UKC

hi all ...   

I was wondering how many of you ware a smart watch , while climbing, trekking , walking , ice-climbing ..   

since I bought a I watch ultra I have been enjoying its features, mainly Mountain biking and a few other activities we do ..  but up to now when climbing / trekking / winter stuff  I haven't worn one, partly because I didn't have one ...  

So was wondering what you all do with your smart watch when climbing, do you take it off so not to damage it ..   I feel that it has some really useful features for walk ins - out ..   

Also , what face do you like the best to suit ..  

Thanks ..   

Not me. I hate anything with "smart" in its name. Although they're not as bad as "AI-enhanced" rubbish. Actually I don't even wear an ordinary watch. Luddite? Me? No, I just see going outdoor as an escape from technology (and other things).

Yeah I get it ...    I wasnt into the whole smart "" concept but after getting a I watch , im pleased, really handy when out on the mountain bikes ..  and has features on them like a reasonable priced gps of a few years bk ..   

I have a TicWatch Pro 3 Ultra. I don't use any of the health sensors, but I did write an app for it that gets the current gps location and displays it as an OS map reference. It also gives me the altitude from the barometric sensor. I use paper maps for navigation in the hill, and using the watch is more convenient (and less distracting) than faffing with a phone if I need a.location fix. I really must do something with that watch app...

I wouldn't wear it for climbing as I'd inevitably trash it.

Any kind of app that interprets the vital signs might exponentially escalate my health anxiety (specifically a fear of intense cardio exercise) that has kept me below 2000ft for a decade now. It followed a period of ill health brought on (I remain convinced) by an overexposure to the hormones in Flutiform, in the workplace. I can see the appeal for navigation purposes but when it comes to the performance of the more vital organs, ignorance is bliss imo.

I wear a Steinhart Ocean One, on the hill and off. I need to keep track of the time, I miss it if it's not there and I think it looks pretty smart.

No, and haven’t worn a watch since 1994. I suppose I have an altimeter watch comes out to play when I’m in the Alps or Himalayas 

I bought a watch just to split my tracking away from phone battery. If I've worn it for a climbing approach, it usually goes in my bag, or for winter climbing in a chest pocket until I'm on top.

No, but I think I have a smart phone

I have ‘smart’ light bulbs in my house - 15 in all, that can all be controlled from my iPhone. It works really well. They can all be turned on or off at once, or individual bulbs, or groups of bulbs. At present, because it’s a very cold night, I’m already in bed in my cosy bedroom, and on my iphone I can see which lights are still on downstairs. I see that everything is still on at the moment, so I’ll turn off all the lights in my downstairs front room now … Done. In addition to simply turning them on and off I can adjust the brightness and colour temperature. E.g. The group of three spotlights over my front room fireplace are pre-set at the moment at 50% brightness and very warm colour temperature, that can be changed at any time. All this may seem a bit of a gimmick, but it’s mightily convenient and means there’s never any excuse for leaving a light on by mistake (e.g downstairs when one’s upstairs in bed).

The smart iPhone is also extremely useful in many other ways.

God no.

My Garmin Epix has specific activity modes for climbing and bouldering, but I wouldn't wear it for either!

I bought a amart bulb a few years ago as a giggle ("how many internets does it take to turn on a.lightbulb"). But I've now bought a few more as I came to realise that I find them both functional and convenient. Surprised myself.

I've just installed Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi and after some tinkering all the lights and sockets all look after themselves. Trigger by time, motion, presence etc.  Gradual fade on in the bedroom, mornings, workday only, from warm white to daylight over 15 minutes. Brilliant.

As for watches, I love my Epic for MTB and hiking but never wear it climbing. It's proven to be a great navigation tool in thick cloud, taking the stress out of some decisions. Great for skiing too, with elevation and aspect at hand so you can keep an eye on where you are.

I should add that, though they’re quite expensive - about £8 each - they have a warranty of 20,000 hours,

Garmin fenix here. An older one (6 sapphire).

I log my hikes in and out.

I wear it when leading indoors, mostly to track routes and also to track my rest periods to make sure they are long enough (more a problem on auto belay than lead)

I always take it off climbing outside, and when bouldering or on systems board.  Outside the rock is unforgiving on even toughened glass.  Indoors on harder moves I need more confidence in it not causing a wrist tweak from a more strenuous position. 

