Garmin - fēnix 8 – 47 mm, AMOLED

it must be a solar model thing - no idea why - my F8 47mm oled gets GPS in 8-12 seconds every time, and has more battery life than what you reported even though it's a smaller watch. It's never rebooted on me once and I've had it about 7 weeks now, and do a gps workout nearly every day.

Damn my F8x amoled lasts longer than that lol but ya first month or two with new Garmin hardware is always figuring out bugs. My experience with the 8x has been mostly positives. But then again my expectations are calibrated based on past watches.

I love my GF8 (non-solar) and it acquires GPS before I’ve had time to start my run and. There is a fast and slow mode, of course with its pros and cons. It’s a great sports watch and I’ve never felt it’s unreliable.

Love my fenix 7 pro solar and fenix 8 amoled a bit pricey but really works well for me . Maps are always an issue for me ,i do like the smart watch feature of a mic and speaker here and there ,but perfect for exercising in many forms from surfing to hiking and riding motorcycles .... i hear epix is similar but less pricey. Well wishes on your journey

I have a fenix 8 and previously forerunner 645 and in both I have the smart part turned off. I don’t like reading or seeing or being notified in my watch. So you just turn it off

Garmin really isn't that good for the gym, as they outright refuse to sync with ANY lifting apps, such as Hevy. I have a Fenix 8 and I went ahead and manually made lifting routines in the app on the phone, which then carries them onto the watch. It isn't that hard to do, but it does annoy me that they refuse to allow third party lifting apps to work as if they actually have a good lifting platform. I personally alternate between two different lifting workouts, so I just select the one I'm doing and go from there. I hate rep detection, so I have it set to where I click a button on the watch to start a set and then when I finish the set to start a rest period, unless I have something set as a superset. I still use Hevy while also running this, as I just find the interface and tracking as a whole to be superior, especially if you want to modify something mid-workout. My main reason for still bothering to also do it on my Garmin is so that it factors my lifting sessions into the overall health picture. My Fitness Pal and Strava are the only apps it sync with.

Another vote for the Garmin Fenix 7 or 8. You get the surfr app with the 7.

A few things. One is battery life. Some Garmin's have solar charging. But for the one's that don't you can get at least a week of charge if not more depending on the mode it is set in and how infrequently you use GPS. Two is that Garmin's are still fully functional without using the app or connecting to your phone. Sure, you won't get messages pushed to the watch or have the ability to sync metrics, but still it is more of a watch first and connected device second. You can use the Ultra without a phone, too, but this kinda defeats the purpose of the iWatch series and smart watches in general where there are meant to be connection to your phone first and then a watch second. Sleep tracking, if it matters to you, is generally better with Gamin watches. Garmin has also been doing GPS for a really long time. But probably the biggest advantage is that Garmin watches, well nearly all of them, are designed to be used while the user is wearing gloves. Meaning, you can navigate to and do everything by clicking the buttons on the sides even if the model has a touch screen. There is a slight learning curve to this, but once you figure it out it seems rather intuitive. And I dunno. Some of us want something more than a fitness tracker but also not a full-blown, app-centric, always-connected device. This might sound weird, but if you need to use timers, one right after the other, then Gramins win hands down. Some Garmin watches are actually built for the out-of-doors based on the premise that you will scrape the watch on a tree trunk, rock, side of a cliff, on sandy, rocky, bottom if surfing, etc. I have the first model of the Instinct that I still use. It was run over by a semi truck and barely got scratched on the outer casing. Still works like a charm. But probably the biggest benefit is that Garmin is pretty good so far with updating older watches every so often, even though they don't have to. There is no real need to update the watch every 2 - 3 years (I suppose you don't really need to either, with the iWatches, but you know what I mean) other than if you simply want to. If you bought a Fenix 8 today it would still be functional going into 2035 assuming the battery can still hold a decent charge.

