Forerunner 10

Get the Forerunner 10, cool black and red detailing!!

My first Garmin was the Forerunner 10 back when I first started running and before “smartwatches” were a thing! From there, I had the Forerunner 230, Fenix 5s (was way overkill for what I needed and it was confusing to use), Vivoactive 4s, Venu 2SQ and I currently have the Venu 3s. I upgrade every couple of years and buy them directly from Garmin’s website. They have a side by side comparison tool which is very helpful when you are trying to decide between watches.

If you are very big into running metrics, then you would want a Forerunner. If not, then the Vivoactive series is a great all around fitness watch. It does work well with an iphone. You will not need to connect to Apple Health as Garmin has its own app that will track your health stats and it syncs with the watch. The important thing to know coming from an Apple Watch is that Garmin watches are fitness watches first so you won’t be able to text through it or make calls (unless you get a watch that has a speaker and mic and has this specific feature, like the Venu 3 or 4). You will be very happy with the battery life though!

There is a free version where you just use the app and take measurements through the camera. I did not find it especially helpful Edit: but op could try it and see if it helps them

It doesn’t work the same, but there is a “pacing” watch face/app with Garmin. I did not find it helpful, but it could be helpful for you. It tries to tell you if you are overextended or can take more on and warn you when your hr or “stress” is high. https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/f6fd42cd-81fd-49a4-b147-832ffb0974e7 Based on what I have seen from Visible, it looks like they are using a version of stress and calculating a limit on how much you can do that way. Not an inherited bad idea, but I agree. It feels exploitative. My partner is a programmer, and I am a day analyst, so I have been trying to work on partnering with him to make a free app for people with chronic illness. We agree it’s ridiculous that everything is behind a paywall. No guarantees as we haven’t started yet, but I’m hoping we can pull it together. Otherwise, im hoping someone else here has a rec. I’ve been looking into this for months as I’ve been feeling like I don’t have much control over my symptoms.

i second that. wrist HR with F8 is also faulty for me like 30% of the times, could be because of a wrist or a strap. But i did not see any with F8 improvement compared to F6 or older forerunners

Garmin Forerunnner has several models in that range. Work like a charm.

Garmin Venu 1, 2, or even one of the newer Vivoactives would be great. You can get a Venu 2 for probably about $100-$130 on Facebook Marketplace right now. You can also get one of the older Garmin Forerunners for about the same price as well, if not a little cheaper

Use forerunner for swimming and it works great. So happy I no longer have to count my laps and I can just swim.