Vivoactive HR

Thanks!. I'm not an apple person but love my garmin vivoactive 2, 10 years old and going strong. I can get notifications but can't respond. I'll look into the venu 3 later this year.

I wear the discontinued Garmin Vivoactive HR (https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/538374/) with a screen protector over it. (Broke the screen of my first one mowing or weedeating when I threw a rock up) It's pretty resilient otherwise and can get wet with no extra attention needed. I've used it swimming, etc. My only complaint is that when pumping chest, I tend to hit a combination of buttons that enters me into recording some sort of workout (so it's buzzing at me). Battery isn't what it used to be (it's years old!), but it lasts a week or more. (Off duty, I wear an old Apple Watch Series 6 that I'm not comfortable wearing on duty. I can't even get 20 hours without recharging.)

I flip back and forth every now and then. First Garmin was a vivoactive hr. Then Apple Watch s3 Then back to Garmin with a Vivoactive 3, back to Apple Watch s5, Fenix 6 pro, Epix then Epix pro. Currently wearing aw s10, other than for kayaking. Apple Watches are getting better and better, buttons and battery are the only major benefits for me, and with an Epix battery isn’t that much better. Training info in the Garmin app is better too but the gap is closing, and subscription apps are probably even better. Bevel is great but a bit spendy. I think I’ll probably always have at least one of each now, eying up an aw ultra 3 next, Fenix line is getting too expensive now.

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

Garmin vivioactive was my first move from Fitbit it does the heartrate exercise tracking stuff, I did move to a more expensive Garmin because I like the GPS for golf, hiking, and cycling. Look for discount codes offered by healthcare providers, I used to get a 30-40% off from Manulife every year or two.