I could write a book about this topic, you have no idea how much time I've spent playing with both my Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin Fenix 8 and their respective software apps (Health and Connect). I own both. Long story short, neither are perfect. Here's my opinion per your categories: * Daily activity (steps, calories, heart rate) - Apple wins here. The HR sensor on the Apple Watch is just better. Apple Health does a MUCH better job of aggregating activities and accurately accounting for calories. * Sleep tracking. Garmin wins here, no question. Why? Battery life of the Fenix means I don't have to charge it overnight and therefore much more likely to wear it to sleep. I get 20 days of battery on my Fenix, and I ride my bike every single day. * Recovery metrics (Body Battery, HRV, etc.). Garmin superior here. * VO2Max and training guidance. Garmin blows away Apple. Apple does a poor job of tracking Vo2Max and doesn't have distinct running and cycling vo2 max like Garmin does. In fact, Apple Health won't even estimate your vo2 max unless you go for an outdoors run...it completely ignores any other activity including cycling. Clarity of data and presentation: Apple is just better. They understand UI and navigation, Garmin is piss-poor at this. Other apps to track: Yes, Strava. To me it is a ecosystem-agnostic tool that does a great job of tracking my long-term performance. Subscription not required but IMHO its worth it. Summary: the Garmin hardware is better, more premium-feeling, and its screens and metrics are tuned more for athletes. Apple's software (Health) is 100x better than Garmin's awful Connect, it also does a better job of tracking things like medications, and non-fitness related health aspects. The good news is that Garmin workouts/inputs captured on Garmin devices can feed to Apple Health as well as Connect so you can get the best of both worlds. The biggest drawback to Apple is that its ecosystem is much more closed, it doesn't like to share Apple Watch HR data for example, and it's really more of a smartwatch (still) than a true fitness watch like the Fenix, but Apple is definitely closing the gap each year.

Karoo 3 (“New Karoo” because K3 is apparently too close to KKK?) and a Garmin Fenix 8, keeping them completely separate because Garmin Connect only updates training status with activities tracked on Garmin devices but the Karoo is more useful when riding (physically can’t see my wrist when riding in winter) and has much better GPS than my watch

I have a Coros Pace pro and my wife a garmin fenix 8. My Coros GPS beats hers hands down every time. The GPS is unrivalled

If Garmin is just a sports watch, why doesn’t it stick to MIP displays with a cheaper price? MIP is obviously a much better option, widely recognized by most serious sports users. Why incorporate features like AMOLED, a touch screen, waiting on LTE, and Garmin Pay? It doesn’t really make sense, as a SPORTS WATCH, does it? I'm not going to lie either, I was a loyal Garmin Fenix user for over a decade, starting with the Fenix 1, 3, 5, and the last one of Epix Pro Gen 2. Now, I’ve switched to an AWU, and with the release of the Fenix 8, I doubt I’ll ever go back to Garmin. It’s true that the AW lagged behind Garmin in terms of sports functionality a decade ago, but things have changed dramatically since then. Every point made by OP is valid, as a SPORTS USER! In simple terms, Garmin seems to be stuck in the past, and while Garmin and its users may claim it’s a "sport watch," they don’t acknowledge that this has led to a growing divide with competitors like Apple. Last but not least, battery! That's the only thing Apple insists on, and Garmin can take pride in, even equipped with an AMOLED screen. With Epix Pro Gen2, 47mm, always on, all activities and GPS, 5 days guaranteed, which AWU can never reach.

I double watch. Garmin Fénix 8 on the right and an automatic on the left.

completely agree and would probably mark lower....having owned many Garmin's myself, I find the 8 buggy and unreliable. I hate the mapping...it looks good but, functionally, it's really slow and buggy. Garmin technical support example: (i) yes your ETA screen doesn't look right at all. At the moment we have no suggestions or fix. Me - "I am having lots of problems with reboots and other bugs and would love these to be ironed out soon or else I will have to return the watch". Garmin: "if you would like to return the watch that between you and the seller". Excellent (ii) Ive gone back to Suunto

Both Garmin and Coros make sport watches that are fine for what you need. I jumped from Garmin to Coros because of the crazy price jump of the Fenix 8, Connect+ subscription service and bad firmware updates for my Fenix 7 that Garmin has not addressed for more than a year now. The trust has been lost.

