Michal Ždanský Smartwatches are undoubtedly the future of wearables and will likely replace all sports trackers one day. But before that happens, which certainly won't happen this year, there are quite a lot of devices for athletes on the market, from simple pedometers to professional multi-purpose measuring devices. TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio belongs to the second group and can cover the needs of demanding athletes.
Personally, I'm a fan of these devices, because I myself love running, I'm trying to lose a few kilos and at the same time I want to keep track of my performance. So far I've made do with a phone clipped to an armband, later just an iPod nano with a well-calibrated pedometer, but in both cases these are more basic performance measurements that will only partially help you improve or burn fat.
Two things are usually important for correct measurement – an accurate pedometer/GPS and a heart rate sensor. Measuring heart rate during sports performance is an essential part of an athlete's training, as heart performance has a fundamental influence on the quality of training. A chest strap paired with a sports watch is usually used for this. However, it has both Multi-Sport Cardio built into itself. Built-in GPS together with TomTom's rich experience with navigation software and hardware guarantees accurate movement measurement, while the heart rate sensor takes care of heart rate measurement. However, it is possible to buy a chest strap with the watch, it can be useful, for example, in winter, when you put the watch over your sleeve, from where they cannot measure your performance through the fabric.
From the point of view, the watch is mainly intended for sports, as its design suggests. Among the competition, however, these are some of the best-looking sports watches on the market. The body of the watch is quite slim for a GPS watch, less than 13 millimeters, and surprisingly small, only with a rubber strap on the hand they can appear more massive than they really are. With active GPS and the heart rate sensor, you can get up to 8 hours from the watch on a single charge, which is a very good result considering the dimensions, it lasts for about a week in passive mode. Charging takes place using a special proprietary cable. The watch is inserted chin down into it. There is no need to remove the belt for this. At the other end of the cable is a USB connector.
Good durability is also helped by the display technology. This is a monochrome LCD, i.e. the same display that you can find, for example, in the Pebble smart watch. A diagonal of 33 millimeters offers enough space for a quick overview of statistics and running instructions. The display is easy to read even in the sun, in poor lighting conditions it will offer backlighting, which is activated by the sensor button on the right next to the display. The control is quite simple and intuitive, there is a four-way controller (D-Pad) under the display, which is a bit reminiscent of the joystick of older smart Nokias, with the difference that pressing the center does not work as a confirmation, each menu must be confirmed by pressing the right edge of the controller.
The watch offers practically three main screens. The default idle screen is the clock. Pressing the controller to the right will take you to the activity menu, then pressing down will take you to settings. The list of activities includes running, cycling, running on a treadmill and swimming. Yes, you can take the watch to the pool, as it is waterproof to five atmospheres. Finally, there is a stopwatch function. It is not a problem to use the watch even during indoor sports. Although the GPS signal will not reach there, the watch instead switches to the built-in accelerometer, albeit with slightly less accuracy than when tracking the exact location using satellites. For various activities, you will find appropriate accessories in the plastic cube-shaped package. For most of them, a classic wrist strap is sufficient, but the body of the watch can be removed from it, placed in a special holder and attached to the bike using a rubber band.
The hand strap is entirely made of rubber and is produced in several color variants. In addition to the red and white that you can see in the photos, there is also a black and red version, and TomTom also offers interchangeable bands in other color combinations. The design of the watch is very functional, which you can tell when you sweat, and the strap is surprisingly comfortable on your hand, and you practically don't feel the watch after a while while running.
The fact that the TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio is not just any watch is also proven by its ever-growing popularity among professional athletes. These sports watches are actively used, for example, by Slovak representatives, long jumper Jana Velďáková and half marathoner Jozef Jozef Řepčík (both in the attached photos). The watch helps both athletes in their preparation for the European Championship.
With a watch on the track
The watch is designed for a variety of sports activities, however, I tested it the most while running. There are a large number of programs for running in the watch. In addition to classic goals such as distance, speed, or time, you can also set default workouts for heart rate, endurance, or calorie burning. Finally, there are also specially selected targets with a predetermined distance for a certain time, but there are only five of them and their selection is not completely balanced. Either it is a shorter run at a relatively fast pace, or a lighter run, but again over long distances. Practically, the watch calculates that you are already a more experienced runner; there is a lack of a good program for beginners.
After all, I am among them, which is why I chose a manual distance of five kilometers without any other goal. Already while entering the program, the watch tries to determine your location using GPS, which may take longer if you are between buildings or in the forest, but you can insure yourself against delays when, for example, you arrive at a new location by connecting the TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio to the docking station and GPS signal are set automatically. With the GPS signal captured, the power of the watch begins to show.
With gentle vibrations, they discreetly inform you of the distance traveled, which you can always check by looking at your wrist. Pressing the D-Pad up and down then rotates between individual information screens - pace, distance traveled, time, calories burned or heart rate. However, the most interesting data for me concerns the zones that can be measured using the heart rate sensor.
The watch informs you whether at the current pace you are more likely to improve your form, train your heart or burn fat. In the fat burning mode, the watch always warns you that you have left the given zone (for fat burning it is 60-70% of the maximum heart output) and advises you to increase or decrease your pace.
