Archive for the ‘GPS Tracking Watch’ Category

4 Questions You Should Ask When Buying a GPS Sport Watch

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008
If you are serious about your sport, whether it be running, cycling, hiking skiing, windsurfing or even skydiving, a gps watch can be a powerful tool for tracking, measuring and improving your performances.

An advanced sports gps watch can accurately measure:

  • Speed
  • Distance
  • Elevation above sea-level

What’s more, many watches with gps can plot 3D maps over a traveled route that can later be downloaded to a PC or Mac and then reviewed and analyzed in a custom software package.

Combining this with advanced sports watch features, like memory storage/recall, interval timers, heart rate zones and speed, pace and distance alerts and you get a complete wrist-watch training computer, capable of taking you to the next level!

While having all these features can be exciting, it can also be overwhelming when you first start shopping around for the right watch. As most gps watches are quite sophisticated, this makes it difficult to know which features suit your needs and which are nice, but most likely not ones you’ll use in day-to-day use.

Our guide will take you through the process and will familiarize you with the key questions you need to ask yourself when you are comparing watches. With, the most common questions clear in your mind, selecting the right model will hopefully be a breeze.

Question 1: How will you be using your watch?

There are different types of GPS watches for different purposes; Your buying decision hinges on how you will use your GPS watch, so this is an important thing to be clear on.

This may seem obvious, but knowing which of these categories you fall into can save you a lot of time and effort.

Some watches will cater to fitness and sport, among other things, these models will have a lot of features that will suit runners, cyclists, triathletes and other athletes, like memory storage and recall, interval timers, heart rate monitors and pace and distance alerts. Other models will have navigational features allowing you to mark locations, plot courses, then navigate between waypoints in your area. Some watches will even support both.

GPS Sport Watch Models
The watches below utilize GPS for fitness and performance.

Navigation GPS Watches
The watches below utilize GPS for navigation.

Question 2: Do you need real-time signal reliability?

A common complaint about GPS systems is the signal dropping out without warning.

This is especially common GPS watch models with older chipsets. This problem can be somewhat resolved by ensuring you only use your GPS watch in places where there is a clear, unobstructed view of the sky – i.e. not around tall buildings or trees.

The latest GPS watches use the SirFStar III chipset, which is more sensitive and reliable than older chipsets. This is not to say the older watches are not good choices, some have dropped considerably in price making them great value for money, but deciding if high reliablility is important will impact your choice.

If you only wish to pinpoint your location infrequently, then high reliability is not such a big deal.

For instance, say you are out kayaking on the Amazon river, you come to a fork and need to decide whether to go right or left… chances are you probably don’t care too much if your GPS signal drops occasionally, so long as you can quickly pick it up again when you need it.

On the other hand you are running your 5th London Marathon and need to know your exact kilometer pace at the 10km mark so as to know if you are running too fast or too slow - then a signal drop out is highly undesirable.

An alternative to gps that may be worth considering is a foot pod device that measures your leg turn-over or cadence and calculates speed and distance and all the other good stats based on your leg-speed alone. When correctly calibrated a foot pod can be quite accurate and does not suffer from signal obstruction like a gps unit does.

GPS Sport Watch Models with Older Chipsets
These GPS watches utilize older chipsets. They are generally slower to link to the satellites and may lose the signal more frequently.

GPS Sport Watch Models with Modern Chipsets
These GPS watches utilize a modern chipset like the SiRFstar-III or equivalent.

Question 3: What level of comfort and style do you need?

While tons of features are probably main reason for buying a GPS watch in the first place, if you like to wear your watch in a casual setting as well as for sport then it goes without saying you should find one you like the look of. But I’m sure you don’t need us to tell you.

The latest watch from Garmin, the Forerunner 405, has a few less features than it’s predecessor, the 305, but looks pretty darn cool, whereas the Forerunner 305 is more like a brick on your wrist! The Suunto T series watches models that support GPS look as natural in town as on the track.

The Garmin Forerunner 405 (Left) and Suunto T3C (Right) are stylish as well as functional sports watches.

Also consider comfortably the watch fits your wrist. If you are more comfortable with an external gps device attached to you, then you can enjoy a smaller wristwatch, whereas a single gps-watch unit is a lot bulkier.

Step 4: What other criteria are important?

Often the most heavily promoted features of popular products, are not the ones you are really interested in. This is an unfortunate part of marketing, but luckily we’ve dug deep and come up with a list of some less obvious features that might be just what you’re looking for.