Mas isso não novidade o garmin sempre foi um aborto tipo ms dos quando comparado com o Apple Watch Ultra , entendo ser comprado por quem ou não sabe trabalhar com um awu ou acha que é mais desportivo ter o que os outros tem , menus horríveis , vários softwares  para quê, até agora o look horrível , sinceramente acho que nem com este 8 convence quem tem um ultra . O awu faz coisas fantásticas  , já tive corus vertix , suunto ambit 1,2,3 ,vector ,x10 etc etc inclusive garmin 310xt e nada se aproxima do awu.

Fenix 8 and Edge 530 on my bike.

I am on day 2 of the exact same scenario. Fenix 8 and everything. 😂 There are some definite positives to the Whoop and some definite drawbacks. I’m still undecided but I’ve got 28 more days to figure it out. 😎

I've just got the Fenix 8 because I'm a diver. There's gonna be a better (= cheaper) pick for you I'm not too familiar with the Garmin line up. I can give you my personal experience on tracking strength training though. Regarding strength training, it is okay-ish. Weightlifting is no a priority for Garmin and frankly it is kinda hard tracking reps and exercises with only a device on your wrist. Can't track leg exercises. Very different exercises can have very similar arm movements, e.g. bench press and shoulder press. Personally, I've disabled rep counting and Auto Sets in the settings. I start the activity, then press the back button to go from Set to Pause and back to Set, that's it. No reps, no weights, no exercise tracking. I do that on my phone and want Garmin to only track my activity, heart rate and so on. It's actually quite convenient to have the pause timer on my watch instead of my workout app on the phone.

This depends on how you want to track your sessions. Some people prefer to start "strength training" when enter a gym and stop it at the end. I use my watch to follow my program like described here: [https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/](https://gelberhut.com/strength-training-with-a-garmin-in-a-gym/) If you want to do the same - a watch which allows to adjust weight/rep number using the touch screen is handy. I know that venu3 and F8 support this, not sure about other models. PS: Not that long ago, Garmin released strength coach (https://gelberhut.com/garmin-strength-coach-what-is-it-and-what-can-it-do/), if you want it: check one of Garmin Venu 3, Garmin Fenix 8, Garmin Vivoactive 5, Forerunner 255, Forerunner 265, Forerunner 955, Forerunner 965.

Meanwhile I recently bought a fenix 8 and am letting my whoop membership expire. After 3 years, I'm over the analytics and I want more from my activity tracking as I recently got into triathalons. I personally feel like whoops sleep recommendations were pretty accurate but after 3 years I get the point. I like how whoop says you slept good, you had a good recovery, now GET AFTER IT. Meanwhile garmin is over here telling me my high aerobic training is low but your also over reaching? It's a mixed bag but as previously stated i want to track my distance on the road and in the pool more and I don't really listen to the whoop anymore.

I used to but with the Fenix 8 I don’t except for sprints and intervals and even then the data isn’t super off.

Money no object then just get the flagship Fenix 8. Enduro 3 is amazing but only comes in 51mm size where Fenix have 3 sizes.

I have been playing with the strength app on a fenix 8 and my FR 955. I am trying to figure out if Strength activity affects other metrics like training readiness, endurance, body battery, training status etc, differently than if you just select Cardio activity and track your sets reps weights elsewhere. Do you know the answer to that?

**My Fenix 8 has soooo many issues they are sending a replacement. I couldn’t believe how many problems it had. Was very disappointed in the watch. ** Watch would crash after activity and never saved it. Long hold start button for the voice command would just randomly turn into a compass/barometer. Touchscreen doesn’t work when in a call. Battery would go from 3 days to 20hr after a 30 min activity. Light turned on one time by pressing the speaker option on the phone screen . Also the speaker and mic are terrible… people can’t ever hear me and the speaker is so low it’s pretty much useless. Couldn’t even get a gps signal in the city of San Fran to save a location at all. ***I’ve also said the same exact thing as the OP that it would be an amazing watch …. if it worked properly but I don’t have one that does yet. And it’s been a terrible experience with it.***

With the exception of the Fenix 8, all of the garmin watches are 'water resistant.' This is good in general, but for salt water, yikes. I wouldn't trust the watch to last long. However the fenix 8 is completely sealed from the elements and is the best bet. But it ain't cheap, starting at $1k.

