Garmin - Vivoactive

Garmin Forerunner 265s is definitely accurate while OWSwimming, with its own factory "OpenWater" function. My previous Vivoactive 4 or Vivoactive 1 were very erratic, even trying different IQ apps.

I had an older generation Vivoactive and purchased the 165 music when it came out. The running features and metrics are worth it alone, but I also like the physical buttons. I looked at the 265 and 965 as well but the advanced metrics and better heart rate sensor wasn’t worth it for my needs, and I use a heart rate strap anyways.

I have had both the Garmin Vivo and Charge 5 and I am an android user so Apple watch is out for me. Durability wise Garmin but not sure how that compares to the Charge 6 as they fixed alot of the issues that the Charge 5 has. But wearing and comfort. Hands down the Charge 5. I have gone thru 2 charge 5 over the last 5 years and would still buy the charge 5/6 over Garmin for the comfort. The Charge 5/6 is much thinner on your wrist and surprisingly that makes a world of difference

I wouldn’t do that. Having used both Apple and Garmin products for swimming, I’d urge you to go for the Garmin. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the Apple, it’s just that the Garmin is better and the battery life is a godsend by comparison

Garmin will track your laps (while swimming any style). But if doing drills (FS kicking, one hand FS, BF kick...), you'll have to manually start/end each drill during your current Garmin poolswim session. With an Apple Watch it will track almost every lap, despite doing drills. So depends on what you'll do in the pool. Cheaper versions like a Fitbit , will track your laps no problem. You don't need to go to he GPS smart bands/watches just for swimming.

Just get one of the garmin watches with heart rate tracking. Their most budget one with a heart rate tracker, is their vivoactive, and it'll set you back maybe 200 bucks. But I'd personally spend a bit more and get the Forerunner 255. I currently have a 255, and it's fantastic. Battery life is about a week, but I also do a good deal of running. I imagine it'd go up to 10-14 days if I didn't use the GPS function while tracking my runs. It works with the Garmin Connect app, and that doesn't require a subscription at all. It'll also sync your activity data with Strava for additional tracking if you wanted.

Happy with the vivoactive which gives all the sleep data and on sale now on Amazon

I think you are in a hard spot here! When someone is serious about something, it is difficult to gift them something about that something. In the same way that you cannot gift a mouse to a software engineer unless it's the Logitech Mx 3 or superior, you cannot gift apparel to a serious runner unless it's something really good. My point is, if you want to gift him a watch, it is difficult to recommend you something that is below $300 or $400. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of watches out there that cost less and may work. For example, you can buy the Garmin Vivoactive or Instinct for around $200, or the Amazfit T-Rex Pro for $150 (this is a really good watch for the price). However, if he is really serious about trail running, you may have to consider a Garmin Fenix 6 (between $350 and $400 on Amazon) or a Garmin Forerunner 945 (I just saw it at $319 on Amazon). If he is into both road and trail running, the Forerunner may be a good choice, but if he is getting more and more into trail running, the fenix is the best option. Note: You won't get navigation in budget-friendly watches, but I haven't meet a racer that needed it. Generally, the course is marked and people carry their phones (I have offline maps just in case). Note 2: You can save a lot by purchasing the previous-generation model (that's why I recommended fenix 6 and forerunner 945).

The Garmin Vivoactive is probably the most classic looking smartwatch these days I had a 3, they’re on 5 now. Good battery life, good fitness tracking but less phone integration than an Apple watch, which I currently use. It fits standard watch straps so you can put it on a less sporty strap if you like.

Jumping on the vivoactive bandwagon. I've had mine for a couple years. It has a long battery life, looks slick, and I use it for running and workouts. Highly recommended.

I would suggest any Fenix or even any forerunner over any vivoactive or venu of you're serious about training. Sure you can get by with most basic stuff on those watches but if you get serious about training or want better features you'll have wanted at least a forerunner model

For weights none of them are great, you should not spend more money expecting better results. If you think you might get a little more serious about running in the future, get the FR165 (or even the 255/265 if you find a good deal). If not, Vivoactive is a good choice.

