Garmin - Forerunner 920XT

Garmin 920XT 😅 Stil going strong 🤷‍♂️

I have an ancient Garmin 920XT (I've beat the hell out of the watch and for $450 in 2014 with HR strap) it keeps on keeping on. Just back from Biking the Balkans and it gave me more data than I can use.

What keeps me with Garmin, and why did I return to it? battery life. the fact that I can look at my dexcom data not only on the watch face, but also add it to the activity screens, which is incredibly important and useful for cycling, working out, hiking, or just about anything that I do. (NB: cannot add Dexcom complication to Apple Watch activity screens, which is so patently stupid. If it can be added onto (only a few) faces, why not elsewhere? ) it’s relatively easy to customize the watch and screens, and create activities relevant to me. the menus have improved and are a bit easier to navigate. The watches are long lasting and durable. I expect many years out the 970 based upon my experiences with the 920xt. plethora of statistics and data are there if you want them. Niggles: the cost. They are pricey. Plus they really dumb down the lower models, like the venu, trying really hard to upsell you. the watch iq Face It app- why is there yet another app for this? Stupid. Also, ostensibly the face it app enables one to create a custom face. Yet, so many complications are missing. Why? So stupid and lazy. I am sure that is a commercial decision - they want people to buy the faces rather than allow folks to make their own. subscription? GTFO. (I don’t bother).

When I started out, I picked up a used Garmin Forerunner 920XT from eBay. It worked great for me for years, and I passed it off to a sibling who says it's still going strong. It's a little basic by modern tech standards, but it's easy to read when running and the GPS tracking is good. It works with Garmin Connect, so you get all the tracking functions for a triathlon watch that you would with any other Garmin, but I found I couldn't add other apps to it - Garmin Golf, for example. A used one right now will probably cost about $120US, including shipping. 3 years ago, I saw a deal on Amazon Prime Day that I had to go for, and picked up a Garmin Forerunner 945 for essentially half price. I love it. It's done everything I've asked of it and more. Battery life is brilliant - I went on a week long vacation and forgot my charger. The watch only ran out of juice when I was at baggage claim after the flight home. I've added multiple apps to it - golf, workout, etc. - there's a lot of functionality to it now. Yeah, it's not cheap, but if you're able to spend the money, I recommend it.

Go on eBay and look for a second hand Garmin. When I was starting out, I snagged a 920XT for about that and it worked brilliantly for me. I only replaced it because something else was on sale.

Not a must, in fact you don't "need" a watch to train. The technology has just made a watch the easiest way to track your training, but you can also do it using a clock on the wall and a pen and paper. Anyways, I bought the 920XT on the advice of a friend who had one. It was a great purchase for me, so I'm letting you know that's how I approached the question of a triathlon watch on a budget. I now use a Forerunner 945 and have had literally zero problems with either watch, so it's a brand I'm happy to recommend to people. There are obviously other brands of sports watches out there that offer what you're looking for but I don't have experience with those.

I've had my forerunner 920xt for 10 years and its still OK to use just have replaced strap a number of times

Garmin forrunner are top notch. They have several models depending what you all want/need beyond swim but all work great in and out of a pool. Done several Ironmans (and the training for them) with them with spot on accuracy.

I have the 920 which is old now but works. Pool accuracy is due to the swimmer. Since it can’t use GPS it uses a motion sensor and registers a lap based on the wall acceleration followed by a stroke. It doesn’t typically pick up kick board laps for example. Also may not work perfect if your doing breaststroke. However a flat freestyle workout it should work without issue

Part of the "use it til it dies" club. I'm still rocking my Garmin 920 XT triathlon watch from 2015..... which may be one of the oldest in this thread?? Works fine, even though I only use it for running these days.

I have a forerunner 920XT, which was like $60. It doesn't clock HR off an optical, but I wear an H10 most of the time I care about HR anyway. Lots of watch for very little money.

I purchased a 955 watch three years ago and have no issues. My previous 920 went through wrist bands every year but I haven’t replaced the wrist band yet. The battery life is still pretty good I run 9 to 10 hours per week and charge it twice per week (I don’t let it drop below 20%). The GPS setting I use is All + Multi-Band. The heart rate monitor isn’t that great - my Apple Watch seemed to not be affected by cadence lock or the large step changes. That being said it isn’t an issue since I use a chest strap.

Wrist hrm, and music moved me off my 920, but there hasn't been a new feature that has moved the dial quite like those for me since.

I get a new one when there is a function I really want, or the current doesn't work. I got the 945 back in Nov of 19, because it could do music. It's still doing just fine, the band is getting close to failing, but it holds a charge, plays my music, and still is accurate enough for my level of running. I looked at the 970, but the price is steep, and I don't want to get a lower model with smaller batteries, one of the reasons this has lasted as long for me is the battery life. My brother in law only gets a few days out of his 245m. My 945 has I guess another year or two in it. I had my 920xt for four years, I replaced it with the 945 for music and wrist hrm... Huge feature improvements, nothing like that lately, amoled I guess, but I don't consider that a feature I really care for.