I originally began to think of a fitness watch to simplify my ability to track my rides on the bicycle. I had been using my phone for this but it was a bit cumbersome and the watch seemed like a simpler way for tracking while also eliminating the worries of my phone getting bounced across the pavement.
My first watch was actually the vívoactive® HR which was the successor to the original vívoactive® but added the heart–rate sensor. Of course it did more than just add that sensor but that was the driving force behind not just getting the vívoactive®.
I found that I used the watch a lot to track my bicycle rides and walks primarily (both indoor and outdoor) but was also making use of things like tracking my weight daily so I could be able to take action when I spotted a trend of the increasing variety. I had worked hard to take the pounds off so I truly didn’t want to just put them all back on. I wore it all the time in fact and was even letting it track my sleep. Unfortunately, one day while doing some work in the yard the screen actually popped out. Now I could have managed to just use a bit of silicone or something to hold it in since I wasn’t using it for swimming or anything which would test it’s water resistance but then I found the vívoactive® 3 had what looked to be a much nicer profile. It was thinner, more natural feeling due to being round like a traditional watch and even the heart–rate sensor was improved as it was now flat versus the small protrusion the vívoactive® HR had.
The vívoactive® 3 is definitely far more comfortable to wear. Once you spend a little bit of time customizing some of the settings in the individual activities you plan to use to your liking you are good to go. For example, I find that I prefer to turn on the Auto Pause® for biking (outdoor) but not for walking. There are plenty of ways to customize the watch including changing the watch face, adding different widgets and selecting your favorite activities for faster access to start them.
| Lens Material | Corning® Gorilla® Glass 3 |
| Bezel Material | stainless steel |
| Case material | fiber–reinforced polymer with stainless steel rear cover |
| Quick Release Bands | yes (20 mm, Industry standard) |
| Strap material | silicone |
| Physical size |
43.4 x 43.4 x 11.7 mm Fits wrists with a circumference of 127–204 mm |
| Touchscreen | |
| Color display | |
| Display size | 1.2" (30.4mm) diameter |
| Display resolution | 240 x 240 pixels |
| Display type | sunlight–visible, transflective memory–in–pixel (MIP) |
| Weight | 43.0 g |
| Battery life |
Smartwatch mode: Up to 7 days GPS mode: Up to 13 hours |
| Water rating | 5 ATM |
| Memory/History | 7 timed activities, 14 days of activity tracking data |
| Time/date | |
| GPS Time Sync | |
| Automatic daylight saving time | |
| Alarm clock | |
| Timer | |
| Stopwatch | |
| Sunrise/sunset times |
| Wrist–based Heart Rate (constant, every second) | |
| Daily Resting Heart Rate | |
| Abnormal Heart Rate Alerts | yes (high) |
| Fitness Age | yes (in app) |
| All–day Stress Tracking | |
| Relaxation breathing timer | |
| Sleep | |
| Hydration | yes (in Garmin Connect™ and optional Connect IQ™ widget) |
| GPS | |
| GLONASS | |
| Galileo | |
| Garmin Elevate™ wrist heart rate monitor | |
| Barometric altimeter | |
| Compass | |
| Accelerometer | |
| Thermometer |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth® Smart and ANT+® |
| Connect IQ™ (downloadable watch faces, data fields, widgets and apps) | |
| Smart notifications | |
| Text response/reject phone call with text (Android™ only) | |
| Calendar | |
| Weather | |
| Controls smartphone music | |
| Find My Phone | |
| Find My Watch | |
| VIRB® Remote | |
| Smartphone compatibility | iPhone®, Android™ |
| Pairs with Garmin Connect™ Mobile | |
| Garmin Pay™ |
| LiveTrack |
| Step counter | |
| Move bar (displays on device after a period of inactivity; walk for a couple of minutes to reset it) | |
| Auto goal (learns your activity level and assigns a daily step goal) | |
| Calories burned | |
| Floors climbed | |
| Distance traveled | |
| Intensity minutes | |
| TrueUp™ | |
| Move IQ™ |
| Available gym activity profiles | Strength, Cardio and Elliptical Training, Stair Stepping, Floor Climbing, Indoor Rowing and Yoga |
| Cardio workouts | |
| Strength workouts | |
| Automatic rep counting |
| HR zones | |
| HR alerts | |
| HR calories | |
| % HR max | |
| HR Broadcast (broadcasts HR data over ANT+™ to paired devices) | |
| GPS speed and distance | |
| Customizable data pages | |
| Customizable activity profiles | |
| Auto Pause® | |
| Advanced workouts | |
| Downloadable training plans | |
| Auto Lap® | |
| Manual lap | |
| VO2 max | |
| Touch and/or button lock | |
| Auto scroll | |
| Activity history on watch | |
| Physio TrueUp |
| Available run profiles | Running, Indoor Track Running, Treadmill Running |
| GPS–based distance, time and pace | |
| Cadence (provides real-time number of steps per minute) | |
| Run workouts | |
| Foot pod capable |
| Yardage to F/M/B (distance to front, middle and back of green) | |
| Yardage to layups/doglegs | |
| Measures shot distance (calculates exact yardage for shots from anywhere on course) | Automatic |
| Digital scorecard | |
| Stat tracking (strokes, putts per round, greens and fairways hit) | |
| Garmin AutoShot™ | |
| Green View with manual pin position | |
| Hazards and course targets | |
| PinPointer | |
| Round timer/odometer |
| Available outdoor recreation profiles | Skiing, Snowboarding, XC Skiing, Stand Up Paddleboarding, Rowing |
| Back to start | |
| Total ascent/descent |
| Alerts (triggers alarm when you reach goals including time, distance, heart rate or calories) | |
| Available cycling profiles | Biking, Indoor Biking |
| Compatible with Varia™ radar (rear-facing radar) | |
| Compatible with Varia™ lights | |
| Speed and cadence sensor support (with sensor) | yes |
| Available swim profiles | Pool Swimming |
| Pool swim metrics (lengths, distance, pace, stroke count, swim efficiency (SWOLF), calories) | |
| Stroke type detection (freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) (pool swim only) | |
| Basic rest timer (up from 0) (pool swim only) | |
| Time and distance alerts |
