I have been wanting a new fitness watch and most importantly, wanting one that not everyone is wearing.
Having read the awesome first run and impressions by Ray at DC Rainmaker, I decided to get the TomTom Spark Cardio + Music Fitness Watch.
For those not familiar with Tom Tom, the company is headquartered in Amsterdam and TomTom is a Dutch company that specializes in GPS watches, location-based products and fleet management systems.
The TomTom Spark Cardio + Music GPS Fitness Watch allows users to have over 500 songs (3GB) and people can listen via Bluetooth headphones (you can use your own or purchase the bundle that that comes with headphones.
The watch is much sleeker than its previous counterpart GPS watches and features a larger, enhanced screen.
The watch also comes with a built in heart rate monitor, 24/7 activity tracking which captures your steps, distance, active minutes and calories burned.
The multi-sport mode tracks different types of sports activity such as running, biking, swimming, treadmill, etc.
And of course, this watch comes with:
- GPS Tracking
- Goal Setting
- Automatic Sleep Tracking
- Audio Performance Feedback
- 5 Heart Rate Training Zones
- Wireless Syncing
- Water Resistant to 50M
- The ability to purchase straps of different colors
The watch is fairy easy to setup. I would download the TomTom Sports app and then also apps such as Strava and a few others that the watch can sync with.
The watch is fairly easy to use as the controls are on the bottom button, which you can move up, down, left and right.
Once you get connected and you setup your TomTom Spark Cardio + Music, you can start transferring MP3 files and create playlists (on PC and Mac) easily. Press up on the button and it goes to music and will try to search for your Bluetooth headphones. It’s important to select your music first, before any major activity, especially if you are using cheaper Bluetooth headphones.
Press left and you can access steps taken for the day and week, you can check out your sleep and also change your settings if you want backlight (which will eat up battery power) but also edit other setup options.
Press right and that is where you can select the activity from running, cycling, swimming, freestyle or stopwatch.
The watch will then buzz to allow you to start the activity and you can monitor things such as your heart or your steps taken, how quickly it took you to surpass your first, second, third miles and so on.
You can pause and then start your activity later and for the most part, I liked how the watch worked in various activities from running, cycling, power walking, rowing machine, etc.
When you are done, you can sync via Bluetooth to your phone or connect the accompanying recharge cable and it will recharge your watch batteries or sync to TomTom Sports and other apps you gave access to.
So, for the last three days (pardon my dismal numbers), it shows your totals of various activities via TomTom MySports.
So, using this ride as an example, you can see the map, duration/pace, but also view the heart rate zones and how your heart rate was during different segments.
I actually enjoy using Strava which has a more social media direction and you can share with friends or your followers. The information is displayed much differently compared to my Garmin Edge 520 in some aspects but a lot of details were off by a little.
But the reason I enjoy using Strava is because you can crop your start and end time, you can view other’s maps and if you pay for premium, you get a lot of other enhancements for paying members such as the ability to download others maps, in order for your fitness training.
I do have a few observances that I’d like to share with you.
On DC Rainmaker’s article, he was able to access eleven tracks (but he lives in Europe), but for U.S. owners, we only get one.
Sometimes syncing doesn’t work. I have one major problem which required a full reset, but you don’t lose your music or numbers (if they have been uploaded) but had to reset my Bluetooth connections, reinstall TomTom MySports and while I was able to sync again, but not sure if it was from the app getting corrupted or some other sync issues.
But other than that, the watch has been spectacular and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a fitness watch that does a great job in keeping track on your various activities.
Overall, the TomTom Spark Cardio + Music is all out awesome and I highly recommend it for those looking for a dependable GPS, Music and Cardio fitness watch!
