this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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I am looking for a new sports watch/replacement for my Garmin fenix 6 Pro (feddit.org)
submitted 1 day ago by funkyB@feddit.org to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

My Garmin fenix 6 Pro, which is about 3.5 years old, seems to be dying. It got hot during the last charge and hasn't charged at all since then. I replaced the battery, then the cable and the power adapter, but nothing happened. To be honest, I'm very disappointed about this, but otherwise I was very happy with the watch.

I am now looking for a replacement from Europe, although it doesn't have to be a 1:1 replacement for the fenix.

What is important to me...

  • It should be robust
  • Accurate measurements for indoor sports (heart rate, oxygen saturation, etc.)
  • Accurate sleep analysis
  • I don't want to have to charge the battery every day or even every three days; it should last a little longer.
  • Water drinking tracker
  • A pedometer that is as accurate as possible

GPS and map functions would be important to me if they are responsive and intuitive and easy to use. Unfortunately, I didn't find this to be the case with my Garmin fenix 6 Pro.

I have looked at watches from Suunto (Switzerland) and Polar (Finland). If there are other good European manufacturers, I am open to suggestions. I would be very grateful for specific model recommendations.

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[โ€“] bob@feddit.uk 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I've had a Polar Pace Pro for 2 years now, pretty happy with it in general though it does have a few minor flaws. In relation to what you're after:

  • It's fairly robust, I've managed to scratch the screen a little recently, but I have whacked it a fair few times.
  • Heart rate is pretty accurate, though sometimes it doesn't detect properly during a workout and shows 80odd when I know that's not true. Needs a twist or tightening then shows correctly, but can be annoying.
  • Sleep analysis is good. It's helped me realise how much even 1 drink hinders sleep. HRV, heart rate, breathing rate etc.
  • I charge about once a week with 3/4 workouts.
  • No drinking tracker that I'm aware of, but you could set alarms up.
  • Pedometer seems good, though doesn't cancel during a workout, so after a cycle it tells me I've done 20k steps.

I had a Garmin before too and I'm happy with the switch.

[โ€“] funkyB@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago

Thank you very much.

I sometimes had the same problem with my heart rate on my Fenix 6, although not often. I replaced the silicone strap with a nylon one. When I was sweating heavily โ€“ which I can do quickly and very well โ€“ and the strap wasn't tight enough, the heart rate measurement was also inaccurate.

[โ€“] ijon_the_human@lemmy.world 7 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Sorry about your 6 Pro. It's a great watch.

Polar is the only European one focused on sports. Suunto is Chinese-owned. Maybe you were thinking of Garmin which has some legal structures in Switzerland.

Withings is probably not what you're looking for but it's French.

Decathlon (French) also has a sportswatch line but it's developed by/with Coros (Chinese/USA). Not optimal but I thought I'd mention it because there aren't that many alternatives.

Have you looked at reviews by "the quantified scientist" on Youtube?

[โ€“] funkyB@feddit.org 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, that's good to know about Suunto. Withings looks interesting, I'll take a closer look at that. And I wasn't familiar with the "quantified scientist" either, but he seems to make very interesting videos on the subject. Thanks! :)

[โ€“] JustEnoughDucks 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Withings has barely better than a guess heart rate correlation during activity sadly, so not great for sports. But they look nice!

What you can also do (that many people do) is get whatever fitness watch that has the features that you want, then get the Polar H10 chest strap for working out, which is the gold standard for heart rate measurement and much more accurate than PPG measurement.

[โ€“] funkyB@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I really like the idea, thank you. I even have a chest strap from Garmin, the HRM Pro Plus, which I bought at the end of last year because it was on sale. It's a shame, of course, because now I can only use it to measure my heart rate if I don't buy a Garmin watch, but I think it would be the same with Polar if I only bought the strap and not one of their watches, right?

[โ€“] JustEnoughDucks 1 points 3 hours ago

How it works for some people is the chest strap would be detected by the fitness app (polar, strava, run keeper, opentracks, etc...) and then the activity would be recorded with the chest strap. Then the activity is either synced with google health connect or google fit, apple health, etc... So it shows up in your watch app overview.

"Smarter" smart watches I think can also connect themselves to the chest strap instead of the phone and the heart rate from the chest strap would "override" the watch's that it then sends to the app, so you don't have to sync with an external app. Though there might be more problems with compatibility even though all chest straps should use the standard Bluetooth "Heart Rate Service" to be completely interoperable.

[โ€“] skarn@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Suunto is actually Finnish. Now it's been bought by some Chinese holding.

Last time I checked I had not found any proof that this has really caused anything to move over to china (that wasn't already there anyway) but it may worth a second check.

For some people the property is enough to immediately disqualify the company.

Polar seems to even offer to repair or replace the battery on some models. I suspect that won't be cheap, but it shows they may not conceive their devices as disposable trash. Maybe.

[โ€“] funkyB@feddit.org 2 points 23 hours ago

The battery repair service is very interesting, which speaks well for Polar, in my opinion. Thanks for the tip!