Forerunner 210

Article updated on April 10, 2020

GPS watches are more and more popular. Why? They are practical, quite reliable and greatly help the runner to be reassured about the quantity and the quality of their training.

In addition, they are becoming (like everything else) more and more pretty. I tried several watches before getting this one. What I have always hated about other watches is that they are often complicated. When I buy a watch, I don't want to read the instruction manual… I don't want to have to spend 15 minutes to program my intervals either. When I saw “We made the Forerunner 210 simple to use so you can focus on your workout.” I immediately thought, this watch is for me. This is exactly what it looks like on me:

Not bad is not it? Seriously, I find it beautiful enough to wear it for everyday life. In addition, unlike the old Garmin computers, it has a function that allows you to not activate the GPS and use the watch simply to give the time or as a stopwatch.

What I like about this watch is that it is extremely simple. We can see the buttons which are well identified and whose use is clear: start / stop, light, lap / reset and menu! Great! Precision level, I haven't really done a test myself. On the other hand, to see an extremely complete test on this watch, I invite you to go see this test. They rate the efficiency and accuracy of the Garmin at around 99%.

To start your workout, all you have to do is press the menu button, wait about 20 seconds, then the following screen appears:

Very simple: at the top, the distance traveled so far. In the middle, the time elapsed since the start of your session or your heart rate. At the bottom, your current pace or your average pace or your average pace since the start of the "lap". Basically, it's very easy and straightforward. You can also easily program intervals into the watch. To do this, you will choose whether you want a warm-up, and then choose whether your intervals will be in time or in distance. Then you choose the number and the time / distance of the intervals. You choose your mode of rest (time / distance), then if you want a return to calm. Then you are gone! It takes 2 minutes to program a 2 hour workout! In addition, during the intervals, there is a little guy running on the screen and during the rests, he seems out of breath. Friendly. The watch is therefore excellent for doing intervals on an unmarked course.

Where it is less efficient is to do track training or races. Indeed, the lap function only works halfway. That is, the lap is working, but by pressing the lap button you will see the time elapsed since the last time you pressed the lap. On the other hand, without pressing the button, no way of knowing how long it's been since the last lap. So difficult in track training. Also, on a road race, we want to have the elapsed time very precisely (the 1% uncertainty of the GPS then becomes too great) and we would also like to have the time since the last km. These options are not available. This is the only complaint I have with this watch that I wear every day.

Overall, it is a very simple and easy to use watch. It is not a replacement for a timex for someone who wants to do track workouts. Personally, I still keep it on the track, in order to count the kilometers covered in my week. Also, it allows me to check all my information (heart rate, calories) when I plug it into my computer.

My assessment: I love it, but I would like more advanced lap functions, so I give it 9/10.

Daniel Riou General director

Managing Director of Challenge Group, Founder of Corporate Challenge and co-founder ofAltterre. I love anything related to physical activity and overall health. Holder of a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology from'Laval University Various trainings by The Runner's Clinic Emergence ProgramBeauce School of Entrepreneurship National Coaching Certification Program Level 2 in Badminton National Coaching Certification Program Level 1 in Weightlifting

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