Thanks for sharing! I’ve been getting pretty frustrated with my bulky Garmin Fenix 8 — it’s just not comfortable for sleep or daily wear, and I still need to pair it with a Coros HRM to track BJJ. The Whoop subscription also feels like a money pit over time. The Fitbit Charge 6 looks really promising though, especially since all I care about is solid sleep and resting heart rate tracking. Are you still using all three devices? I just picked up a Charge 6 to test it out, and I also ordered a Whoop armband sleeve — hoping I can slip the Fitbit in there to track BJJ sessions more comfortably.

Garmin Fenix 8, first smartwatch in a long time so nothing to compare with, accurately tracks my swims at the beach, apart from it says I am slow when I don't think I am :)

I have and WEAR both. Garmin Fenix 8 with buttons for the win. And AW for calls, texts, reminders, calendar, and soon to come — Tesla Watch key!

Hi, I'm back to Watch Ultra after a short cheating with a Garmin Fenix 8, which is great for sports tracking and analysis but it's smart features sucks so much that I had to come back to my Apple ecosystem. Besides Athlytic - which I know pretty well since I've been subscribed for more than 1 year - and the mandatory WorkOutDoors, I'm trying to find the best companion App to manage health metrics, fitness and workouts, and a reliable and complete training metrics analysis which could be compared or excedd Garmin's one. In the screenshot you can see the apps I found as candidates, but I never tried the premium version of them, except for Welltory which is too expensive. Athlytic is very good but someway incomplete and sometimes unreliable. Do you have deep experience with the others and can you suggest something complete? What's your comments? Thanks!

Garmin Fenix. I will always be team Garmin. Apple is a smart watch with fitness features while Garmin is a fitness watch with smart features. There are certain garmins that have more fitness functions and features than others - even among the new models. Some are more “lifestyle” watches (like venu). So just be aware of that when choosing. When I went from my venu2+ to my Fenix, a host of new features opened up for me that I now could not do without. Check out the r/garmin sub for sure if you think you might go that route

Works well with my Garmin fenix 8

I switched to Fenix 8 from Apple Ultra. For the gym they’re much of a muchness. Garmin is better for running if you’re interested in more in depth metrics but Apple Ultra with Athlytic app was pretty good as well. I wouldn’t have bothered swapping if the Apple battery life was better but I find it disproportionally annoying having to charge it every 2 days. If Apple sorted out their battery issues even to get a week out of a full charge I’d most likely swap back as I prefer the functionality of the Apple over the Garmin.

Like you i have the F8 and Whoop. F8 is great for specific activities with granular detail when you record it. Whoop measures Strain all day long without you having to manually record it everything. E.g. a strenuous gardening activity, walking the dog all gets recorded (you have to assign these if it is not auto assigned by Whoop) without me having to consciously press record. F8 can't do that. So in every single day, Whoop records your daily wellness and activity levels. Far more useful information than metrics for a specific activity (F8 is great for training metrics so it has its place). I should add that assigning strain to a specific activity ain't important to me either. A day score is enough to tell me how active i have been. That and sleep data - much easier to understand. The HRV readings are not far off from each other (F8 vs Whoop). Will probably renew.

I was using Runna with my AWU2 until a few weeks ago when I switched to the Garmin Fenix 8 and I love the integration of planned runs in the Garmin native interface.

I was a Fenix 5 guy for 5 years, I was a whoop guy for 3 years, and now I’m a Fenix 8 guy for the next 5 years. :)

Haven’t seen Venu recommended. I’m running a Fenix 6x Pro right now, and we all love all of our options. Suggest this file https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/11FeOS8Gf26GO9Ewp3rGzBALk9EZgT3Xian3TYOe4fwg/edit And dcrainmaker reviews, but seems line the less expensive Garmin do everything you need, even though most of us point to the more expensive models. EDIT: missed OP doesn’t care about price. Yeah Fenix 8

