Customer Reviews

Garmin FR60 Women's Black Fitness Watch Bundle (Includes Foot Pod, Heart Rate Monitor, and USB ANT Stick)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been using this watch/footpod/HR monitor now for about 6 months and I absolutely love it. It is like having a coach. I am a fairly new runner and completed a half marathon this past spring and loved it. I decided to get more serious about my training and run a fall marathon. The longer runs were really a pain because I'd have to get in my car and drive the route each time....and then remember them as I ran . And of course if an unpredicted problem came up (angry dog, suspicious person, etc) I couldn't really deviate without blowing the run and not knowing how far I'd gone . And also......my paces were off. I was running my recovery runs and easy runs WAY too fast. And then at the time I was using an old treadmill that was totally off pace, so my faster runs---well, who knows how consistent they were. I needed help !

And I got it. Everything fell completely into place after getting the watch. It basically sets ITSELF up,too. So easy to use. The Garmin website is awesome. I understand they had bugs at first, but I have encountered none of that. I can look at a run and see my heart rate and pace on a graph. I can also see reports on mileage, etc. And the ability to see cadence per mile is cool,too. I have learned so much by having all this data. It has made me a much better runner. I pay attention to heart rate now,too.

And of course it is wonderful to be able to track my distance and pace as I run outdoors. I can just take whatever direction I want now....I feel totally free and spontaneous out there. And I use it on the treadmill,too. Way more accurate than the treadmill as far as pace is concerned.
I also run in a lot of trees, which is why I avoided the GPS version. The footpod works everywhere and GPS will lose way points in heavy trees or in a city with tall buildings.

It coached me to a 4:14:01 first marathon finish this past October. It is really accurate and I have never calibrated it. Although I plan to go to an indoor track this week and do that this week before I start training seriously again (I wore it in the marathon and it tracked the the distance as 26.58---not bad over that many miles with no additional calibration, but still.....).

I highly recommend this product to anyone who would like to be able to monitor their training. It is all they say and a lot more. I plan to try to qualify for Boston this spring and I know my chances are much improved with my Garmin FR60 (yes, all my friends are definitely tired of hearing how much I love the watch!).

I've used the watch for 2 months, and have updated this review several times.

Setup: If you're not very good with hardware and techno gadgetry, you might not find the owner's manual to be very helpful, and complete setup very frustrating. However, search "Garmin FR60" on YouTube and you'll find some great instructional vidoes, by Garmin, on how to set up the watch. These videos include screen shots. By the way, you should know the owner's manual is available online only, but you can save and print if you must.

Use: Again, the owner's manual wasn't very helpful on how to actually go use the watch, and go through the "pages." But it is pretty easy if you're not afraid to hit some buttons. Take it on a couple test runs before you actually need the watch.

Foot Pod: no problems at all. It's smaller than I thought it would be, and is not noticeable at all on my shoe.

The ANT stick: once you have everything paired and you've signed on to the website (watch YouTube if you're techno-impaired), the stick does exactly what they say. You get the watch near it, and it wirelessly gets your data off your watch. I have not found how to dump the data off the watch. The software is run/stored on Garmin's website (you create a free account--very easy and quick)....oh, very cool. Goals, history, multiple sports...great great great.

Pace/Mileage Accuracy: Be sure to follow the instructions for calibrating the watch. It's so EASY! And very very accurate!!! I didn't want the GPS watch because reviews have said that 1). the GPS can sometimes take several minutes to find the satellite signal and 2). they lose the signal if they're in trees. With the FR60, you have none of those problems.

Heart Rate Accuracy: 100%

Heart strap: I'm usually like the Princess and the Pea, but I found the monitor to be so comfortable I dind't know it was there. And don't buy this "I'm sooooo little the strap is too big" that you might see on other posts. It fits my 11-year-old skinny son, so shut up.

Design: I have a small wrist, and the watch doesn't look bulky. The strap could easily fit a pre-teen girl's wrist, as well as larger-boned women. My husband scams it once and awhile to check his own heart rate, and the watch fits him. The strap is a little stiff, so I'm hoping that will loosen up, though if it doesn't, the watch was comfortable enough.

I had to give product only 4 stars because I think they really fell down on the set-up and usage instructions, which may be a problem for some. Otherwise, I LOVE THIS WATCH!!!!!!! Once you're set up and ready to go, this watch should get 10+ STARS.

AMENDED REVIEW: SEPTEMBER 22, 2011:

The battery on this watch finally died. No problem, you can chage it yourself without sending it back to Garmin, which I guess you have to do on their other watches. HOWEVER!!! All my settings and calibrations are gone! Everything. And given how hard this watch is to set up, I'm selling it. And after building a solid running base for a year and working out at differenet paces, the watch is not at all accurate on distance and pace, which is dependent on stride length because of the foot pod. My stride lengthens on faster runs than a long, slow run.

I went to Target and bought a $10 sportswatch. So cheap I can't even mark splits. The Garmin was useful as a beginner, but now I have a better sense of pacing and don't need it. I'm going to rock it Old School now!

Awsome product for new runners. Purchased for wife's birthday(I am a romantic at heart). She is far from tech savvy as am I but basic functions simple enough to utilize without delving too deeply in manual. Also purchased the seperate foot pod that provides more detailed info and feedback on runs. As time goes by I can see her utilizing more of the functions on the watch and the website but for now viewing her results after a run give her the motivation to get back out for the next time. The Lilac color gives product more of a feminine flavor as opposed to a slimmed down man's watch.

