Timex Run Trainer Review

Unfortunatley for me my Garmin 405 finally died after 2 and half years and over 4000 miles.  It was a great watch it had flaws sure but overall I was a very satisfied consumer.  In fact when it broke I honestly almost ordered a brand new one just like it.  I went to my friends store in Manhattan, KS accepting defeat and considering a Sunto Ambit and Garmin 910 due to the extended battery lifes.  After some time looking at the 910 (he was sold out of the Ambit) I picked up the Timex Run Trainer.  I was surprised how nice it fit the wrist.  At first look it looks a bit obnoxious.  Once you put it on it fits the wrist appropriatly.  I decided that the times I do run more than 8 hours (the max battery life of the Timex) my pace is not terribly important to me and well it doesn't happen to often.  So for a little over $200 I gave it a whirl.  So far I am amazed at this watch.  The GPS picks up fairly quickly usually about 10-15 seconds.  Once it picks up it changes to your run screen and hit start.  Just a disclaimer you have to do all the run screen set up when connected to your computer.  The display is gigantic and easy to read.  I love the buttons over the touch bezel of the Garmin 405.  The GPS works flawlessly throughout the run and battery life holds true to advertised.  Once you complete your run the watch asks you if you'd like to save the run and you select yes or no.  Once that's done you can view total distance, elevation gain, loss average pace and fastest pace oh and HR if you had one connected.  I'm not a big HR guy so I can't really evaluate this feature. 

Now on to a few negatives.  Everything has to be done through the computer which is somewhat inconvienant.  The watch has an autolap feature but it won't reset mid mile.  I tried to do a tempo workout with it 1 mile warm up 4x1 mile at marathon pace with 2 min active recovery.  So I figured no big deal I'll just hit the split button when my recovery time is up but that didn't work.  It still gave me a total 1 mile time from mile 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 ect...  What really sucks is you can't turn on or off the auto lap on the watch itself.  So if you forget to change it before you head out on your run your stuck doing math mid run.  During dusk or dawn when its just dark enough to not be able to see the display the backlight fails.  It turns on and everything but it lights up the letters and the background so its very difficult to read.  The Training Perks website is somewhat difficult to get the hang of there are two differnt interfaces.  One to control the watch and upload/download date to and from and then an internet based training site that shows you runs.  The internet based training site is the difficult one to navigate.  I haven't had to much luck so far with it.  Another downfall of the Timex over the Garmen is the inability to look at laps on the device.  With my Garmin after a run I could see on the watch mile by mile splits and look at data immediatly.  I can't do that with the Timex.  The charger that came for mine was just a USB plug in it didn't have a wall charger fortunalty I still had my Garmin changer with is similar usb connection and it works great.  It charges via a clip that connects onto the side of the watch however it doesn't really lock in and on my watch I have to play with the connection for a couple of minutes to get the connectors to line up just right and actually charge. 

All in all I do really like the watch.  It has a few minor problems but nothing catostrophic.  Great running watch its best feature is the large display and comfortable band.