Yep. Like Rafa’s Richard Mille watch at just over $1M.
Apple brought in Marc Newson to help design the AW, which is why his old Ikepod line of watches are a bit familiar:
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple needs to take a page out of Garmin’s playbook
- Thread starter DMG35
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Yep. Like Rafa’s Richard Mille watch at just over $1M.
Apple brought in Marc Newson to help design the AW, which is why his old Ikepod line of watches are a bit familiar:
The AW tracks continuously during exercise. Your “10 second” description is nonsense.
And yet the people who vote with their wallet say otherwise. Garmin is the best sports smartwatch, but most people don’t need the hyper focused metrics and tons of data. What most people want is a good looking smartwatch, made of quality materials, versatile for different situations and good quality software and user experience, customer support etc.
I know it tracks continously during a workout. I was referring to it the rest of the time. Garmin allows you to glance at your watch at any moment and see your current heart rate on the watch face. Apple will, at best, allow a complication that merely opens up the heart rate app and triggers the "nonsense" you referenced. And, yes, there are plenty of people, for various reasons, who need to quickly glance at their heart rate when they're not exercising.
Let me reiterate - I have an Apple Watch S7. I have a Garmin. They are both excellent in different ways. Why can we not accept that some things are better on non-Apple devices? Why does Apple have to be better at everything? I know this is an Apple forum, but jeez. It's okay to praise and criticize at the same time.
Yes, worn super tight and above wrist bone. Same issues with Galaxy Watch 4 (worse, in fact). But, again, it's a wrist-based HR so I'm not expecting perfection.
Is the Garmin continuously reading when not exercising? Is it worth the lower HR accuracy compared to the AW?
I don’t own either, but plan on buying something in a few weeks.
Yes, the Garmin can be set to continuously read HR at all times. Is the HR accuracy lower? Why would we assume Apple's is more accurate? That's not been my experience - side by side, they are pretty much the same.
You should check out “The Quantified Scientist” in regards to testing all of these watches (he isn’t Apple-centric.) It’s the only place to fine exhaustive, scientific comparisons.
LINK
He found the AW to be the only wrist-worn HR monitor to provide near identical results to Polar straps in his tests.
Last edited:
The AW is not more accurate. I can wear both watches and do the exact same things and they both give almost identical readings.
I go back and forth between the two and usually have one of each. I will say that the Epix 2 is a big improvement over the Fenix 6. The touch screen is a good add and it improved in areas where it wasn't always the best accuracy (HRM and GPS). Anyways, my annual comparison follows.
Garmin Fenix / Epix / Enduro
Positives
Positives
Otherwise, I see the watches as so equal now that I'd wear either and not really miss a beat.
Garmin Fenix / Epix / Enduro
Positives
- Battery Life
- Easier to read outside, especially Epix
- Garmin infrastructure better for running, cycling, etc.
- Metrics more exercise orientated
- Looks
- Resale is about 2/3 purchase price
- Still some nagging issues (SpO2 still off). Reading some other issues with recent patches and battery life.
- Price is more than double an Apple Watch
- App store almost might as well not exist
- Notifications sometimes get in repeating loops
- Garmin Pay isn't bulletproof like AW. Maybe 1 in 10 times it misses. Also, hate the password implementation.
- Never saw the rep counting be accurate but haven't tested with new watch.
- If you have Sapphire glass it's very reflective. I wouldn't buy it on anything but an Epix.
Positives
- App ecosystem
- Siri
- I answer the phone with the watch on occasion
- 2% on Apple Card for purchases
- I like the breathing haptics far better than Garmin's
- I kind of like the rings too
- Like that when there's no pain (more below) you barely know it's there
- Audible
- Buy 2 AW's for 1 Epix
- I was able to get Authy to work on it. Garmin has an app but....
- Notifications are smoother.
- I like entering reminders on the phone, iPad, Mac or a HomePod and they show up on the watch.
- Resale is terrible, about 40% of purchase price (maybe a bit more through Swappa / eBay)
- For some reason it digs into my wrist. Really hoping the Pro is redesigned on the backside.
- Cellular is a total rip-off.
- Can be hard to see outside.
- Touch screen not best for working out and can be too easily triggered at night
- BATTERY LIFE needs to be better
- Podcasts have never reliably synced even through Overcast.
- The Health app, which can be great for your lab results, can be a clusterduck trying to find something, and it's only on your phone.
- Music / Podcasts. Because Garmin has access to folders and Music Bee I can throw whatever I want into it although the AW is probably better overall because it also has audible.
- Authentication. I have to authenticate the AW every time I put it on. Garmin however has a more painful process to authenticate when I pay and it annoys me more than the AW.
- The excitement with both has worn off. This is mostly because my feet decided to not let me run so the benefits of the metrics for either watch simply aren't there.
Otherwise, I see the watches as so equal now that I'd wear either and not really miss a beat.
Last edited:
I haven't compared but if they're different it's not radically so now, whereas before both did some crazy things at times.
