Garmin Forerunner 405CX GPS Sport Watch with Heart Rate Monitor (Blue)

I received my watch this past Friday and subsequently used it during a 10K this morning. Right out of the box the battery was 2% so I stuck it on the charger and three hours later I had a full charge. I am unsure how long the charge actually took to reach full, I'll have to explore that later. First, right out of the box was a simple venture. I changed the band right away to the larger velcro band, which was as easy as the Garmin video illustrated. The tools are provided as are the pins; just make sure to use the correct pins. I took the existing band off first and mixed up the pins. Even so, it only took five minutes to change it up. Next I registered my Garmin and signed up for Garmin Connect and configured the watch to my personal profile. Again, easy to do. No offense intended, but my 74 year old father picked up his Ipod and immediately had control of it and this watch is no different. I am NOT comparing the bezel to the Ipod per se, but it is very similar although it requires more touch than the easy finesse of the Ipod. In less than five minutes I was configured. You need to go on Garmin Connect to refine things like weight (it only excepts 5 lbs increments in the watch menu) and to input your resting heart rate. The software took less than two minutes to install and the watch was recognized immediately. I am using Windows XP SP3 on a 2005 Gateway computer. The heart rate monitored was detected instantly and I was amazed at how quickly the satellites get you up and running. In 30 seconds I had a full line of satellites and my accuracy was down to 18 ft. Not bad for a watch with a small antenna in a neighborhood with houses and large trees on both sides. I get a good signal in my house as well. I have found that in order to select one of the four options around the bezel I have to touch the bezel firmly. Navigating the menus in each section are fairly straight forward and the touching the bezel to select things is easier than the initial selection of the section. The dual finger touch required to illuminate the backlight is a nice feature as that is a battery hog. I have found the backlight to be bright and crisp. Using the watch during the 10K was easy as well. Instead of setting up an activity in Garmin Connect I chose to hit the start button when I crossed the starting apron and stopped it at the finish. What I really love about this watch is that it alerted me as I hit every mile and it defaults to start a new lap every mile. That way you know the exact pace you had during each mile of the race. It was also nice because I knew where I was, but if your one of those people who doesn't want a reminder that you have x-miles to go you can change the alerts to almost any customization you want. Me, I like the mile counting and the pace. I used the default screen with time, pace, and distance. I love the summary screen under history. When I got to the recovery area, I selected history and it had my total time, average pace, distance covered, max heart rate and calories burned. Those are the most important things to know right off the bat and the display was such that I could see everything. I kept it on HR to cooldown and monitor my recovery so I drained the battery a bit more. Two hours of use and the battery drained 25% so not bad because there were inadvertant illuminations of the backlight while I was tinkering prior to the race and I kept taking it out of standby mode to play with it. The standby mode is excellent. I can say for myself that it saves the battery from a user like me. When I got home I went straight into the office and in less than a minute had my race downloaded in Garmin Connect. I love all the maps, the graph of heart rate, pace, elevation etc. Phenomenal amount of information. You have each lap displayed, which you can also do on the watch itself, but it helps to see all the info on the computer. I have been a GPS user as a military aviator and research scientist and I trust Garmin. When the race organizers mark a race they are very accurate because some of these qualify for national races. A 10K is 6.21 miles and my watch registered 6.16. An overall accuracy rate of 99.2%. The course ran through downtown Youngstown, OH where we have tall buildings that will definitely wreak havoc on a gps signal; running in a big city like NY all bets are off, but I had a great signal even in my house. The park the course went through also has substantial tree cover so I am stoked with the accuracy. To recap 1) easy to use out of the box to include setup and transferring data, 2) easy to use on a race course with good information being passed to you right out of the box, 3) excellent transfer of activity results from the watch to computer, 4) outstanding accuracy and battery life. I sweat and the temperature was not very hot so I didn't experience the crazy watch, but unless your constantly touching the bezel then you should not have a problem. Also, the bezel lock feature works well. I will detail more of my experiences as I use the watch. One thing I am going to enjoy is doing my intervals on a local trail now that I can configure the watch to alert me to recovery periods and rely on it to know my distances. You can't get easier than that. My days with a timex watch and the local high school track are done. Additionally, I didn't even know it was on my wrist. It is slightly larger than an Ironman triathalon watch and weighs little more. The band was comfortable and the alerts were loud enough that I heard them along the course. I think my calorie estimation was pretty good given Garmin's method for determining calorie burn, but you never know.

