Garmin Forerunner 310XT Waterproof Running GPS with USB ANT Stick

Tons of features, works great. I picked this because I wanted running and biking capability, and wanted to be able to upload courses to the watch so I could follow the map while biking new routes.This watch was initially released in 2009 and now it's a great bargain. It has 95% of the capabilities of the pricier ($400 without HRM) Garmin 910xt. Frankly the extra capabilities of the 910xt are nothing I require (e.g. an "open water swim mode" that doesn't really work, support for swimming laps at a pool, etc.) Perhaps the barometeric altimeter would be nice but I'm not paying an extra $230 for it. The 910xt is also a little smaller, there's no denying that the 310xt is a large watch.In short, no other GPS watch on the market provides the same capabilities within half the price if you want to use it for both running and biking and especially if you want to be able to upload mapped courses from your PC to the watch.Quick note on swim mode: There are ZERO watches on the market (to my knowledge) that provide accurate GPS location when swimming with the watch on your wrist. The reason is GPS signals do not penetrate under water so every time your watch-hand dips a few inches under you lose the signal. The most straightforward solution I've seen (courtesy of dcrainmaker.com, an excellent site) is to wear the watch in your swim cap. I haven't done this because I don't do a lot of swimming but just thought I'd mention it because several other comments say swim mode doesn't work. Heart rate monitor signal also doesn't work under water for the Garmin and this is the case for most watches. If this is important to you then check out the Polar watches but for me it was a non-factor.Last note: if you do want to upload courses to the watch, I experienced a bug with Garmin Express (the default program to wirelessly sync your PC to the watch via the ANT usb stick). All my activities would sync perfectly, but courses mapped on Garmin Connect would not successfully transfer over to the watch. I checked some forums and the best suggestion was to uninstall Garmin Express and use the older "Garmin ANT agent" software instead. This solution worked great and I've had no issues since. Course upload capability was the biggest reason I chose this watch so getting courses to transfer was critical for me. Following the course while biking is actually surprisingly easy! Hopefully this saves someone else a little bit of time.Overall rating: 9.5/10

I've had my Garmin FR 305 for 6 years and still going strong. So why did I see a need to go further? It was prompted by my getting into interval training (run/walk, run/walk, etc.) I could not hear the transition points with the somewhat muted tone of the 305. So I figured there was some other way to get the transition message, maybe bluetooth. I didn't even think about vibration.In my search, I happened upon this Garmin FR 310XT for around $200. There was an even later release of the 910 for around $450, but that would be overkill for my purposes (I'm not into decathlon-type activities).My primary motivator for the purchase of the 310 was the ability to feel the vibration at the transition points. Perfect. I can be running and walking along, listening to my music through earphones, and know exactly when to do the next leg of the workout.OK. That said, it was worth every bit the price just for the vibration. But I discovered that almost everything about the 310XT was an improvement over the 305. Where do I begin? The chest strap for heart-rate monitoring is vastly improved from a comfort standpoint. Setting values, such as setting the intervals, is so much easier than it was in the 305. Many of the other improvements are covered by many other reviews, such as longer battery life and the ability to see remaining battery life (after two days of workouts, I was at 97% capacity remaining), quicker connection to satellites (never was a big deal with 305, but nice to get the connection quicker in order to get going), slightly smaller footprint without sacrificing the 4-readings per page capability, waterproof (not that I will swim with it, but comforting to know that getting stuck in the rain will not harm the watch), etc. It retains all the great features that are present in the 305, so nothing is sacrificed.One more key point to make about the vibration. Without vibration, for intervals I was needing to watch the screen count down as it got closer to the transition. With the vibration, I can be viewing other screens if I want to see other indicators like avg speed, heart rate, etc., and the vibration will let me know it's time. Or if you want, you can do the entire workout without ever having to look at the GPS watch.I have yet to try it when bicycling. I know that I'm going to want to do interval training with the bicycle, which would have been difficult without the vibration.Net, net, a must have.