To me, at this point it's,
GPS: Equal enough
HRM: Equal enough
SpO2: Garmin 2 to 3 points below.
HRV: Who knows, they don't calculate it the same way.
I went the other way, used Garmins up until the S5. A watch need a visible watch face. Always, anything else is silly in my book. Decided to finally try the Apple Watch, and success!! I run a lot, but do I really need all the metrics from the Garmin? Not really, I’m only an avid runner, not trying to set any records.
The Apple Watch made me free of my phone. I use the fact that my watch’s got cellular a lot.
I mainly miss mixed workouts in the stock app, seems to be sorted soon. Also the battery life, and I was very sceptical coming from a watch that would take a week of heavy use, but it wasn’t too bad. But I still prefer a week over a day, of course.
When I switched the Garmins had really inferior displays compared to the AW, not only aesthetically but the AW was sharper and easier to read.
And get me right, the Garmins were amazing watches, with great features still. I just realised that I don’t need all that data. I just want to track my workouts and runs, that’s enough for me.
The Apple Watch made me free of my phone. I use the fact that my watch’s got cellular a lot.
I mainly miss mixed workouts in the stock app, seems to be sorted soon. Also the battery life, and I was very sceptical coming from a watch that would take a week of heavy use, but it wasn’t too bad. But I still prefer a week over a day, of course.
When I switched the Garmins had really inferior displays compared to the AW, not only aesthetically but the AW was sharper and easier to read.
And get me right, the Garmins were amazing watches, with great features still. I just realised that I don’t need all that data. I just want to track my workouts and runs, that’s enough for me.
And some of the more popular Rolex models are very polished and shiny and not very tool like
The Quantified Scientist on YouTube has the most scientific comparison of the various smartwatch sensors on the web. I suggest you check it out.
I am the exact same way, when I run just want the basic metrics accurately presented and logged, the NRC app does most of that for me, I just wish Nike could fit a extra data field on the display. The Garmin watches have battery life going for them, but the AWs integration with iPhone tops it easily for me. And as you said, it frees you from the phone.
Not really a fan of how the Garmin watches look, but I think they are acceptable for every day use, AW is just in a while different league when it comes to design.
I have used Garmin watches before too, the last I had was one of the first where HR monitoring was possible on the wrist, and I believe I made a switch from that to an S2. The swap meant I got more useful features, new tech, and I never missed any of the more advanced features the Garmin Watch had. I can’t see myself getting a dedicated running watch again, but I’m still holding a door open.
I do have one problem with the AWs HR monitoring, it tends to get “stuck“ in a decent chunk of the initial run where it shows a too-low-to-be-true BPM, that doesn’t increase or decrease, not until I start feeling the run and then it seems to start working again. Not sure if it is a hardware, software issue or something else but it is a bit bothersome, and I hope an upgrade from s4 to s8 will solve it.
I don't need to look at another youtuber telling me something that I can just look at with my own eyes.
I would say, AW is more comparable with Venu 2 series from price point perspective. One big positive point (IMO) from Garmin (Venu 2) is battery life.
A lot of the arguing about which is better/more accurate may be perceptions around the generation of watch. The stuff released in 2022; x55 Forerunners vs the x45’s, Fenix 7 vs 6 - they made huge improvements in HR and GPS accuracy.
I watched the Scientist reviews, it was surprising to see the AW outperformed even newer Garmins.
I keep an AW and Garmin and often going back and forth. I’m Apple for most of my tech but still prefer my Garmin gear for fitness. I prefer the low maintenance aspect of the Garmin and how it’s always ready when needed. Maybe the stats aren’t perfectly accurate but it captures trends correctly, rugged and reliable.
Apple needs to open up Health (to web or Mac based), add battery (big time), and allow things like HR broadcasting for it to be my go to device.
I don't know, buy a titanium AW? I wear Garmin has like 200 watches with all the combinations of them you can buy. I think there are 16 versions of the Fenix.
I guess we'll have to see what the Pro brings too. My guess is double the price, maybe 3 days of battery life, and the exact same functionality with possibly better case material. Hard to say if that will be worth $1K but then I say the same thing about Garmin stuff and still wind up buying it.
I don’t need an anecdote from a anonymous forum participant vs. an experiment from a data scientist.
So I should trust a YouTube “data scientist” over the data that I’m getting from both watches on my wrists that I’m seeing with my eyes and experiencing for myself? Not to mention that in his comparison tests the Garmin watch I’m wearing isn’t even included in the test.
Makes sense….
Pop along to www.dcrainmaker.com and check his tests, and software created to answer these questions. All done without any bias towards one or other.
What’s the point of the comparison, as you are not comparing Apples with Apples. For a start, Apple Card is US only! There is also bias evident.
The AW supports a very different demographic of user, in the world of sports and exercise science, Garmin is the market leader, with AW not even in the top 5. Garmin, Polar, Coros, Suunto and Rival.
Yes, you probably should, unless you can show evidence that you performed a more rigorous testing procedure. Also, he did test the Epix 2.
Last edited: