Best watch
- Thread starter Ben W
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socal lurker
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A lot of personal preference involved. At one end, just buy cheap digital watches . . .
I use the Garmin Vivoactive with the referee watch ap (costs about 5 pounds still, I think). With the app, you get vibrate instead of beeping, can set for different length halves/extra time, can track stoppage time, shows both up and down time at the same time, tracks activity during the game. Good as a runners watch for training.
And to my surprise, I found I really like it as my wear all the time watch. I'd call it a semi-smart watch--you can receive texts and email on it, but not send. (And can block that while the ref app is running.)
I use the Garmin Vivoactive with the referee watch ap (costs about 5 pounds still, I think). With the app, you get vibrate instead of beeping, can set for different length halves/extra time, can track stoppage time, shows both up and down time at the same time, tracks activity during the game. Good as a runners watch for training.
And to my surprise, I found I really like it as my wear all the time watch. I'd call it a semi-smart watch--you can receive texts and email on it, but not send. (And can block that while the ref app is running.)
Polar Vantage series if you have the dosh.
santa sangria
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I have a Spinsto and I think it's very hard to justify. It's got a nice big display, count up and down and halves. The buzzer feature is the best bit. Until the battery runs down. No one I know uses the extra time feature. The worst thing about it is that the main button changes time zone - easily accidentally - so you never know what time it is. Until they fix that - which is a child's mistake to make with watch design - they should be punished!
I'm on a second Garmin (245 music) and the Connect app is great for the running/fitness stuff, there's also a ref watch app if you want it.
Polar watches are also great, because Finland!
With the Garmins and Polars there is so much choice and you can't really go wrong, and you will get loads of features. The thing to note is that GPS accuracy with any watch when refereeing, because of all the turning, will not be reliably accurate. It's just not what they are designed for. Plenty of threads on this. Best guess is up to about plus/minus 15% depending on watch, tracking, mode, weather, satellite position etc etc.
I'm on a second Garmin (245 music) and the Connect app is great for the running/fitness stuff, there's also a ref watch app if you want it.
Polar watches are also great, because Finland!
With the Garmins and Polars there is so much choice and you can't really go wrong, and you will get loads of features. The thing to note is that GPS accuracy with any watch when refereeing, because of all the turning, will not be reliably accurate. It's just not what they are designed for. Plenty of threads on this. Best guess is up to about plus/minus 15% depending on watch, tracking, mode, weather, satellite position etc etc.
socal lurker
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I was thinking of getting a spintso several years ago when my old Casio ref watch gave up the ghost, but I balked a bit at the price. As far as I can tell, the Garmin with the App does everything the Spintso does for a lower price that also give you a regular semi-smart watch to use. When picking a Garmin, might be worth checking compatibility with App first and making sure the screen size is adequate. (I use the stoppage time feature when I call a coach on the field or there is some other longer stoppage--I like that it vibrates every 15 seconds while stopped so you can't forget to restart.)
santa sangria
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Here's the "best" Garmin ref app: https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/e0c262ea-6ccf-49ba-99b0-02195a965386
The biggest factor is the sampling rate. If you have one of the high end ones that takes your position every second it has a chance of being at least reasonably accurate, whereas those that sample at 5 seconds have no chance of being even close to accurate.
socal lurker
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some let you select which rate to use--higher sampling rates also run down batteries faster, so there is a trade off there.
Can get a week out of a polar vantage with 1s sampling.
socal lurker
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I presume it isn't doing GPS sampling when you aren't running or some other tracking activity, right? I believe the GPS watches burn a lot more battery when active GPS than day to day use. (With my old Garmin vivoactive the only time I had battery issues was triple headers (i.e. R-AR-AR)--needed almost a full charge to get through with the GPS on. But otherwise going a week on a charge was normal. Alas, I still haven't been able to use my new one.
I don't recall what the sampling is--I think it has choices, but I'm too lazy to go back and figure it out.)I presume it isn't doing GPS sampling when you aren't running or some other tracking activity, right? I believe the GPS watches burn a lot more battery when active GPS than day to day use. (With my old Garmin vivoactive the only time I had battery issues was triple headers (i.e. R-AR-AR)--needed almost a full charge to get through with the GPS on. But otherwise going a week on a charge was normal. Alas, I still haven't been able to use my new one.
Yes, they will only use the GPS if you use an exercise mode. Wearing it as a normal watch won't track GPS and therefore won't drain the battery anywhere near as much.
Triple headers would be no issue.. Polar reckon they can get about 40 hours training to a charge. Not an unbelievable figure. I have 247 HRM, tracks steps and sleep tracking. Have done 3 games in a week and a couple of runs/walks in between from one charge.I presume it isn't doing GPS sampling when you aren't running or some other tracking activity, right? I believe the GPS watches burn a lot more battery when active GPS than day to day use. (With my old Garmin vivoactive the only time I had battery issues was triple headers (i.e. R-AR-AR)--needed almost a full charge to get through with the GPS on. But otherwise going a week on a charge was normal. Alas, I still haven't been able to use my new one.
I used to track 2 40 min dog walks a day as well on top of training. Always get roughly a week consistently no matter what I do.
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Hmm. I'm curious what the newer Garmin will do. But I'm sure not expecting 40 hours of GPS based activity.
RefIADad
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I think if you can afford a Polar or a Garmin, that's the way to go. I like Garmins more than Polars, primarily because of the special referee app that Garmins have and @santa sangria shared. However, I know a lot of people like Polars. Personal preference there. I wear a Garmin Fenix 5. It's a pretty expensive watch, but I wear it everywhere and can dress it up with a steel band if I'm wearing a suit (which is a very rare occurrence). But there are Garmins across a very, very wide range of prices. It's one of the very few things on which I have no problems spending a good amount of money.
I wear a Limit watch as my backup, because it's thin and fits easily under a wristband when I wear short sleeves. But honestly, any watch with a countup stopwatch will work great as a second watch, and even as a primary watch.
I wear a Limit watch as my backup, because it's thin and fits easily under a wristband when I wear short sleeves. But honestly, any watch with a countup stopwatch will work great as a second watch, and even as a primary watch.
santa sangria
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My Garmin 245 music is quite new and I've been astounded by the battery life so far. It also charges very quickly, always faster than I expect.
I am doing something every day in Feb for 30-90 mins (running, refereeing or some other sport) and I charged it yesterday for the first time in 10 days. Sorry I don't have more accurate data than that. But as it stands battery life is just not a factor now
(Now to change that Spinsto battery!)
