Price: $169.95

Over the last decade or so, GPS technology has become more commonplace in the world of consumer electronics.

It was only a matter of time before GPS caught on in the world of sports watches and now athletes are reaping the benefits of the GPS Sports Watch.

GPS became prominent on the sports market and the last few years has seen the emergence of GPS-capable products from all leading sports watch brands.

The Garmin Forerunner GPS watches are almost universally thought of as “THE” GPS watches of choice, but there are other options available which are often quite a lot cheaper than the current model Forerunners.

A lesser known company called GlobalSat offers one such alternative. GlobalSat’s latest GPS watch, the GH-625 comes in two versions, one with heart rate monitor included (GH-625M) and one without a heart rate monitor (GH-625B). This GPS watch features the SiRFstarIII chipset, making the GPS signal strength equivalent to Garmin Forerunner’s watches, which use the same chipset.

The GH-625 is GlobalSat’s third generation GPS watch and replaces the GH-615. It excels over the GH-615 due to a slightly longer battery life and the ability to store up to 6000 laps. A feature runners sorely missed in the GH-615.

The watch comes in a streamlined case, but will not suit smaller wrist types. This watch is big and bulky, more so than the latest Forerunner 405CX, the advantage of this is that it boasts a much larger screen size.

It also supports a top-down map function which the Forerunner 405CX lacks.

Battery life has improved from about 9 hours to 10 with the 3D GPS signal recording every second, heart rate monitor and backlight on. The battery extends to over 20 hours with 2D GPS, HRM off and backlight off. The GPS tracking frequency can also be reduced to conserve power.

This GlobalSat watch can store a vast amount of data including 60,000 tracking points, 100 way points and 6000 laps. Tracking points are used to track your route using a crumb method, marking and saving your route via a special algorithm. Waypoints allow you to mark your current position and later navigate back to this saved waypoint.

This is a handy feature if you are on a trek and wish to flag waypoints that you will return to at a later stage.

The support of lap memory storage, is a huge addition for athletes who wish to record their interval training sessions. The GH-625 maintains a date-stamped history of all training sessions.

GPS Passions have covered the GH-625 with an in-depth review that includes a pictorial comparison of the GH-625 next to the Garmin Forerunner 405. Check it out here. GlobalSat GH-625 vs Forerunner 405.

Comparison Between GH-625 and Garmin Forerunner 305, 310XT & 405CX

	Forerunner 305	Forerunner 310XT	Forerunner 405CX	GlobalSat GH-625
Amazon Price	$299.99			$169.95
Specifications
Unit dimensions, WxHxD	5.33 x 6.86 x 1.78 cm	5.4 x 5.6 x 1.9 cm	4.8 x 7.1 x 1.6 cm	7.6 x 6.5 x 1.7 cm
Weight	77 g	72 g	60 g	73 g
PC transfer	(USB)	(USB/Wireless)	(USB/Wireless)	(USB)
Battery Type	Rechargeable	Rechargeable	Rechargeable	Rechargeable
Battery Life	10 hours, typical	20 hours, typical	8 hours, typical	8 hours, typical
Heart Rate Support
Map Navigation
Display Data Fields	4	4	3	3
Bike speed/cadence support
Foot Pod support
Device to Device Transfer
Touch Sensitive Bevel
Memory
Lap History	1000 laps	1000 laps	1000 laps	6000 laps
Waypoints	100	100	100	100
Routes	50	0	0	Unlimited 60,000 points
Software Package
	Garmin Connect, Garmin Training Center	Garmin Connect, Garmin Training Center	Garmin Connect, Garmin Training Center	GS-Sport Training GYM
Mac Support
Features
Virtual Partner Feature
Courses
Auto Pause
Auto Lap
Auto Scroll
Sports Profiles
Simple Workouts
Advanced Workouts
Pace Alert
Time/distance Alert
Interval Training
Customizable Screen(s)
Heart Rate Based Calorie Computation

Perhaps one of the most innovative and useful technology to become widely available for athletes of all levels are watches with GPS.

By receiving satellite signals that allow them to calculate your precise three dimensional location and then detecting subtle changes in motion over time, a GPS can provide a host of useful features that has a practical implications for your training and fitness goals.

For more information visit our GPS Watches Information Page.

Currently Garmin’s Forerunner is at the forefront of the GPS sports watch market by a long shot. The company revolutionized the GPS fitness watch with their early models, the 101, 201 and 301. More modern models feature better GPS sensitivity, more modern features and a smaller, more comfortable watch form factor.

Garmin have just released two models:

• The Forerunner 405CX
• The Forerunner 310XT

These are upgrades of the Forerunner 405 and Forerunner 305 watches.

You can see how the different Forerunner watches differ here

We have discussed the Garmin Forerunner (GPS running watch) Workout Types and have examined the Garmin Forerunner (running GPS watch) Interval Workout mode.

All Garmin Forerunner watches support “workouts” which are structured training sessions that you can customize to your personal requirements.

There different types of workouts are:

• Simple Workouts allow you to do a run by time, distance and calories
• Heart Rate Workouts are simple workouts but with heart rate zone alerts
• Interval Workouts let you create repetitive sessions with recovery and the option of warm-up and cool-down
• Advanced Workouts, are structured workouts that let you set goals at each step of the workout

In this post we talk about Advanced Workouts.

Unlike other types of workouts, advanced workouts can only be created using Garmin Connect or the Garmin Training Center software.

The Forerunner 405/CX watches allow you to schedule workouts. Once in the memory of the watch, they can then be wirelessly transferred to other Forerunner watches.

Scheduled workouts can be viewed while in time/date mode. Tap the bezel to view today’s scheduled workout and activated by pressing ENTER to start the workout.

Alternatively, advanced workouts can be started by:

1. Touching and holding MENU
2. Then selecting TRAINING -> WORKOUTS -> ADVANCED
3. Then the specific workout you wish to start
4. Then DO WORKOUT and START

During the workout, the Forerunner displays each step of the workout including the name of a step, the goal (if any) and current workout data. An alarm counts down at the end of each step until the next step of the workout begins.

An advanced workout can also be halted early by pressing the LAP/RESET button.

Advanced workouts are ideal for multi-discipline workouts at the gym, or sessions like Fartlek training where you may wish to structure your workout in phases.

Advanced workouts are available in the following Garmin Forerunner watches:

• Garmin Forerunner 301
• Garmin Forerunner 205
• Garmin Forerunner 305
• Garmin Forerunner 310XT
• Garmin Forerunner 405
• Garmin Forerunner 405CX