my 935 has been good to me
Vector3 only the battery door.. new ones coming. Actually all drop out solved by a piece of electrical tape anyways.
Blood oxygen sensor.. considering I have a BSX insight.dont even mention LVL to me.... I want it.. $1100+ yeah pretty pricey.

You’re right they should stop rolling out new features. Better GPS, mapping and connectivity are all wins. This isn’t a watch marketed directly at triathletes. A built in pulse ox is awesome for high alpine climbing and mountaineering.

Equate Garmin to Apple. They have a high end product, but you can also keep your 920 and be happy. Ive had zero issues with my 5x and 935. I want music and garminpay so I will be buying in.

But just like Apple, you need to keep upgrading to keep your value current. Otherwise the product is made with the quality to last a long time. The choice is yours.

I’m happy with my 510 and my Fenix 3 Sapphire.

Not at all. I'm glad they keep pushing the limits. Honestly though I think I've settled on the perfect watch for me - the Garmin 645 (non-music). Looks great, perfect size and all the functionality I want/need.

I still have my Garmin 920xt. Hoping they’ll come out with a new version with same shape as 920xt. But I’ll stick with my 920xt for awhile

Happy with my 935, but still reckon the 920 was better. I just upgraded, because that's what I do :-)

It's the way of things to keep adding stuff to these watches that we don't need or even want. Isn't that called progress? There's a bit of me that misses the mobile phone that had some computing ability. Now I carry a computer in my pocket that makes the occasional phone call.

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

I just want a watch that has the following:

-Enough battery life for a IM
-Audible Hr alerts set for zones
-Tri specific timing
-Contactless charging
-wifi and blutooth that synchs with 3rd party apps like Strava
- power meter connectivity
-message alerts for sms and 3rd party apps like Viber and the ability to respond
-Swim lap counter and open water tracker

Does this exist?

In the bike arena Garmin have released the Edge 130 which is the cycling equivalent of ‘simple, modern, basic, everything you need and nothing you do not’

I’m not sure they’ll do a Tri equivalent though... running and cycling yes, but triathletes like to spend lots of money?

Garmin... please put a steel (silver) crown on the 935 as an option already (like the 645). Take a look at your target market. Adults with jobs buy these things. All plastic watches are for kids.

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----------------------------------------------------------
Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

Almost all the watches mentioned in this thread can do what you're asking

Nope. 920 suits me fine. When mine dies I will just buy another.

I'm with you. Love my 920, and I have no interest in paying MORE than the $225 I paid for this one. I saw 920xt batteries on EBay the other day. I figure when I can't get enough life out of this one...I'll buy one of those batteries and keep trucking.

Great thanks!

Anyone have any ideas on how they measure the O2 in your blood from the skin level, i.e. w/o actually sticking a probe into a blood vessel???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Probably guess just like they do with Vo2 and wrist heart rate.

I'm happy with my 935 and was happy with my 910 until it filled up with water, won't buy another one until the 935 dies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_oximetry


reflectance pulse ox...also see...limitations.

2 months out off warranty. My 935 freezes up every time in an open water. I am going back to 920.

Light source , light detector. And some signal processing. Same as optical HR. Edit: that's how clothespin on your finger O2 sat detectors work in hospitals.

They could have saved themselves a lot of R&D and simply added this to their code:

int random = rand();

If (random) printf ('99%') else printf ('100%');

And have the O2 sat bounce around between 99% and 100%. That's all it will ever do on a sportswatch….

Because triathletes like to spend an asinine amount of time measuring metrics that in all reality provide no value to improving their training.

Garmin is smart though, they know their market and what monetary value their consumers put in equipment and that those consumers care a lot about the 1,000 ways to measure a 5 mile run. <------ Somewhat pink

Have an Edge 1000 that has worked pretty much perfectly for 2 years other than the navigation getting a bit confused on out and back or multi-loop routes.

Have a Fenix 5 that has worked perfectly for 9 months.

Have an old Forerunner 410 that gave me 5 trouble free years before I upgraded to the Fenix and still works just fine.

I hear a lot about Garmin bugs and problems but in all honesty my experience has been pretty good, certainly as reliable as any other tech out there. Syncing occasionally is problematic and need to close and restart Garmin Connect, or turn Bluetooth off and on again on the phone, but I could say the same thing about pretty much all my Bluetooth devices.

Isn't that called a Fenix 5...?

