I'd like to think that I could justify expensive purchases in the court-of-wife. To prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I, Sean Parry, in good health and poor mind, took all available efforts to ensure that the purchase of a new watch was an appropriate use of the funds available to the household. But I'd be lying from the depths of my shoe soles.
I purchased the Fenix 6X Pro because:
- I wanted a watch that would record my heart rate all of the time to give me a better gauge of my fitness as a trend - specifically to answer the question 'Am I as fit as I was last year?', which then leads to knowing that if I am or am not, then I'll know whether the next event will be more of less painful
- I didn't want to keep charging the device, so I plumped for the larger X model that has the largest battery in the line-up
- Measuring my Garmin 3 it came to a similar size as the 6X and I wasn't put off
- I'd had a bit of extra cash around and knew if I didn't spend it, I'd squander it on ice creams or whatnot
- I've been wondering whether listening to music on my long runs would help, but didn't want to use or rely on having a phone to carry
- I was interested in the PacePro feature that would help pace me over distance, but where it would also take into consideration elevation gain and loss to influence the recommended pace along the route
- For emergencies, it would be good to have a credit card linked to the watch for Garmin Pay as I always have my watch on me, but rarely have my phone when running
- It was cheaper than a 6 Pro as demand seemed to have driven them higher, and I saw a sudden drop in price for the 6X - I got mine for £565 from Amazon UK
- Based on my positive prior experience with two prior top-of-the-range Garmin watches, I know the 6X Pro will serve me well for many years
- I like the idea of using the map features. I don't really us the map feature on the Fenix 3, but believe that the added colour and screen size, plus the trend maps might help me find better routes on my runs
What my other options were
- Sticking with the Fenix 3, a perfectly good ultra watch, and getting an iWatch to record heart rate data
- Getting nothing and accepting that I could get by without heart rate data, and also as the Fenix 3 was still performing splendidly
- Look into an alternative watch brand, but risk the potential loss of consistent data collection and many years of existing data collected stored in the Garmin apps and site
- Wait for the new Xbox to be released and give up on this running malarky
Overall I'm really happy I made the move the 6X Pro, but it is an expensive solution to a series of first world problems.
Hope this helps someone.
