My tastes in watches revolves around the practical and usable. I have no desire to plunk down a chunk of change for some high-priced TAG Heuer that sets me back a grandy and all it does is tell the time. Geez… give me data, give me functionality, give me power!
Enter stage left… the new Polar FT60 G1 heart rate fitness watch with all the right kinds of bells and whistles to keep you fit and on track with your own personal fitness goals. Not everyone can afford to pay “Hans the Trainer” to tag along on all their workouts, but with the FT60, you get all that on your wrist.
Previous heart rate watches were OK, so long as you knew what heart rate zones were optimal for your fitness goals, tracked those and then went back and analyzed everything to measure your performance. What? You didn’t do that? That’s the dirty little secret… I’d guess 99% of everyone with a heart rate monitor uses it, but never knows the affect of their workout.
Not so with the new Polar FT60. This little beauty can track each workout and then tell you exactly what you achieved. Did you improve your fat burn? Were you going too slowly to do anything? Were you overtraining? Or, were you maximizing your performance? At the end of your workout (if you wear the heart rate monitor), the FT60 spits out a one-line message telling you the effectiveness of your workout. Wow… that alone is awesome!
The watch does this by first knowing all about you. Your height, weight, age, VO2 Max, fitness level, etc. and then it compares your performance against those benchmarks and tells you how you performed. You can actually go one step further and set up STAR fitness programs that will coach you as you go to ensure your workout is meeting your goals.
The Polar FT60 G1 comes with the following:
- Wearlink Heart Rate Transmitter – learn more
- G1 GPS armband – learn more
You can deck it out even further with more accessories like a footpod in place of the GPS, handlebar mounts, etc.
Polar FT60 Quick Review
For starters, this watch is sexy looking. I’ve been very impressed with the subdued styling that’s at home on the trail or at the office. Many people have commented on how this watch looks and I quite like it too.
Initial setup is a breeze. The first time through, it walks you through a setup wizard where you input all your data and configure the watch for you. This is essential as it becomes the benchmark used to measure your performance (hint to the ladies… don’t lie about your age or your weight). This watch will become your best friend as it tracks your calories burned and spits out a message based on your actual workout performance.
I’ve really enjoyed using this watch on my Fall trail running blitz as well as a few mountain bike and road bike rides. In all occasions, the watch has worked well, except for the occasional GPS satellite loss.
Everything is comfortable and the display is super-easy to read and navigate. That simplicity is so welcome on a watch with the power of the FT60. Anyone can use this watch without reading the directions. Well… anyone like me.
Check out Polar’s Facebook page to see how others are using this product.
The Good
- Great-looking watch
- Setup wizard gets you rolling off-the-bat
- Comfortable Wearlink HR transmitter
- Display is huge and easy to read
- I love the workout performance messages
- STAR workout programs can guide you without hauling “Hans the Trainer” along
- Workouts are grouped by week and can be viewed in aggregate or alone
The Bad
- Buttons are hard to press while on the trail
- Doesn’t have a “scan all” view to scroll through heart rate, speed, performance, time, etc. automatically
- G1 GPS isn’t that bad, but it lost satellite with clear skies more than I would like
- Optional software is not Mac-compatible, so you can’t really use www.polarpersonaltrainer.com
Buy Now: Search for the Polar Watches
11.10.2008 at 7:29 am - by Chris @ Polar
Great review!
Please let us know if you have any questions!
-Chris @ Polar USA
11.10.2008 at 10:09 am - by Jason Mitchell
Definitely… will do. This is honestly one of the most useful training watches I’ve used. Everything else seems useless compared to this one now.
01.24.2009 at 9:17 pm - by Carlos
I wanted to upgrade from CS200 to the FT60, since I run and Mountain Bike I tought that I could use the funcionality of GPS, What a Dissapoint, GPS does not gets signal in clear skies, It only worked my first week of use (I have change to new batteries at least twice).
Now I have a 25dllr cycling computer on my bike and run only with the heart rate monitor.
Watch features are great, as always polar do the best heart rate monitors but they should leave GPS to the experts.
01.24.2009 at 10:35 pm - by Jason Mitchell
Yeah, the GPS can be problematic, but that’s the case with most small GPS devices these days. Hopefully they get better.
The good thing is you really only use the GPS every so often because once you know the distances, you’re good with just the heart rate monitor.
04.09.2009 at 9:10 pm - by Kurt
Thanks for a great review.
I wouldn’t use the GPS because most of my running is after dark on a treadmill (or elliptical).
