I'm a runner at heart. I only picked up biking due to health problems. But now I split my time about half and half between the two. More running in the winter and more biking in the summer generally. I've had trouble getting back into running the past few years (ran D1 track and XC in college), so I told myself that if I ran more than half of the days of this Montana winter, I'd allow myself to buy myself a new running watch in the spring. Considering I'm not in running shape (specifically my knees and joints in general), running every other day is a fair goal. The watch will hopefully keep me running into the summer this year. (Three weeks in and I'm doing great!)

Anyway, I've had garmin watches in the past. I ran with a garmin 305 when I was younger and I now I have a 405. I even had an early GPS timex ironman watch that had an external GPS unit that ran on 4AAs and only updated every 32 seconds. (I'm not joking about the update rate.) The 405's battery has died off and will barely last an hour now on a full charge. (Which makes it all but useless for biking.) Yes, I did buy a brand new battery for it and soldered it in. It helped for a few weeks... Makes me suspect that the battery wasn't "new."

I'm planning on buying a handlebar mount for watches, so that argument is moot. Looking at your wrist while biking sucks though.

So basically I'm looking for a good GPS/heart rate/cycling cadence watch. I don't particularly like the touch bezel of the 405, as it's more of a pain than anything. Makes it impossible to navigate the menus by memory. I mean, it's not terrible, but it's next to impossible to change things while exercising (running or biking.)

I realize these things are expensive, so my price range is anything less than $400. I don't need the super high tech $500-$600 ones.

As for syncing with online apps (strava, endomondo, etc.) I couldn't care less. I would like to sync with SOMETHING so I can keep track of my exercise. (For example, garmin connect is fine.)

Any suggestions, advice?

EDIT: No, I don't have a power meter nor do I plan on getting one.

Garmin Fenix 3. Might have to find one on sale or something to meet your price point, but that shouldn't be hard. Hits all your requirements. I use mine for cycling, running, swimming, hiking, and will use it cross country skiing when there's enough snow.

Actually I guess a Forerunner 920 also hits all your requirements, but it's ugly, and doesn't have a barometer.

Forerunner 920XT has a barometric altimeter. That's what DC Rainmaker recommends, so seems a good choice.

Hmm, accurate altitude would be nice. I like to climb mountains when I'm not running and biking... Although it's not a requirement.

You're right that DCR says the 920XT has a barometric altimeter. I just looked it up on Garmin's site and they say the same thing.

I can't remember exactly where, but (from memory here so I could be wrong) they also say a barometer is one of the features that separates the Fenix 3 from the 920XT. A coworker of mine has a 920, I asked him to show me the barometer and he didn't know "what that is." I'm more confused now than I was when I left the house this morning.

Here's a picture of my Fenix 3 from the Heather & Maple Pass loop. I hadn't used the navigation feature before, so I was experimenting with that.



It's basically the same software as a 920XT, but with a round face, fewer buttons (which might be annoying when you run) and better looks.

Great pic.

I'm not really about looks for this watch. I have plenty of nice watches to wear when I'm not exercising. In fact, I was perfectly happy with the garmin 305, the "ugly," square, massive watch that barely fit on my wrist.

If you don't care about looks the 920XT is $50 less than the Fenix 3 and has identical bike/run functionality.

Mine is the only watch I have, whether I'm hiking or on a date night with Beth, so looks were important to me.

I've heard Cabela's had a sale lately, with the F3 selling for $200 less than retail. I got an REI credit card right before I bought mine, the credit card came with a $100 gift card, which brought the price down by $100. If you look around you should be able to find a deal somewhere.

Thanks for mentioning the Fenix 2 guys. You know, the watch that's $300 dollars cheaper and basically does the exact same thing in terms of exercise. (The fenix 3 is more of a "smart watch" that you wear ever day where as the Fenix 2 is less of a smartwatch which is perfectly fine with me considering I don't want to wear this all day every day anyway.

I have the 910xt (now discontinued, still available for $199 online). Excellent battery life. And does what you are looking for

Currently I'm debating between the Fenix 2, 910xt and 620. Both the fenix 2 and 910 have been discontinued but can be found for around $200 online. THe 620 is more of a "runner's specific" watch. Basically I'm going to go with whichever one fits my wrist the best.

If you go look at Garmin's forums, the Fenix 2 has a bit of a reputation.

https://forums.garmin.com/forumdispl...466-Wrist-worn

Without spending copious amounts of time on the garmin forums, I'm assuming it's a bad reputation?

It's reputed to be buggy and crash a lot. Garmin released the Fenix, a couple years later came the Fenix 2, and the Fenix 3 replaced it within a year. A lot of owners grumble that the F3 is an expensive bug fix. A lot of posts in the Fenix 3 forum start with "My Fenix 2 was never reliable. Does the F3 have the same problems or is it better?"

Grain of salt, people go to manufacturer forums to find solutions for problems they're having, so they're going to be biased toward the negative.

Haven't heard anything really bad about the 910xt though and the programming was done by a different team within Garmin (sports and fitness vs outdoor).

There are several poor reviews on amazon for instance and if you google some more, you'll find many complains about the watch's ability to follow a course at speed (the screen takes too much time to redraw and eventually the soft crashes).

I've used the 910xt's course mapping extensively while hiking -- it has actually impacted my behaviour significantly and I would warmly recommend GPS watches such as the 910xt over handheld units for hiking. Didn't do it for me on a bike, though. Outright dangerous on the wrist, and even mounted on handlebars, diminutive screen and unsuitable interface made me purchase an Edge Touring instead. Edge Touring doesn't support ANT+, so I've used the 910xt on my bike to track speed/cadence+HR. The battery lasts an eternity (I'd say more than 24h)

Didn't know that about the 910, thanks for pointing it out!

I like my Fenix 3 a lot. I've got a very old Edge 800 to display my watts, but for everything but cycling (hiking, skiing, swimming, running) a watch is a fantastic and convenient way to go.