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Comment by Fezzik | Hacker News Reader

I think a lot of people use it for tracking... I am personally excited that I can use it as a lap counter now for swimming - counting laps for 90 minutes is a pain. The fact that I can track running as well, start wearing a watch again, and get notifications, is just icing on the cake.

Lap counters have existed for a while, but having it integrate with my phone seamlessly is great for record keeping.

Still mind-boggled that I get to wear something so awesome on my wrist.

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You'd be shocked that already existed before Apple Watch - made by Garmin.

I feel Apple Watch will be a school book example of Christensen's disruptive tech for traditional sport watch makers like Garmin, Suunto, Polar et al. It's not yet good enough for tracking serious training (prosumer use), but it's steadily eating the lower end of the market and in a few years it would be better than anything the old gang can make.

Honestly, I think you just did a great job of describing FitBit vs Apple.

No matter how much the Apple hardware may catch-up with Garmin etc's capabilities, Apple's closed system is at odds with the data mobility sought by most advanced Garmin/Suunto users that I know e.g. to/from Strava, MapMyEverything, TrainingPeaks etc.

I think Apple will be happy to leave the Prosumers behind and appeal to people who are less active, and maybe even be a first step towards dedicated sports watches. At least for now.

After a year with the Apple Watch as my day-to-day watch and Garmin Fenix 3 for sports (swim, bike, run, hike), I've now switched to Garmin Forerunner 235 for day-to-day and Fenix 3 for sport purely so I can get all of my data into a single repository, easily.

The one killer app I'm missing on the Apple Watch is Siri.

>The one killer app I'm missing on the Apple Watch is Siri

Agree -- I love my FR235, but Siri is the only feature that makes me want an Apple Watch. On balance, I still prefer my Garmin, though.

> Apple's closed system is at odds with the data mobility sought by most advanced Garmin/Suunto users that I know e.g. to/from Strava, MapMyEverything, TrainingPeaks etc.

You clearly haven't used the watch or any HealthKit related apps. All of the data collected in any HealthKit app or accessory is available to all of the others. Strava knows if I ran using Nike Run Club yesterday, Withings knows that I biked with my Wahoo cadence counter over the weekend, and my diet tracker knows how much I weigh from my Withings scale. There is no lock-in such as you describe, it's incredibly open, portable, and under my control.

I have the Fenix 3 after owning an Android Wear. Garmin has done a great job, it is an incredibly functional watch with great battery life and few annoyances.

Garmin Fenix 3 HR owner here. Nothing else comes close to (a) quality of tracking along with (b) battery life.

I get 5+ days of battery including two 35+ minute GPS tracked sessions, and permanent 1-second update HR tracking all day.

The only improvement I'd like is if it was about 3mm slimmer, so it would fit under my shirt cuffs a bit better ;)

> Still mind-boggled that I get to wear something so awesome on my wrist.

I have a totally different feeling. When I run or swim, it's one of the rare time where I can disconnect from technology. I spend already too much time in front of a screen at home and work.

I agree that it can be somewhat useful (but far from necessary) to keep records but for me it's too much of a disturbance. Not worth it.

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