In my time at Ausdroid I’ve checked out a few different Garmin watches and have been impressed with them. They have released a new watch to their lineup that is aimed at the serious athlete — the Forerunner 935.
The Forerunner 935 is a “premium GPS running/triathlon watch with wrist-based heart rate” designed to cater for triathletes looking for a slim, lightweight performance watch. It allows the athlete to track every aspect of their performance providing advanced dynamics for running, cycling and swimming — ground contact time balance, stride length etc. These measurements are probably more than the average person requires but could really help a serious athlete in their training.
The watch comes with “QuickFit” 22mm watch bands but it seems like any 22mm band could fit onto it. Weighing just 49gm, it is 13.9mm thick with a 1.2inch display. Being a triathlon targetted watch it is of course waterproof and has a water rating of 5 ATM. The watch has built-in heart rate monitoring but for more accurate monitoring there are chest straps available for purchase. The battery life is up to two weeks in watch mode and 2 hours in GPS mode.
The watch connects to your Android phone using the Garmin Connect app which allows you to customise the notifications you receive on your watch as well as the watch face. The amount of features this watch packs in are far too numerous to mention and if you are at all interested head over to the Garmin website and check them out. There are:
- Activity tracking features
- Training, planning and analysis features
- Heart rate features
- Running features
- Outdoor recreation features
- Cycling features
- Swimming features
- Golfing features
Each of these sections has multiple different features. You would expect to pay quite a sum for all this in a good looking watch — and you do. At $699AU it is not a cheap watch but when you consider how much many serious athletes pay for their bikes etc this is but a drop in the ocean. The $699AU option gives you a black watch with black bands. For $849AU you can pick up the tri-bundle option which adds to the black watch an additional yellow band, the HRM-Tri and the HRM Swim (chest HR monitors) and the quick release kit. The optional Running Dynamics Pod has a RRP of AU$109 and the yellow and black bands sell separately for $45AU.
The Garmin Forerunner 935 is available at all your usual activity watch stores (including Rebel Sport and Harvey Norman) as well as many good cycling and fitness stores. If you are serious about your training and are looking for a watch to improve your times/fitness I suggest you give this one a look.
It’s been reported elsewhere as 24 hours of GPS battery life. I’ll be buying one. I’ve wanted to replace my ageing Polar M400 for a little while, and while the Fenix 5 was tempting, it always seemed a touch too expensive. This is basically a Fenix 5 but in plastic rather than metal (+ WiFi which the sapphire screen Fenix 5’s don’t have). You can’t compare this to an Apple watch, or the majority of Android Wear watches either as this is a fitness watch first with amazing depth and support of fitness features, with the “smart watch” features a… Read more »
When you said “battery life is up to two weeks in watch mode and 2 hours in GPS mode” was that a typo? TWO hours? That can’t be right, surely?
$699! You have to wonder about the internal discussion on this pricing? I know this is an android site but that’s $100-$150 more than an Apple Watch ( or than a Samsung Gear s3 for the haters)
Battery life is the only thing I can see that would justify the price …. or am I missing something?