on the 735 because I saw it as a temporary solution.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Two of the last four months I couldn't train due to illness or injury. So I bailed.

The race is still a go if that's what you're worried about. Weather looks like total shit though.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Thanks. I was ignorant, but luckily I bought from a store w/ 60 day return policy :)

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2017 races: St. George 70.3 May 6 | Madison 70.3 June 11 | IM Zurich July 30 | Chicago Marathon October 8

I'm not a millennial (47 years old) but I think watches for the sake of telling time are indeed pointless. I can't stand jewelry in general so the thought of wearing a watch as some kind of fashion accessory or status symbol is even less appealing but that's just my personal opinion. To each their own. I don't get the fuss about expensive watches but I understand that it's no different than people not getting the fuss about expensive bikes, to which I have owned several.

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I'd have to agree with Meathead. I'm also 47 by the way. My daily wear is a U-Boat which I love for it's aesthetics and it's 'unusualness' in that hardly anyone is one. Certainly here in NZ. I also have a 1969 Omega which was bought for my 40th birthday. That is a timeless piece of beauty that no smartwatch will ever surpass.

That said other people aren't like me hence Garmins change.

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Huh! Price drop is a kneejerk reaction. 920XT, as the last square face 900 series, is going *up* in value. :)

I really like the square face (my eyes are not getting any younger and I prefer the visibility available with the square layout v round) but I don't know if I'm *that* opposed to round. And, although I like some of the new features on the 935 (and Fenix), I'd also like to stay married. My 920XT, with the running dynamics HR strap, was - I dunno - $450 about 14 months ago. I just can't sell the value proposition at home to get a few more metrics / OHR (which would require the new footpod with the 935 to reacquire running dynamics with OHR - oh, how devious, Garmin!) and be on track to buy $400-$500 GPS/HRM watches every 18 months... And, I know this comes as a huge shock to our community - but I'm not a professional triathlete. So, for my purposes, it will likely be the 920XT for a few more years. Maybe I'll be on the every-other-device upgrade cycle. I went from a 305 to a 920XT - I guess that I skipped *two* models between those!

Agreed, Why would you buy this and not the Fenix? If you want small, there is the 5s. Given the price the F5 just looks so much better. The only thing I can think of is the bike quick release, but I wouldnt be surprised if the f5 gets this down the line.

-Almost half of the weight as the Fenix 5 (and I don't want to go to a screen as small as the 5s).
-Wifi sync without having to pay for sapphire on the F5.
-As you mentioned, QR (and I wouldn't be surprised if Garmin doesn't do a QR for the F5, precisely to distinguish between the watches).

I have exactly the opposite reaction as you: I can't imagine why a triathlete would opt for the F5 over the 935.

 
I like it. I would like to daily wear my 920xt but it's big, bulky, blue and square.

This looks to be nicely understated, lower profile than the F5, lighter weight and $100 cheaper. Fits my needs (ok, wants) well.

I'm upgrading because my 920 has died and I will sell the warranty replacement when it arrives, otherwise I would have just kept my 920. There aren't enough differences between the 920 and 930 to warrant a upgrade for most people I'd imagine.

I think the big difference is the form factor. Still yet to get my head around the round shape. Hard to see if the 4 data fields on a round screen are as clear as 4 on the square 920. That'll probably be the key factor for me. I have enough problems with 4 fields on the 920 with my aged eyes but manage well enough.

At the moment as long as my 920 works, I'll probably stick with it. I might even pick up a spare to put away until my current one dies. Garmin are clearly going down the path of chucking everything they can at a watch in an attempt to be all things to all people. And that path tends to leave to mediocrity - jack of all trades, master of none.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Simple, a lot of people have day jobs and are professionals first and triathletes second. If you want a watch that you can wear all day in a professional / semi-formal setting that you could also train in then there's really no contest in terms of aesthetics. If you look at closeups side-by-side the 935 looks a cheap toy next to the F5.

