It's been a white hot minute since we've seen a snazzy new timepiece from the labs at
Timex, but it seems that the outfit will finally be dishing out a new GPS-laden watch a year after introducing the
Expedition WS4. Set to debut next month, the Ironman Global Trainer with GPS is easily one of the slimmest, most
not-ugly GPS watches we've ever seen. At a glance, you'd never know that such features as real-time speed, pace and distance data were included courtesy of the SiRFstarIII module tucked within, and you'll also get 50 meters of water resistance, a customizable display to showcase four metrics at once and the ability to push performance reports out to your PC. The device will be compatible with Timex heart rate and bike sensors, not to mention any third-party power meters utilizing
ANT+ wireless technology. Unfortunately, next month's reveal will only let you know that it'll ship this May to REI stores here in the States, while the rest of the world will have to wait until September to strap one on.
posted January 25th 2010 6:37PM
Compact, functional, elegant; looks like a winner.
@iMiiTH
My Garmin Forerunner 305 has been a real winner over the past three years. You can find them bundled with the bike kits for around $200 last I checked or just the watch and heart rate monitor for under $150. They originally retailed for $300. I still use it for running but have since upgraded to the Garmin Edge 705 on the bike which provides me an even larger color display and maps. I would venture to guess that this new Timex unit will make the Garmin Forerunner 305 look like the real deal that it is.
@DaveBach
Yeah, I don't think anything can touch the 305 in the value-for-money department at current prices.
Comparing it to the 405 (since it seems to fit at least shape-wise), the screen looks kind of small on this one. Although maybe I'm just imagining that. I guess I could complain the screen is smaller than the 305/310 too but that would seem too obvious/stupid. Will be interesting to see the pricing.
I hope this nice piece of wristware isn't overpriced, and is just right.
Pretty ugly looking piece of gear.
@HDD I take it you haven't seen what people wear when they run... this ain't something you wear to the office.
@Annoying Poster
If I wore this I would have to instantly shave my head bald, and wear tight shirts.
But yeah id rock it even if i wore it to the office - just for the heart meter... so i can be like bruce bannon when people piss me off.. "you wont like me when im angry"
Darn that ANT+wireless technology!
Why can't somebody build a heart rate strap that transmits in bluetooth so that an iPhone or Android can track the signal in a really good App? Almost everybody trains runs with their phone anyway.
@JChez Bluetooth + GPS + iPhone is going to make for a short training session. These units are for serious atheletes who need something that lasts upwards of 10 hours.
@JChez Bluetooth sucks way to much power to be suitable for this type of a device. ANT+ has emerged as the defacto standard for sports devices. This lets Timex develop just the watch without having to worry about all of the sensors. They probably use some off the shelf speed, cadence and heart rate sensors. It also lets them tap in to cool bike power meters, like the PowerTap http://www.saris.com/p-361-powertap-sl.aspx
damn, dude was running for 10 miles? what are you doing that you need to run that far?
@flett
eating too much
@kj4gr isnt there pills for that?
@flett
Being chased.
how's battery life? reception?
There are two nasty things that bring this kind of gadget to extinction. Price and low battery life. And there is no single word in the article about either of those.
@Inf
Maybe they could make a model with a kinetic charger built-in. When you walk/run and actually use the GPS, it could have all the power needed without draining a battery.
@Inf
I have a Garmin Forerunner 305 and the battery can last the whole day out on a triathlon course. But what I'd like to see is for these GPS watches to have some standby features like a clock and stopwatch. Just like my Palm Treo Pro has when it's shutoff but still shows the time on the screen.
@DaveBach The Garmin 405 goes into standby mode and just displays the time.
@leftride
The Garmin Forerunner 405 also doesn't fit on a big wrist the way it was designed.
@DaveBach Lasts the "whole day" lol. And that is considered a good battery life those days. Ideally, i would like to see a battery life of one year, like on a normal watch. Practically, i would settle for a 1..2 weeks, 24/7 tracking.
@Inf
Considering all that these watches do, a whole day is amazing. I absolutely LOVE my Forerunner 305 and am still amazed at all that it can do. Except for ultramarathoners or ironman triatheletes, why would you need more battery life than a few hours worth. It's not like these watches are meant for normal, day to day use.
@Mikey M I want the long battery life because i actually want to use it for things other than sports. For example i would take it with me while going for a week long vacation and would let it track me, without having to care for it. After coming back home i could use it to geotag photos, create maps with day hike routes i did etc etc. TBH, i don't really need it's full functionality, if it would wake the GPS once in 5 minutes, acquire a stable lock, store the location and sleep for the next 5 minutes, it would be more than enough for me.
BTW, my WM phone can survive for about 24 hours in this mode, with the rest of the functionality being off, unless i take it into a building, in this case it simply tries to acquire the sat fix, endlessly, and wastes its juice for nothing. A non-stop tracking on the same phone, with everything else turned off, but the GPS being on all the time, with something like oziexplorer running on the background, kills the thing in less than 5 hours.
i wouldnt mind having one of these. what i would mind is paying for one.