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

My 520 works great.
My Fenix3 crapped out, sent it in and they sent me a new one. That one froze out of warranty and I got a refurbished one for $100+. The 20 hour battery of that one lasted 9.5 hours in my IM (no I can’t finish faster!).
Got fed up with it and upgraded to F5. The optical HR starts well but constantly locks to my cadence. On the bike it reads 115-120 beats when I am doing threshold and I know it’s 160+. Can’t connect my Wahoo Tickr chest strap to it because it has a stupid antenna. My powermeter keeps dropping in and out. Elevation is constantly at 23000 feet and I’m in Florida.

I am not the only one with these issues. And I paid $500 for a watch that doesn’t connect to anything. So they fix it and this new one they say but it’s 600-750$ and they have no plan for those of us who have crap F5’s.

Not sure about fed up. I had a 920 that I upgraded to an F5 which works perfectly for me. Also have a 520 which works well. Battery life not great but I wonder if that’s becuase of the Varia Radar?

The one thing I’m slightly peeved about is the new F5 coming out so soon after I bought mine - yes it’s over a year since I got my F5. That said the F5 plus doesn’t have anything I’m particularly interested in - maybe music, but as I don’t have a computer I don’t know how I’d get music into it.

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I ride:
Cervelo - P-Series/R3
GT - Sensor Carbon Expert

Supporters - Flo Cycling, Mount Bikes

Interesting question, I've always been an upgrader with Garmin since the FR205. Like others on this thread, I 'stopped' at the 920xt.

Years ago, the big issues were:

GPS Connectivity, Time to connect
Battery Life (need enough for an IM)
Waterproofing
Swim Data
Multisport mode
Size
ANT+
WiFi upload of workouts

Step by step these were addressed (205 -> 205 -> 310 -> 910 -> 920)

The 920 was the watch that addressed all the major failings of previous watches.

That left nothing in terms of core functionality to justify 400$ for an upgrade. Yes, new features have been added. but the core stuff that was needed (list above) had already been done.

It's a bit like power meter pedals - I have the Assioma - I can't think what else can be done to improve it (same for Vector 3).

It will be interesting to see what Wahoo does for the watch.

$1250 AUD for a sports watch??? What drugs have they been smoking...

I'd just like to be able to set tri settings that has meters for swimming miles for cycling and running

If I have one quarrel with Garmin regarding the jump from F5 to F5+ its that they never got round to officially acknowledging the fact that F5 had ant+ reception issues and then secretly fixed this with the F5+. I'm personally using a Fr935 thanks to the fact that I was made aware of the F5 problems shortly before hitting the trigger on it but for everyone else this is a pretty stupid situation. They should offer some mail in rebate for existing F5 owners.

Apart from that I'm happy that Garmin keeps pushing the technology. I don't need some of the features but I think its important to understand that this is designed as a complete solution multi sport watch with multisport not meaning triathlon but all kinds of sports and so it comes natural that many of us won't really see the need of many of the features. Its horses for courses really and if you don't need features and don't want to pay for them theres more garmin watch options to choose from.

Garmin releasing buggy stuff isn't new. The simple solution is wait a few months after release until others have discover what's wrong and you know what you're buying.
I've often found myself wanting something no-one else seemed bothered about so I'm not about to assume no-one wants something just because I don't.
Why would you be fed up with Garmin selling stuff you don't want? Do they not also make what you do want?
Like lots of others here, I started with a FR305, then a FR910XT and now a FR920XT. I don't see any major need for an upgrade. The straps start cracking too soon, I find the side button feel a bit unsatisfactory and the battery life is just about sufficient, but overall the watch does what I need, performs well and is easy to live with.
There's a lot of newer watches with extra features. I don't need them so I haven't bought them.
I might get a Fenix if they were a bit less bulky, just for the better appearance when not training (the 920 is hardly stylish!)

But I don't care if Garmin sells ridiculously expensive stuff I don't want or need and more than I care that the company who made my bike also make one for €15k. I'm happy so long as I can get what I want and need for a price I can live with.

That’s one of the reasons I’m loving my 645. Just ordered a new band off Amazon yesterday to class it up a bit at the office versus that black plastic band.

Almost. The Fenix 5 is also bulkier and has a metal back and that adds a ton of weight. It's 82 grams while the 935 is only 49. That nearly double the weight difference is a PIA while running.