I just received my FR60, and my first impression is that I love this product. I've had to wait for it for five months because it was not on the market as yet; however, on the up side this provided me with a substantial discount, so I have no complaint in this regard. I have had much difficulty finding a good fitness watch that would fit my small wrist. The FR60 fits nicely without being bulky. Compared to my Mio Petite, the heart rate display is much easier to retrieve and most reliable, characters displayed are easier to read, and buttons are more ergonomic. The main difference is that Mio Petite had no chest strap, and the dual pressure button system was quite awkward and unreliable. The lavender color on the FR60 is nice and discrete -- thanks, however, for not making it a hot pink or orange! On the down side, the product is so new that it is not yet supported by the Web site. This deadline is a big failure on the part of Garmin!!! Then tech support is only open at certain hours during the week, and there are no Q&As for FR60 as yet on the Web site. Once I manage to have access to my data online, I intend to order the foot pod, which should be a natural add-on to this product. Despite my initial frustrations, I expect to really enjoy this watch and I highly recommend it to any active woman with petite wrists.

I just got the watch in the mail today and so far it seems to be a good watch. One thing I would say is to get the food pod because otherwise I don't think it would do much good. You need the foot pod in order to see pace or distance or even calories burned. I really wish it monitored calories without the foot pod. If you're mostly interested in calories burned and heart rate I would recommend a basic Polar watch.
I'm looking forward to using it as I train for a half marathon this year. It will be nice to see how fast I'm really going and what my distance is when I'm outside.

FYI - Many of the photos of the black women's watch are actually of the men's model. The women's model I purchased 11/2010 is a plainer design (no asymmetrical grey area-just plain black with plain silver bezel) and, more importantly, the labels around the face ("light", "mode", "start/stop", "lap", "up" and "down") are not printed like they are on the men's. They are just indentations that are much harder to read. You really have to memorize which button is which to operate it while running (or biking or swimming). The photo currently shown under "Product Description" is correct.) If you aren't too concerned about the size, consider buying a man's.

I love, love, love this watch!! I tried the Polar 300sx before this one and it really pales in comparison. The Garmin offers so many options and once you get used to it, it's actually very easy to use!
Here are my favorite things about it:
-The HRM is very reliable (only drawback is that the machines in the gym will not recognize a signal from it (but not a problem since you can still see you HR on the watch display)
-The foot pod is small and works very well
-Allows you to train in multiple modes (General, Run, Bike) and keeps varying information for each activity
-You can set up multiple HR zones
-Within each training mode, there are training pages you can customize to display what you want to see, and you can set up 5 pages that you can scroll through during workout (or set them up to auto scroll). For example, in running mode, I have a page that displays my HR, time elapsed, and calories; a second page that displays mileage, pace, and steps; and so on...
-The ANT stick allows you to keep track of your workouts on your computer and transmits information wirelessly when you are in range of the computer (I downloaded the software but there is also an option to use an online system)
-You can schedule workouts on your computer and send them to your watch. For example, if you wanted to do a tempo run, it would send the info to your watch and tell you what to do.
-The watch is a normal size and does not look like it's a training computer on your wrist - it just looks like a normal exercise watch
A few drawbacks:
-I can't figure out how to get the foot pod to transmit in General Activity mode - I would like it if I could track my steps when I workout indoors
-The buttons require a firm touch

I really think this is a great watch for people who are really into fitness and want to track multiple activities. Since, I've had it, I've been incredibly motivated and am still learning new and cool things it can do. I went for a run this week and when I got home I could see my fastest mile, fastest pace, overall mileage, lap pace - all kinds of things! I'm planning to train for a half marathon, and I think this will be the perfect tool for training. I highly recommend it!

I love my Garmin FR60. Be sure to get the one with the foot pod. Mine also came with a heart rate monitor. I checked a bunch of reviews for similar products -- the Nike iPod tracker wasn't the best for runners because it doesn't seem to calculate distance well. One guy said that it calculated he ran a 21-minute mile which wasn't true. Anyway, I love my Garmin! It worked perfect straight out of the box and when I just ran a 3.5 race, my watch matched the mile markers exactly! Also it comes with a wireless USB that you can connect to your computer to download your watch's info. So now I have all my times and days I ran recorded. Even a breakdown of my time of each mile.

I'm training for my first half marathon and this watch is the perfect way to track my distance and times.

This is a great product for cross training. I have started triathlons and the footpod works like a charm in telling me how far I've run. There is also a bike cadence sensor that is available to track how far you've biked, but I haven't tried that out yet. The heart rate monitor also works great. The setup of the watch is a bit tricky and confusing, but go online to Garmin and they have a lot of videos to help figure it out. Relatively inexpensive given the features and I've read that the foot pod technology is actually more accurate than GPS. Highly recommended.

I bought this for my wife to use as a training tool while preparing for the Marine Corps Marathon. First thing we did was calibrate it against my Forerunner 305, and off she went. We do weekend long runs together, and it immediately became apparent that the calibration of the FR60 was off. We constantly recalibrated it, and after one or two runs it would always begin to show an extra 0.1 miles for every mile run (compared to the 305). So, a five-mile run would show approximately 5.5 miles. She ran with it on a chip-timed half-marathon course, and it showed 14.65 miles on a 13.1 mile certified course.

Another drawback was that after about 2 months, the middle button on the right side (the "down" button) popped out and cannot be reinserted. So, to cycle through menus she can only use the "up" button. Further, this past weekend we discovered that the "Lap" button, though still in place, no longer works, so she can't reset her workouts.

I haven't seen any reviews addressing these issues (one three-star review mentioned a button issue), so it is possible we just have a single defective unit. If it weren't for these problems, I would probably give it four or five stars, but until I get my hands on another unit I can't do that. I'm sending this one back to Garmin for repair/replacement, so I'll update afterwards.