Being a swimmer mostly it was, and is, a lot more useful to me that the was, of course. Awesome review DC of a piece of gear from what seems like a lifetime ago already! One addition to your quote about the Forerunner being like a Twinkie strapped to your wrist.
I always called it my garage door opener when I ran my first marathon with it back in ! I never had a but did get the blue and loved it much better than the garage door opener?. Same shape but thinner, of course , improve the battery, keep the same features. Improve the display, but make sure it still looks the same. A watch with size, shape, and form similar to the Forerunner XT. Just a bit thinner and lighter, but still with a huge display maybe even bigger due to smaller bezels.
Intended for use just during workouts less battery wear, longer life. Maybe Optical HR. Funny that you were having pace issues when that is the one thing I really miss from my — the pace on it was solid whereas everything I have had since, the current pace has never been as good, especially the I replaced it with. Made intervals a real pain in the backside. I have forerunner It used to have good resolution on pace, but after a firmware update I am bound to 5sec increments..
The multi sports capabilities of that watch were epic. Having the Forerunner I still miss simply changing the sports mode during workout!
You want to do a duathlon? Just start a running activity, switch to bike during the race and back to running at the second transition. Want to do manual laps within? No problem! No fumbling before the race to create an activity. No accidental change of sports when clicking the LAP button. Fond memories! Also you could create complex workouts on the watch itself, which not many later watches allowed to do. I still use this watch daily. Never found a good enough excuse to spend on a newer one when this still foes the job.
So you picked the correct price tier to compare against. Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I had the FR and loved it. Thanks for this! I started with a GPS V in my pocket. Actually used the quite a lot. But the was my go to watch for a LONG time.
Used it until the buttons wore down. I still have all of them somewhere. I still have a FR I use it for ultras as it will record while charging the strap will hold it on the cradle. Actually they will. Thank you for this review. Unfortunately, structured workout support is not working with Forerunner.
People also have changed, however, Arnie is still strong and Cindy is still sexy… and I am old fashioned. I am following your articles since when I purchased the XT and changed it for XT better swim metrics and barometric altimeter.
I bought the in when training for my first marathon, and I had them all thanks or no thanks to you!! Any idea when the next iteration might come around? The ? Interested in getting a fitness watch but hesitant about being stuck on the x45 series if the next generation is around the corner although maybe I should reconsider and grab the for a blast from the past!
So it might be quite the challenge! Still have my somewhere. Break it out every now and then when people start claiming it was better than whatever newer unit they have. There is no way to get data off the No ports, no wireless.
Just eyeballs. On the positive side, look at the size of that screen! And thanks to replaceable AAA batteries it is as good as new today. I had the , , and the XT, and am likely confusing them.
All great devices. The and XT were built so much better than the next 2 gens of Garmin devices, especially the terrible The xt I think is still my favourite in many ways. I remember being so excited that Garmin were releasing the Forerunner As someone who worked with GPS technology in their job, and was a triathlete, I understood the potential they had in sport. Interesting to think that prior to this, error signals were sent through to decrease accuracy to prevent civilian use.
D-GPS devices could help correct this…. I currently use a XT — the last of the square shaped Forerunners. Ha, this just inspired me to drag out my and old well, not as old as the original which decided not to be waterproof anymore during the swim leg of a triathlon XT. I have the chargers for them too! My first runs with GPS were with the old Timex Ironman system with the armpod velcroed to the upper arm.
I tried to stay with Timex over the years but the Garmin product just overtook it. Wow, I am kind of surprised by how many people still have their Garmin working.
The was my first GPS watch and I loved it! I actually killed it when I tried to replace the vanishing battery but it was my fault.
I then made the mistake of « upgrading » to a hated the touch bezel before getting a FRXT which I still use to this day. One feature that the had an no other Garmin had since as far as I know , is the auto-lap by position. The xt has the autolap by position. I tested the autolap by position about a decade ago, pre FRXT, and it was crazy how good it was: link to dcrainmaker. Yes, I remember this one. Used it for several years, after a few months struggling with the FR During my first New York City Marathon, in , someone hit the button on my watch without me noticing it, somewhere on 1st Avenue.
