I absolutely LOVE this watch. It has had a positive impact on my training and recovery, it looks great, it's easy to use, the USB charging facility is fantastic, the battery life is surprisingly good, it's great value, and the app that goes with it is really helpful. I use the app now instead of a training diary, and it records all of my training sessions.
I'm a rower and do a lot of training, so was glad to see that it had a specific rowing category on it to save those sessions separately from the rowing machine and other things (a lot of other similar watches don't acknowledge rowing as a separate sport). I can record notes of what I did in my session on the app and how I felt. Then the app records speeds, has GPS for where you go, and gives really useful heart rate feedback. I also use it on the rowing machine (which is a separate sport on the watch - good) and the way it shows graphs of your heart rate on the app is incredibly useful to see how the session went. For weights training, there's also that as an option. I don't record my heart rate in that because it wouldn't be useful information, but I do click the button because then I'm able to save the session and record it on the app. I've also used it for running, hill walking, spinning and cycling and it's been great.
During sessions, you can set the watch screen to show certain information (so for example, on mine I prefer to see the time, how long I've been going and my heart rate on the main screen) and then flick through to other screens to get other information you might not necessarily want to know most of the time (e.g. I could check the distance covered when I'm out rowing, or my speed). It's easy to read and navigate.
You can wear the watch when you're asleep and it analyses your sleep by telling you how much restful sleep you had etc. That was sort of useful, but as the watch is quite bulky I found it too uncomfortable to sleep wearing without it being a bit of a burden. Also it's depressing after a bad night's sleep to see just how crap it was!
For serious athletes, the way it descibes your daily activity as a % is a bit unhelpful. Even though I have it on the most 'active' setting so the watch is aware I do a lot of training, I can do one rowing session in the morning before work and it'll already be on 110% before most people get out of bed! I guess it's good for feeling smug if you do a lot of training, but a function like that is probably more useful for people who aren't used to doing a lot of training.
The Polar Flow web service is also really useful. My coach has access to all of my training through that so he can look at my heart rate on rowing machine sessions to see how hard I found it, rather than relying on me saying how hard it was. You can also use the web service to zoom in on graphs of sessions to get more specific numbers and averages, so it's very handy.
| Age range | Youth |
|---|---|
| Color | Blue |
| Size | One Size |
| Style | GPS Sports Watch with Heart Rate Monitor |
| Compatible with | iPhone 4S |
| Display size | 0.96 Inches |
| Weight | 0.2 g |
| Shape | Round |
| Number of items | 1 |
| Seasons | continuity 2015 |
| Features | Heart, Calorie Tracker, Notifications |
| Usage | fitness |
| Sport | Running |
| Batteries included? | Yes |
| tech_spec_battery_description_toys | Built-in |
| Brand | Polar |
| Department | Unisex |
| Manufacturer | Polar |
| Item model number | 90057189 |
| Product Dimensions | 11.71 x 9.7 x 7.59 cm; 280 g |
| ASIN | B0114KM7CS |
