My apple watch sits on my bedside table and gets used...never. Fenix is worn daily.

Before the Fenix I had the apple junk die during an ultra, give inaccurate numbers, provide nothing like as much data as I needed, etc, etc

For sports use, the apple is as much use as....an apple.

I've been using the Apple Watch the last two years. I've been borrowing a 920XT for the last 6 months or so for my activities. I think it will ultimately come down to what you want to use your watch for.

The Apple Watch certainly has a much, much shorter battery life. After two years, it's short enough, it will likely be my driver to replace it. I used to be able to make it through two sleeps. It can no longer make it that long.

It isn't going to work with cycling sensors. I've had horrible luck with the Apple Watch on pool swims.

I had originally thought I would really enjoy the phone/watch interaction on the Apple Watch. I no longer care for most of it and only use it the extent of knowing if I can ignore an incoming text.

For me, I'll be moving from Apple to Garmin on my next watch.

Why do you believe garmin paid off the attackers?

If my training was less structured and casual I’d probably be fine with Apple Watch for swimming and running as the data wouldn’t matter as much to me. And I’m doubting it would be great for something like a half distance triathlon.

Garmin has been doing sports specific for a long time. Apple has not

 
I love the Apple watch - Iphone interaction and the cool factor of the watch. It was horribly inaccurate and the battery life sucked bad. I gave it to my wife and got a Garmin 935. Garmin freaking rocks. But the whole Garmin pooped the bed thing has me eyeballing a backup or alternative.

I'm looking at Suunto. Not a full blown top tier one but maybe just a good enough for most workouts and a solid backup for race day watch.

I've used all five versions to date of the Apple Watch and am a big fan. Apple was originally pitching it as an extension of your phone on your wrist but seemed to pretty quickly realize people were using it primarily for health and fitness so its focus has shifted in that direction (at least that is my observation). I've never used any Garmin watches so my basis of comparison is limited, but the Apple Watch is definitely not designed as a sports- or outdoorsman- or triathlon-specific watch like I presume Garmin's devices are. I'll highlight a few things here that I don't like related to using it for tri training:

It is pretty limited as a triathlon-specific watch but that's not really its purpose, it's more general-use. There may be apps you can install for that but if you want something with a lot of triathlon-specific features out of the box, it doesn't have that. Also as others have noted, the battery life isn't going to hold up during an Ironman even if you're an 8-hour guy. On long rides it's fine if you take your phone with you as well, it will then use the GPS on the phone and this spares a lot of load on the battery of the watch.

On treadmill runs it used to be pretty close on measuring the distance, like with 2-3%. Lately with the "Series 5" it's been more like 10%. This could just be a me-issue but I've tried various things e.g. resetting the calibration and none have helped. For my own personal tracking it doesn't really matter, I just go off the distance on the treadmill, but if you really want your Strava uploads to accurately indicate the parameters of treadmill runs, it may not do that.

For swimming it works pretty well most of the time. Occasionally it won't update the yardage in real-time, when I eventually end the workout it will show the yards and seems accurate but the numbers on the Strava uploads for those swims will be all messed up too.

For biking, no complaints really, although it only has the auto-pause/unpause button for running. For cycling if you want the clock to pause for whatever reason, you have to do that manually. Again for Strava it's not a big deal, it will pick up your "moving" time from GPS, but if you want to accurately track training volume as time using the workout numbers on the watch, for cycling you'll need to manually pause and unpause it around stops.

There again may be 3rd-party apps that address these things, I haven't looked. This is all referring to the built-in "Workout" app.

Hope this helps!

I have had multiple generations of Apple watches at the same time I have had several Garmin devices. The AW is mediocre at fitness and activity tracking, and that is generous. It cannot do multisport. The touch screen is not great on sweaty or wet conditions. The screens only have basic configuration. It cannot do power. It's GPS tracking is poor relative to any other modern GPS device. It's HR is wrong/faked at the beginning of an activity and then eventually locks in.

The AW platform is more secure than Garmin, because it does less. It does not have a web presence, which is a severe functional limitation. So, if you want a place where your data are aggregated so that you can easily analyze your performance over time or bring up old activities, you will need that for the AW. And, that would be equally vulnerable to an attack.

