Customer Reviews

Timex Ironman T5F011 Men's Bodylink Heart Rate Monitor Watch

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've had the Timex Body Link for 3 year and absolutely love it! Using the heart rate monitor & GPS is very simple, all you have to do is turn them on push the red display button and they start working. There are also a number of different display settings for enthusiasts to customize.

The watch comes with a heart rate monitor (chest strap) and a GPS piece. The GPS comes with a arm band and belt clip accessories. This is not a watch with GPS built in like Garmin watches.

Timex also sells a data recorder that works with the Body Link system, but I would not buy it again since the software that comes with it is pretty worthless. Besides, most of the information you would want to track can be stored in the watch and written down later.

Pros:
- Easy to get started with
- 100 lap memory
- Loads of different display modes
- Reasonably small compared to other GPS watches
- Great price
- Heart rate recovery timer

Cons:
- GPS needs a lot of "open" sky to work properly, if you plan on running on forest trails or in the city with a lot of high rise buildings the GPS can't lock on to enough satellites.

I have had the BodyLink system for two years now and I have had to send every piece in for service at least once. I have not subjected the equipment to any unusual stress. At the most I was running for two hours a week. I don't recommend this set to anyone.

This watch was ridiculous! I tried 4 different times to get this watch to work on long runs. Only once did I get the GPS to connect to the watch. I thought for $165 I could get a decent alternative to the Garmin - I was wrong. I have returned the watch, which is a WHOLE story in itself. I still haven't gotten credited for the return after 2 ˝ weeks. I called Jomashop, which Amazon outsourcers to and after sitting on hold for 20 minutes was told I would get my refund maybe in a week. Hum.............Not a great shopping experience.

This watch does everything that I expected it to do after reading other's reviews. One thing to remember: For me, the watch will not pick up the signal from the GPS if it first received the signal from the heart rate strap. This means that you need to turn on the GPS and lock-on before you put the heart rate strap on.

I have had this product for 3 years and absolutely love it. I have never had any problem syncing it. I have really abused it. Using it for cycling as well as running. I recently replaced the band and battery.

I would definitely buy it again.

My first watch worked for a while, and then the indiglo stopped working, which makes it useless after dark. I returned that for a replacement, in which the indiglo again stopped working, and the interval timer began "stalling": rather than a steady 5 seconds of beeping the beeping became erratic and sometimes would halt, stopping the chrono along with it. I called timex and am now on my third watch. The indiglo still works so far, but the interval timer has already begun beeping erratically again.

The GPS is hit-or-miss; it often loses the signal under trees or on cloudy days, and the algorithm the watch uses to calculate distance can't handle weak signals. Another annoying feature is that you have to dig through multiple menu screens to activate "night mode," rather than just holding the indiglo button like on other timex models.

I found the Ironman T5F011 to work as suggested. Even though I run an area with tall trees the GPS held signal almost all of the time. Accuracy (GPS) was within acceptable parameters with the heart monitor spot on.

My guess is if there is trouble it is because it takes several readings of the manual and trials to understand how to configure the watch.

However, once you understand it, it works great.

Has this watch about 2 years now and it works great. Ran a 1/2 marathon with it and trained for weeks with it. GPS armband works fine and is neat to use. Stay out of trees or dense canopy for best GPS use. The heart rate monitor is used the most and it's good. Very good product and decent price. Been wet, ran in rain, swimming etc, all no problems.

This watch was everything I thought it would be and continues to wow me with the features... I've only had it for 5 days and it is so feature rich that I still do not have all of it figured out. DO NOT LISTEN to the issues with the GPS. This synced FLAWLESSLY in a little over 2 minutes on 4 different occassions. I never had any issues with losing the signal or anything. I took it for a long bike ride in very woody and covered roads and still didn't have any issues. The distance is right on the mark with the Bike computer that I have so I'm impressed with the accuracy. My advice is to "read the instructions" and forget about the negative ratings. I almost didn't buy it just because of the negative ratings and I'm glad that I listened to myself and bought it anyway. I tested the Polar version and wasn't too impressed especially with the ridiculous price. Save yourself some money and buy the Timex.

Really a great combo with the heart rate monitor. It's very accurate and makes working out more enjoyable. Knowing how far and fast you have gone provides motivation to do even better the next time. Technically, a very good product but also great for making you work harder.