Thursday, June 10, 2010

Review: Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS Sport Watch

Earlier this week I wrote that I was going to be getting the highly anticipated Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS Sport Watch direct from REI. It arrived. And it's going back with not so much as a field test.

I had been really excited. On paper, the Timex GPS appeared to be less clunky than the Garmin water resistant model (310XT). Here is a how the Garmin 310XT looks. I believe my son would say, 'that thing is ginormus!"



I have the Garmin 405,  and love it. Really love it. The watch is normal sized and works very well...but can't use it in the water. Which means it is relegated to training, running races, and duathlons.

The Garmin 310XT is water resistant but looks dorky and huge on your wrist. When I saw the Timex, I was all over it. I've worn Timex Ironman watches since their inception. I still use one during my swim workouts.

The package from REI came and I opened it up like a kid on Xmas morning. I removed the box. And I literally said out loud, "you have got to be kidding me." Let me share with you an actual photo of the new watch as it appeared on my wrist. That face, my friends, is a whopping 2 1/4 inches across. Take out your tape measure now....and see how 2 1/4 inches looks on your wrist, or forearm actually!



Seriously, would you wear that behemoth on your wrist for training every day? Would you wear it in a triathlon? Would you even be able to get your wet suit over it! I kept thinking of when the very first cellular phones came out. Remember how those things looked?



For comparison sake, here is the Timex Global GPS compared side-by-side to the Garmin 405. Me thinks I'll be waiting for Garmin to create a water resistant 405 that is no larger than todays model.



Until then, this triathlete is holding out and will continue to make due with just a simple old water resistant sports watch for my water training and triathlons. Thoughts?

7 comments:

Mario said...

Dude... Sorry about the GPS. That sucks. However, does it come with iTunes, windows, cable, mini-bake oven? It's so big you'd think it has a lot of pre-loaded apps on it.

William Jenks said...

I wear one of the bodylink models as a regular watch. It's pretty big already, but I measured it and it's about 1 3/4 inches across. Another half inch would be pretty big.

Anonymous said...

I just got mine yesterday and I am concerned about the size as well. I have the Garmin 405 and received the global trainer as a father's day gift. I am probably going to walk it right back to the REI today. The 405 already looked big on my small arm and this thing makes me look like I have a cell phone around my wrist.

Anonymous said...

One big difference between Garmin watches and the new Timex: The "Training Peaks" online workout upload service that Timex uses costs $19.95 per month (discounts for multi-month subs). Garmin Connect is FREE. The Timex is also on the bulky side. There's a pretty complete review at: http://gps.about.com/od/sportsandfitness/gr/Timex-Ironman-Global-Trainer-GPS-Review.htm

Anonymous said...

you're right. no real viable choices out there. the suunto x10 is much more attractive and better-sized, BUT, no HRM. =/

so i guess we wait...

Anonymous said...

http://www.runcolo.com/content/timex-ironman-global-trainer-gps-review-474/

So did you return the watch? I did with mine, thought it was a complete POS.

You really need to substitue that cell phone picture, which is great btw. With one of Michael Douglas from Wall Street. The original of course!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this information and the humour as well. I was looking for an idea of how big these 'watches' actually were.