Only after the finish I found out it had recorded only some 28km. Interesting story: I actually started running because I was interested in the watch this was back in elementary school when any electronics were interesting to me. A friend showed me his FR, and even let me wear it if I went running with him. The next christmas, I was gifted one for myself. I bought this watch when it came out. Strapped to my dirt bike handle bars for a few rides then into the drawer.
Started running in and everybody else has a watch. So out comes the Used it for a year. Worked pretty good. Button placement was convenient. In other blast from the past I found my Polar with chain tension power meter in the drawer a few weeks back.
I still have a along with all the rest of my Forerunners. Still use my xt for running. I think it was bought for the vasaloppet in Although have upgraded to a for the bike to get turn by turn mapping as the bread crum trail on the is hard to follow.
I never owned a FR, but I had a I still have it lying about somewhere…. I do have very fond memories of my Edge however. It never skipped a beat. I even continued to use it after I got a power meter. However, as far as I remember, it could only display instant power.
No averages, or 3 sec smoothing or the like. The giant antenna-humb was however perfectly placed to protect the screen. Now I am on a Edge Aside from the occasional bugs and laggy, low-res touchscreen, I am stil happy about it.
Still use mine daily. Never felt the need to upgrade. Excellent feature is ability to take 6 figure map refs. Cool to hear!
I even ended up getting an adaptor so I could use it with an out front mount, because I wanted to feel like I had a never model. Still have mine. Would probably still fire up without any issues. What a wonderful idea!
I remember so many situations where I was using that new cool stuff showing me pace and distance! I sold all of my old watches because I thought they will finally die when not charged. Great stuff, it was that original review that brought me to this site years ago, so thanks DCR! My old red is still going, in fact I soldered in a new battery a few months ago during lockdown as the original one was only holding charge for minutes during activities; now it works just as well as ever and I occasionally use it for variety alongside my more recent Garmin units.
I would like to add to the comments about longevity with an observation on the reliability of the unit. The reliability was up there with or beyond the Edge The only times it ever did conk out were if I was out for a long time having failed to charge it adequately. I started off, I guess around , with a Timex, with separate GPS-module which you had to wear round your upperarm. Not being able to download anything, so I still had to fill in the data in a spreadsheet.
A 2nd hand FR came around , which was sold after buying the XT. That is still in use by a friend. Then, in I decided to switch to Polar and an M came. This one is supposed to be used at least 4 years. I just dug it out of a drawer, powered it on and within mins it was locked onto GPS and ready to go! I still have my , and had its battery replaced a few years ago.
Right now I have smart intervalls for the GPS recordings. Sometimes faster if it properly detects a turn. One can see on the track how with the smart recording enabled, it was slow to respond on the curves — versus my non-track mode 1-second recordings I usually do tend to look as normal as the FR But the file sizes here are on par with a single short text e-mail.
I enjoyed reading this nostalgic review. This was my first GPS watch way back when and I loved it. In fact I was still using it until last summer when I eventually bought a fenix 6 sapphire.
Biggest plus for me was the big clear screen, Not so much with my eyesight with the fenix 6 LOL. This is funny, 2 months ago I tried , ordered from Ebay. And in fact… it worked well! They knew how to make the things in old days. I remember this felt like such a big upgrade from the humongous Timex bodylink pod I had been using previously.
Ryan, Great site and resource for the community! I have been using my trouble free since and was just given a Wearing both at the same time on runs to compare, the matches well.
You mentioned the instant pace bouncing around, but in ruining mode there is the field to select the level of smoothing on the display. Tom S…I was just about to remind Ray of this very unique pace smoothing parameter on the ! So, it seems that the smoothing might be related to how many location fixes the pace is averaged over? FWIW, I have done side-by-side pace comparisons of my and XT and the certainly reports correct pace from rest-to-running much more rapidly than the XT.
Easy to observe when stationary and the goes from run pace to in a few seconds. The XT requires much longer. Enjoyed the comparison. I grew up with the older,similar blue model and yes it still works.
I just felt like there was a falcon attached to my wrist when I ran with it. This brought me back; I started with the forerunner so not the most OG. It was a good watch but that bezel was finicky and I had to get into the habit of locking it before each run also why I am kind of scared to go with a Pace 2. I rode it until it more or less died, it would only find GPS with a full battery but as it did not have all day stats, I could charge it specifically for each run.