Absolutely need to know more about battery life. The downfall of the Garmin wrist-mount units is battery life - 4-8 hours of continuous battery is fine most of the time, but with Ironman on the name, it better last 9-17 :P The downfall of the Polar GPS units is still battery life, but with a separate GPS at least your entire HRM doesn't go down because the GPS sucked down all the battery.
More issues would be how water-resistant, is the battery user-replaceable, and how is the accompanying software? ANT+ is not an excuse to have zero software.
Such a device is probably going to be in the $200-400 range. Would be nice to have more competition in the space. An athlete tracker would also be cool - the ability to externally track your GPS feed (a la child tracker 2000).
@colby Agreed. Run a GPS app on your iPhone and watch it blow through its battery in like 2 hours, and that battery would normally last all day just running the screen and such. I guess the question is how much of that battery consumption is the CPU running most of the time updating the moving location on the maps and such, and how much is needed just to run the GPS chip. Still seems like an obvious question, and something that Timex does NOT mention on their website anywhere...
@colby the Garmin 310XT has a much longer battery life than their previous models (305/405.) I get about 12-14 hours of use before I need to recharge. It's less than Garmin's specs which show 20+ hours, but it's much better than the 3-5 hours I used to get.
Ah, read the source article more closely - Timex's stuff is powered by TrainingPeaks. Meh. I use TrainingPeaks but also like the Polar software.
@Fanfoot It would be sweet if they failed gracefully, sort of like going into various power-saving modes. If you have 1 hour of battery left, disable GPS and continue operating only the HRM/watch; if you have only 5 minutes of battery left, disable the HRM and only operate the watch. (Configurable, of course, because everyone wants to feel like they are in control :p)
@colby
Here is my Ironman technique. I don't wear the watch into the water since it not only gets in the way of my stroke but also my wetsuit unless I'm wearing a john (sleeveless).
On the bike I use my Garmin Edge 705 since it provides me a bigger screen and more data fields.
Running out of T2 I'm strapping on my Garmin Forerunner 305.
I could finish in 17 hours and still have plenty of juice along with all of my personal race data I'm looking for.
@colby Check out SportTracks. Any watch will work with it.
@kafolske
I'm with you, sporttracks is fantastic as a third party option. I'm sure it'll work here too.
Also, one could argue that garmin effectively had "zero software" up until they got their garmin connect service running.
I like it but they still continue with putting too much text around the display on the face of digital watches.they should remove the 'ironman triathlon and GPS' text for starters, put that on the box not the face.
I've had my Garmin 305 for about 6 months, and just bought one of the Tap Screen 150 lap Ironman watches after Christmas. I got my Garmin from Amazon for roughly $140 with heart rate monitor. I used my older Ironman and a Nike+ Sportband before that.
I expect it to cost more than the Garmins, since it has the SiRFstarIII chip and the Garmin 305, 310, & 405 have the SiRFstar 2. One of the big selling points of the Garmin 310 is that the battery life is long enough to last an entire triathlon.
What advantages does the 3rd generation SiRFstar chip has over the older ones? I'm assuming it is physically smaller and uses less power.
Also while the watch itself is important the web site where you can download the watch's data and track your activities(i.e. Garmin Connect) plays a big role in how useful it is as a training tool.
@Isildur981 Garmin 310XT uses the SiRFstarIII chipset.
perfect timing I just bought a Timex Ironman heart rate monitor watch. I also own a Garmin 205 and this Timex blows it out of the water by looks. The only issue with my Garmin is sometimes it takes forever to get a satellite lock.
@decalfx
Are you high?
I"m diggin this watch!
it sucks.. doesn't even show you direction
May...dammit. The Boston Marathon is in April, my 9 year old Fitsense FS-1 just broke and I the Garmin 405 is just too damn big.
Lousy timing.
This looks so much better than anything else out there.
I will definitely be keeping my eye on this one.
@Zone99 Have you tried on a 405? I think my wife's is too small for my wrist and I'm not a big guy.
Wow, that is slick. Nice screen and good work on packing all of the features in. What kind of battery life does this thing sport? and how much $?
I just upgraded from the garmin 305 to the 310xt because I need battery life. I wish they would make the watches bigger with batteries that can last at least 24 hours, at least long enough for a 100 mile foot race
I'd use it for geotagging.
Hey Guys-
I actually work for Timex and I'll make sure the team working on this is aware of your comments. I've messed around with it a bit, but I haven't been able to run with it. One of my coworkers has and I'll get his feedback and repost. Let me know if you have any questions and I'll see if I can answer them.
"White hot minute"? Does the rate at which time passes vary relative to the ambient temperature?
Sorry - I've been watching Star Trek: TNG reruns... :)
What are the dimensions on this thing? I've always been hesitant on purchasing one of these just because they were so thick.