I have been using a Polar heart rate monitor for about 6 years. It still works, but I was interested in a monitor that could track my heart rate and display a record during my workout. My usual workout is built around weight lifting, done at a pace so that it doubles as a cardio workout. I also started jogging again, for variety and to gauge the effectiveness of the weight training in maintaining cardo fitness. The GPS feature was appealing for my once a week runs.After poring over the reviews of this model and the 110 (including the one-star reviews, which I always read), I chose the 405CX. I have had it for about 10 days now, so I don't know how durable and reliable it will be. I do know that it has far exceeded my expectations in its usefulness.This arrived on a Friday and I spent about an hour or so on Saturday morning setting it up and then went out for a run. I had the pace set to be measured every mile. I ran on a course that I had run 20+ years ago, which was 1.5 miles in length and had landmarks every 1/2 mile (or so I thought). I found out that I was a little off in my measurements, not by a lot but maybe 4-5%. I also found out that one of the beauties of this device is that you don't have to use a set course - you just run. Instead of going around the same loop 2 and 2/3 times to get to 4 miles in total, I reversed course to run on the other side of the road. This changed the impacts on my legs as I switched the leg facing the crown of the road. This would be very useful in running in unfamiliar locations, say out in the woods.The Auto Lap feature was great for giving you periodic assessments of your speed. I think the one mile setting is great - you could use a smaller increment to get closer to an instantaneous measure. You can also set it as you go along. The really neat thing was when I got home and downloaded the data, I had a chart of speed, distance and heart rate, measured every 5 seconds. I can review how my body reacted to increased effort and how I did against my maximum heart rate. When I go to my usual weight workouts, I turn off the GPS and just measure heart rate. This gives me a pretty good idea of my intensity and pace. Needless to say, the heart rate is much more variable between sets and exercises when I switch, compared to the constant effort in running. I can also see much more effort (higher heart rate) when I work on my legs versus the upper body.I look forward to building up more data over the months (and years?) to gauge my fitness and also to use this for running (or walking) over unknown terrain and courses. Oh, it also shows your elevation as a function of time; I can see my heart rate go up as I run up a grade.Finally, I notice that a number of the 1 star reviews felt that the lack of an instant pace measure is a fatal omission. I think the Virtual Partner feature (which I have not used, but plan to soon) would be an excellent substitute. You can set your target pace and the watch will tell you how far ahead or behind of the target you are. This is really even better than a display of instant pace, in my HO.This HRM is a bit complicated, but the complications are worth it.UPDATE-I finally used the Virtual Partner and I think it's even more useful than a display of instant pace. The VP display shows you how far behind or ahead your are relative to your target pace; when you are behind there is a dark background and a clear background when you are ahead. This is very helpful when you want to avoid going too hard at first (and slowing down later) or when you have a goal pace you aspire to. With the auto scroll, the watch shows time and distance, then heart rate, then your pace relative to target. With this setup, there's no need to touch the watch other than to start it, stop it, or set a lap.The menus can be a little confusing and the bezel can be a bit quirky in response, but I have gotten more used to it in the 3 weeks + I have used this watch. Still very pleased with it and the battery seems to last longer than I anticipated. The download to Garmin Connect is great; the ANT+ receiver has detected the watch when I was upstairs and the computer is downstairs.

Lo compre con la ? de si vendria con pulsometro o no y cuando me llego y mire en la caja, bingo tiene el pulsometro ya solo espero que este me salga igual de bueno que mi anterior garmin. Os animo si quereis un buen reloj y pulsometro a que lo compreis.

