Polar - Pacer

Just purchased a basic Polar Pacer. It works without smartphone. It is simple and straight forward to operate, and amazingly light. The thing that has impressed me about it is that it tracks distance on the 1/8 mile indoor track that I train on. I was surprised that it was able to connect with GPS satellites through the metal roof of the fitness facility. I purchased a chest strap heart rate monitor with it but have not found reason to use it. The sensors in the watch are accurate enough for my purposes. Another good feature is the diary on Polar Flo. Connect your Pacer to a computer after your workout, access the Polar Flo app, and your workout data is recorded on the Polar Flo diary

Sunnto is chinese owned but has a better app and better integration with third party apps. Plus the social aspect is really cool if you have a lot of friedns with suunto hardware.  Polar on the other hand is finnsh, but their app really sucks. Is cluttered, unintuitive. I really like my polar pacer tho. But i sort of regret switching from suunto. Not a helpful post, i know 😀

I have a Polar Pacer and my wife has the Pacer Pro. We've had them for 3 years plus and have been very happy with the performance and reliability. We are regular but not hard-core runners

Polar is great for stats especially if paired with heart rate monitor. I have Polar Pacer for watch and H9 for strap. The only downside is im unable to play music - but you said not relevant so might be good option for you.

Polar pacer is not heavy and is great for tracking sleep too. GPS, never had a problem.

I ended up ordering the Polar Pacer and H9 this week. I would get the Unite, but I was worried the crappy battery life would make me angry like the A360 did. I am a huge fan of Polar's heart sensor and the app, that's what I'm here for... I never purposely used GPS but I noticed my phone would somehow track my movement during a bike ride when the watch was tracking a workout and connected (for text notifications).

Polar Pacer. I use it for walking, Crossfit and Strengt training. Shows all the basic info you need without any software needed to mess things up.

Polar Pacer, because it has buttons and is quite reliable for swimming

I was in the same situation as you and just started training again. I bought a polar pacer secondhand cheap as good as new and am very satisfied. I was considering the garmin forerunner 55 as an alternative but went for the polar pacer because to me it just looks better.

Your reaction "LOL First of all, if you get up to 90% of your max heart rate in less than 30 seconds you sound quite unfit to me." says just one thing - you ran out of the arguments and now make it personal insults. But if that really says something about anybody, it's about you. Just few last things to mention I tested Ignite, Ignite 2, Polar Pacer and Verity Sense vs H10. All of them on the wrist and the bicep. Same unreliable results for stairs workout. I don't care what TQS or DSC or you think about this. I did all of these tests in the same method (that you don't need to know for it to be reliable) with N=1 and they are 100% reliable for me. But the most important thing. Please, do not ever give anyone advise on how to train in HRZ as you have no idea what you're talking about. Training in HRZ2 is exactly what it says - being in HRZ2 most of the time. Being half time in HRZ1 and half in HRZ3 doesn't make your training on average HRZ2. My watch shows HRZ in % not in bpm. So 90% is the limit of zones 4/5. If I need to stay in Z4, i don't go over 90%. Where you got that I don't understand that zone4 is 80-90% or zone5 90-100% only you know, but from what I read it looks like you've been training your whole life not understanding how heart rate zone training works. Sad to hear, but you can thank me for explaining this to you.

Yes, the Pacer is the newest of the three watches you mentioned and sounds like it would be a decent choice. Both the Ignite and the Vantage M series are now on version 3. You could use your H10 with any of these watches to get more accurate heart rate data. There is no official way of importing workouts done with a non-Polar device into Polar Flow. There are third party apps that can kind of do this, but the training load may not be calculated. The easiest way would be to record your bike rides on both your Garmin and your Polar device.

If your goal is training, I don't think I'd get the Samsung. Seems to me like you'd be paying for "smart watch" features (which I personally don't want) when you want "training / health monitoring" as the primary function. Polar Pacer is $300 USD. The Pro is $350. Polar Unite is $200 USD. Probably also worth looking at Sunto (Run) and Coros (Pace 3) too. Both under $250 USD. No mater what you're thinking about getting, if you live in the US you should absolutely wait a month and buy on Black Friday. But if you're looking for the best value, Polar probably won't be the right brand (especially if you live in the US). I like their watches (currently have a GritX Pro1). But their pricing strategy seems is pretty odd. They aren't on par with a company like Apple, but they seem to have adopted an Apple-light pricing strategy.

Bought the Pacer when it was introduced. I use it for working out, walking and biking. GPS starts immediately. Tracks very well. LOADS of useful info on the watch and apps. I consider it the perfect watch for my needs. Nuff said.

I have the Polar Pacer - I mostly just walk, cardio at the gym, and weight lift 4 times a week. It's been great for what I need. And the GPS tracking does well when I walk my neighborhood or in the hills. It also connects to my H10 as well.

I haven't noticed a "GPS locking in". Once I select my workout, for example walking via the watch, it looks like the GPS tracks or starts right away.

The Ignite 2 and Vantage M have metal bumps on the back as part of the sensor. The Pacer sensor is flat and non-metallic. If you are at all prone to watch rashes, your skin will likely be happier with the Pacer. If you like touch screens it could be worth trying to get a used Ignite 3. I have one now and it is my favorite watch I've ever owned. It's flat and plastic on the back, has most of the major features, decent battery life, and feels very thin and lightweight compared to the Pacer.

I would recommend a cheap Polar watch. I have a Pacer and it is not connected to my phone at all. It is wonderfully simple and a joy to use compared to my previous bloated/ overcomplicated Garmin.

Polar Pacer. Don't connect it to my mobile at all. It's wonderful, especially in comparison the awful Garmin user interface.

Polar Pacer (I used to have a Garmin, I cannot put into words how much I hated that thing, the user interface and software bloat is abysmal IMO).

Well, I am not competing, far from it, started climbing 3 years ago, I just have a plain polar pacer from my skating activities. While climbing, I often check my HR to see if I have rested enough in between climbs. Just a visual check, nothing major happening. I am not even sure what I should look for, but after a climb, I am maybe at 130-140+ (I am mid 40s), and I wait for my heart to drop down closer to 100-110 to start a new climb if the projected climb requires come muscles.. I can be doing this totally wrong.. so, that's my very non scientific and non medical input. Though.. from my also non very scientific feedback, I inadvertently tested holds against my watch, the rim... did not like it at all..