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----------------------------------------------------------
Zen and the Art of Triathlon. Strava Workout Log
Interviews with Chris McCormack, Helle Frederikson, Angela Naeth, and many more.
http://www.zentriathlon.com

No chance of that whatsoever; they'll want everything to be compatible software-wise.

This isn't to say that I, myself, don't sometimes miss my old 305.

I do not miss my 305. It worked, but it was rather bulky and I spent way too much time waiting for it to find a GPS signal before each ride or run, when I'd forgotten to leave it in a suitable spot searching while I got changed.

I just like the square-ish display as it makes it a little easier to see data. Not a big deal. I had an old fenix 2 and didn’t like the round display. But newer watches probably have larger round displays

That was the main reason I held off a few months before buying a 935. That and the 935 was better for swim-run events.

What has this got to with the form factor mickison?

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

I’m somewhat happy with my vivoactive HR and 910xt combo. 910 for racing and long days VHR for everyday. Just wish the Vivoactive had multi-sport and open water functions. I plan on riding until one of them breaks and isn’t replace by Garmin. Then I’ll get one of the do it all “super watches” like the Fenix or the 935. Depends whatever is new, cheap, a generation old, my finances blah blah blah. Seems Garmin last, and works for years and years. At at least as high of not higher function than competitors. Can’t argue with that.

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

Although to answer OP I’ll say I am getting a little sick of the jacked up prices. I would like to see a sub Fenix level watch with the big battery level, fast connectivity, smart watch capabilities, built in HR for when I’m stupid and can’t find my strap, and multi sport function. I’ve looked elsewhere but haven’t bought. If you’re listening Garmin price is a strong motivator!

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I still lapped everyone on the couch!

They can launch all the fancy, $1000+ watches they want and it doesn't bother me. I'm still rocking my hand-me-down 310XT. The only feature I feel I'm missing is the ability to set different display configurations for the different bikes. Other than that, and it's a small amount of work to manually change the configuration, it does everything I need ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

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"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"

I just get frustrated with their inconsistent firmware updates. You will never know if it fixes more than it breaks. My 520 still won't connect to bluetooth until I reboot it after a ride. Not a big deal, I'm not addicted to strava, but it would be nice if it worked as advertised.

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Nothing as far as I know. That’s another persons response to me

I am with you!!! Make a 935 with Steel crown and I would wear it all day long.

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2024: Bevoman, Galveston, Alcatraz, Marble Falls, Santa Cruz

GPS watches are getting more attention than bikes these days

Very happy with my Fenix5 with no major issues up to now
Additional functionalities are good for the folks that need\like them - even better for the ones who dont , you get your older versions at a better price

That’s the problem. They have the 5+, 5s+, and 5x+ and pretty much the difference between them is size.
They add mapping and oxygen sat and stuff we don’t need and price goes up.
What they should have done is have one of them, let’s say the 5+, without the bells and whistles for less and I would buy it. If you want the one with mapping and saturation, and I am sure someone does, then get 5x+ model or something.

Do the older and cheaper models that are still available not meet that requirement?

Yeah, I'd rather have one with a new faster chip. However, it never corrupted a workout. It never failed to charge. It never failed to upload a workout. It never lied about having signal and showed me starting my run way away from where I actually was. My 610 and 235 did all of those. My 935 is better, but the 305 was incredibly solid as a product, and had higher quality for what it did than its successors did.

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The point is, ladies and gentleman, that speed, for lack of a better word, is good. Speed is right, Speed works. Speed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.

The 920 is fugly as an every day watch.
I mentioned the problems I have with the F3 and F5
Vivoactive HR is for the casual.

So I am stuck with my buggy F5. Which works ok if I don’t care about HR. I use my Edge on the bike. But I was hoping for something and Garmin seems to be moving away from what I was hoping for.

And that's why I'm wearing a Fenix. (3, because I can't justify upgrade $$ to 5 for the difference in form factor or feature set.)

I like the square-ish display as well. I have the 230 with the round display and am not a fan of it.

Easy, I believe the 935, 635, and the Fenix all use the same size, and resolution round display with the same number of buttons. They would need new software or at least heavily modified software to work on a square display. How the round watchs display thinks like steps is based on a round display, with the bar doing an arc across the face as you gain steps. Obviously with a square face you would need to display steps differently. This applies to basically everything the watch displays, so a large amount of software would be different for the square watch.