Non avendo mai provato questo tipo di orologi sportivi, mi sono fatto solo un'idea su internet prima dell'acquisto.L'unica mia perplessità in merito al Forerunner 405cx era quella della ghiera touchbazel; dopo qualche uscita tutti i miei dubbi sono stati fugati dall'ottima usabilità (basta prenderci un pò la mano), e la precisione dei dati.Ottimo anche il trasferimento dei dati senza fili (tramite stick Ant+), che rende l'esperienza ancora più fruibile.Consigliatissimo anche per via del prezzo (nei negozi un prezzo del genere te lo puoi sognare !)

Etant décidé de reprendre le jogging (au début) et la course à pieds (plus tard, j'espère !), je me suis dit que j'allais me faire plaisir et acheter cette montre qui fait cardio fréquencemètre, qui permet de mettre sur une carte (très facilement après un petit enregistrement sur le site de Garmin)le parcours que l'on vient de faire tout en mettant en parallèle la fréquence cardiaque, les calories perdues, le temps passé (en détail) à courir ou à s'arrêter (éventuellement !). Il y a aussi moyen de paramétrer (mais je n'ai pas encore eu l'occasion de le faire) des entraînements spécifiques qui, grâce à des données s'affichant sur l'écran de la montre, permet de se situer en temps réel par rapport à des données encodées préalablement.Selon les divers avis (de spécialistes), je pense que cette montre est un compagnion d'entraînement très efficace.

1年半ほど使用しています。１．GPS:　捕捉に時間がかかることがあります（2-3分）。すぐに感知してくれることもあり、天候、時間、場所などに左右されるようです。ストレッチでもして待つことが必要です。ロシアに出張に行っても使えましたが、東京（高いビルがあるところ）はなかなか感知してくれませんでした。２．HR monior: 感度良好ですが、センサーが衣類や風圧などの接触で反応するせいか、240などという数値がでることがあります。あと、「ちょっと違うなあ」と思った時にゴソゴソとストラップを動かすと、「おう、すまん」といった感じで、ゆっくりと正しい数値に戻ります。３．設定：Unit（キロ/マイル表示）、画面に何を表示させるか、身長・体重の入力といった入力が必須（英語表示）。インターバルやトレーニングコースの設定などもできるようですが、面倒なので、基本的な機能だけに絞っています。設定の階層構造をつかむことが、キモと思います。画面はパターン１．HR、time、走行距離　パターン２．HR、消費カロリー、平均時速の切り替えとしています。ヴァーチャルランナーは使わず、1kmあたりのラップタイムのアラートのみ使用しています。４．操作性：雨で濡れたりすると、ベゼルが反応してしまいます。また、指先が乾いていると反応しません。ただし、概ね使いやすいです。５．コンピュータとの接続：トレーニングセンターはみなさんが書いているとおり、日本語で使えます。レースの後に「ここの登りはやっぱりきつかったな」などと振り返ることができ、なかなか楽しいです。６．総評：これ以上高いものを買っても、日本語のマニュアルがあっても、今以上の使い方はしないように思います。私にとっては、HR、時間、距離、ラップタイムがわかり、コンピュータとうまく接続できればいいです。下位機種を買ってもできそうに思いますが、値段も含めてこれで満足していますので★★★★★を付けます。追記：約２年で寿命を迎えました。液晶画面が出なくなり、使用不可となりました。雨の日も雪の日もよく使ったことを自覚していますので納得です（星は５つのままとします）。次にはデザイン的に好きな410 black（平行輸入版）を購入しました。機能は増えていますが、結局同じ設定にしています（なんとなく軽い気がします）。HR monitorなどは405のものをそのまま流用しています。

Un par de veces la batería no avisó correctamente de la carga restante y cuando te das cuenta durante la carrera ya no tienes reloj. Producto perfecto salvo ese detalle.