TomTom's new GPS sport watches aim for runners, cyclists, swimmers
- 27 August, 2013 12:30
TomTom is cashing in on the wearable fitness craze with two new sports watches, tapping into the company's long history of GPS devices.
The TomTom Runner is, as the name suggests, a GPS watch for runners, complementing the existing Nike+ Sportstwatch Powered By TomTom. The $199 Runner can track time, pace, and distance, and can be customised to set challenges of distance, time, calories burned or to beat previous achievements. The 'Zone' mode can set a target pace, useful for training endurance.
Instead of a touchscreen, TomTom has opted for a single button on the watch's band, with a toughened single-piece watch face across the 11.5mm thick casing. The Runner is available in dark grey or dark pink, and can be purchased with a heart rate monitor in a $269 kit. The monitor can also be purchased separately for $89.95.
For $249 or $319 for the standard or heart-rate monitor kit respectively, TomTom's Multi-Sport version of the watch adds a swim sensor that monitors stroke length, speed and type and delivers a swimming efficiency report at the end of each session. All variants come with a bike mounting kit, but adds a bicycle cadence/speed sensor and integrates an altimeter to measure ascent and descent throughout a course.
After a workout, the watches can be connected to a computer to download exercise data and share it to TomTom's own social workout website and other services like RunKeeper. All TomTom sports watches use a combination of GPS and GLONASS satellites for the fastest possible and most accurate positioning. Accelerometers mean the watches still work to measure pace and distance when running on a static point like a treadmill.
