Forerunner 15

Still rocking my Forerunner 15 with heart rate strap and shoe clip for indoor runs.

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.

if he is working a lot in the rain, get him something with more than 2 buttons so he would be able to use the watch using only the buttons (without the touchsreen) if he needs to, something like a forerunner, or instinct (doesnt have a touch screen) or a fenix (but a fenix is one of the more expensive ones)