If you only want a device for training / racing and don't care about the aesthetics then I agree the 935 is a no brainer. Both markets are sizable enough that Garmin went through the hassle to create two separate products so it shouldn't be that surprising to people that shockingly other people have different product preferences.

Well, I've been wearing the 920xt for the last 2.5 years in a professional/semi-formal setting without any repercussions. The 935 is a step up in aesthetics for me. :) But I do agree: to each their own.

It's unfortunate to me that people still buy into the thinking of what a watch is supposed to look like. I don't understand the thought that the Fenix 5 somehow looks better than the 935 simply because it looks more like a Rolex. Personally, I think the Apple watch is by far the most beautiful watch there is. Beauty in simplicity, but I guess generations of opinions don't change over night.

The biggest dealbreaker for me is no music support. They already have bluetooth support, and adding an audio player to the watch should be as easy as including a audio library. Just about everyone I know still carrier their phone because that's the only way to listen to music. Yes the apple watch is beautiful, but Garmin really nailed battery life. There's more than enough battery life to go around to sacrifice a little bit to stream bluetooth audio.

For me, the perfect watch is: Long battery life, music, and an accurate HR monitor. Until then, everything is just a work-in-progress.

My BF wanted a new Garmin for his birthday last December but decided to wait to get his gift until the new releases came out. We compared all the features of the Fenix 5 series with the 935 tonight and he opted for the 935. It came down to him wanting WiFi but not wanting to spend the extra $200 for the Fenix Sapphire series to get WiFi since he's only planning to use the watch for training (so now he'll get another present to make up the price difference). I, on the other hand, am looking down at the Fenix 3 HR that I wear all day every day and longing for the Fenix 5 Sapphire. If I were buying for me I'd have spent the extra $200. Everyone has different priorities, I guess.

I'm getting one of these once they actually ship one. It was a Kickstarter, first shipments supposed to be May I believe. Plays Spotify music.

https://bemighty.com

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--Chris

Yeah totally agree with you re the audio. Why not add that feature? They've missed a trick. I don't think a company can rest on its laurels and just assume they have a monopoly on the market and that's the way it will remain.

Garmin don't have a monopoly in the market, unless I've missed something - which given my past record is very likely! They might be the dominant player, but that's not quite the same.

Is it that easy to include a music player with bluetooth connection to earphones, storage for said music, ANT+connection to ancillary items, and still have good battery life for GPS tracking and other performance metrics? Never mind the processing capacity. And all in a wrist-worn device? I guess the answer is yes, maybe - https://www.amazon.com/...eywords=iphone+wrist

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

You should buy a Zinger sowing machine while you're at it:)

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

That looks incredible. Thanks for linking it! Definitely buying one.

Out of curiousity, why does he want wifi so badly? I'm a software engineer, and in my opinion, Bluetooth is better in every way. Wifi might be slightly faster, but Bluetooth allows you to sync with your phone which works everywhere. Connecting once via bluetooth is better than connecting to several different wifi networks or not connecting at all if you're at a hotel for example. In fact, I feel like it's a step backwards to include wifi on a device since it takes extra engineering effort to maintain. But again, I'm curious about your usage, so I apologize for the fairly strong tech opinions.

It's remarkable to me how this seems like such a small incremental upgrade to the 920XT.
The 920 pretty much meets or exceeds all of my expectations as is; I wish the contrast of the display made it easier to see and I guess the wrist HRM is nice.
I also own an iPhone 6 - but see no truly valuable benefit in the iPhone 7.
Along these lines, the Macbook Pro upgrade was something I was truly looking forward to. But with the removal of the various ports you actually need to use adapters for things as simple as a USB mouse or memory card. WTF?
Similarly, I don't see the real benefit in disc brakes on a tri bike - in fact, they seem like a step back (more weight and complexity, need to buy new wheelsets).

Maybe something changes when you turn 50.

Yes. Motorola did it 5+ years ago. Garmin should have no trouble with this at all.

The one thing i would like an answer to:
Can i before saving a workout, being swimming and especially running edit the distance i have run/swam? Even a 5k run on treadmill get such a wrong value thati have to sit and edit once uploaded!

