Looking for a Garmin Forerunner? This article outlines each of the 5 choices and some of their benefits and weaknesses. These are the main features of the models, but by no means is every feature covered!!

Rechargeable? The Garmin Forerunner 101 is the only one that is not rechargeable, it uses 2 AAA batteries. All others have a rechargeable lithium ion battery that lasts between 10-15 hours depending on usage.

Waterproof? All the Forerunner units have an IEC 60529 IPX7 rating, which means the GPS case can withstand accidental immersion in one meter of water for up to 30 minutes. Notice it says ACCIDENTAL….do not use these devices for the swimming leg in triathlons, they will not hold up for long!! Running or biking in the rain will not cause issues.

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People exercise for a slew of different reasons. A few love testing themselves against the power of nature and like asking questions like, “What is more powerful, my legs or this mountain?” Others like to break up dull gyms by getting out into the sun and under the blue sky. Still others don’t want to fork out the money to exercise in a stinky, grimy hole in a wall. No matter what the reason is why you choose to do some of your workouts out doors you can benefit from a GPS tracking watch.
As the name suggests, these devices can track information – a lot of information. Most true GPS watches record some basic data, like your speed, total distance traveled, and changes in atlitude. These are all things that you might be able to gather without the watch, but the best you will able to get for most of them is a rough estimate.
Not so with a GPS watch. These devices can give you precise information concerning the distance you traveled as well as measuring the changes in altidute along the way. When the watch is combined with a heart rate monitor the information gathered by these devices is particularly powerful.
Here is a quick example: You just ran a 5.5 mile trail in 37 minutes. Without the GPS watch the best you can get is an average speed throughout the entire run (6:46 miles or about 10 miles per hour). With a the watch you can get a glimpse at how fast you were running throughout the entire run. You will be able to see where you ran faster, where you slowed down, and how well you were able to keep a steady pace.
This type of information is very important to those interested in improving their fitness and their stamina. By recognizing the difficult parts of your run you will be able train your body to cope with those situations.
Are you losing speed and momentum on your uphill climbs? Then introduce hillier courses into you exercise routine. Do flat, long stretches tire you out and slow you down? Practicing a quick and easy pace on a cadence might the solution to your problem.
Without the GPS tracking watch you will be forced to rely on your ‘feeling’ about your run rather than on cold, hard data. Data is much more objective than our feelings and often provides a truer picture of how well we performed.
When this type of information is added to heart rate data taken from a heart rate monitor it can help us analyze our workouts even better. We can get a better gauge of our actual fitness level by seeing the ranges in which our heart performs under the stress of our workout. When this is added to information already provided by the GPS tracking watch we can truely target the parts of our workout that push our hearts and our legs to the limit.
This type of information is simply not available to those who do not use this tracking device. Who has the cordination to hit a trail hard with one hand on their carotid artery while looking down at their regular watch? Add to that the need to notice landmarks and record the times at which you passed them and you get an impossible task for somebody trying to exercise for fitness.
These watches provide all this information without requiring anything additional from you. They fit nicely on your wrist and interface easily with your home laptop or PC. They often even have online software for you to track yand analyse your progress from any computer in the world. These devices are unecessary, but they are still pretty cool.