Swim functions of Fenix 8 seem to be more of less the same as most somewhat more recent models, even with Swim 2 (honestly, it is fine for swimming. I swam with it for sure a while, but other functions are somewhat lacking). Fenix 8 supports diving but unless you dive, or otherwise do activities not supported by somewhat older models, I am not sure if it would be worth the extra money compared to older models because the swim functions seem to be essentially the same as the likes of Epix or earlier Fenix, more recent swim-compatible Forerunner etc. You should be able to pick up previous models somewhat cheaply, whereas Fenix 8 is quite expensive. I would have bought Fenix 8 if it was much better at swim tracking but it's not, so I did not spend the money to upgrade from Epix Gen 2 (which is annoyingly less accurate compared to Finnis goggles and Apple Watch but I digress)

Ive had the 945lte, Fenix 7x and now the Fenix 8 and i have NEVER had any bugs or problems. I might be lucky or the people complaining might be unlucky... Just remember this: if you enjoy a product and it just works flawlessly you would maybe recommend the product to 1-2 people. But if you had a really bad experience people tell 10+ about it and complain on forums.. If i could do one thing over i would go for the Fenix 8 Solar and not amoled. If you love long battery life go for Fenix 8 Solar or enduro 2 or 3. Especially if you plan to log long activities like hiking.

How accurate is the GPS, especially when running through woods or on overcast days? I've found Apple watches and even lower end Garmins don't handle position tracking very well in those conditions. Sometimes they'll be as much as a half mile off for a several mile run. That's the only time I can't fault the Fenix series watches, the GPS is nearly flawless. The only thing I've found more accurate is a handheld.

Get a garmin Fenix, doesnt really matter which model as long as it’s not ancient, off eBay

You can't go wrong. There are features that the newest Fenix (or Epic pro) have that the others don't. So if you care about ecg monitoring that might change the model you are looking at.

This is my perspective as someone who uses Whoop and wears an SMP or a Speedy that I rotate according to how I feel. Also, I've tried Oura, and liked it, but it wasn't for me. And I have an AW Ultra that I use when running and hiking, and this is after a few years of using a Garmin Fenix. Most people think of Whoop as simply a fitness tracker, which it is, but it is much more. What seperates Whoop from other things is how it shows you the impact of your behaviors. Yes, I think Whoop was less than honest about their upgrade policy with the new 5.0 and MG release, but I still can't find anything like it. The "magic" of Whoop is that it allows you to pre-select certain behaviors that will appear in a daily journal. Each morning you take 30 seconds to check yes or no on these items, e.g. Did you consume added sugar yesterday? Did you eat a late meal? There are endless options. As times goes on, Whoop continues to show you how these behaviors are impacting your sleep so that you discover how far before bed you should stop eating, or what's the latest time of the day you can drink caffeine without it impacting your sleep (even though you may think it doesn't because you fall asleep quickly). I'm not trying to sound like an advertisement for Whoop, but I think most people evaluate Whoop without knowing what it really does. So when I run or hike I use my Ultra for reasons that don't overlap with Whoop. But the rest of the day, when wearing my SMP or Speedy, or when I sleep, I wear Whoop because it is providing overall health insights that I find valuable and have led to lifestyle changes that I may not have made otherwise--even as a person in great shape who works out six days a week.

garmin epix/fenix no complaints

Short answer ; none Long answer ; Garmin is not an optimised at all for bodybuilding (I am nodybuil for the last 20 years and have Garmin for the last 10). So just get the one that is in your price range. Any Garmin will do hiking. One thing though, with bodybuilding the watch can and will suffer from repeated contact with the bars and gear. For that I only take Sapphire models. So Fenix or EPIX.

Seconded, Fenix or Epix are great. I have an Epix but tbh a Fenix suits my needs better

I use Garmin. Watch battery lasts a week at a time workout charging and the watch itself is nice. If I'd gotten a less fancy version than the fenix, my watch battery would last even longer

This is what I do. I have a Garmin Fenix as my sports watch and switch to the Vivosmart when I am wearing my Speedy.

Garmin Fenix and Epix Series are far better than this. https://preview.redd.it/cpxhwtjkuuje1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b4d50186d95b15e90086bfa4491d354424f3c0bd I am glad. Haha

I was looking at the Fenix! It's pricey but it did seem to have the most functionality that would be useful for him. I don't know that he would mind losing the running specific data as part of his WOD but then again I think he's the type that would like to know his pace/HR to target. As long as there is a process to program the switch from hiit to run and then back to HIIT I would guess he would suffer the moderate annoyance if he wants to mine that data. And we are not an apple house lol and I agree, Garmin connect is pretty slick. I've found their race predictions to be hilarious but other than that their metrics are pretty spot on!