Vivoactive was fine for me for about 6 months, then recently upgraded to a forerunner 265, I don’t think I could go back, way nicer, better in every way, and loving the extra data points.

Garmin all the way if you are using android The tracking is really quite good and the features arent exactly advanced for a beginner, it walks you through basically everything Ive seen a few forerunners or vivoactive go on sale for slightly over 200. Abit higher than your budget but imo worth it, it will last you even when you are no longer a beginner

I use the Garmin Vivoactive because of some other activities that I do beyond swimming, and it does a good job with swimming data. It does not know your stroke as far as I know, but it has always accurately tracked my distance, pace, stroke count, rest versus swimming, and I think a few other things. Mine is a bit older, so not sure if there are newer features.

I love my garmin vivoactive. Uploads to Strava, less expensive than other garmin watches, and has been going strong for 4 years now. I came from a Fitbit and the only thing it doesn’t do quite as well seems to be sleep tracking.

I think a vivoactive or venu would be perfect for you! Make sure you get the S because it is smaller in profile. I’m petite and have small wrists and in comparison to other watches the profile of the S models fits me very well!

Love my Garmin vivoactive 

This is just my honest experience I know it’ll maybe rub some people the wrong way. I’ve only had an Apple Watch for quite sometime most of my friends have garmin so i decided to give it a try and I ended up staying with Apple: I had the vivoactive which might make a difference I found the activity screens for the vivo really lacking like the visuals of it made it harder to glance at the face while working out and immediately know what is what because it was all just black and white also only a certain number of data sets could be added to a face. I find the Apple activity faces to be easier to read/understand quickly because of the lay outs and use of color etc, I also found the post work out graphs on the garmin to be harder to read or instantly understand compared to Apple. Many people say that garmin does more or gives more insight again maybe it’s because I had the vivo but there wasn’t any data I was getting from garmin that I wasn’t getting from Apple the ONLY thing I can think of was garmin gave me my running speed in mph? Which Apple doesn’t do. It’s important to remember that apples native fitness app certainly has its limitations but there’s tons of apps you can download that give specifically what you’re looking for, for example I did like that garmin has the exercise and rep detection for strength BUT I like the ‘train’ app for Apple Watch better it sucks I have to pay for that app but idk overall I had issues switching from Apple Watch to garmin but I’m a very visual person who doesn’t enjoy spending a lot of time siting down and researching my device (again I know on reddit that makes me dumb and lazy but just giving my honest experience) Also quick note about Fitbit: I tried them before I tried the garmin and I HATED the way they calculated active mins, that you got more mins based on heart rate, happy for people that works for but if I worked out for 30 mins I want the data to say 30 not some made up time based on how hard I worked (I like the apple gives me the actual normal time but gives a score on level of intensity of the work out separately)

Pretty much all Garmins do. Vivoactive or Venu is a good place to start.

OnePlus Watch 2. Great battery life as well as fitness and smartphone features. Previously used a Garmin Vivoactive.

Spot on. For your needs, Vivoactive is enough. No need to get anything extra.

Had a Vivoactive too ? I reckon they didn't put a good battery in there. (Plus the latest update didn't help)

Mine died last week. It's been a few years I had to put it almost every day on charge. Honestly been a bit disappointed by Garmin with that. I'm considering something else but it's not easy. I don't know who's equivalent to Garmin.