If you want to buy a GPS tracking watch you will want to know what qualities make the best watch. You are also going to want to know which companies make these watches. There are a handful of manufacturers in the market, include three big names in watch making or GPS technology. These three are Timex, Garmin, and Suunto.
Each brand offers a different interpretation of the same basic principle – a watch that is also a GPS device. However, it is important to realize that these devices fit on your wrist. Because of this they will not give you turn by turn instructions. They are not voice activated. They don’t have a nice little display that will give you a map of the world if you zoom our far enough.
Instead these devices help you track where you have been, how quickly you got there, what changes in elevation you experienced, and your heart rate (if you have a compatible heart rate monitor too). This is a very different GPS unit than most people are familiar with, but once explained it does make a lot of sense.
These watches do receive signals from the satellites that orbit our earth. They are accurate and they can be used in a variety of different real-life situations. They are mainly used for fitness though. That is because GPS information (speed, elevation, distance) are all important for training purposes.
Each GPS watch is very much like a watch in that it has a wristband and visual display. It can tell the time in a very accurate way. They are often lightweight and easy to manage.
Aside from these basic features, you will notice that each manufacturer has their own interpretation on how these watches should work and function. Some watches have the GPS receiver within itself while others require you to take a GPS pod with you that will transmit the data to your watch. Both have their benefits, but it appears that more people favor the self-contained GPS watch than the pod one.
Garmin generally has the self-contained GPS tracking in their watches. These models include the Forerunner 205, Forerunner 305, and Forerunner 405. These watches can seem a little large on the wrists, especially the older versions, but are generally light weight enough that you don’t really notice the difference. However, since the watches are so large this can pose a problem form small wristed individuals who already use up the entire wrist band on a normal watch.
Timex is also offering a fitness watch. The brand name for these watches is Body Link. These watches are of the pod variety mentioned earlier. Timex has a long tradition of creating quality watches and these generally follow that trend.
Suunto is the other major player in this field. They have a watch that they try and market as a military GPS watch that allows you to set waypoints for field actions. It is essentially a glorified fitness watch without some of the benefits, like heart rate tracking.
Now is a great time to buy GPS tracking watches. It should be even better five years from now as technology improves and more features are put into them. One day you may even be able to get those turn by turn instructions on your watch.

You are looking to buy a GPS tracking watch and want to know who makes the best one. The answer to that may be simple, there are only three well known companies making them; Garmin, Timex and Suunto. That’s not to say there aren’t other companies out there making cheap knock offs, but we won’t focus on them.
Some might say “What about Casio? They are a well known company.” That is true and they make some fine products but they no longer make a GPS watch so that leaves Garmin, Timex and Suunto.
When looking at the models being offered by each company you will find a variety of available features. I think it is important to mention what these watches won’t do since there may be some misconceptions out there.
Many of us have, or have seen a GPS system in a car or boat. These are really neat gadgets to have and can be a real time saver especially for those who travel extensively for work or pleasure. These units display your position on a map and may include landmarks like restaurants, gas stations, etc.
GPS watches have very small display screens so the mapping feature is not practical. Neither is the voice feature present to tell you when to turn!
GPS tracking watches use satellites to pinpoint a position, then with continuing updates of the position, they display data for speed, distance, elevation and more, depending on the model. Options might include a heart rate monitor or cycling cadence tracker.
You may quickly see a couple of important variations in the way the companies package their GPS watches. In all cases, the systems use a GPS receiver and a digital time piece to carry out the calculations. Being a watch they all offer the display of data in what appears to be a wrist watch although sometimes quite large.
The GPS receiver may be contained within the watch or, separately, strapped to the arm or possibly mounted on a belt.
It would be wise to give this issue some thought before making a purchase. I would prefer to have the watch and GPS receiver self contained and worn like a traditional watch, but opinions vary.
Garmin has the Forerunner 205, 305 and 405 which are all-in-one models, having the appearance of a digital wristwatch but of larger size. They also offer the Forerunner 101 and 102 which use a Velcro strap around the wrist but have the appearance more similar to wearing an iPod.
The Garmin line uses a receiver that is built in and wraps around the wristband, a bit, to keep it oriented to the sky for better reception. The units also include a USB to share data with your PC. An A/C battery charger is used to top off the battery which generally provide about 8 to 10 hours of tracking use.
Timex has been making watches almost forever and has offered athletic oriented models for decades. They use a separate watch / GPS receiver approach unlike Garmin. This does have some advantages, including the ability to wear the watch everyday since it is small enough to be practical. When the time arises you simply turn on and secure the separate GPS receiver and you are ready to go. Timex also offers an almost endless array of athletic watches.
The third manufacturer is Suunto which as you might guess offers several models. They generally have the appearance resembling a typical digital wristwatch. The GPS receiver is contained in a separate wireless unit so the watch can remain very compact. Typical options are; altimeter, barometer, countdown timers heart rate monitors etc.
The technology evolves continuously so smaller, cheaper models will likely become available in the near future. It will also be interesting to see if other companies will join in and offer their own line of GPS tracking watches.

