Garmin Forerunner 405

Richard Walker 16
Reviewed: 09 January 2012

Its the dogs

Clear interface, easy to set up scrolling screens to change whilst running a race showing vital stats i.e. average speed, distance run, heart rate, current pace. It will beep per km run and you can set a pacer for training either HR or average speed. The upload to Garmin's website is simply amazing. You get an interactive map (both plain view and satellite) which plays back your route showing distance travelled, pace, heart rate, and elevation.
There is no hiding place when training, you can compare each run on the Garmin website to see an improvement.

It takes two to three minutes to seek the GPS signals.
You must remember to turn off the GPS if its a long travel before your run (it drains the battery).

An excellent training tool and also very useful for pacing during a race. What more do you need?

Stewart Robertson 2
Reviewed: 16 December 2011

great for recording distance run and speed

nice size of watch ie not massive like some others on the market - great for recording distance and speed. wont leave home for a run without it.

battery life is only about 8hrs and I do run for longer - worst feature is the touch bezzle thing which is fine on nice sunny day but get wet then it dose tend to have a mind of its own - you can switch off the bezzle but then you can't jump between screens. the web site to download data is rubbish - but saying that I still havent found a web site for free that records what I want - ie graphs etc. I have developed my own! Can get spurious results like running at 300miles/hour - but thes are infrequent blibs.

would recommend this watch to anyone who wants to record their distance run and get a few other results like speed.

Karen Norvell
Reviewed: 14 December 2011

Garmin 405 ... sat nav in a watch ... brilliant

easy to use, lots of useful training features. locates the satellites quickly (99% of the time). although it only shows 3 fields on the main screen you can set up extra training fields and autoscroll, problem solved. transferring the data via the ANT is quick & easy and using the information to then set up your training plans is great. The accuracy is amazing and 'finding' yourself on google maps when you download the info is cool.

the main con for me is having to charge the battery all the time, quite often at inopportune times! sometimes have a problem getting it to recognise the heart monitor and there are probably too many choices on the training fields ... it can be confusing!

I love it and regularly refer to it as the best toy ever! Bought by my husband as a Christmas present in 2009, I can't run without it! Also because it looks alot like a watch and isn't too big, it can be worn as a regular watch if you need to.

Karl Todd
Reviewed: 13 December 2011

I love using this watch

Getting home and being able to analyse my runs.
It's really comfortable and doesn't look like a laptop attached to my forearm.
Much cheaper than the updated 410, with little changes.

once or twice, in heavy rain, the bezel goes nuts but if you lock it before hand it's fine.

kneejob
Reviewed: 28 November 2011

Accurate and packed with more than enough features to do the job

Accuracy of GPS is good and it links up to satellites pretty quick, certainly better than many others. It does have the odd blip where it can take a few mins though
Its very comfy as long as you switch to the Velcro strap and ditch the plastic one
Customisable displays allow you to view whatever stat you want to keep an eye on
Great website for reviewing data and analysis
Bevel lock feature is essential to deploy once its wet

Battery life could be longer for ultra distance events. The most mine has lasted for is just over 5 hours
Waterproofing it would be an advantage but then again, I do like the bezel feature instead of numerous buttons
The velcro strap gets a bit pongy and could do with an easier way of detaching to wash
I really can't think of anything more than that and I'm nitpicking really.

Work out how the features operate and this is one fantastic training tool. I've worn it 5 days a week for over 2 years with hardly any problems, so do the maths and its bloody good value per use!!