Watch Ultra 1

I’m using a awu 1 and a tactix 8 for work

> Satellite SOS are pretty big sellers for me. This is what I want it for. I drive in a lot of areas where cellphone service does not exist and I need the ability to contact someone if shit goes down. Got the U1 now but I am moving to the U3 because of this.

From the Ultra 2? Hard to say. I have an Ultra 1 and am thinking about it. But it's not an immediate thing, and if i get a decent trade in value, that will help the decision too.

Just switched to a friends AWU1 to see if i liked it and for the most part i do. I’ll probably still keep my f7pro for races and stuff, but the AWU1 is better and will continue to actually improve.

I just switched to AWU, but i still sleep with my garmin on too, and will use it from time to time for important runs. Overnight HRV is the single most important thing I would miss if i ditched altogether. Everything else (body battery, training status, etc) is just a fun gimmick. Stress is also surprisingly useful for me, as I can tell that im getting sick if im just sitting or laying around and im constantly in the orange.

AWU with screen NOT always on has actually pretty great battery life. I could charge every 3rd day if I wanted to. Also fast charger is so fast that if you charge it 10 mins per day while your in the shower thats probably all you'll ever need.

Apple Watch charges about 3x faster, so charge it for the 10 mins you take a shower. Garmin is about the same in that regard. They both charge for about 10mins a day to sustain you forever. They’re about equal. The only real advantage would be if you have no access to charger for multiple days, but how often would that be realistically? You charge your phone every day, it’s not that much more of a hassle to charge your watch especially at 5 watts which is crazy fast. And i have a fenix 7pro, but tbh battery isn’t great on it for long activities. 18 holes of golf demolishes my battery. AWU drains way less during long activities from what I’ve seen (I’m only a week in though).

I’ve used both. Awu and fenix 7pro and i went back to the fenix. Gps was more accurate and hr data was the same. Overnight hrv on garmin was much more useful (since apple doesn’t distinguish overnight). Lastly garmin connect is 100x better than Apple health and fitness. I was expecting a lot more from the awu from what i read and was very unimpressed. If it were better i would deal with the crappy battery life.

I tried to switch to awu a few months ago so i could just leave my phone home most of the time. It was fine, but i ultimately went back to garmin. Garmin Connect does a better job of presenting relevant data to you. Battery life is like 1-2 days versus 2 weeks. Flashlight is also much better.

I used to get 2 days when my ultra 1 was new but I’m almost down to 80% battery and now it will die half way through day 2. So I charge it daily.

I agree. I’m still rocking the AU1. Just had it replaced at the beginning of the year under apple care, just before the extended warranty ran out. Replacement is at 96% and I was able to subscribe to monthly Apple care, no idea how long that lasts but at least I’ll get another 2 years out of it. Maybe the 4 or 5 will be worth an upgrade

Fo you use rungap or healthfit to move that data as well?

For me as a cyclist, runner and swimmer a Garmin doesn’t really offer many features I need. I already use a Wahoo head unit that syncs to Strava, so the watch side adds very little. Then use rungap or healthfit to move the workouts. Swimming the apple watch kicks the garmin out if the park and for running both are very similar other than battery life. There are some metrics garmins have that apple watches/ third party apps don’t have, but for me most are just gimmicks anyway. As most people know, Garmin is primarily a fitness watch, while the Ultra is a smartwatch. And realistically, 99% of the time people are at work or going about daily life—not doing multi-day hikes or extreme expeditions. For everyday use, the Ultra just makes far more sense. Charging every couple of days really isn’t a big deal. Plus if you dont want the smartwatch bits of the apple watch you can always turn them off. I tried the Fenix 8, and while it’s Garmin’s top-of-the-line model, it honestly feels quite dated in terms of software, UX, and overall features. The Apple Watch, by comparison, feels like a complete ecosystem. And if something feels missing, there’s almost always a strong third-party app to fill the gap—WorkoutDoors for advanced mapping and metrics, for example, and Bevel for Garmin-style sleep, recovery, and readiness insights. On top of that, Apple Watches get meaningful software updates every year. Garmin devices tend to run fragmented software across models, don’t always receive major upgrades, and are fairly well known for lingering bugs.

1) day to day tracking it is very good in my opinion. However you will want an app like Bevel to interprit that data for you. Think of the health app as a massive database of your data, you need a third party tool to actually interpret it for you. 2) Tracking activities again its very good, I use it for running and Hiking, not so much cycling as I have a bike computer for that. Again, a third party tool like Workoutdoors will be your best friend if you want a custom workout screen or maps in the data pages. As for diving, other than the subscription, it just works. Love the design of the app and because of the Ultra’s OLED display it’s soo much brighter, easy to read and informative than anything else. Unlike other dive computers its easy to read on someone else’s wrist as its big and bright. 3) Use Bevel for tracking calorie intake, or myfitnesspal, both have ios apps for the watch and phone and will read and write to apple health. In my view you have two options: Apple ultra or garmin fenix 8. Both cost more or less than same. The difference is; Apple has a whole ecosystem of third party apps you can use to make the experience better, the software is very stable, its highly customizable and integrates beautifully with other apple devices, ie phone calls, notifications, music control, not needing a phone. Garmin has battery life, this comes at the cost where the software is very basic, very limited customisability, it’s a fitness watch and not a smart watch, as its a smaller company that runs model specific software expect bugs, limited software support for older devices and almost no 3rd party software support. In my view, the apple watch is far superior for day to day use, then buy a cheaper garmin as well, ie fenix 7 or 6 for if you are doing multi day activities or need a long battery life, however even then you can always have a portable charger ready to give the apple watch a little 15 minute charge which with fast charging will give you approx 40%.