GPS watches are mainly used for fitness and people tracking purposes. However, this is not the only use of these powerful devices. They can be used in many, many ways if you are imaginative enough to think outside the box. Here are just a couple additional uses.
One of the powerful uses of GPS tracking watches is the power to measure things. Most fitness watches enable you to track the exact path of your exercise routine, giving you the distance you traveled as you ran for forty-five minutes. This can be harnessed measure objects, large objects, that you always wondered just how big these objects are.
Thinking about how large your apartment building is? Or the distance between you and your your favorite park? Or just how close the nearest ice cream shop is? Well a GPS device is just what you need to find this information out. Since they can also interact with computer mapping programs you can get a birds eye view of the distance you traveled.
Another interesting thing you can do is go exploring with your GPS watch. Many of these devices have the ability to set way points. These enable you to mark the exact locations of special or remarkable geographic features on journey’s through the wilderness. By using this feature you can see understand the geography of an area better or get an idea of exactly where that landmark you always pass by is exactly. This can create a nice discussion piece with other outdoor adventurers and help foster collaborative exploration efforts.
It is also very helpful for exploring new urban landscapes. Those on business trips can help themselves interact with their environment in new and sometimes strange places. By using way points you can give yourself freedom to explore side streets and back alleys that you would normally never consider going down for fear of loosing your bearing on where your hotel or hostel is. This can be done away with if you have a GPS watch to point you back home.
Still another use is to analyze your commute. With gas prices being what they are it is always helpful to drive as efficiently as you possibly can. In addition to other gas saving techniques, you can drive around wearing your watch, using its power to silently and efficiently track and monitor your speed to help you test. This will help you understand how much of your time is spent in bumper to bumper traffic and how much time you are traveling the posted speed limits. It will also be able to assist you in determining how quickly you accelerate and decelerate – important metrics for fuel efficiency.
In addition to gas saving information, if these devices are paired with a heart rate monitor they can provide information about your level of stress during your commute. Is there an noticeable difference in your heart rate depending in the speed at which you travel home? Is your commute stressing you out? A heart rate monitor might be help you better understand this portion of your commute.
As you can see, GPS tracking watches have tons of uses in many different situations. Their ability to record many different layers of information is the key behind their versatility.

Long gone are the days when humans had to rely solely on the stars to know their general position on the earth. Today we have the highly accurate GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites that rotate around the earth, constantly transmitting information. This information can then quickly be analyzed by computers to trilaterate the receiver’s exact position to within a few yards. That is information much more accurate than looking at starts.
This technology has rapidly advanced since it was initially created. Since then we can now put one of these GPS receiving devices in something a small as a watch, bringing GPS technology down to the personal level.
A GPS tracking watch will do all the normal things a watch can do – fit on your wrist, tell the time, and look really cool for all the ladies (or gentlemen). But GPS tracking watches also allow you to do some other things that really can enhance certain aspects of your life, like your fitness routine.
It can do this because GPS technology enables it to track and record things like your location, velocity, and altitude. This basic information can be used to generate maps within the watches computer so that you know the location where you started and the course you took away from that starting point if ever you want to return. Not only can you save a starting point, but you can also set “way points” as you find interesting objects or landmarks.
Since GPS watches are also computers they have the ability to record and receive additional data. This is particularly useful to the person training for some type of athletic event. Triathletes, marathon runners, kayakers, cyclists, and even sprinters can benefit from one addition piece of equipment – a heart rate monitor.
A heart rate monitor does exactly what you might expect, it measures the heart rate of the person wearing it. These are normally bands that you wrap around your chest underneath your shirt as they require direct skin contact. Then they transmit your heart rate information to your watch which it then records along with all your other data.
This can be very useful in analyzing which parts of your workout or training regimen works your heart the hardest. It can even help you during a race to help you pace yourself or to become aware that your heart rate is getting to high and that you need to pull back a little to ensure that you have the energy to continue. The more information that you have the better equipped you will be at making the right training and race day decisions.
Once you have all this information (distance traveled, speed, heart rate, change in elevation) it would take forever to process all of it yourself. Here again the GPS tracking watch has you covered. Most makes come with some type of analysis software or easy to use web applications. These are really useful for seeing graphic representations of your workouts and they are gr