under a ton

is it possible to buy a decent, reliable speed and distance (hrm less crucial) watch for under a hundred quid? if so...which?

Garmin Forerunner 201.  Dated now, but still a stella bit of kit.  Better battery life than most modern units and will do you proud on the GPS side.  Well under budget..

LINK to a sample on fleabay

I've got one of these as well as the slightly more modern Forerunner 305.  I use the 201 for longer runs/events as I can get 14 hours battery life out of it.  

Garmin 201? Not so much dated as obsolete.

Keep an eye on the Handtec website. They often have 205s for a ton. Or 305s for a little more.

Alternatively, do some shopping around on that site and Amazon etc for the FR110 or FR10 at about the ton. Newer and smaller but fewer features.

There are brands other than Garmin such as Soleus but tbh I wouldn't.

I paid £85 for my 305 about a year ago via Amazon

I paid about £90 for my Garmin FR 305 on Amazon brand new about a year ago. Does everything except clean my trainers.

Garmin have just brought out the Forerunner 10 for £99.99 - not sure about the colours, but it will do what you want. There was a write up about it in 220 Tri mag this month or last. Came out OK for the money.

some brilliant advice here. thanks guys. i'm investigating

You won't get a new 305 for £90 now it's been discontinued (though handtec get pretty close with their refurbished models, though supply is not always available), however you can still get a secondhand one. I paid £80 in October for mine, and it is excellent.

Dude, My wife has a Garmin 205 which I kept borrowing, I went to buy one & although it's discontinued you can still get them - £180! (hers was £83) Check out dcrainmaker.com, he exhaustively tests different run watches, like yourself I just wanted time & distance with no HR so I went for the Garmin FR10, it cost me £89 inc P+P from Start Fitness. I think personally it's better than her 205 as the speed changes instantly rather than working on an average, so if you speed up, it shows immediately. It's also considerably smaller, more like a normal sports watch yet still picks up satellites quick. Hard to think you can get better for less, it's not as complex as a lot of watches available but that for me was a reason for buying it!

andy - thanks for that. It's actually for my sister and I know she would want something fairly inconspicious and straightforward to operate so that sounds good.

a few people have recommended the FR10 now.

FR110 doesn't seem much more...but i'm not quite sure of the difference.

Hey, if it's for your sister - even better if she's girly, they do the FR10 in bright pink and somehow it's even smaller than the Black/Red one I have. They also do them in green in the Ladies size.

I think you can do more interval programming etc with the FR110, it's more complex but for simplicity & size the FR10's very good.

righto. she's girly but not too girly so maybe the green.

i think we have a winner. thanks for all the input!

Andy, you can set a 205 to work on current pace, current lap pace or average pace.

Interesting to hear that EC, I was under the impression that current pace on a 205 actually works on an average of some sort. Dcrainmaker's test of the FR10 said the current pace setting is far superior. TBH I would've bought myself a 205 if they were still available new as it's a great watch, I should've bought two when they were £83!

Timex, Silva and Garmin now do watches for less than £100. They are small, reliable and powerful and offer time, speed/pace and distance. They use the most up to date GPS technology and are the size of a wrist watch. Look at the Garmin Forerunner 10 or the Silva GPS 1.0 or the Timex Marathon GPS:

http://www.lansonrunning.com/running-gadgets/gps-watches/shopby/price-1,100/

I really hope there is something there for you. You could def choose an older Garmin from Amazon but they are bigger and you may not use all the extra features. And the GPS connection time may annoy you too.

Good luck and happy Christmas to all!