If you follow these instructions, you'll know in no time. While I was previously used to running with just the pedometer on my iPod nano, I didn't pay as much attention to pace and simply tried to run a given distance standing still. With the watch, I changed my pace during the run based on the information, and I actually felt better after the run – less breathless and tired, despite probably burning more calories in the process.
I was very interested in the possibility of measuring wheels. The watch will give you the ability to measure your wheels in several ways. Either based on distance, time, or manually if you want to customize your bike. When counting manually, you always have to tap the watch, which the accelerometer recognizes and marks the wheel. You can then analyze individual laps using TomTom MySports to track your pace and time in each. Training by zones is also handy, where you set a target zone based on pace or heart rate. With this training, you can prepare for a marathon, for example, the watch will help you maintain the required pace.
Multisport is not just a name
When the snow falls, many runners move to fitness centers on treadmills, which is what Multi-Sport Cardio is counting on. The dedicated treadmill mode uses an accelerometer in combination with a heart rate sensor instead of GPS. After each running session, the watch will offer you the option of calibration, so it is better to try a short run first and adjust the distance according to the data from the treadmill. The menu in this mode is similar to that for outdoor running, so you can train in zones or meet preset goals. By the way, for goals, the watch primarily displays a pie chart of your progress and lets you know when you've met each milestone (50%, 75%, 90%).
For cycling, the package includes a special holder and strap for attaching the watch to the handlebars. Because of this, it is not possible to monitor the heart rate, and the only option is to connect a chest belt via Bluetooth, which can also be purchased from TomTom. What's more, Multio-Sport Cardio can also work with cadence sensors, unfortunately when connected to them, the GPS will be turned off and you will therefore lack geolocation data during the evaluation. Cycling mode is not very different from running mode, the main difference is measuring speed instead of pace. Thanks to the accelerometer, the watch can also measure elevation, which is then displayed in a detailed overview in the TomTom service.
The last sport mode is swimming. In the watch, you set the length of the pool (the value is then saved and available automatically), according to which the lengths will then be calculated. Again, GPS is inactive when swimming and Cardio relies solely on the built-in accelerometer. According to the movement recorded by the accelerometer, the watch can very accurately calculate paces and individual lengths and can then provide a detailed analysis of your performance. In addition to paces and lengths, total distance, time and also SWOLF, the value of swimming efficiency, are also measured. This is calculated based on the time and number of paces in one length, so it is an important figure for professional swimmers who try to make each stroke as efficient as possible. When swimming, the watch does not record heart rate.
The watch saves your individual activities, but does not offer much information about them. The software from TomTom for computers and mobile devices is used for this. You can download the app on the TomTom website MySports Connect available for both Mac and Windows. After connecting with the charging/synchronizing cable, the data from the watch will be transferred and you can then continue to work with it. The application itself will offer even less information about activities, its purpose, apart from updating the watch's firmware, is mainly to transfer data to other services.
There is a large number of them on offer. In addition to TomTom's own MySports portal, you can use, for example, MapMyFitness, Runkeeper, Strava, or you can simply export information to common GPX or CSV formats. TomTom also offers an iPhone app MySports, where only Bluetooth is required for synchronization, so you don't need to connect the watch to a computer to view activities.
záver
The TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio watch certainly has no ambitions to become a smart watch or to gain a prominent position on your wrist. It is truly a self-serving sports watch designed for those who want to measure their performance, improve and exercise more effectively than with a regular pedometer. Cardio is an uncompromising sports watch whose function covers most of the requirements of professional athletes, whether they are runners, cyclists or swimmers. Their use will be appreciated especially by those who practice more sports, only runners can choose from cheaper devices from TomTom, which start at an amount below 4 500 $.
[button color=“red“ link=“http://www.vzdy.cz/tomtom-multi-sport-cardio-black-red-hodinky?utm_source=jablickar&utm_medium=recenze&utm_campaign=recenze“ target=“_blank”]TomTom Multi -Sport Cardio – 8 CZK[/button]
The key feature of the watch is accurate measurement using GPS and heart rate measurement in conjunction with a number of programs for different types of sports. At that moment, the watch becomes a kind of personal trainer that tells you what pace to choose, when to pick up and when to slow down. It is perhaps a pity that the watch does not have a program for normal walking, its purpose clearly does not include a normal pedometer, as provided by Jawbone UP or FitBit.
The TomTom Multi-Sport Cardio watch starts at 8 199 $, which is not the least, but it should be remembered that sports watches with similar equipment often cost more and are among the more affordable in their category. TomTom also offers run-only version, which costs CZK 800 cheaper.
We thank the store for lending the product Always.cz.
Is the watch Czech or Slovak? Or just world languages?
Cestina is in the watch :)
So far, probably the best function of a fitness watch I've read about, but I expect more from this watch. If they could also measure blood pressure, body fat and blood sugar, and if they could also measure heart rate in the pool, they would be interesting to me. maybe within three years I'll be running an Apple Watch.