I am also looking forward to some of the update training metrics that have been published. Wow, fantastic article! I used it regularly up until see photo when the battery finally was showing signs of wear. Anyway, the was the best Garmin ever made in my humble opinion. So, I actually dug out my and for giggles hooked it up to my MacBook Pro and it recognized it! Oh and that problem I mentioned connecting with the satellites, the GPS was turned off! I had a few Garmins but none of them lasted more than a year and after my FR bricked I swore never to buy another and stay loyal to Polar, then got a Suunto Ambit 2 which saw me through many miles.
My own FR had a nasty habit of dying mid run even if the battery said it was full at the start and also suffered from the dissolving contacts. I ran Boston in with the using the quick release also used it as my cycling computer. Somewhere in the jostling of the first mile it got knocked off my wrist, never to be seen again.
I never even felt if happen. I had to run the next 25 miles with only the mile marker timers to guide me. Replaced that in with my current I still have the and The rubber over the buttons are wore off on the , though. How is your experience with the HRM1B through eyes? According to FCC archives it was still released under the Dynastream brand originally before getting a new brand badge.
I completely forgot about the time it took at acquire a signal on my Pre-run my choices were often: -Start running and lose most of your first mile -Wander aimlessly for 10 minutes outside trying to get a signal -Turn the watch on near a window and hope there were no clouds.
Good to see that there are still so many working FR devices out there! I had mine replaced twice because of a failure. Never had a problem with that one, neither with the Fenix 3 and the 5plus. OK, I found my and fired it up. Three bars of battery. On the windowsill, satellites in about 2 min.
From the device history, the last run was January Realistically, no. And spaced out every years, those new features require new hardware. New optical sensors, faster processors, lower power GPS chipset, etc….
They tend to do a pretty darn good job of adding new features from 0 years to 18months, maybe 24mo in some cases. After that it tapers out as a new model replaces it. And while everyone likes to compare it to the Apple Watch, the simple reality there is that Apple has a totally different business model that traps you into their ecosystem via an iPhone phone requirement. Appreciate your insight. You certainly have a better understanding of this market than I ever will.
Hey Ray, thanks for this trip down memory lane… seems a lot of s got taken out of their drawers today! Mine included… I got it after reading your review at the time.
Actually got two… one for my running partner and one for me. Mine is still alive even after it flew many times off of the quick release band and I had to open it up and resolder a contact…. What is missing from your post though is an unboxing video, or at least some packaging pics. But no worries, I can help! I was actually trying to find the original box. I was digging through some of my older boxes of boxes that I have, and then ran out of time and had to run home that night before hitting publish.
Thanks Ray, brought back a lot of memories. It was the size of an old alarm clock. Coming up on 45 years of recorded road running 94, miles and counting. I have a large drawer full of calendars that I have manually recorded my miles over the years. Still getting in miles a week. So very grateful. Also appreciate the work you do. These advanced dynamics were previously available only in the XT, a popular multi-sport watch with triathletes.
With just a few of the unique features listed above you can see this is one running watch for the serious data geeks out there. Colour display, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Virtual Pacer, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, accelerometer, VO2 max estimate, Recovery advisor, Race predictor, Running Dynamics, connected features, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, pace alert, Connect IQ, Advanced running dynamics , Stress Score , Lactate threshold , Performance condition, Works with Garmin Connect app.
The second Forerunner release to have wrist-based heart rate tracking; the other being the FR The big difference between these two is that the FR can record your pulse continuously whether exercising, resting or sleeping The only captures this data during exercise.
Either way, This extra layer of heart data applied to every run helps to make calorie expenditure calculations more accurate than if you were to rely solely on distance. View Deals Features Colour display, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Wrist based heart rate monitoring, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, accelerometer, VO2 max estimate, Recovery advisor, Race predictor, connected features, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, pace alert, Connect IQ, works with Garmin Connect app.
Think Forerunner without the heart rate measurements taken from the wrist and you get the FR Worth a Read: Garmin Forerunner vs The Forerunner 25 pitches itself towards the value end of the market.
The no frills running features are included like GPS tracking, auto-lap and virtual pacer. Step counting and hours slept are also tracked.
Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Virtual Pacer, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screen, accelerometer, connected features, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, works with Garmin Connect app.