Return the Apple watch get a fenix

Most of them are decent at hr without a strap but you’d want something with the elevate v5 sensor for the best data and unfortunately that’s fenix only. The 255 or 955 would be the best bet here but the 255 doesn’t have maps. Also the 965 is great if you want oled instead of MIP

I’ve been wearing my garmin fenix in it for over a year. No issues

I swapped my Omega for a Garmin Fenix and haven't looked back. I'm a cyclist in the garmin infrastructure so it makes sense. Its one of the best sports watches, comes in a range of sizes to fit different wrists and I think it looks stylish as well compared to the square apple watch.

Garmin Fenix, used Garmin for years, battery measured in days not hours

i have a fénix and i won't bring it. You can get miles and ascent trivially from FarOut. just tap on a point behind or ahead of you. For me the fenix is a training tool, it's not for the main event. your stats will be: * Steps: Many * HR: Light/moderate aerobic * Sleep: Shit * HRV: Shit * Status: Overreaching * GPS: The same damn trail as everyone else. Also the power saver mode GPS is pretty bad and [can remarkably *over*estimate distances. ](https://www.tendigitgrid.com/d/159-garmin-ultratrac-review-and-data-accuracy) Number Go Up is fun but not worth it. Track for the folks at home with the Inreach on 1hr tracking. Your watch won't broadcast to your family like the Inreach will, it's redundant and less functional for long distance location tracking. I have ONCE briefly, used a pre-loaded Course on my Inreach for snow navigation on Wonderland Trail. Probably it would be nicer on the Fénix but not enough to bring it. Ill probably stick some Sierra courses on the Inreach ahead of time though.

But nobody say what garmin works with messages better of do it APW with same iPhone. I switched APW to Fenix namely this reason. I dont miss any whats app call or telegram call or messages from it with fenix. But AWU at all is very very good thing, especially if calls and messages from all messengers not matter for you (I apologize in advance for my English)

whoop, using the bicep strap so my wrists are free during workouts. i prefer the no screen no distraction myself, especially when working out. also have a garmin fenix as well as a daily watch.

Yes, I carry a Garmin Fenix and record each day’s hike as an activity. You absolutely do not need a smart watch to hike but it a lot of fun and convenient to have. I love all the stats for each day’s hike. HR. elevation gain and loss. Pace. It’s also convenient to have all the information the watch provides right on your wrist. How many miles you’ve gone. Elevation. (On a nasty up hill I’ll just know the elevation I need to get to and can glance st my wrist for progress without overthinking the distance.) Sunrise and sunset times. Day length. I set a notification to go off 1.5 hours before sunset. That’s my dummy check reminder I need to be looking for a campsite. I also set a lap notification for 1.0 miles. That way I can mentally keep track of how far I’ve gone. The newish elevation acclimation widget has been interesting. Most of these functions/information is as lap available on a cell phone. But it’s nice in watch form. The battery needs of a smart watch are negligible. I did need to recharge it daily.

Apple Watch will do fine for a long time - only got a Garmin last year. However once you go to only having to charge your watch once every two weeks you just can’t go back to Apple. I have a Garmin Fenix (on the $$ side) but I wear it every day as my normal watch too and have had zero issues making the switch. However there’s heaps in the range, I love accuracy, maps, long battery and lots and lots of data so I can overthink every run - so Fenix it is! The forerunners are great and the vivoactives are a good mid range model. There’s other brands like Suunto, Polar etc. For true accuracy on any wrist watch you may need a chest monitor. But if you really like your Apple Watch I found it pretty good unless you’re somewhere with not much reception

This is not clear. Which activities can't you wear a sorts watch? Do you mean like work or formal dinner where sports watch might not match your outfit? If that is the case, you should consider the garmin fenix. More premium build and you can get different watch straps that can be changed quickly if you need to dress to impress.

