That's what I do and works fine, the screen is a little small on my Forerunner 310XT. But I bought it used years ago for 100$ and got the little handlebar mount thing.
Ultra and Cadence.app (you have to pay subscription, of course). But in my opinion, Garmin is better option for cycling and I’ve tried both - Garmin needs no subscription, has offline maps and more and better metrics. And somewhat can export to Apple Health too :)
I switched.
1) no need to subscription (I'd have to pay for at least three apps to just remotely mimic what garmin does out of the box - cadence, bevel or athlytic and fitify)
2) ability to connect and use all my gear (I tend to use Engo Eyewear AND Stryd Duo pod together, which is hardly achievable on AW (I never managed to do it).
3) Garmin just works. No fiddling with apps like AW, just select the activity and go.
4) Five buttons! AW tended to behave erratically when sweated with long sleeve. Not Garmin. Or swimming workouts are accurate thanks to those buttons and drill log mode.
5) Battery good enough to withstand long run in winter (AW tended to have problems in 30+ km runs in cold, not Garmin) Forerunner asks me if to go to power saving mode, when there are "just two days left" :)
6) it is iphone independent. I can freely choose whatever phone I like
7) Garmin connect has bad UI, but the data trove is great.
8) ANT+ - lots of gear uses it
9) maps are in the watch offline, no need for data connection, like AW
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
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)
KdawgEdog