The first Forerunner release to feature heart-rate measurement from the wrist, the lets you capture intensity on every run without needing to wear a chest-strap.
It was only a matter of months until this device was eclipsed by the FR, so you may be able to find this release at a cheaper price. Colour display, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Wrist based heart rate monitoring, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, accelerometer, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, pace alert, Works with Garmin Connect app.
With Connect IQ you can customise the watch more to show different clock faces or your collected data in a way you prefer. If you want to optimise your cadence you can even use the built in metronome feature to give you a rhythm to stride to. View Deals Features Multi-sport Swim, bike run , Colour display, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Virtual Pacer, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, accelerometer, VO2 max estimate, Recovery advisor, Race predictor, Running Dynamics, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, Pace alert, Connect IQ, Works with Garmin Connect app, pool swim metrics, open water swim metrics, stroke type identification, compatible with Vector.
Think of it as the bare necessities for measuring your runs with a little activity tracking thrown in for good measure. The FR 15 remembers personal records, such as fastest 5k time and longest run. Worth a Read: Why the FR15 is a great running watch for beginners. Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Virtual Pacer, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screen, step counter, auto-goal, move bar, sleep monitoring, Works with Garmin Connect app.
Released at the same time as the FR, the had a few exclusive extras focused on improving running technique. Vertical Oscillation measured the bounciness of your stride whilst Ground Contact Time encouraged you to spend shorter intervals on the pavement and back into your next stride.
Connect with a heart rate monitor, and the device can give you estimates on your recovery time as well as VO2 max. One of the releases I actually owned! The FR features Bluetooth compatibility so you can upload your runs straight through the Garmin Connect smartphone app. Strides per minute are logged during your workouts and can be analysed alongside heart rate when connected to a chest strap. Colour display, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, accelerometer, Pace alert, Automatic sync to Garmin Connect app.
A cheap entry level GPS running watch. If you have no interest in lifestyle tracking or advanced running metrics, the Forerunner 10 is a reliable choice. Basic features like Auto-lap are often taken for granted, but are incredibly useful if you want to compare your mile splits throughout your run.
For the FR10 you can choose whether to buy it with a 2. Also arrives in some pretty funky colours like pink, teal and orange. Garmin really stepped up their triathlon watches with the XT release. With greater accuracy in the water, the XT delivered data on stroke identification, swim distance, stroke count and pool lengths. Containing many of the tech features which had been unveiled in other Forerunner models since the XT release, the XT came with vibration alerts and Virtual Racer to name a few.
Touchscreen, Auto Pause, Auto Lap, Personal records, Virtual Racer, Virtual Partner, Heart rate based calorie computation, calculates calories burned, customisable screens, advanced workouts, Pace alert, pool swim metrics, open water swim metrics, stroke type identification, compatible with Vector, multiple bike profiles. Needs a foot pod to track distance and speed metrics. The first touchscreen watch in the Forerunner series, the FR could even be used with running gloves on. The introduction of vibration alerts were especially useful to runners who exercise to music, as mile splits and heart rate feedback were instantly made aware of with a buzz to the wrist.
For a little extra competition, Virtual Racer allowed a user to download their previous bests or Garmin Connect course records onto the watch, giving you the info you need to go for a record. This was not straightforward, at all, and required a bit of soldering.
Having done that, it immediately got nicked from the roof of my car, where I left it to pick up satellites while I went for a pre-run pee. Yeah, triafletes today will never know the pain of waiting outside in the middle of winter for a satellite to peep through the clouds.
I used to leave it on a window ledge whilst getting ready. Probably in Still have a Garmin XT in a draw somewhere which worked the last time I tried it admittedly a few years ago which is 10 or 11 years old. I was a late adopter to GPS, starting out with a Polar SX in with a big foot pod for running the speed sensor that zip tied to the forks on the bike. Workouts uploaded by the magic of infra red transfer, if you were lucky.
I got a Garmin Edge for the bike in and it promptly lost the satellites for all but the first km of the bike leg at IM CH. Maryka lost my one out of her cap coming out of the swim at IM lake placid - although someone handed it in and we got it back.
Another with a Polar sx, footpod from and got a Polar Power meter that was a faff to set up, but it was 2nd hand off fleabay so cheap. Then got a Garmin xt in and in joined the TomTom watch dev team so had TomTom watches galore to test.
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