Garmin Fenix, I bought a second hand one on ebay and I absolutely love it and the best bit is the charge lasts for over a week.

Most people coming from apple go vivo active or venue. Venue being closest to a smart watch. Personally, I'm a instinct guy. Although I'm wearing a Fenix today since I didn't charge my Instinct for 2 weeks and it died before bed. I've swam tens of thousands of meters (more like hundreds but..) in pool, open and salt water with my Garmins. Done free diving (only to about 40ft, I'm not very good) and press the buttons regularly sub surface. I've also done cliff jumping with every watch, and haven't lost a garmin to water intrusion. I would definitely select a 100m rated model for water sports. Any watch can fail but I've had 6 garmins and none have. I also had a bunch of Casio and Timex over the years and not one failure.

Yes they are pretty rubbish for swimming. I just switched to a Garmin Fenix which hopefully will be better. The Apple Watch managed lap counting ok for me but open water was a disaster and the rest of its counting (calories etc) was also well off by the looks of it. Your does sound even more broken than just being rubbish though. It should be able to count laps fairly accurately, I think most of them can do that ok.

There should be, but it isn’t. I have 255 and it’s great, capable, light watch, but it has weak display and no touch, changing straps is a hassle. So I waited long for 975, but I’ll go the Fenix way very, very soon :) Maps are definitely better on the 965 than on 255, navigation there is really rather basic.

Fenix has always been dead on accurate for me. But I’m using an Epix now. Basically the same but my old Fenix didn’t do HR

Bro, it's literally a fitness tracker first, then 2 miles of data sheets from all that tracking...then all the "smart" gibberish as a barely visible dot on the horizon. At least Enduro/fenix/Tactix/Epix line are like that.

I’ve used a Garmin Fenix, Garmin Swim 2, and Apple Watch for swimming and by far the garmins were superior. My Apple Watch would die after about half an hour in open water, regardless of water temp, and was always inaccurate with my laps and interval times in the pool. The swim 2 and fenix work much better.

I personally love my Fenix, and yes, most Garmin things revolve around running—but I do HIIT, strength training, and backpacking, and the recovery seems quite accurate. My overall fitness suffers when I don't listen to the readiness score and overdo it.

i hated my garmin fenix chunky edges on my 4.5 inch wrist which is tiny for my first one i went for the cheap apple watch 6 decided i liked it and went to a series 9 never looked back and also im in the apple ecosystem partley so this has been a great help

I'm very disappointed in my Fenix for gym (and it sounds like the same fault applies to all garmins) because of the logging of reps. When I do a workout it will assume I used the weights I specified, but then it seems to either auto-log reps, which is a disaster for things that don't involve hand movements, and require me to correct them, or assume I did zero and require me to enter the whole lot. If I'm doing 60 sets I honestly don't have the patience to manually enter the rep number, so I use a phone ap instead. The thing that really annoys me though is that it would be so easy for Garmin to make a tiny programing change and start with the assumption that you hit your target. Surely for most people who have a reasonably well-made workout this would mean they only need to change a small fraction of their reps. I have suggested they make that tiny change, as have others, but so-far it has fallen on deaf ears. Hopefully more people will suggest it, until eventually they do it. But for now I'd say stick with the apple watch.

I am an AWU → Garmin Fenix convert and have done pretty extensive testing with both, and against dedicated sensors. I have found for basically all metrics where the watch sensors are the source, the Apple Watch is more accurate when compared against the Garmin watch, although dedicated sensors are more accurate than both. I haven’t tried the Garmin chest strap or dynamics pod, but I have compared to a Polar H10 for HR and a Stryd pod for running dynamics. It’s always H10/Stryd > Apple Watch > Garmin. The discrepancy is much higher for HR than running dynamics. I think it is straight up irresponsible to rely on wrist-based HR is you’re using HR as a part of training, but the running dynamics from both watches are more than good enough for most people.

Just buy a fenix and turn notifications etc off. Calls it the only thing that I have on but that also can be turned off.