I recently got a Fenix 5S, so smaller display than the 935, Fenix 5S+, etc, and I wanted to see how the size of the display compares to my 920. So cut out a piece of paper the size of the 920 display and then put that over my 5S screen, to my surprise even the 5S display has more actual screen real estate. the piece of paper almost fit exactly within the circle of the 5S screen, with a bunch of 5S screen not covered by the paper. Granted the round display wastes a bit more in sport modes, but not much.

I got the fenix to have an everyday watch that I can wear without feeling like a gigantic dork. With the sale, it was cheaper than the 935 and only a bit more than the 635. I knew it was a risk because I suspected there was a new fenix model coming, but I don't care because none of the new features are critical for me (I already have a 520 for cycling so I don't care about ant+ issues).

Just ordered a new 5 Plus from my LBS to replace my 5. The music, better ANT+/Bluetooth, Maps and other features plus the positive DC Rainmaker review made this an easy decision for me. Got a fancy orange band version, 'cause its orange.

My Fenix 3 Sapphire is about to have its 3rd birthday. It cured me of a watch addiction, so that probably saved me a lot of money in the long run. I had been on the fence on the 5, but will probably order the 5+ titanium. The addition of lower weight and music are the tipping point---I knew I already wanted HR, but that wasn't quite enough to make the jump. I like that they added the full maps to the 5 instead of having to go to the 5X.

OK, understand the basics now but don't really see how this has much applicability to triathlon as it seems this O2 parameter has most applicability in hospital settings. If it is truly useful for mountaineering, i would think there would be other more mountain-specific watches on the market.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

$25 for chicken nachos and $92 for tacos for 2 (AUD) in downtown Brisbane when I was there for worlds.... what are u guys smoking lol

It uses light. There's a light sensor a little distance away from a light source that measures the color and amount of light that passes through your skin. Oxygen rich blood is redder, less oxygenated blood is bluer.

[Anyone have any ideas on how they measure the O2 in your blood from the skin level, i.e. w/o actually sticking a probe into a blood vessel???[/quote]

FWIW, I saw this explanation on the Outside website

The other big update, the pulse oximeter, is primarily useful for excursions into the alpine. The pulse-ox on the Fenix 5X Plus uses the same laser technology as those hospital finger clips. It shines two beams through your wrist and measures how much light reaches a detector on the other side. In the case of sports, it helps determine how your body responds to high altitude, where oxygen levels are lower. Sitting in our office, the watch told us our oxygen levels were at 100 percent. That reading dipped significantly on a run here in Santa Fe—which makes sense after five miles in 75-degree heat at 7,000-plus feet above sea level. But without comparing it to a hospital-grade sensor, we can’t say how accurate those readings were.

........The average athlete certainly doesn’t need to know their blood-oxygen saturation, but that tech has huge implications for people at the top end of mountain sports—and the maximized screen size on the 5S has huge implications for people with small wrists.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2318956/garmin-launches-fenix-5-plus-series

Same. $450 through my local shop for a F5 a few weeks back and I no longer am wearing a plastic watch with work clothes. That seems like a bargain compared to $700 starting price ($800 to not have the ugly steel bezel) when I don't want music or would use the watch based payment. Maps seems cool, but the navigation works just fine for the few times a year I make a running route ahead of time in a new place.

FWIW, I saw this explanation on the Outside website

The other big update, the pulse oximeter, is primarily useful for excursions into the alpine. The pulse-ox on the Fenix 5X Plus uses the same laser technology as those hospital finger clips. It shines two beams through your wrist and measures how much light reaches a detector on the other side. In the case of sports, it helps determine how your body responds to high altitude, where oxygen levels are lower. Sitting in our office, the watch told us our oxygen levels were at 100 percent. That reading dipped significantly on a run here in Santa Fe—which makes sense after five miles in 75-degree heat at 7,000-plus feet above sea level. But without comparing it to a hospital-grade sensor, we can’t say how accurate those readings were.

........The average athlete certainly doesn’t need to know their blood-oxygen saturation, but that tech has huge implications for people at the top end of mountain sports—and the maximized screen size on the 5S has huge implications for people with small wrists.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2318956/garmin-launches-fenix-5-plus-series

[/quote]
Duke - Thanks for this info and link.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

I have a 920 and love it, upgraded form the 910. about 1 year out of warranty my 920 got all messed up... Garmin replaced it for free, just sent me a new one. They earned my business for the rest of my life. I want the 935 so badly, but my 920 does everything I truly need. My wife has the Fenix 5 and I get pretty jealous at some of the awesome features, but cant justify 1/3rd of my monthly teacher pay.