I've loved Garmin since I got my first Vivoactive years and years ago. They felt like they produced quality products, designed to last, sold perhaps at a premium, but without any expectation of continuing fees (unless it was reasonable, like the inreach subscription or a cellular plan). Obviously, recent changes make me question these apparent commitments. I've experimented with other watches in the past (Polar and Apple Watch primarily, but also Coros and Suunto). Generally, I've been disappointed in their equivalent of Garmin's daily suggested workout. DSW has completely changed my life and my running. I will begrudgingly stick around if nobody else can deliver a program that gives me workouts that don't push me to injury. I was a beta-tester for a similar app on Apple Watch and I always felt on the very of injury. I mentioned this to the developers and they basically told me the app wasn't for me. I've heard Polar's version dumps absurdly long runs on you. And I don't know much about Coros or Suunto's offering, if any. Samsung has a watch too, but I'm not optimistic it will have offerings any better than Apple's iOS. And the only other watch I'm aware of besides the big android makers (Google, etc.) is the UNA watch which claims to be user-repairable. I am similarly not optimistic that will have any DSW competitor - but maybe in the future? EDIT: I searched for questions about DSW alternatives before posting - from what I can tell nobody has addressed this question for at least the last 3 months (the search results wouldn't go further than that for me when I sorted by "new").

I have a vivoactive and can see data older than a year on the website. But you can also download data to a spreadsheet, and I've been keeping a spreadsheet of my swimming since before I had my Garmin.

I made the switch about a month ago from AW to Garmin Vivoactive. Overall, I like the Garmin, but I do miss some features of the AW. I'm an apple user for my phone and it's so integrated. I like the garmin fitness features, sleep tracking, and the BATTERY. I miss being able to easily see my notifications if I don't see them when the come in, the menus are way easier to find and navigate on the AW-I'm still trying to find things on the Garmin.

The Lily is not a place to start they are an insult and described by Garmin as a fashion watch it doesn't even have built in GPS unless you buy the Lily 2 Active, the Vivoactive series lack altimeters. Coming from an Ultra and running at a few marathons a year the Fr255/265/955/965 would all suit you at a reasonable price. Garmin has outdated software and the UI and UX is terrible but they track activities well. Any of these watches will give you a great deal of data that is fun to look at but around 80% of it is not needed. You can use the compare tool on the Garmin website to compare the features of 5 watches at a time. That is a good place to start. Are you set on a Garmin or would you be interested in another brand? Sunnto and Coros have great watches at far better price points and with better feature to price ratios. As for you U2 you can control what notifications you get (FYI you don't have to get any) and you would get a great deal more battery if you just bought a chest strap for your runs.

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

A forerunner 165 or 265 might be good. Or a Vivoactive if you want a sleeker look. I run and do weights as well and find the 165 is sufficient! It can only do so much with weights (guessing the actual exercise you're doing, rep counting, etc). I usually go back into my saved workout afterward and edit any info that was wrong.can only ask so much from a watch but it's nice to have the rest timer and general log of the workout.

How do you access your data older than 1 year? I've had my Garmin Vivoactive for 1.5y and I cannot see back more than a year on their app or website. It's infuriating.

Garmin watch! I have the vivoactove. But they all track sleep, down to rem, deep, light sleep, and hours. It also uses AI to assess it. Helps a lot cause nights get foggy with a baby.

Oh yes I swear I charge maybe every 2 weeks. For me it’s relatively reliable as far as I can tell. It’s hard to tell on the nights that there are a lot of wake ups of course. But I can attest that the nights where I don’t have wake ups it has been pretty accurate!

I wouldn't buy a Garmin for those needs. Calories will be a wild guess because you aren't doing any activity that it can measure or infer power from. Stress is kind of useless. Recovery is more related to an endurance sport which you're not doing. I'm exaggerating a little but it is like asking what phone to buy and finding out you just want to use it as a flashlight. You're not really using the core functionality of the watch. Maybe a Vivoactive if you insist?

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.

Those are wildly different watches, price points and use cases. If this is what you are comparing I would personally go for the best watch I could afford. If the Fenix 8 is in your options go with that. Rather than buy something that will be obsolete soon, or fits your needs today go with the option you can grow into and will last you a while. I have personally gone the other way and every 2 years I have upgraded to a new watch that fits my needs. That is until this year when I bought a 970. Previously I have owned the vivofit, vivoactive, and Venu 2 Plus. What meets my needs today is the 570, what I will grow into is the 970. So if you can afford the Fenix 8 do that.

