So you come on here with a fairly innocuous question, when we all know you know exactly what Garmin is up to. Don't you? Come on, spill the beans!!!! :)

Curious---What is happening in April?

Something new will be released.

---

blog

There was your problem. Garmin doesn't announce fitness devices at CES.

The FR735 was announced May 11, 2016
The 920 October 1, 2014
The 935 March 29, 2017

Did you try a replacement? Maybe you have a bum unit.

I have Fenix5 with music and it’s been flawless. I’ve had zero issues connecting to super cheap BT headphones and no issues with dropouts, etc.

Occasionally it’ll “stutter” when first connected, but I have same problem sometimes when using those headphones with iPhone. So think it’s the headphones, and not the Garmin.

Maybe I had a bum unit. I dunno. I had a small return window and didn’t want to risk being stuck with it. But a bum unit doesn’t make sense as the music worked fine while sitting still and even walking. But once I started jogging and my arm moved, the music dropped away. Garmin almost lost me as a consumer over this. Fortunately for them, I tried a couple other competitors’ (nonmusic) products but they lacked certain other features I wanted so I came crawling back to Garmin and got a 935. Garmin makes it hard to leave. I hope to try a “945” in the future. If it works.

The unfortunately reality is that wearables and headphones can be a messy combination, primarily due to power savings on both ends. Using a phone is fine, because the phone is broadcasting like a blowtorch.

Whereas a watch is running in a super-low power situation trying to conserve every bit it's got. That's why most watch companies (including Garmin) list which headphones work best. That's because headphone companies are also playing the same game. They too are trying to conserve power and thus also get as close to the line as possible in terms of reception. However, most headphones know that their transmission source is a phone - not a wearable, and thus they can get away with more.

We've seen this tide shift a bit in the last couple years, but it can still be tough, especially if you wear your watch on the opposite wrist as the communications chip in the headphones. While this all sounds silly, these problems have been around for years.

As I noted in my review, I didn't really have issues with the FR645 and specific headphones as long as I wore it on the same side as the communications stack. Whereas if I wore it on the opposite side, then I'd see dropouts when walking (but not running).

Apple is able to sidestep some of these issues because it's basically just a one to one relationship. They don't have to deal with interoperability and can get things nailed perfectly between those two devices.

---

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

That sucks. But I agree - I think Garmin still makes best watches. I’ve moved on to Wahoo for bike computers, but I’m really loving the Fenix5. I don’t think Suunto and definitely not Polar can really compete with the Garmin watches.

Thanks for the post. Yeah, as I said, I tried the watch on both wrists and tried 3-4 brands of buds but no luck with any combination thereof. IMO, if Garmin music watches cannot competently broadcast over BT to pretty much every earbud, then they need to address this issue. You can’t run a wire to the watch so the BT has to work. While running. With moving arms. In wind. In rain. And other variables that arise when running. i don’t really care the reason or excuse why it doesn’t work. They advertise a music run watch and that’s what I bought. It doesn’t need to be perfect all the time but it should work while I run.