Indeed, well there's basically zero new features in the watch itself, which is why we've had two pages of people babbling on about square vs round screens.

Not sure that's quite true. There's a shed loads of new features, but hardly any of them adds anything to using it as a triathlon watch. Golf swing? Music controls? Ability to count the numbers of floors climbed?

Sure there's some good stuff been added, but do they actually add anything of use other than the ability to have even more data to look at and work out if it's of any use?

It's a cheap version of the Fenix 5. You can't blame Garmin from wanting to standardise the design and code base.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Except, of course, for the optical HR. That's hardly a "small incremental upgrade" from the 920XT. People may differ on how important it is to them to have optical HR, but I suspect it's been a pretty significant engineering challenge for Garmin to get it working reliably (and it seems still to be a work in progress).

True, that's a fair point.

The other new "features" are just guff that most people will end up ignoring after the first week; and aren't most of those on the latest 920XT firmware as it is? I gather the fenix 3 can monitor Floors Climbed and all that crap but I never bother using it.

Well I'm 31 and feel EXACTLY the same.. 920XT, iPhone6, MPB (mostly adjusted to no SuperDrive, but not ready to give up USB), disc brakes..

That's a great question. He didn't say specifically why he wants WiFi, but I'd guess it's because of all the frustration he's seen me deal with when using bluetooth to sync with the Garmin iphone app, especially when syncing running workouts. After all of my workouts I tend to launch the Garmin app on my phone to sync the workout right after the workout is saved on my watch, and over 80% of the time I get an error message when trying to sync a run workout and inevitably I wind up having to turn off my phone and then restart it and then relaunch the Garmin app in order to get the workout to sync via bluetooth, and even then it always takes 5+ minutes for run workouts to sync even when they are files for short runs that don't have a ton of data. Long run files often take over 10 minutes to sync even after I've gone through the ordeal of turning off my phone and turning it back on again. My BF is probably sick of hearing me complain about this, and he may have been drawn to DC Rainmaker's feedback about the WiFi syncing being automatic and instantaneous, if I had to guess.

It's twice the price but there's also Delphin which is the same idea, but waterproof and with a touch screen to actually see what you're doing.

The interface on Mighty wouldn't bother me that much though since it's just a copy of a iPod shuffle, I've been using waterproof shuffles for 5+ years now and never had much of an issue.

You are making a lot of assumptions about my tastes. If I were to buy a Fenix it'd be a 5S not a 5 and definitely not a 5X. As a dude Garmin's decision to market 5S to women seems silly to me, it's a modern clean looking watch versus the clunky wrist furniture of the 5X.

My comments in regards to the aesthetics were because this looks cheap and plasticy to me:




And this does not:

yes, technically BT is "better" but for me wifi is super convenient since it just auto uploads at all the places where I stop a workout (home, work, gym). It hardly ever fails, where BT fails often (for me). BT on my 920XT just seemed less reliable and I'm usually fiddling around trying to get the workout uploaded. On my Edge 520, BT seems to work very well and also doesn't seem to drain the battery as much as on the 920. My edge 510, though, is very unreliable with BT uploads. So even though my 520 work well, my perception of bluetooth on a garmin is as a much less optimal experience than wifi has been. But it's not down to the actual technology protocols, it's down to the whole experience that each one provides. WiFi is my goto option, bluetooth is a "backup option" that I use when traveling.

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Are you ready to do an Ultraman? | How I calculate Ironman race fueling | Strength Training for Athletes |

I had a hard time getting wifi uploads to work on my 920xt. I eventually gave up as I never could get the watch to connect to my wifi at home. Not sure if it was an issue with my wifi router (comcast x1) or what. I'm going to try to get the 935 to work but I'm not optimistic.

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blog

Is that some kind of hog farming implement?

5 hours of battery life? My old ipod shuffle gen 1 does 20 hrs+, can fit about 2000 songs at 128kbps and can be bought 100% waterproof for about that price tag.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Mine arrived......

