Last January Garmin launched its latest GPS-enabled wristwatch, the Forerunner 405. Like its predecessors, it tracks and records your training logs. Unlike them, it allows you to upload the data to your computer without the need for wires. This is a useful feature if you want to maintain records of your runs for months, like to share them with friends, and you hate wires crawling like tiny snakes around you.

The Forerunner 405 not only monitors and records your pace, time, distance, calories used, and heart rate so you can analyze them to see if you are improving as a runner. Using its Virtual Partner feature, it also allows you to download previously recorded workouts and compete against them. These could be your own records, or records received from other sources. Its data screen can even be customized to display the data you want. Moving from one feature to another is easily accomplished with a tap on a touch bezel. This Forerunner comes in a package that looks more like an ordinary than a high performance GPS-enabled watch. You can wear it in your workplace without fear of attracting too much attention. At the moment, there are two colors available —black and green.

Once the data are in the watch, all you need to do to upload them to your personal computer is to take your Forerunner within range. ANT+, a wireless personal network protocol, automatically takes care of the transfer. You can analyze your data on your computer, or share them with your running buddies online.

You can even share your data with other runners using Forerunner 405 while still in the field. You can transmit your location so they know where you are. You can also send out your workout courses for them to try out, or compete against. Of course, you can receive their records and compete with them too.

A heart rate monitor may be incorporated with a Forerunner 405 for an additional cost. This monitor continually records heart beats per minute, allowing a runner to see if he is exercising within the safe percentage of his maximum heart rate, or if he is running too slowly to give him any real exercise. The records stored will also allow you to compare your current heart rates with previous data. With this, you can see if your heart muscles are getting stronger.
A slower heart beat at the same pace indicates a stronger heart.

A Garmin Forerunner 405 currently sells at US$299.99 at Amazon.com. For all the benefits a serious runner can get from it, it may well be worth the price.

High-tech watches used to be the sole province of James Bond. Q never ran out of watches that doubled as detonators, laser guns, transceivers with video, or even miniature electric saws. Ordinary mortals may not need such gadgetry, but runners, mountaineers, bikers, and boaters need something they can easily carry that could tell them how fast they are going, where they are going, how far they have traveled, how long they have been moving, and how high they have climbed. Casio rose to fill that need with the world’s first GPS watch.

Aptly named the Pathfinder, it opened new avenues in the search for portable electronic monitoring systems for athletes and sportsmen. It revolutionized the wristwatch by giving it the additional task of telling you where you are in space, instead of only where you are in time.

The Pathfinder can receive microwave signals from up to eight satellites at the same time and, as claimed by Casio, can connect with a satellite in less than a minute. Some reviewers of the product, however, point that this could take longer especially where there are tall buildings or trees around. It is true that hand-held GPS can acquire satellite signals more quickly as they can track up to 12 at a time, but this can be thought of as a price you have to pay for the miniaturization of the gadget.

The watch allows you to add waypoints that it uses to record your movements and display them on a tracking screen. For a single route, it can store 10 waypoints that include latitude and longitude, date, and time. You can store data for up to 10 routes.

The Pathfinder stores data on 100 of the world’s mountains as reference points. It also allows users to store data on 200 sites of their choosing. Information on speed may be displayed as miles per hour, kilometers per hour, or knots. Distances are shown as miles, kilometers, or nautical miles.

While the watch is very useful and generally performs all of its advertised functions, there are a few downside to it. It is water-resistant in most conditions but Casio does not recommend regular submersion. Because of the size of the watch, it is inevitable that the buttons should be positioned close to each other. This results in the likelihood of pushing the wrong buttons. At 5.5 ounces, the Pathfinder borders on the heavy side. The company-supplied strap is another issue. It is the type that does not fully unbuckle. When adjusted for small wrists, you may find it difficult to get your hand through the unhinged band.

The Casio Pathfinder is the world’s first GPS watch. It may have a few imperfections and Casio, or other manufacturers could, and probably will, improve on it, but it will always be the world’s first GPS watch.