Hundreds of millions of people use sports watches to get insights into their bodies, exercises, and progress. If you are at all serious and determined to make an effort to improve your physical condition, you should get one. It is an additional investment, but it will pay its worth many times over.

Some people don’t like technology and think that it is enough to listen to your body. However, “listening” can be deceiving because many times, we are mentally distracted due to everyday activities and inclined to interpret that distraction as tiredness. And, of course, if you are not experienced, you actually don’t know WHAT to listen to.

I believe in listening to my body, but it was a sports watch that gave me confidence in my interpretation of what I am hearing. Those days we are pretty much in synch, my watch and me. But it was not always the case. I had to learn how to listen to discreet signs of the body. For example, everyone can measure the heartbeat (although, it is so much easier to do it with the watch, especially now when you don’t have to wear a chest strap because watches read your pulse from the wrist), but do you know when and how to listen to changes in HRV (heart rate variability) which are measured in milliseconds and are as important as heartbeats? If you are not informed and trained in such a way, there is a high probability that you won’t know what to listen to, and your body will remain silent. But your watch can listen, even if you don’t.

There are also other subtle measurements that nowadays watches are doing quite accurately, like VO2 max, SpO2, heat, and altitude acclimatization, sleep habits, breath rate, and many more. Of course, you will get accurate statistics of distances, speed, and time spent in activity or rest. Add to that the possibility that your sports watch at the same time can be a smartwatch (taking on itself some functions of your mobile phone or credit card) or a navigation tool with ready available maps, tracks, and courses, and then you will start to grasp potential benefits of such a device.

And, last but not least, the experience of “the zone”, or “the flow” during the physical exercise (which is the sole purpose of the End7ess SoulSport project) is much easier to achieve if you have an objective observer – your watch – to tell you what are you doing.

So, don’t shy away from sports watch. Grab one (the choice is yours, but if you need additional advice – watches can cost anywhere between 150 and 1500 euros), don’t hesitate to ask.

When you own one, be sure to join our End7ess SoulSport Club on Strava. In that way, you will be in constant contact with like-minded people.

I have been using sports watches from the time they weren’t even watches, but clumsy, big devices, you could barely attach to your forearm with a strap. The first was a Garmin 101, I think it was the year 2003 (so, twenty years back).

I followed the Garmin development for ten years, then I switched to Polar. Actually, to be honest, for a year or two I didn’t use anything, thinking that I was enough in synch with my body. However, after a while I realized that I wasn’t, so I came back to… Polar, this time.

The rationale behind that decision was that I read about very advanced Polar technology making Polar watches more accurate in measuring all matters of the heart (heartbeats, HRV). But, after that, with the second and, I think, four more watches, I simply liked what Polar was doing with the design.

Polar in the picture right was not exactly an all-around watch, but it was much thinner and could pass for one. Later on, the situation became much better regarding design.

Garmin watches were robust and, in many cases, not appropriate for everyday use (for example, going to a business meeting). Polar made slick, elegant designs, resulting in watches you may wear in extreme conditions, as I did in speed windsurfing, but also while giving a lecture (nobody noticed that I have a sports watch on my wrist). Polar did an especially good job with my latest watch, the Vantage V2 Titan.

And then, this year (2023), with a heavy heart, I switched back to Garmin. What I will write now is in no way a recommendation in favor of Garmin and against Polar. It just happened that, at this moment, I have some preferences that Garmin fulfills. Anyway, I didn’t try other sports watches, so who knows, maybe I am missing something even better.

First, the problem with the design is solved. Garmin now has very fancy watches you may wear anytime, on any occasion. Polar continues to be stylish but also has some robust designs, much like Garmin.

On the other hand, Garmin took the hint of the market and started to produce some very fine-looking products. For example, in the picture on the right, you can see two brand new Garmin Venu 3 and Venu 3S watches (released September 2023). You can not deny that they look almost like some fancy, stylish pieces of jewelry. But don’t be fooled, those are full-blooded sports watches, very precise and technologically advanced. (Not too costly even, around 500 euros.)

And, if you don’t have a need to be always decent but like a robust sports look, below are Garmin Instinct 2X Solar and Garmin Instinct 2S Surf edition. They have some additional features in comparison to the Venu 3 series (better navigation, courses and maps, training readiness), but they don’t have a color display or a touch screen. You can get them for between 290 and 390 euros.

According to the reviews, Polar still has some advantages in the precision of heart measurements. However, Garmin excels in navigation (that is one of the brand’s focus, anyway).

For me, the decisive factors were the following:

1. Intensive and more active work of the Garmin team on updates. With time, even your older watch can get an update enabling it to do things it could not do when you bought it (providing that sensors are included in the hardware).

2. Absolutely seamless and effortless communication and synchronization between the watch and the application (Garmin Connect) and between two or more devices you might own. That is something I struggled with Polar (the mobile application many times simply didn’t work).

3. Superior (way superior) battery life. With Garmin Instinct, I can record more than 40 hours of GPS activity. I must say, Polar needed to recharge after 7-10 hours. Bear in mind that my Polar is three and a half years old, and those things are advancing at lightning speed, so the situation may be different now.

4. And finally, one small but for many people important thing, the brightness of the display is better, so you have a much more chance to catch the information given there in those moments when you have time just for a quick glance. In the picture, you may see the difference between Polar Vantage V2 and Garmin Venu 3. Again, Venu is brand new, and Vantage is old, so improvements are possible and hopefully implemented by Polar.

So, that’s my history and present situation with sports watches. If you decide to follow the basic advice and buy one of these useful tools, take some time and learn what those watches can do and compare that with your needs. Usually, there is no need to spend thousands of euros when you will be just fine with a watch that costs 200. But you may have your preferences regarding the looks and characteristics of the watch. You may even have some inclinations toward a particular brand. That is OK, as long as you make that bold step, buy a sports watch and join End7ess SoulSport Club!