Yes but your ipod shuffle doesn't work with streaming music services or support bluetooth headphones. No one is forcing you to 'upgrade', but a lot of people stopped maintaining an iTunes library a long time ago and want to use their streaming services on workouts without bringing their comically oversized phones.

There were 3 products coming out to fill that niche, the Pebble core (cancelled when Fitbit bought Pebble), the Mighty and the Delphin. If you want waterproof you are pretty much stuck with the Delphin.

Of course if Garmin implemented bluetooth audio in any meaningful way then these products would be irrelevant. It seems shocking to me that a these new watches don't given the enormous price tags. These watches almost cost as much as buying a premium smartphone straight up and while they are certainly sophisticated devices the FR935 and F5 are laughable compared to say the just announced galaxy S8. That's economies of scale for you though I guess.

Hate to break it to you, but iPod shuffle integrates with Spotify exactly the same way Mighty does. It works like this - mark some albums or songs to be available offline, wait for them to be written to your computer, grab them from a local directory - in the case of iPod move them into your iTunes library, or in the case of Mighty write them to the device. Sure, iTunes is a pain in the ass, but let's not pretend that this Mighty device blazes some new trail here.

Re: bluetooth - a $6 adapter for the headphone does the trick if you want to charge 2 devices instead of one.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

You got a 935 already? How?

I'm still waiting for garmin to take my money on there website.

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blog

Hate to break it to me? Pretend Mighty is blazes trails? What are you even reading to come up with this stuff?

A different poster mentioned Mighty, I mentioned a different similar product only stating that it exists and said that I personally use a shuffle. As far as syncing spotify to your shuffle, sounds like a pain in the ass but cool story. I would not be interested in a product that requires any kind of regular synchronization between PC and the device so I have no interest in Mighty personally if that's how it works. Delphin might be interesting since it has a UI and wifi so you can use the apps directly on the device but given the screen size limitation it might be a flawed experience.

Good news is you are free to enjoy your shuffle til the end of time regardless of whether or not some company is attempting to market a competitor.

Is the screen glass or plastic ?

Thx

I'm in the Uk - ordered from wiggle yesterday - delivered today.

The screen is plastic.

Just been for a run with it - its replacing my 920 that i've had since launch - so all the buttons are in the wrong places !!

Its a lot more like a "normal" watch than the 920 - doesn't feel like you have a computer strapped to your wrist. Black on black is a little dull - have a different strap on order but no one seems to have them in stock yet.

What was this Motorola wrist-worn device that was so good 5+ years ago? That would have been around the same time as the 310XT.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

My bad, it was 6 years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motoactv

And here's dcrainmaker's review: https://www.dcrainmaker.com/...in-depth-review.html

I'm not really sure why it didn't catch on other than having terrible battery life. Many years ahead of its time. In fact, we still haven't caught back up to it.

Maybe it's age (or wisdom), I'm 47 and I still want the latest and greatest but I force myself to skip a generation in technology. I feel better about myself that way and the upgrade is more substantial. I went from the iPhone 5S to the 7 and now I'm going from the FR910xt to the FR935. So maybe you should wait for the iPhone8 and FR950.

Any 22mm strap should work right?
Like any NATO strap

While a few people would like it, maybe the demand isn't there for something with on board music storage, especially in an age where the fastest growing segment buys no music at all but streams it.

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https://markmcdermott.substack.com

Ah yes. I vaguely remember looking at it at the time. Questionable waterproofing from the start would have made it an easy decision to avoid buying it for triathlon.

While it presented a good package, it seemed to lack substance. What is does show is how difficult it is to get everything into a package that is usable. While we might not have caught up with the entire package, we do at least have devices that work in the environment for which they were designed...most of the time.

Bryton is another name that springs to mind. They came. Made a reasonable splash and have all but disappeared.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

There are a lot of really good use cases for having stored music: Airplans, running, subways. Apparently subways are the reason why Spotify allowed you to download a playlist locally. But if the UI integration is good where you can just click the "Save playlist to my Garmin" button, then I think it would be huge.

