Watch

The 310 is a great watch.

It's a bit bigger than the 910 and 920 and it doesn't do pool swimming.

Apart from those features, it's great. Very reliable (more than the 910).

I have the garmin 920x and I'm in love. it's my new best friend. very useful in my pool workouts.

Edited by themissj1981 2015-08-08 3:46 PM

I have the suunto ambit 2s, and it does swim (pool or ows), bike, and run. Right now on amazon they go for around $200. Its a little more than the 310, but a lot less than the 920. I love it and highly recommend it. You can wear it all day like a regular watch too.

I just upgraded from the 310xt to the 920. While the 920 has a lot more bells and whistles, the 310xt was a great watch, that does pretty much anything you really need it to do.

A bonus is they're super cheap right now, I've seen them go for under well $100 on Ebay, often with a lot of "extras" thrown in. I'd recommend getting the QR strap, so you can mount it on your handlebars.

I actually just gave mine away to a coworker who took up running and cycling, and didn't really have room in her budget for a new one.

I actually just switched watches so the last month was spent reading reviews and looking different models up. I can't speak for all watches but since I switch from one multisport to another, I can tell you what I liked and didn't like about each. I had the Garmin 910xt and switched to polar v800.

The 910xt is relatively cheap if you go on craigslist and buy second hand (I paid $180 for a used triathlon bundle). The selling point for me was the swim metrics, it does a great job of counting laps. Run and cycle are also good. The bad with this one is that its not an everyday watch so I would forget to take it half the time. There is also not "activity tracker" (like a fitbit) Garmin has said that its not a watch, its a multisport device so these would not be in updates..... they do appear in the 920xt but yikes on that price.

I switched to the polar v800 (paid around 300 new) I mainly switched because I previously had the m400 and loved it. The v800 is polars multisport watch, swimming metrics are good and heart-rate works when swimming, my only complaint is that it'll miss a lap if you do a open turn too fast, never misses on flip turns though. I know people are asking why wear a HRM when swimming since I can't look at the watch, part of it is to look back and gauge how hard I was working(efficiency)...... running and cycling are good on this one. I like Polar Flow more than Garmin Connect. This has daily activity tracking and can be used as a daily watch, battery life is great. The multisport(tri) mode is not as smooth as the garmin but still counts all three segments (and transition if you want). If you want to upload to strava with polar, they won't be implementing a direct upload for a few months but I use flow2strava and its pretty smooth.

Just my 2 cents on these two models. Good luck!

and I can relate.... when I first started cycling, a guy in my cycling group asked why I bought my bike so quickly after I started riding...... I said "if the wife says yes..... I'm buying before she changes her mind"

I LOVE my 920. Pricey no doubt, but I was getting by with a 620 and an Edge 500. I sold both and got the 920. Love it! If you are serious about triathlon/multisport I just don't think there is any other way to go.

I have a 310xt as well, great watch, plenty of battery life for most purposes ( new it's ~20 hours, used can go down to 14 ish from what I've read )

I ended up buying a garmin swim for the pool metrics, wishing I had bought a 910xt, but the fenix 2 is now aa generation old, and has a lot of features as well.

Great part of the 310xt is the available quick release kit, which makes it a bit thicker on the wrist, but a much better bike computer that way.

OWS you can use the "other" mode to track the swim, so as long as it's not a pool swim, you get plenty of info in a triathlon with the 310xt as well, with it's multisport modes which includes transitions if you want

I have been looking for a while but am on a tight budget. I am looking at the Garmin VivoActive. It has the features that I need and you can pick one up new for about $200.

I have a refurbed 310 (plenty of them out there, cheap).
They are big. Massive. The bike/quick disconnect mount thing adds a tad more even. I'm sure the 920s and such are thinner.
As noted, it won't do pool swims.

But....if you're looking to save a few bucks, it is not "too big". It doesn't feel heavy or anything. It only seems massive and awkward when you first put it on the first time. It goes away.
Battery life has been more than adequate.

For me, I'm not going to be "in this" for more than a couple years. I'm also not "in it" too terribly deep.
I suppose, if I stick around for more than 3-4 years or get into it deeper, I can warrant the expenditure for the upgrade.
By then, I'm sure they'll be even thinner than the 920 and will likely look more like a smartwatch.

Thanks for all the info everbody!!! I ended up getting a 310xt off eBay!! Now it's just time to try to figure out how the darn thing work!!!! Oh quick newbie question, can On my way! Can I Wear the heart rate monitor while swimming??

My understanding is that the ANT+ signal isn't strong enough to measure HR in the water. So you can wear it (meaning you won't hurt yourself or the device) but you won't get any HR data. So...if you have a swim/bike workout planned, for example, you can wear the HR strap in the water and the 310XT will pick up the strap once you get on the bike.

Edited by AbbasCincinnatus 2015-08-13 3:05 PM

This is correct.

This is an FYI, not related to the 310, but Garmin came out with a HR strap that works with the 920xt and some later watches. It stores swim HR data on the HR strap and then syncs with the watch when out of the water. This is a solution for people that want HR data for analysis after the swim. But it only works with the later generation watches.

Some people claim the wrist worn HRMs like the Mio can transmit to the watch when worn right next to each other. I tried and it was very erratic.

Awesome thanks for that!!!!!