Just seen over on Reddit - allegedly this is the announcement of the Wahoo Rival watch. Apparently the below video (now private) is a Wiggle review and it has an optical heart rate sensor, 2 weeks of watch mode battery life and 24 hours of GPS mode battery life. Communicates with your Bolt during events to trade data and you can control your Kickr with the watch too.

Speech to text copy of video - https://www.smartwatchguide.news/...the-waiting-is-over/

An italian website has an article with some photos: https://www.4actionsport.it/...ch-device-versatile/

Look nice and cost less than Garmin!

Looks like the link is broken but some pictures and details below

https://www.carbonandgrit.com/new-product-alert-wahoo-elemnt-rival-watch/

DC Rainmaker and Triathlete.com have reviews up this morning for the new watch as well.

ugh. this is very anticlimactic. Are these the same guys that do the other cool stuff?

The Slowtwitch review: https://www.slowtwitch.com/...e_the_Race_7821.html

You write that? Famous!

I like it. I give credit for Wahoo not trying to match Garmin feature-for-feature, and sticking with their simpler interface and "just works" ethos.

If that touchless transition feature works as advertised it might just sway me to change my eco system to Wahoo. I love the functionality to mirror the watch on the Element Bolt or Roam when you get on the bike. I like those features way more than sleep tracking or Vo2 Max.

---

------------------
http://dontletitdefeatyou.blogspot.com

I agree. You have to make some changes because why would people switch over. Stay true to what makes their cycling computers awesome and make enough changes with in product compatibility/talking to make it worth it. There is a balance with how different do you go with the watch compared to Garmin without scaring customers away and really... how much can you reinvent a multisport watch? It looks great but i don't have the need yet to switch, my 935 has been great.

---

Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

I dig it as well. Some of new Garmin watches are great, but have way more features than I want/need. Would rather have something a bit more stripped down and less expensive. The touchless transition and multisport handover features seem pretty good as well. I really like my wahoo bolt and would likely pick this up if my 935 bites the dust one day.

---

Matt

This is the one feature that I desperately wanted to test but could not. I cannot remember how many times I screwed up my triathlon timing in a race. In the conference call with the project manager and designer several of us were asking how to test it in a non-race setting. I was not willing to swim in open water in November, so that bit fell by the wayside for me.

Problem is you can get a 935 which has plenty of additional features for less than this. This is a complete miss and underwhelming from them if this was supposed to be a splash entry to the smartwatch game.

MRSP of the Garmin 935 was $500
MRSP of the Wahoo Rival is $379

As I mentined in my post, I personally don't want a bunch of extra 'features' that I don't care about. I'd trade those for the extra 8 hours of battery life that Wahoo has over Garmin. I'm sure there are others that feel this way as well and that is their target market. A straight forward mutli-sport watch with a great battery life that just works.

If you need extra bells and whistles that's great. It appears you are not who they are intending to sell this watch to.

---

Matt

Absolutely irrelevant. They aren't being released on the same day. Wahoo is just hilariously behind in the tech. 935 is $320 at Walmart currently.



They both get 24 hours in GPS mode?



Except you can have all the extra bells and whistles, the same battery life and extra money. You see the issue here?

Wahoo fanboys are insane. Garmin has been lapping this watch since 2015.

Seems like a nice watch, but it's not going to be something that makes me buy it and an elemnt either. Garmin eco system with connect is still important here.

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Wahoo is executing a specific strategic plan, and I think they will prevail. Folks who measure the Wahoo watch against a Garmin-centric paradigm are missing the mark. The RIVAL is going after an entirely different addressable market than Garmin. Garmin’s cheapest competitive product is $600. Their next tier down is $500, but the 745 battery will lot last for a 140.6. Wahoo has a much stronger brand than Polar, Suunto, and the others, so at $380, I believe they are well-positioned to grab some significant market share.

The specific design philosophy of the RIVAL is simplicity. It intentionally avoids the typical smartwatch fluff, and this is the will of Wahoo's product team. They are hypothesizing that there is a material segment of the market that resonates with the Wahoo brand and desires a simpler device without an inflated price .


IMHO, it is irrelevant that Garmin can temporarily leverage a legacy product to try to price-compete ; Wahoo will eventually have a legacy product and take that lever away from Garmin.

I don't know why it is seemingly impossible to take a $150 bike computer that can pair with ANT+/Bluetooth power meters, has a barometric altimeter, and add a watch strap and sell for less than $190 US. Sigma and Lezyne both look to be discontinued. Who cares if it doesn't measure the alignment of your chakras...

So what you mean to say is they're going after the Apple Watch segment of the market...

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

"Willy sees ya, Willy don't care"

# COROS enters the chat...

---

***

The Apple methodology, but different segment. The Apple Watch is a "lifestyle" watch that you can also use in a triathlon. The Rival is a triathlon watch, and not much more than that. Only hardcore triathletes would buy it, not the "smart watch" crowd.

The total opposite. The AW does everything, but nothing particularly well (in the fitness and activity space). The RIVAL seeks to do its one thing well.

Yup! I’m Wahoos target customer. If I want lifestyle stuff I use my Apple Watch. I don’t need all the features of the Garmins. I sold my 910 and currently run with my Apple Watch. The Wahoo watch is something I’m considering buying.

---

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