The concept of on board music storage doesn't actually make sense to a lot of people, but if you obfuscate it behind something that people do understand, then it works well.

Edit: After some thought, I even more strongly disagree that there isn't a market for this. Every single runner that I know also carries their cell phone so that they can listen to music while they run (and take pictures and use maps, etc, but mainly for music. And my network is not exactly small.)

Yep, I agree. Products are successful when you do one thing really, really well. After that, you earn the privilege of expanding beyond your core business. Garmin does GPS watches really well (arguably.) This is why the 935 seems like such a small, incremental upgrade. They need to introduce something *new* instead of just creating 1% improvements on top of something that is already good. My 920 and 310 (and probably the 935) does GPS about the same. They aren't substantially different. GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW GARMIN!

Another product that comes to mind is the Bia Sport watch. Much like Motorola, they introduce something new (cell tower connectivity,) but they didn't do it well enough to really take hold in the market.

And on the flip side, everyone in my running group runs with no music at all.

Out of curiosity, do they run in a group? Doesn't make sense to have music on a group run.

I ran without music for about 15 years, but now I'm running into issues where I end up running way too fast and injure myself. I would get too bored, so running fast is how I would keep my mind distracted. But now I need music or podcasts to slow me down and keep my mind engaged.

We (Team Zoot Captains) got ours on Tuesday at our Team meeting in Carlsbad. I'm going directly from the 920 to this 935. I never had a Fenix. I really like it so far, we were given the Run Dynamics pod as well to play with. I really like the ability to upload your training schedule directly from TP.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

Bryancd,

When you get a chance, can you give us your take on the 935, including the optical HR, screen size, weight, etc?

Thanks

I think your edit demonstrates why the market is small. I run with a phone so I can call my wife if something goes wrong or vice versa and so I can take photos. It's a benefit that I can listen to music or podcasts. So why do I need it on my watch if I'm bringing my phone anyway to take photos or for emergencies?

And I'm not running or biking in a subway anytime soon so it's not like that's a use case to have it on the watch.

Plus how big will the watch be to have storage?

I just don't see it being a big market.

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https://markmcdermott.substack.com

How about two photos showing watch faces on both? That graphic on the 935 makes the watch look tacky anyway. And it wouldn't do anything for the F5 either.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

I'm still not sure I agree. I would guess that the majority of people who run never run far enough away to require a phone call. I do roughly 95% of my running within a few miles of my house or my work and never bring my phone. I would venture most people are in a similar boat (regarding not needing your phone for calling purposes.) Biking, yes I always bring my phone, but that's because if anything happens I won't be able to get home. Not for running though.

Regarding storage, there are sd cards the size of the nail on your pinky finger that can hold 256gb. That's enough to hold over 50,000 songs. If I were to guess, I'd say that the 935 has no more than 2gb of storage. Upgrading that to even 4 or 8gb would cost pennies per watch.

If you truly believe this is a small market, I urge you to consider the common case (ie people other than yourself.)

I think we're all guilty of exaggerating our knowledge of who does what to get our point across at one time or another. We know lots of people run with headphones in. We know lots of people run with telephones. What we don't know is how many of those people are prepared to invest in a watch with the ability to wirelessly play music through headphones from the device.

I'd like to think Garmin (and other GPS watch manufacturers) have done some market research. If that is the case, do they believe that sacrificing storage space and battery life is what their market wants? I'd suggest the answer is they do not. At least they've given you music control from the 935. Apple now have a GPS enabled device that will retain some music and play it back without the iPhone, but the battery life is pretty woeful. Extending battery life means increasing the size of the device so unlikely Apple will go that way. Clearly, even with the volume available in the F5 series, Garmin have decided that perhaps it's not possible to implement the feature in any meaningful way.

Arguably cost of storage is irrelevant if it impacts on the overall functionality of the device.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

I still think much easier is to include the player into headphones - really not sure why only Bragi included music storage in their headphone

Perhaps incorporating a music player into one of their less sports focused watches like the vivoactive?

