Real David H.

Nearly 9 years of running. 0 new watches.
That’s right. I’ve never purchased a new GPS watch.

My GPS experience took a little while to get started — I bought a Garmin 101 off eBay in late 2006; I upgraded to the 205 a few months later that I kept for a long time; then I bought a used 405 earlier this year. I had a brief trial with Soleus that I did not like.

The 405 has been a good watch — it got me through two half marathons with no problems — but I was always disappointed with the battery life. I’d plug it in the charger and never knew what the percentage of life left would be.

I never had problems with the bezel either, which is the complaint of many people who don’t like to read instruction booklets.

I like simple, though, and I missed the extreme simplicity of my 205.

After looking around a little more this week and getting feedback, I finally bought a brand new watch — the Garmin 210. I purchased it from Holabird Sports, who had a coupon with the Garmin that I can use on a future purchase.

Why the 210? It’s simple. And no one has ever had anything bad to say about it.

My first run with it was a sweaty 10 miles today and it performed flawlessly.