Pulse, elapsed time, distance and, above all, your own pace or speed – specific sports watches and also the Apple Watch show numerous metrics during a workout. Despite the variety of information, there is often only time for a cursory glance when running, swimming or cycling. When hiking, there is more time for it and the information is no less interesting, the longer the route and the difference in altitude. That’s why we have it from the event organization Running scene events organized Adventure Walk Thuringia used to take a closer look at the watch face of the Watch Ultra and the Garmin Forerunner 965 from Garmin during activity.
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Preparation: Import GPX route to the smartwatch
A hike often begins with finding a beautiful destination and planning the route. For guided events such as the Adventure Walk Thuringia, the route is specified but unknown. Next step: route import.
Running Scene Event offers a GPX file and a Komoot link. The Komoot app is available for both the Apple Watch and Garmin, where you can install it on your device using the Garmin app connect IQ. Without Komoot, you load the GPX route into the files app on the iPhone and send it to the Garmin connect app via the share menu. Among other things, this shows a preview of the elevation profile and optionally activates turn notifications.
Apple does not offer GPX import, for example to navigate with Apple Maps. The only option here is through third-party providers such as Outdooractive or Komoot.
Preparation also includes looking at the display fields, which can be customized for both. On the Apple Watch, you open the “Training” app, select “Hiking” and use the three-dot menu to go to the settings, where you can change the “training views for hiking”. You can choose from information about distance and speed for the total distance or the current section. In addition, Apple can display information about altitude and heart rate if desired. With Garmin, the data pages can be changed either on the watch or in the app. You can choose from fields for timer, distance, altitude, pace, speed and other metrics such as running efficiency and cadence.
Garmin doesn’t just beat Apple when it comes to navigation
The Komoot app on the Apple Watch offers little more than rudimentary turn-by-turn directions, time, distance and average pace. The “Training” app adds the current altitude as well as the altitude meters climbed and the altitude profile of the last 30 minutes.
Apple Watch App Training
A note at this point: Since Komoot only works on the watch when the iPhone is nearby, it is recommended to use Komoot on the iPhone and not on the watch if the Training app is active there at the same time. Running both apps on the watch in parallel can, in some cases, lead to the training app being shut down prematurely.
The Forerunner 965 more than satisfies the thirst for information: in the terrain, including when trail running or mountain biking, the Forerunner 965 shows inclines and descents not only in numbers, but also graphically. On the route with an altitude of around 600 meters, one diagram showed the distance and the difference in altitude for the current ascent or descent, and another showed the current position on the entire route. These displays help with the distribution of forces and motivate you through visible progress.
When you’re off-road, Garmin allows you to see at any time where you are on the entire route (left). For each ascent or descent, a graphic visualizes distance and altitude separately.
Battery life and charts for speed, altitude and more
After seven and a half hours, including two half-hour breaks, the goal was reached – and the Forerunner 965’s battery dropped to 70 percent and the Watch’s to 40 percent. That’s not bad for the Watch; However, the Watch Ultra has a more powerful battery than Apple’s Series models.
The watch shows an activity summary, and the training app on the iPhone saves the log permanently. Diagrams of the altitude profile, pace and heart rate are shown there; only the map can be enlarged. We hadn’t changed the requirement to take the time after every kilometer on both devices; 5 km sections over 32 km would have been enough. Apple shows time, pace and heart rate per kilometer, Garmin shows time, pace and distance. The latter makes sense if you set a specific time for lap tracking, which is possible with Garmin.
Garmin provides graphs of pace, cadence, altitude, aerobic and anaerobic training effect, temperature, heart rate, and time spent in different heart rate zones. In landscape format, you can overlay another value in the diagrams for altitude, pace, temperature, step or heart rate, for example the speed over the altitude profile.
Apple Fitness app
The protocols from Apple and Garmin differ slightly in terms of duration and pace (min/km) or speed (km/h): If desired, the Forerunner automatically pauses the recording when you stop. Apple only offers this for running and outdoor cycling. When hiking, the watch does not pause and therefore reduces the average speed if necessary. We therefore manually stopped the Apple Watch recording during breaks, which resulted in slight deviations over the entire route.
GPS route and pulse rate in comparison
In addition, we wanted to see afterwards how agreed the two manufacturers were when it came to GPS and measuring the pulse rate.
Garmin allows exporting in various formats after logging in connect.garmin.com. At Apple, you can “export all health data” via the user menu of the Health app (in the overview at the top right), which also contains a workout-routes folder. Alternatively, you can extract the route using third-party apps such as HealthFit.
Ideally, a heart rate sensor would have validated the pulse rate, which would have been uncomfortable for over seven hours. At least the values of both watches are almost the same.
The pulse curve is identical for both. The gaps in the Apple Watch were caused by the breaks.
Even with the GPS, both behaved in harmony across all ups and downs. There were no major mistakes. Over the total distance of 32 km, we only found one section where Garmin had apparently lost the GPS signal for a few meters.
Route recording Apple Watch Ultra and Garmin Forerunner 965
Garmin remains the specialist, the Apple Watch the all-rounder
When it comes to exercise, Garmin can’t be beaten by Apple. Not with on-board resources, and convenience functions of this extent are also difficult to find in third-party apps.
What specialists like Garmin lack, however, is the ability to aim for a target spontaneously and easily. And so when we had to take public transport back, only Apple could help at the push of a button: “Hey Siri, navigate to the train station” – we wouldn’t want to do without that.
(ims)