The equipment at my gym is compatible with polar transmitters which is convenient.
However, I want to make sure that I can enter speed and distance manually at the end of my sessions.
Thanks!
09.12.2009 at 7:45 pm - by dj
I just tried the G1 on my RS300x polar watch. Having tried owned one of the first foot pod watches (Nike Triax) and the Nike Plus system as well as the Garmin, I have a few watches to compare to.
My initial evaluation of the G1 leaves me very unsatisfied!
The trouble seems to be that the G1 only updates when it can get a signal. It was totally overcast when I ran with it, but there was no tree cover and it was on flat ground. I found that the G1 updated anywhere from every 10 seconds to several minute intervals!
On my trial run I wanted to run exactly 4 miles. However, the GPS could rarely get a signal even though its green light was flashing. Thus it was sometimes over a quarter mile between updates.
This leads to several problems. First of all, when it loses the signal, it can only calculate a straight line from the last point it logged, thus it will read too low. Second problem – I wanted to run 2 miles and the turn around. Well, I had one reading was 1.83 miles, then the next one was 2.17 mi. (Even though I knew I was past the 2 mi point, I kept running.)
Next major problem with loss of signal – I like to know exactly what my pace is and I want to know it CONTINUOUSLY when I am trying to learn a particular pace for marathon training. When the darn thing won’t update, you don’t know your pace. In fact, when it updates slowly, the pace you read will be an average of the last few minutes, NOT the last few seconds – WORTHLESS information. In addition, the information will be wrong because it will calculate a straight line from the last reading.
My watch will take either the foot pod or the G1. If the G1 was worth anything, then the S1 would be unncessary as GPS should be exact.
Well, I will say that this was only my first run with the device. Perhaps on a sunny day it will perform better, but it had better be a WHOLE LOT better. I would not want to count on sunny days in order to rely on the monitor. What if it is cloudy on race day?
Maybe I’ll try the pod but I mainly got the watch for the HRM features as Polar has the best in that regard. I got it on ebay for a great price (RS300 + G1). I would be quite dissatisfied if I had just bought the G1 to add to my RS300.
DJ – d e j s w a @ yahoo.com
09.13.2009 at 1:36 pm - by dj
An additional note on my second use of the G1.
Performance was spotty as above. It was totally overcast, a bit less than yesterday.
When I tried to power on the G1, it was in some kind of mode that would not allow it to either start operating or turn off. When I tried to turn it off (refer to the manual) it would blink as if it was going off, but then the satellite LED would blink once red and it would not communicate with the watch.
I explored this problem a bit more and found that it would not do the only other function which is to toggle between high and low power mode – stayed in high power mode even after holding down the button for 5 flashes of the battery LED.
So . . . I had to run back to my house to get a screwdriver to open the battery compartment to totally reset the thing by removing the battery. After re-installation of the battery, it’s functionality appeared to return. It would go on and off and change modes described in the manual.
However, on my run, it still did not perform well as per my earlier review.
dj
10.01.2009 at 9:59 am - by S Pillai
I use FT60 for both running and cycling. Could you let me know whether FT60 measures calorie expenditure equally well when cycling or running? I understand that for the same heart rate, the body expends less calories while cycling as compared to running.
10.07.2009 at 1:36 pm - by Is the Bodybugg all it’s cracked up to be? | Fitness Town
[...] Polar FT60 Pro’s/Con’s [...]
11.12.2009 at 7:26 pm - by Joel
Great Review. I have a mac so knowing that polarpersonaltrainer isn’t compatible with my computer is a massive let down but I may still get one because it is an awesome watch and I don’t have a PT at my gym so this may help me achieve the my goals.
Many thanks
11.13.2009 at 10:09 pm - by Jason Mitchell
Joel… yeah, the non-Mac compatibility is LAME. Apparently they are “working on it”, but we’ll see. Great watch for the money!
02.16.2010 at 11:58 pm - by Dave Salaiz
Interesting, all the comments about the GPS system. I’ve used mine for 3 solid weeks and have not had one problem with it. In fact, I thought it to be cumbersome, but when it gave me feedback on my biking on a daily basis, I can’t stop using it. It’s also great for long walks and hiking. Here in the southern California area we’re used to tall buildings and losing signals with cell phones, this just has not happened with the G1. Maybe I’m lucky, but I did buy this Heart rate monitor and sytem used and from ebay.
07.29.2010 at 12:09 pm - by cross trainer
Great post
Is it legal to use a heart rate monitor during a College or High School Cross Country race?