I also use it to log other exercises... yoga, pilates, etc.  No other smarts enabled so no notifications pop up on the watch even though it's possible. 

Watch face is a generic analogue with data fields for sunrise/sunset, weather, date and battery life.

I wouldn’t bother, they don’t work that well. 

I gave up watches 55 years ago. Never found a need for one, let alone a "smart" one.

I went without a watch for several years but got an apple watch about 6 months ago and enjoying playing with it.

I like not having to take my phone if I go for a run and also for buying something if I have forgotten phone/card/cash.

be great for hillwalking, not sure if I would wear it rock climbing in case it got damaged.

I have a fenix 6 which I wear all the time, including when climbing (unless the route has deep cracks in it) I've had it for over a year and I climb quite a lot; so far no damage, beyond mild scuffs on the metal rim, which is probably just wear and tear.

It's of no use for climbing really - beyond telling me how long I have been climbing.

J

I have a Fenix 6 Pro, got it used for a couple hundred quid years ago. Mainly use it for timing workouts, tracking walks etc. 

I like having phone notifications on my wrist, just a glance tells me if it's something I need to get my phone out for. 

I've got GPX routes for various mountain descents loaded on it.

Mine's pretty battered, wear it all the time, including climbing, although it comes off for cracks. 

I use a Garmin Instinct 2 Solar nearly all the time. I do a lot of CV training and it has massively helped me with my training volumes and intensity and to aid proper recover and good quality sleep. Great for expeditions as well of course, which is what I partly bought it for. 

I use the bouldering and climbing modes indoors, but I generally don't bother outdoors, except in a more alpine environment. I generally don't bother with GPS when climbing, except on easy angled stuff, as it's less accurate. Also had the fall detention function accidentally trigger once while ice climbing. 

Descents seems like a useful idea - handy for wintef climbs that could finish in the dark. Did you create these yourself, or is it just the full hill gpx found online.

No.

For my uses... a rugged Casio is perfect. That gives me for about £25, shock resistance, 10 year battery life and 100 metres water resistance, and not a financial tragedy if lost or damaged or theft target. Ideal for walking, climbing and I wear it scuba also (£5 strap extender when wearing dry suits)

Only takes a few minutes to make a GPX on the OS maps site and export, so I've just made them myself.

But what if you missed a notification about the latest kitten video while you're 100m down? That would be truly tragic.

I recently bought a Garmin epix, I am using it to monitor recovery from some health issues.

Navigation, so far so good, I haven't yet uploaded any os mapping or traces to follow but it is a Garmin so I expect this to be quite good.

It gives a bewildering array of stats from the simplest of workouts. Mainly used for dog walking and gentle cardio so far.

The health monitoring stuff is good, sleep monitor and body battery very interesting. This has confirmed that when I am feeling tired, I really am tired not just lazy. Good for dealing with the other half.

I took it indoor climbing yesterday, from the trace, I can see individual routes, lowering parts of auto belay sets, rest periods when dogging. First time climbing in 3 months, the cheeky thing told me I wasn't trying hard enough. I beg to differ.

I use a garmin instinct which i got secondhand a couple years ago - it's plenty durable enough for climbing and anything else outdoorsy - I use it mostly for tracking runs, hikes, strength training, swims etc. as the climbing activity tracking profile is a bit useless imo. I also use it for everyday time, alarm, timers etc.

I really like it, especially as it gives me gpx for my hikes, and automatically uploads my stuff to Strava. Way more data than I can use, although I find the graphs for pace, hr, elevation very useful.

I have a Garmin Fenix 7, main use has been for navigation and tracking when sea kayaking. I now find the fitness tracking and metrics, eg sleep performance, readiness for training etc  very useful and accurate, particularly when to train and when to rest as I am managing side effects of long term medication, much more accurate and helpful than just “listening to my body”. The Fenix’s long battery life is very good for multi day sea kayak expeditions.

I like to look after things of value, so I've got a screen protector and a bezel protector on mine - and still wouldn't climb with it.