If you went full AW, you would probably want to research 3rd party fitness tracker apps to use in place of the native Workout app. The workout app is not very customizable, and it is a little more difficult to export activities to other platforms. The upside is that it is more stable. I have not found any 3rd party apps that seem like they are stable enough for everyday use.

Apple's Activity mobile app to look at your workouts blows. It looks ridiculous next to Garmin Connect Mobile. So, again, you will want to find a 3rd party alternative to the Apple fitness tracker stack, and that would probably open up more security vulnerabilities than Garmin.

There is an article up on Cyclingnews that insinuates that Garmin paid, though it seems based on speculation more then fact

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http://www.instagram.com/cyclewise

My last Garmin watch was a 735, which I loved. I moved to an Apple Watch Series 4, which has been great. I'm more of a casual workout person these days so it fits perfectly. The series 4 (and I assume 5) are very accurate for GPS and heart rate, probably as good or better than anything from Garmin today. It also has tracked every swim workout I've done flawlessly, while displaying heart rate real time in the pool (I haven't done any real open water swims.)

I use healthfit app ($.99 if I remember right) to export to both Training Peaks and a fit file. The fit file can then be uploaded to Garmin. The training peaks upload is automatic, I don't even have to open the app. It's done shortly after my workout ends automatically.

One thing that I really like about it that Garmin doesn't offer is cell service. I have the Apple Watch with cellular and I have it added to my cell plan. This lets me make and receive calls and texts while out running. This gives me some peace of mind that if anything ever happened to me while running I can call someone or get an uber. Also, if something blows up at work while I'm out I can find out and get home ASAP.

I haven't taken my bike off of my trainer in over a year. I prefer Zwift to riding outside, year round. I do use the Apple Watch for heart rate for Zwift, works great.

My watch is close to 2 years old and the battery isn't what it once was. If I run and swim in the same day I have to charge it or it will die before the end of the day. Not really a big deal but I'll probably get a series 6 when they come out in September. Sounds like they're going to be pushing sleep a lot with this one, which makes me believe they're adding a bit bigger battery.

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In my experience the Apple Watch is not a multi-sport device or built for serious data driven athletes, but is great for casual exercise and things like plyometrics or weightlifting as an easy input device to the phone (which you can leave in your bag/on a shelf).

Like the last poster, I use the LTE capability + BT headphones to leave the house for a run every morning with no phone/wallet/keys/cords/etc. which is nice. I use a Stryd and the Apple Watch Stryd app for data.

It's useless on the bike since I bring my phone with me anyways. Strapping your iPhone to your bars is somewhat inelegant so I have a BOLT for that, rendering the phone good for camera, music, and emergency calls duty, and the watch as a passenger.

Open water swim GPS seems to work about 80% of the time. Really well when it does, but wrong often enough to be frustrating. Random jumps to locations off swim path and back which messes up the distance/pace and no way to edit/fix it easily.

I've heard that Apple Watch doesn't sample the GPS data as frequently as other GPS watches in order to conserve battery. For running on tracks it's no good, consistently overestimates distance, but this is sort of similar to accuracy on a treadmill. When I go to a track I'm going there to do a specific amount of running, I don't need a watch to tell me how far I ran. The issue is accuracy of numbers reported in the Workout app / Strava / etc.

Its heart rate monitor is often rated in studies as the most accurate wrist-worn heart rate monitor for exercise:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31555543/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30657025/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29189666/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28709155/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28538708/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28302596/

There are accuracy issues in general with wrist-worn "photoplethysmography" heart rate monitors of course but they aren't unique to AW, it's pretty good vs. other wrist-worn options for heart rate. As previous poster noted, it's a casual/general device. For a multi-sport watch for serious data-driven triathlon training and racing, I'd look elsewhere.

Apple watch won't replace a sports watch for triathlon but...

Apple watch and swim.com app is very good for pool swims

Apple watch with iSmoothRun app is great for running (and will pair to a stryd footpod and bluetooth HR strap)

Apple watch can (apparently- will be testing this soon) pair to Form goggles (unlike my garmin 935xt) and actually is more accurate in ows than my garmin

I've never tried pairing it to a power meter for riding, but i believe the iSmoothRun app will. I just havent tried it.

