In the beginning
I bought the Garmin FR50 from eBay for a price of around £20, not realising that it was a watch that had replaceable rather than rechargeable batteries. After the discovery I read many horror stories of the short life of the batteries and feared the worst.The reality turns out much better. This watch was my first step into the world of fitness wearables. I wanted a device that could simply tell me the pace at which I was running so I didn't have to keep listening out for audio notifications from MapMyRun.
After fitting new batteries in the watch (and the accompanying footpod) and calibrating to align with the distance and speed information on my phone everything has been working a treat. And those batteries have been ticking away nicely for the past four months or so without needing to be replaced.
Regular use
I run on average two to three times a week and cover 20-30 km. The device also acts as my everyday watch and a constant reminder that I run. But the place where it really came into its own was on holiday when I was camping and away from a phone charging point for days on end. I was able to go on runs and still keep a check on pace and distance, which meant I wasn't guessing at how far I'd gone or having to map anything out.Not only this, but being a dual time zone watch it's easy to switch between two timezones, which was convenient too. (I should also mention the convenience of the bright backlight for camping purposes.)
Waterproof to 30 m
Recently, to add a bit of variety to my exercise regime, I've been experimenting with outdoor swimming, but now it's getting colder I don't want to stay in the water too long (even with a rash vest). The good news is the watch is waterproof, so I can keep an eye on how long I've been in.This is yet another bonus from a chance purchase.
Problem areas
It's normal that I take my phone with me on runs to map them with the aforementioned MapMyRun. So I don't need the link to Garmin connect, which is just as well because while the watch came with an AntStick, the software denies knowledge of the watch though it recognises the stick.Another point to note is that after 4 or 5 runs are saved to the history the memory can become full, but again I'm not using it to store information after a run, I'm using the watch for in run purposes. So this isn't a problem.
Lessons learnt
This is a watch released years ago without GPS, without a built-in heart rate monitor and without a rechargeable battery. I forgive it all these things for just keeping going, but it's not a type of watch that you'll find in Garmin's Forerunner range today. This is a shame because having not had to ever plug this watch in a socket, I find myself not ever wanting to bother with plugging a watch into a socket.I've also always felt that many fitness bands and watches out there duplicate so much that a phone is capable of and less. A phone covers steps, GPS, mapping, etc. and leaves very little space for fitness bands to fill. So they need to fit in without hassle if they are to survive, and I'll be very sorry when the days of my FR50 are over. This sounds ridiculous in the age of the Apple Watch, but once you get used to the controls of the FR50 it can be a faithful friend.
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