I’ll look forward to some sort of report. I’m neck deep in the Apple ecosystem with macbook, iMac, iPhone, and iPad but I just don’t see myself leaving polar for Apple in regards to a multi-sport watch…especially at that price point.

Are Cellular enabled watches allowed in races? I see no cell phones so just asking

Many ppl including me aren't into apple's other products, so unlikely I would ever want their watch either. Not a huge garmin fan boy just think the apple looks and functions worse currently and I dotn need the watch to do anything other than sport data, I have time pieces for time and phone or computer for the rest. Guessing I can't be alone but I'm old so who knows.

I would really love for this to be a viable option and not have to switch between my Apple Watch and Garmin throughout the day, but the dealbreaker for me is TP support. I love that my workouts are synced automatically from TP onto my Garmin and ready to go when I start a workout. I don’t want to be using third party apps and having to build the workouts again on the watch.

Yes, I agree.

Ex. My Wahoo Rival does it automatically.

Is there currently no way to auto web sync TrainingPeaks run workouts to Apple Watch?

I use my Apple Watch for open water swims because I want to have a phone without having a phone. Trying to get the thing to stop the workout with a wet screen and wet fingers and needing to release the water (or whatever turning the bezel does) to unfreeze the watch is a massive undertaking that I would not want to get involved in during a race. That new button would have to be close to magic for me to want to race with an Apple Watch over my Garmin.

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Move on. Keep training. Be an adult.

The reason Garmin is #1 is because they've been building GPS electronics since the mid 1980's when GPS was first available to the US public. I think Apple still has a learning curve they haven't matured past; especially with tracking OPWS. I tried the original and second generation Apple Watch just for running, and it was often off by a minute by mile or more, especially when I ran off-road or in areas with heavy tree cover. Garmin has pretty well figured out many of the finer nuances of GPS tracking for SBR. I'd be shocked if the Apple Watch was on par with the same accuracy as Garmin, especially with OPWS.

The Apple Watch does an amazingly good job with open water swim, ironically, because of its limitations. The AW only samples GPS occasionally to conserve battery, so it uses its accelerometers to guess where you have been between GPS points. This works great in the water. But, it is why AW GPS tracking is pretty sketchy on the bike and run.
This is truly the essence of the difference between the Apple Watch and a purpose-built sport watch. The AW is essentially a computer that can do anything, and all of its functions are just apps. Apple's Workout App is limited and the 3rd-party alternatives have their own function and stability issues. A Garmin/Wahoo/Suunto/Polar/Coros/etc. is a dedicated activity timing device first that produces a standard file format as its output. All of its timing functions are its primary purpose, and the smart watch features are the plug-in apps.

An Apple Watch is a jack of all trades but master of none. A triathlon watch is a master at timing and sharing activity data and mediocre at extra smart watch stuff. An Apple Watch is fine for someone content with "good enough," but someone who wants excellence would lean toward a true triathlon watch.

The Training Peaks app can automatically sync Apple Health workouts now. I don’t recall exactly when this was added but I think it was about 12 months ago.

I personally think that the Apple Watch will be a bit of a niche player for a while longer but it is currently improving quite rapidly. I suspect that their initial success will be with people who were unlikely to buy a separate training Watch as well as a few people who might have bought one but buy a higher level Apple Watch instead of having two devices. I certainly expect that there will be plenty of market for the existing players for quite a while.

Having said that, if I was an existing vendor I would see this as something that will make growth more difficult over the coming years and could be a direct competitor IF Apple continue to improve their offering at the same pace they have recently.

The best news for competitors, in my opinion, is that I don’t think Apple specifically cares about the current Training Watch market and is instead aiming at a different audience and so it only becomes a big issue if that audience ends up expanding to totally overlap the current Garmin, Polar, Wahoo, etc buyers.

As ever, we’ll have to wait and see but I am happy that Apple is adding options.

Oh cool! Is this synced to the native workout app in Apple Watch? Or a third party app?

It is done with the Training Peaks app now. You give TP access through Settings/Privacy/Health/Training Peaks and make sure Workouts is turned on.

Previously HealthFit was the popular choice but it is no longer necessary. It is only a couple of bucks though and lots of people still use it (and it can sync lots of other apps too).

I believe this is only for the uploading of completed workouts to TP, not the downloading of structured workouts to the watch, which is key for a lot of athletes.

Happy to be corrected though!

DC posted a video about this earlier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8w8vnXY_wQ

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Hillary Trout
San Luis Obispo, CA

Your trip is short. Make the most of it.
https://www.slogoing.net/

The 945LTE is basically a 955 with LTE... meaning, the 945LTE is closer to a 955 than it is a 955, and the 945LTE received the software update for the 955. Garmin sort of confused things when they didn't change the 945LTE to a different number.

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Team Zoot

Yes... for people to track you. you can not use them to communicate. I wear a 945LTE so that my wife can keep an eye on me during races (this was a requirement from my wife in order to return to racing after having an MI/Cardiac arrest.

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Team Zoot

I place an order for the Ultra this morning and will be selling my Fenix 6x Sapphire (if anyone is interested - I'll list it in classifieds). Mainly for me I like the look of the larger watch, and have gotten to where I wear an Apple Watch the majority of the time during the day. As much as I tried to make the Fenix work as an everyday watch, while at work the way I interact with notifications is a lot more useful to me on the Apple. So I was just using the Fenix for running, which seemed like a waste of a nice watch.

Very good point. I have only recently started using tech to guide me through structured workouts and I love it.

I do use Apple Watch for structured running workouts but generally use the Stryd app for that but you are right that it is a big gap in the Apple Watch direct capabilities. I also use a Wahoo Rival for structured runs at other times.

Since I use a bike head unit for structured bike workouts, I don’t see that as big an issue but I expect that they would need a solution for structured workouts before many would see it as a serious alternative.

Where's the 'like' button when it's needed ?

If it's Apple, it's just a big fat juicey NO in this household.

Totally agree. I'm sure they will get there.

I'm a fenix person too. But the watch as a phone is a plus for me when Im out running. And my wife tracking me is a plus.

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it doesnt matter what you say, someone on here will pick a fight over it.

It’s 800$.

No thx.

While the watch might have sufficient battery life in low power mode to last an Ironman, what use will it be? You won't be able to do much other than look at the the time. Using the watch with GPS will not give you enough time do anything much, maybe the swim and some of the bike before it goes flat.

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

We'll have to wait and see as more details are released and the watch becomes available. Low Power Mode still allows GPS and Workout tracking so it will all boil down to how closely it matches the claims in practice.

IF we can get workouts from TrainingPeaks directly to the native workout app - I'm interested.

I've had too many issues in the past with using 3rd party apps, crashing etc which is why I moved to Garmin - and 3 watches in (935,945 and now the 955) I love the whole TP integration and can't see me going back, so if thats working with the new WatchOS I would swap back.

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Regards, Richard

I find it kind of hard to believe that they would say it can be used for an Ironman event, and then have no GPS tracking, that makes zero sense. But I guess we'll see when DC does his review.

I will say, seeing the pictures of the watch with the different straps on his wrist, the straps look pretty darn ugly/cheap for a 1k (Cad) watch....

Yeah, they say in their video it has GPS tracking in low power workout mode. The question is how far back do they dial the GPS sampling rate (and rely on accelerometers for tracking) to preserve battery. It is already a long gap in the standard watch, so I wonder if they push it to something like every 20 seconds? For sure they turn off the screen, because that is one of the biggest battery drains next to GPS tracking.