Finally its fairly easy (occasional glitches) to export workouts to strava and training peaks etc using the HealthFit app.

I really like my apple watch and only use the Garmin for races for the most part.

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The display of the garmins are hard to read inside with poor light situations. I use it as daily watch but because of the display I stopped using fancy analogue watchfaces bacause you can't see them half of the time.
Are Apple watches brighter?

Anyway, I would not switch to Apple because I use my watch a lot for sports and like the battery life of my Garmin Fenix 6.

The AppleWatch Series 5 is freakin' awesome for readability as a daily-wear device. It is OLED versus Garmin's LCD, so it emits light. Then, the S5's always on mode is the coup de grâce. (During a workout, however, they are generally a tie, IME.)

I wear an AWS5 as my daily wear device, and I use a 945 during workouts. Best of both worlds. (The Apple Watch totally sucks as an activity tracker, so I also wear a Fitbit Inspire HR for all-day activity tracking.)

If you don’t want to get a Garmin and you train a lot in multi sports ... another option is Suunto. I switched over from Garmin several years ago and am pretty happy with Suunto. I wouldn’t get an Apple Watch as the battery life is too short and the GPS is not very accurate.

Can you just keep your workouts on an Excel sheet and not "upload" them to Garmin connect?

Data can be for you and you can graph it, monitor it and use it as needed...

Or connect your Garmin via USB to your mac/pc and suck the workouts into Golden Cheetah. All the data and metrics you could possibly want. Data doesn't have to hit the internet.

I use the Apple watch and prefer over Garmin. For cycling I use an edge so not relevant there for me. For swimming I find it works well for both pool and OWS. Running is where it really shines, its gps tracking is good and I can leave my phone at home and still listen to/stream music or podcasts, receive text/WhatsApp/other phone alerts, call my wife to pick me up and pay for a coffee or snack (my bank not on garmin pay).

As previously highlighted, it's battery is not as good and I have to charge mine each evening. Also, in a 70.3+ I have to use a garmin. But I love it in Oly's and sprints, it's cool that my wife/family can track exactly where I am on the course and send me a text to know where to look out for them

So I have both and use both, just depends on what I am doing.
The Garmin is really good all round watch. I would never race with the Apple Watch, the Garmin just does the sports side of things so well compared to Apple. The battery life is terrible with the Apple Watch and there is so many features for sports that I find useful with the Garmin that the AW just does not have.
I did like the idea of not needing to take my phone with me when riding or running but it really is not that big a deal to be honest.....
I am not that concerned with the ransomware attack on Garmin....

I agree with above. It really depends on what your wanting...

I like Garmin for the sports data, hands down better.
I like Apple for everyday "smart" watch type of stuff. Walking the dog and what have you.. It nice to leave the phone at home and listen to podcast while walking.

I agree on the GPS tracking. I again have never used a Garmin device so my basis for comparison is limited, but I've used every iteration of the Apple Watch with GPS and its distance-tracking seems fine. It's very rare that it claims I went somewhere on the map I didn't go.

Jennifer Lawrence may disagree with that sentiment, though I’m not really an expert on either breach.

the Tri2PEAK app, lets you pair your powermeter (bike or run) or HR strap, has auto pause/resume for bike and run, includes voice guidance and exports directly to strava or a .fit file to your email. also has a lap view function that allows you to do track workouts w/o a track, as it will alert you for every 100 meters/yards you covered when selected.

I have been using apple watch with swim.com app for last year. I found swim.com very accurate recording my pace laps etc.
than i got garmin 945 as i needed longer battery life. However, i am disappointed with 945 pool seim accuracy. Always wrong distance, swim pace 7-8s more than apple watch. Iam disappointed. .

Wild. I have the exact opposite experience. I use my Apple Watch as backup for my 945 when I forget to charge or just forget the Garmin. My Garmin has been historically perfect-- that is, it has never missed a metric as far as I can determine. The AW, on the other hand, is so-so. That said, I have not tried the swim.com app. I have a good friend with a Garmin who routinely sees misses in lap counting. So, my takeaway is that watch performance may be linked to stroke style. Like heart rate-- performance varies by individual characteristics.