Honestly, there's a TON of overlap between Whoop and any other tracker you need. It'll have your HR and HRV, recovery scores, and target strain. The ability to broadcast HR to your phone should let you cover runs and bike rides in strava. Look into various Garmin options if you want something that can record multisport events, I think Coros can do those too. But if you just want something for easy workout tracking that records swim laps and ride/run HR + GPS route, a cheap Fitbit would do the trick as well. Personally, I use a Whoop plus a Garmin Fenix. The whoop is overkill, honestly, since Garmin has a "body battery" recovery metric and can tell you how hard to go with the training on any given day. I use the Whoop because I deal with behaviors very similar to exercise bulimia and I need something that literally tells me, "you've worked hard enough today, it is time to stop." If I didn't need that, a Garmin would absolutely be sufficient on its own.

I like my Garmin Fenix. Someone here pointed out that grips stop the workout and that’s true. Straps and grips and a certain angle can hit that button and it sucks. Other than that it does its job really really well. I hate whoop though. It being maybe 3% more accurate with some metrics isn’t enough for me to have to wear the whoop and watch (smart or otherwise). Couple that with the subscription cost. It’s just not worth it for your everyday/local comp person. They’re all trash if you have tattoos on your wrist though. The internal HR monitor struggles there. I use a chest strap or just rotate the watch to the inner part of my wrist.

Can't go wrong with Garmin imho. I've had a fenix and a couple of forerunners, and they've all worked great.

I would agree with you on that. I had Garmin fenixes for years, Garmin Epix pro, Apple Watch Ultra, amazfit trex 3 (current watch) and just got a whoop. Imo for weightlifting nothing beats the Apple Watch (ultra or not doesn’t matter) due to all the different apps available. I was using Hevy and the ability to do a live workout between the watch and the phone at the same time was dope: want to change exercice or do more complex changes during your sessions, you simply edit the workout on the phone. But if you want to do just a 5lbs increment on your lift, you can do it from the watch directly live. Only thing I am eager to test with whoop, which is a important part my decision to do the free trial for a month, is to see muscle strain and how it work in tandem with the cardio based strain. Whoop is the only wearable to do that ( but it seems you can do it with Bevel now)

Garmin fenix works fine in sauna

Another happy Fenix user here. I bought it for the battery life, as I do ultras on occasion and prior watches would not last for 50+ mile races. So far, the only initial downside was the weight, but I'm used to it by now and hardly notice anymore. Otherwise, the battery life if phenomenal and has never failed me in a race (or for days afterward).

Garmin Fenix is the best for snow sports

Please don’t use the Fenix watches for swimming. They may be advertised as such, but very unreliable. Very lengthy replacement process also.

If you are using a treadmill I’ve had good results with the HRM-Pro strap combined with my Fenix watch.  

I've used either a Forerunner 9xx or a Fēnix for about 6 years. If you give it about 5 minutes before you swim to leatch onto as many satellites as possible after it says it has a GPS fix it's pretty good. If you dive in as soon as you get the tick, it's crap.

I've had Apple, Garmin and Samsung smart watches but only got "joy spark" from the Garmin Fenix/Epix. The Garmin Fenix/Epix have an intangible attraction that doesn't equate to any feature or activity. One aspect of wearing a Fenix/Epix that I have to admit is attractive to me is that it signifies that I'm a performance athlete.

Garmin ecosystem is chocked full of goodness. Since I run and cycle, it’s great for multi sport. A lot of folks who only run seem to love Coros watches and their environment. I think either of those (with Strava integration) would be an improvement over your Apple Watch.

People have to stop comparing these. These are for two different people. I would never wear an Apple Watch based on battery life alone. I specifically got the Garmin for a wrist based gps and mapping tool to track and orient myself. You buy an Apple Watch to use smart features and be connected to your phone. Garmin has never been in that market. It’s a whole company based on gps systems for outdoor activities . You buy an Apple Watch to have Apple ecosystem. you can’t use half the feature of the fenix on an iPhone bc they only want you to use their watch… Garmin are all specifically made for their audience even down the the model . Apple watches are just to keep you plugged into your phone and have no bearing on actual outdoor activities despite calling it ultra. The Millitary has been orienteering with Garmin wrist based gps systems forever. You’d never catch an Apple Watch on patrol in Afghanistan. 😂