A note about power

Let’s make one thing clear. GPS watches suck up a LOT of juice! Fortunately, many models use rechargeable batteries.

There are generally two types of GPS sports watch – those that you wear on your wrist and those that require you to attach an external device to your body. The wristwatch type are almost always rechargeable, whereas external gps watches generally use AA or AAA batteries.

Most provide around 8-14 hours of continuous gps tracking and allow the gps to be switched off when not needed, so as to save power.

For you ultra distance runners, even 15 hours might not be enough. Fortunately popping a spare battery into an external gps is a trivial task, even on the run. For everyone else, I’m guessing 8 hours of gps time is more than adequate.

A Note about Water Usage

Like fire and cats, gps watches don’t mix too well with water. Most units can survive a few splashes, or the accidental dropping in the kitchen sink, but using your watch for swimming or diving is definitely not recommended and the signal reception can not be expected to be accurate under these circumstances.

This is unfortunate for Triathletes for who a gps watch would be a valuable tool for recording and assessing their performances over multi-disciplines

By now you should (hopefully) have a better understanding about which gps sports watch unit is right for you. You may even know what you’re looking for. If you are pretty sure what you want, but want more information head to our website, where we have more information about gps and other types of sports watches.

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Timex GPS Speed & Distance T5E701 - Cheap GPS Tracking Watch

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

Features:

  • 100-Lap Memory with Recall of Bodylink system data
  • Navman “3D” GPS Sensor. displays Speed and Distance Data
  • Metric, English or Nautical units
  • 3-mode Countdown Timer

Timex watches that are compatible with the accurate Navman GPS sensor display real-time Speed and Distance information during your sessions and allow you to set pace alerts that notify you when your are running too slow or too fast and distance alerts that trigger an alarm when you have covered a specified distance.

Weighing in at just 2.7 ounces, the GPS sensor is a little smaller than a portable MP3 player and can be attached externally - securely fastened to your upper arm - with a comfortable strap, or clipped to your running shorts. The sensor continuously tracks the GPS signal for 13 hours before the battery needs replacing, transmissiting digitally to the watch piece. The sensor uses Coded FM transmission to prevent interference from exercise equipment and power lines.

The Ironman T5E701 watch caters to serious and profession runners and has most of the features runners need, including 100-laps of memory storage, a clear, digital display with two data lines and countdown timer feature.  Unfortunately this watch does not have Interval Timer Mode, a feature that would offer seriously benefits to runners wishing to perform alternating timed training cycles such as sessions of 3 minutes hard/2 minutes easy, then repeated - although probably not something that all athletes require consider if this is important to you.

The watch also features a continuous odometer that tallies up the total distance for a workout or group of workouts - a nice touch. While the watch piece is water resistance to 100 meters, Triathletes and Swimmers will be disappointed to know, the sensor, while splash-resistant, is NOT designed for use in water.

Being a Timex Triathlon Ironman Watch, you can expect this sports watch to be durable and reliable offering all the Ironman features including dual-time zones, separate daily, weekly and weekend alarms, INDIGLO night-light with NIGHT-MODE feature.

Timex Data Recorder Compatibility

Timex Data Recorder

If you wish to have your data recorded and downloaded to your PC for later analysis, the T5E701 watch is compatible with the Timex Data Recorder, which interfaces Heart Rate Monitor and GPS devices and records session data.

The Data Recorder includes the following Features:

  • Recording of multiple workouts
  • Simultaneously collection of Heart Rate and Speed + Distance data from Heart Rate Sensor and GPS Sensor
  • Stores:
    • 72 hours of heart rate data
    • 26 hours of speed and distance data, and
    • 14 hours of combined heart rate and speed and distance data
  • Easily clips onto your shorts or slips into your pocket
  • Timex Trainer software with USB cable
  • Navigational data includes altitude, elevation, latitude, longitude, ascent and descent data
  • 2 Year battery life
  • Splash-resistant case

Please Note: The Timex Data Recorder is only compatible with Microsoft Windows 98SE, ME, 2000, XP and Vista operating systems.

Starting at $99.00 on Amazon , the T5E701 is a seriously good starter option for serious or professional athletes, who seek to add time, distance and pace tracking on top of standard sports watch features.

This watch is currently available for ordering on Amazon in two configuration options, with and without the Timex Data Recorder:

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