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Insta: Trihennessy - Out Rival Racing Elite Team
- Roka - WattieInk - NormaTec - QUINTANA ROO - Profile Design - Pioneer - Gatorade Endurance

generally happy with my Fenix 3 *but* I do wish the GPS was more accurate.
It's a GPS watch. I want the GPS to work well.
I like the navigation features, which are why I bought it. And it's usually accurate enough. But, not quite usually enough.

I had a 920xt that was good....had an Edge 520 that just dropped sensors out of the blue...got rid of that and have a Wahoo Bolt....the prices have been getting more and more outrageous...after seeing the latest 5S I am continue to use my Fenix 3 and wait to see what the Wahoo Rival is like when it finally comes out. If its too pricey I will stick with the 3 until it breaks or buy a 735xt or 935 along the way. For me, Garmin Pay is even more useless than Apple Pay and the music is almost as useless so I will basically stand pat. There is no way I am paying 700 USD or so for my triathlon watch (at least without a really compelling reason to do so).

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

This looks to be much better and a fraction of the price! Garmin are a joke

Amazfit Stratos, has Triathlon mode, synchs to Strava, touch screen and buttons, light weight, wireless, waterproof, can download music, HR, GPS, 5 days battery life for $200 lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vQK32_fU1Y

No ANT+ and no way to load custom workouts to it....at least from the reviews I have read.....thats a deal breaker for me.

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

I’d be concerned about a touchscreen product- not sure how it would work when wet from rain or swimming. I’ve been stuck in the rain trying to call for a ride home and found my iPhone touchscreen did not work AT ALL when wet (I had to run to a fast food restaurant and get some napkins to dry the screen before the touchscreen would work).

Very happy with my Garmin 645m, except for one big issue.

It syncs with IHeartRadio, you’re supposed to be able to download music playlists and then go run without a phone, just stream the music from the watch to wireless headphones.

I’ve managed to do it exactly once.

After that, it’s become very confusing. Do I have to sync the playlist every single time I want to go running with IHeartRadio’s playlist? I get into this vicious circle of finding the playlist on the watch, but I can’t play it directly from there, it keeps telling me to sync the watch, so I do, and then go to play the music, and it tells me to sync it. Really annoying.

Plus iHeartRadio wants $10 a month. Garmin and IHeartRadio have to get their collective act together and make this easier to figure out.

DC Rainmaker, are you listening? I bought the watch because you said it was so easy to sync and play the music from IHeartRadio. Not the case.

Also, once you’re playing from a playlist, the skip option is great. But I found it very difficult to go from controlling the music to changing the run screens. Seems to be a situation of you can play music while timing a run, but you can’t go between the run screens.

Very confusing. And yes, I read the instructions.

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Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018

I have a Fenix 3 which does everything I need, but is a bit big really. I really fancied the fenix 5 but was put off without the sensor issues since I use a stryd.

The f5+ looks perfect. But the price! I paid about £270 for the f3, a little less for my 910 I had before.

If they get a Spotify app I might take another look, or my f3 finally breaks.

+1 hoping my wife retires from triathlon so i can have her 920 when mine eventually goes to shit.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

I keep looking at all the new watches but can’t justify upgrading as the 920 does all I need. Bike computer is a different story. Had the edge 520. Lost it. Bought lezyne super gps. Have to decide if that works for me.

You act like this watch was marketed towards you and only you. It isn’t being marketed towards triathletes. It has a bigger market in mountaineering and trail running. If you don’t like it don’t buy it.

Yeah, I'm not sure what's going on with respect to your watch. I'd consider removing the iHeartRadio app and re-installing it.

It really is as simple as syncing the playlist every once in a while (I haven't sync'd my iHeartRadio playlist in about a week now), and then just selecting it and pressing play. I actually uploaded a video this morning showing just that. Silly easy.

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-
My tiny little slice of the internets: dcrainmaker.com

Don't use logic, he's enjoying being mad. Just because he's wrong doesn't spoil the fun for him.

Thanks, Ray, I’ll give it a try. Maybe that will break me out of this cycle of despair and no music.

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Sharon McN
@IronCharo
#TeamZoot
Clif Bar Pace Team 2003-2018