Garmin Smartwatches

I'm on my third Garmin Vivosmart 4. My wife wears one also. We both pay attention to the sleep monitoring. I use mine to monitor my elliptical trainer sessions, so I don't take the time and trouble to put on a chest strap heart rate monitor any more.

She uses hers, coupled with her smartphone to get GPS position, to log her thrice-weekly walks in detail.

This particular model is quite small--which suits my small-wristed wife. On the downside, my first two samples only lasted about two years before the strap broke off.

Being small, the display is tiny, so looking at sleep stuff and some other things means looking at the app, not the watch.

I know very little about the Garmin Watches, since my experience has been with FitBit. I had a simple FitBit step counter & figured that I had no need for a FitBit Watch, until I tried a used one that my daughter gave me. It was very basic and obsolete at that point.

However, I liked that it tracked heart rate, steps, distance & calories burned. Personally, I couldn't care less about calories. I figure if I get good activity and get the heart rate up on some of my walks and pickleball game, I don't need to worry about calories.

It also tracks oxygen levels and sleep patterns, if you wear it at night, but I seldom bother with that.

I often use the timer function and I get notifications from Facebook and my hearing aids, when the batteries are low. All via the Bluetooth pairing to my cell phone.

It can link to the GPS on my phone and track my route on my walks, etc., but I rarely use this, except if I'm taking a new route and think it might be neat. It does auto detect some excercises, but the GPS does not activate on auto detect things.

Before you buy, think about your lifestyle and exercise routines. Don't get carried away and figure you need a huge pile of features.

I have a Versa 2, which is mid range for features. If you have heart issues, you might want the FitBit Sense. Talk to friends and see what they use and how they use it.

...that these smart watches cater to the fitness crowd. Recently I was about to purchase a Google Pixel 8 Pro phone, and along with the purchase a brand spanking new Google Watch 2 (a $350 value) was to be included free.

I did all sorts of searching for info on this, and other smart watches to see exactly what they do. I'm not one who likes to wear a watch, so I wanted to see if there was anything that this watch did that would be of interest to me.

Well, it seems like a large majority of what these watches do is keep track of your fitness, as long as you're wearing it (including your sleeping time which I would never wear a watch to bed in a million years). These smart watches don't do anything that my phone couldn't do, which I'd be carrying around with me anyway. In fact they do a lot less than my phone.

So, unless you're extremely interested in your physical stats I just don't really see the upside to constantly be wearing one of these things. That's my take, I know others will feel differently.

I wear a watch because I drive a school bus. (You can set YOUR watch to me). It doesn’t have to be a smart watch, but it has to be fairly accurate.

My wife also drives a school bus. I have a Class A CDL with all endorsements EXCEPT school bus and haz-mat now. I had all for years, but I finally dropped school bus and haz-mat because I wasn't using either and Minnesota requires a medical exam every two years for school bus drivers. The haz-mat kind of priced themselves out for me.

I am now a business systems analyst for a public transit agency. (Both fixed route and para-transit.) I mention all that because I, too, realize that accurate time matters.

I looked at the prices and I might just stick with my Casio GWM530A-1!

Previously had Vivosport with GPS support. Bought Venu SQ2 on sale for $199 (normally $249) earlier this year and really like it for its many fitness features and use with Garmin Connect for free, unlike Fitbit which charges monthly service charge for app and fitness monitoring services. Preferred square rather than round face that most watches have. Size is good, great color screen, light weight, and easy to use. Fitness monitoring far superior to Vivosport due to improved sensors.
Great battery life (getting up to 15 days before it drops to 20%) when I don't use GPS, and 8-10 days between charges when I use GPS. Vivosport only got 5-6 hours when on GPS. i only connect to phone to sync since phone needs to be on to get notifications, weather, phone, music control, etc and having those on watch really has minimal benefit, but those features are available if desired. I also like that apps can be added via Garmin IQ, many of which are free, but existing apps on basic SQ2 had most of the features I wanted already so I only added a few apps like Maps4Garmin that provides phone free GPS location on Open Streets Maps display. Also has ability to mark location with watch GPS, like where car is in airport parking lot, and provides compass display to route you back to that location when you return. If you are looking for moderately priced smartwatch with good fitness support, no subscription charges for data tracking, and built in GPS then I would definitely recommend that you check out Venu SQ2 especially if you can get one on sale like I did.

FitBit App is Free. You can upgrade to the Premium, but there is no need for Premium for most people

They do cater to the fitness crowd, but it isn't just the people that are into intense exercise. There are many like me that are primarily into walking and playing Picklebal a couple of days a week.

It also is a useful to people with some health issues, that find it beneficial to keep tabs on their heart rate and other health factors. This can be people that have Arrhythmia and other heart or breathing issues.

People that use these watches for health info need to be better trained in what the info really means. We often join a couple for dinner and the man has a’fib. On one occasion he interpreted the watch as having an a’fib attack. He went to an emergency room at a nearby hospital to be told there wasn’t anything wrong. They actually said he might have brought on a “pseudo” attack by consuming a double expresso about 20 to 30 minutes prior to what he thought was the attack. That cost him, or VA insurance, $500. Expensive expresso, watch or both

Ah, there remain some people who want correct time from a watch. Bless you.

My first job out of college was working for Intel designing a watch chip. I've continued to want the right time on my wrist ever since. For a couple of decades that has meant using watches that receive WWVB, which keeps me less than a second off unless I travel outside the range where the watch can get the signal (most places outside the US, though I once got a single overnight update when I was in Belize--must have been a good bounce).

This is my second smart watch. I couldn't do without it.
We no longer have a land line so my smart phone is the only phone line.
I do not have a phone number associated with my watch even though it can have one. I have my watch attached by Bluetooth and WIFI.
I have it set up to give me notification and to ring if my phone rings and answer it with my watch if I am too far from my phone as long as I am in my WIFI area.
If I am upstarts and my phone is down stairs and I get a notification. I look at it and see if it's important, if so I go downstairs as I like reading important information better on my phone. If it's not important I read it wait till I get a chance to reply when I am with my phone. With all the doctors that call my watch has become so important. I could not do without it.
I have hade aFib and am able to do a check with the watch and it makes a report I can send to my doctor. There are many other benefits and it is the 1st thing I put on each morning and the last thing I take off. I do not sleep with it on except if I am having afib that day.
I can sent text replies with my watch if I am not near my phone. I unusually just send a voice reply from the watch as it is easier than typing with the watch.
As you can see a smart watch is a lot of help to me
Mary

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