Review of the Timex Ironman Triathlon

Series Speed + Distance system

with Garmin GPS Receiver

by John Maxwell

May 2002

This review was originally posted in the newsgroup rec.sport.skating.inline, and has been reproduced here with the permission of the author.

http://www.timex.com/spd/index.html

You can purchase it directly from timex.com. They say shipping is free, but that may be for US residents only. Also, I doubt the extra $7.50 for overnight shipping would apply to international orders.

Warning: Review Below - If you don't care to know the specifics, jump to the conclusion at the bottom.

I do own this watch, and I have taken it on only a single 5 mile skate so far. It was a partly cloudy night and the GPS Receiver did have a signal loss for about a minute. I wore it on my arm, like the picture in the first link, except I decided it best to turn the receiver to the inside of my arm to prevent damaging it if I happened to fall. It does also come with a belt clip, and I do intent to test it's effectiveness with that, as well as possibly trying to see how well it will work in the CD pocket of my skate pack.

The receiver itself is nothing but the container you see, a single dual colour LED light (red and green), and a single button. You push the button to turn it on, hold the button for 5 seconds to turn it off (like an ATX power supplied computer). The light flashes red every second when it's trying to acquire a signal, and flashes green every 5 seconds or so when it has a proper signal and is working fine. The unit takes 3 normal AAA batteries, which should last about 12 hours in it. The strap is comfortable and adjustable, it uses Velcro to attach, and it didn't irritate my fairly sensitive skin while I was wearing it.

The watch is a typical triathlon style, 100 lap memory chrono, alarm, 12hr and 24hr options, day of the week, month/day, etc. The watchband is Resin, and rather roomy. The two open spaces on the band tend to make the watch flare a little on the top of your wrist, which allows breathing room. This is great for me, because I hate watches that are too tight and cause your skin to sweat or turn red after you wear them for a while. This design does not have that problem, at least for me. It uses indiglo, and does have the Timex night mode system that will keep the indiglo going for 3 seconds after you touch any button.

The Chrono mode also keeps track of Average Speed, Maximum Speed, Average Pace, Best Pace, and total distance, as well as time. There is also a Recall mode that will allow you to view laps while the Chrono is running, or while it is off. The timer function also can display speed or distance information for the timed interval. It can also stop, and be set to start the Chronograph once it finishes. I really don't see a big use for this, but it's there if you can come up with one. ;)

The monitor mode can show speed, average speed, maximum speed, pace, average pace, best pace, and GPS battery level, all current to what it is receiving. This is run independent of the Chrono. So far, this is the mode I find best to use when I'm skating.

It does have a Odometer that can track up to 10k miles, and you can reset it whenever you like.

The Alarm mode is nothing special beyond other watches in this series.

There is an option mode that allows you to set things like unit measurement (miles or kilometers). Zone alerts, which will sound sound a little alarm if you go above or below set speeds or paces. I set mine to go off if I went above 15mph (which is quite high for me). There is also a Distance Alert that will sound once you reach a set distance. This only works with the Chronograph running. I am unsure if it will repeat. I did set the alarm to go off after a mile, but I listen to music when I skate, so I never heard it. It's not very loud.

The watch is water resistant to 50 meters (but like all watches, don't push the buttons when you are underwater), and the GPS Receiver is 'splash resistant'. The manual says if it is submerged, you should take the batteries out and leave the cover open so it can dry out. This makes me wonder why this watch is recommended by Timex to be used for such activities as surfing and windsurfing, which would cause it to be submerged fairly often.

It is important to note that this watch is not a pedometer. It does not work indoors. It wouldn't even work well in my carport with a thin fiberglass roof. The watch is also not an accurate way to judge calorie burning, as it has no heart rate monitor function.

Conclusion:

I like the watch, and think it's a good tool for anyone interested in tracking their speed, distance, and time that they skate. However, at a hefty $225, I would suggest to anyone to put some serious thought into how often they are planning on using it. It probably isn't worth it to me, since I'm an average skater who doesn't skate more then once or twice a week. I like having cool toys though. ;)

Personally, for the steep price, I think it should have also come with the ability to display the current GPS location. The receiver itself must be receiving these locations to calculate the distance and speed, so also giving the current GPS location is doable. Perhaps Garmin cut a deal with Timex to not include this feature so people would still have to go out and buy a Garmin GPS Receiver at a hefty price to do this. Having this feature would also turn this watch into a handy outdoor hiking watch, as well as a sport watch. Perhaps a future model will include this function.

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