I love my Sony MP3 Walkman. No cords, no phone and I can drag and drop music easily.

Screen size is nice as it's not as huge as the 920 and it is lighter and thinner then the 735. It has a very low profile. The buttons dont extend too far from the sides. I ran yesterday and the HR data looked spot on and it read my HR consistently with no gaps. Garmin did tell us that people with darker skin may encounter some connectivity issues with the optical HR. I'm pretty tan right now and had no issues so far.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

2nd run this morning using the Run Dynamics pod. So where the 920 had the Run Dynamics sensors built into the unit now they use this small pod to allow for a smaller watch form factor. I assume this is the same pod Fenix users have been using. HR data today was a bit erratic, some big spikes. The pod data also doesn't seem as consistent as it was with the 920. That's a non-issue for me, though, I never found that data particularly actionable. Neat feature, the watch reminds you to take it off.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

Definitely an interesting idea, but just thinking through this: Battery life, weight, and size seem to be a lot more of a concern when it comes to wireless earbuds. Having small earbuds fall out of your ears worries me, so anything you can do to optimize that while also optimizing for battery life is a huge challenge. I've done a decent amount of running with my AirPods, and Apple nailed it. There's way less concern of a watch falling off your wrist, so putting the "brains" there makes a lot more sense to me.

\

Just look at strava and you see how many people are taking their phones in order to take pictures. It IS the common use case.

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https://markmcdermott.substack.com

It would be interesting to know how many of those people take their phones to listen to music and just take pictures because their phone happens to be with them versus how many people specifically take their phones to take pictures. For me personally, music is the primary goal, and I take pictures just because it's convenient. I never take my phone specifically with the intention of taking pictures. I would be interested to see some data on this.

The reality is that Garmin just buys a 8GB memory chip instead of a 2GB chip. It's not a lot more cost per chip in the quantity they would be buying. The rest is just software. It already has a bluetooth radio in it so that part is done. TomTom already offers music storage and playback in a multisport watch so it's not impossible.

Personally, I like the way Mighty Audio is doing it because they are allowing me to use Spotify. I haven't bought a song in years, I stream everything. I'm not sure if there's a cost to be a Spotify partner, but I would assume there is. Again, probably not a ton of money for Garmin though.

The Apple Watch allows you to sync music from iTunes, including from Apple Music which is like Spotify. It sucks as a sports watch though.

Personally, I'd love to have music on my watch and bluetooth headphones. Maybe the 945 will have it. I plan to get the Might Audio when it's out because for me that's as close to perfect as is currently available.

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--Chris

Memory is dirt cheap these days and yet garmin still puts minimal storage on these watches. I strongly suspect it's not a cost thing but a battery thing. I love that I can go a week between charges on my garmin watch or do long events with 1sec gps recording and wouldn't trade that for more storage.

Is the backlight on the 935 brighter than the 735? The one on the 735 is pretty lame.

I'm not sure, I never used the 735.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

It's a much brighter watch side by side w/o backlight.

With backlight, it's still definitely brighter. A different tone of light of course, but definitely brighter.

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My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

DC: any chance you have a photo comparing the size of the 920 to the 935?

Thats not the case at all. The RD data for the 920xt comes from the chest strap not the unit.
Use your old chest strap with the 935xt and it will get the RD data from that same as the 920xt.

Oh right, I'm sorry I forgot the current strap is the run data one. I'm going to use my strap as the run HR data continues to be a bit choppy for me.

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-Of course it's 'effing hard, it's IRONMAN!
Team ZOOT
ZOOT, QR, Garmin, HED Wheels, Zealios, FormSwim, Precision Hydration, Rudy Project

Anyone knows if the optical HR sensor on the 935 broadcasts HR through Ant+? It would be nice to be able to pair the 935 to a 520 as a HR sensor. I'm guessing it can't be done though.

Yes it does - I cycled to work this morning with the heart rate from my 935 showing on my 820.

Nice, thanks.

Keep the updates coming - just ordered one.