I love my vivoactive. I do sometimes get watch FOMO because I love running but I think the Vivoactive is a great (and very good looking) watch.

I am upgrading to a forerunner 265 from vivoactive because it can't do custom swim workouts or swim drills. but it does give you a fair amount of data for pool swim if you aren't concerned with that (time, distance, spm, pace, swolf, speed, heart rate, etc.) the vivoactive just went down to $200 and you may be able to find a refurbished or used one cheaper on ebay. Edit to add that I swim 5 days a week and there's no concern about water resistance that I have seen or heard of for vivoactive.

For the things you described any would be good. Even a FR165 (or F255/265 slightly bigger screen) or a basic Vivoactive. With that budget you can buy even an Epic if you like it (though would be overkill in terms of features). I would go on a shop, try them and pickup what you like the most in terms of size, look and comfort on your wrist.

I can recommend the Vivoactive as it kind of falls into that price range. I have the version 5, but 6 is the newest. Not sure if any Garmin is ECG capable, if so then only the more premium models starting at 600€+. There are more dedicated swimming models, however, I also regularly use it for swimming and when I activate the „auto stop“ function and put swimming as first item in my activities-list, I can start and stop everything only via buttons (avoiding using the touch screen in water)

Yeah op could get a cheaper watch like the vivoactive and the strap that goes with it and it would still cost less than a forerunner.

Garmin. I've had a vivoactive for 3/4 years and it does more than enough to support my training. When the vivoactive dies I'll upgrade to a more sports focussed one but its more than enough as is.

I've got pretty small wrist, run with a garmin vivoactive and get along well. Love it.

I've owned a samsung galaxy watch and currently rock a garmin vivoactive. The garmin's battery is 10x better. The UI isn't as good, though - but that's small potatoes.

I have a Garmin instinct solar and I really like it. Before this I had a vivoactive and also liked it, but never climbed with it. I also run and do indoor bouldering. I’m not as concerned about tracking when I boulder, there is an activity for it where I’ll do one warm up route and just leave it on a break for the rest of my time climbing. The instinct is not a touch screen (which I actually really love) and it’s super durable. The watch clasp has gotten scratched up but the face is still fine after nearly a year of climbing inside with it. I’ve cooled off on my lifting with climbing, and was never that into it, but the strength activity isn’t horrible at keeping track of exercises. You can edit the activity afterwards to get the exact rep/weight/exercise, but some of the smartIQ exercise guesses are pretty accurate (ie a recent workout guessed pushups correctly, but also classified tricep dips as pushups). The solar add on is pricey and I don’t know if I’d recommend it, but the base option is pretty reasonable Cons for garmin: sleep isn’t super accurate, some data breach issues, a lot of grumbling that the Garmin+ subscription may be pushed on people in the future for things like updates and access to features Pros: easy to use, good tracking for running/hiking, instinct is very durable, lots of activities to chose from (cardio, indoor climbing/bouldering, runs, strength, swimming), fun metrics like HRV, training load, and vo2 max, decent battery life

All garmin’s work really well. I have the forerunner 965 and it works great. Garmin also sells a speed and cadence sensor that connect to your watch for 40 usd and also improves data capture. I ride exclusively w/o a head unit because I prefer no screens on my ride. I like to track calories, heart rate, elevation, and routes along with speed and cadence. The 965 has the best experience I’ve found so far, I’ve also used the vivoactive, venu 2, and forerunner 265. 965 offers incredible battery life (6 2-3 hour rides per week along with other activities for a weekly charge). You can also bring up and use maps on the watch. Syncing is a PITA and is useful in a pinch if you REALLY need it, but if you are looking for map integration I’d suggest a head unit instead of a 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. 😂