I use an old Garmin Forerunner (735xt) as my day-to-day watch.  I'd originally got it (cheap, off eBay) to provide a simple GPS speedo for my bike but it ended up just becoming my watch; as such it stays on while I'm climbing, though I don't try to get it doing anything clever in terms of monitoring while climbing.  

It's certainly fine at tracking horizontal travel activities like hiking, running, and cycling (of course!) but I don't really believe it's got suitable sensors for making head or tail of primarily vertical activities

This is a bug plus for me. In everyday life it reduces my phone usage, in the way you described and also not faffing with the phone after dealing with something necessary. In the hills this is particularly important to me as using a phone for navigation makes me feel less "present" and more distracted.

i've been looking at watch options over Christmas, mostly for running/ hiking. There is a bewildering choice and range of functionality and price, so have decided what I want. 

• Offline topographic maps with breadcrumb navigation (i.e. doesn't have to be permanently connected to your phone. Doesn't need to be turn by turn directions, but not google maps either). 
• Heart rate monitoring
• Music controls (when paired with phone) and on phone mp3 downloads
• Option to receive notifications when paired with a phone. 
• Ability to pay with NFC

Stuff I might find useful but am not prioritising: sleep tracking, suggested workouts and fitness insights, altimeter.

The main difficulty seems to be ease of and access to decent mapping.  Garmins have a paid subscription to Outdoor maps, which I assume are best for being on trails or on the hills and I haven't heard great things about their user-friendliness. I use Komoot and will probably go for a watch which has this functionality. Grateful to hear any users' experiences, or other thoughts on which watches fit the brief.  

I appreciate you're being facetious, but this isn't really what "smart" sports watches are about, which is the context of the thread no? 

The included Garmin TOPO maps are perfectly adequate for the use you describe, there is no subscription required - I'm not sure where you got the impression they are paid (although of course there are premium paid-for maps). They're equivalent to komoot - both are based on OSM. IMO they aren't that user friendly, but that's more down to the fact a watch doesn't give you much real estate so is a constant issue across brands. 

Worth noting Garmin Pay is a bit shit and quite a few banks don't support it. 

You can also put MP3s onto most Garmin watches now, and have them play direct (via bluetooth headphones). No need for phone. 

You may joke... but the folks that wreck dive to 100m (not me!) end up with 6 hours or something decompression time hanging about. I've heard of them taking kindles, tablets in waterproof cases etc to watch videos or read books in the shallower deco stops.

Somewhere... there's a diver watching a cat video underwater right now 

Now, I know that you know I was being facetious no?

Thanks. There is an Outdoor+ plus subscription from Garmin that is £50/year. I read somewhere online that this was required for trails and topographical maps, but if you get reasonable maps included for free that is in their favour. 

It's so difficult to know until you try one whether it will be worth it. I wont wear a massive chunk of plastic on my wrist all the time, so maybe i should get a pixel of galaxy watch which will do most of this but not be so robust and have a rubbish battery life. 

no, I haven't got one.

A lot of people I know that have got one tend to be a bit obsessive, something I can do without.

I've got a Garmin Forerunner 935. I mostly bought it because I was doing an ultra and wanted something that could track me for up to 24 hours. But I was also swayed by all the fancy features, like Bluetooth and wrist heart rate monitoring. Anyway, turns out that it's really not designed for a woman's wrist and it's too big to be comfy. I still wear it for anything I want a GPS track for - running, orienteering, hill walking, MTB and skiing - though I'll be a little relieved when it finally does and I can replace it with something smaller. I do like the fact it has a barometer altimeter (which means it's legit for mountain marathons) and that I can do MapRun on it, also I can use it to turn the volume up/down on the phone when I'm listening to stuff on a run. I only allow it to give me specific notifications, like calls, WhatsApps and messages, while I'm doing an activity - this means I can pick up useful stuff but not get spammed by breaking news updates or FB notifications etc. 

The rest of the time I have a Vivosmart fitness band type thing. I like the continuous data about my stress levels, heart rate and sleep and it's interesting to have all those metrics together, along with menstrual tracking etc, on the app.

My body has specific activity modes for those too. It even diffentiates between trad and sport. But then I'm smart and have no need of trendy gadgets.

No. I don't even use a watch. I gave up wearing a watch as I found it just got in the way, and collected a minging combination of dead skin, grease and sweat.