Anyone else have the Ultrafit strap fail?

Lost my Enduro to the sea a couple weeks ago, and am concerned about replacing it. My Enduro was snug and reading HR on 3km walk/jog to the beach, I went for a dip (through admittedly rough surf), swam back in and had no watch! Has anyone else had issues with their Ultrafit straps coming off, in the water or otherwise?

There seem to be plenty of threads where people have lost watches due to strap issues, however many of these seem to be either with third party quickfit mechanisms failing, or the silicone breaking through were cracks can usually be identified ahead of time.

There's two ways I can see that the Ultrafit failed:

Perhaps the hook and loop was blown open by sheer force of water. However, the lip/overhang on the end of the strap is quite small, so I'm not sure how much purchase a flow of water would actually get.

Alternatively, I wonder if water catching under the body of the watch itself could lift/tilt the watch itself on my wrist, and because the Ultrafit is so soft/flexible it is able to slip to one side of the spring bar, dragging the pin on one side, compressing the spring and allowing the bar itself to be popped out by the tension on the strap.

Either way, this seems to me an issue that users cannot prevent without changing to an alternative strap, or just avoiding surfing/open water swimming. Given the marketing emphasis on durability, extreme use, and even highlighting the surfing application, such poor durability is hugely disappointing (particularly at the 1400AUD price point).

Would love to hear if anyone has experienced or heard of similar issues, has input on how the Ultrafit might have come off, or has thoughts on the durability of other strap systems, perhaps the Instinct.

Thanks

  • I'm swimming daily about 170M during the last six months 

    I'm using Enduro since 2 months daily for swimming and no issue, the ultrafit is perfect 

  • Yeah I'd used it for swimming before as well; really loved the watch overall! Just had a very disappointing experience with it in rougher surf.

  • This post made me think before I do any ocean swimd with my new ultrafit strap.

  • I did a bit of online rersearch and fornd that 'some' nylon can expand when wet, and 'some' velcro can lose a bit of grip when wet. A possible solution came to mind while installing the new ultrafit strap.

    When installing the strap, after one side is installed, take the old silicon sleeves from the standard silicon band (Thingys on the strap that keep the non-buckle end of the band snug against the band), and place two of them on the ultrafit strap after one side is attached to the watch,  but before attaching the other side.

    So now the band would look like it was attached as normal, but would have 2 sleeves in thh center.. After the wartch is put on your wrist, move the sleeves up the band over the attached velcro closure, andall the way  up to the watch 'ears'. They will stay in place when the band is snugged down, and if the velcro end of the band should come loose and start to move, it will only go a little way before the silicon sleeves force it down against the band again. 

    To remove the watch, first push the silicon sleeves down to the center of the strap, then undo the velcro connectors. Worked pretty well, but I think I would only do this when I was planning an ocean swim tri. The velcro seems strong enough to handle most anything else. 

  • Hi-- l love my Enduro and lost it two days whilst body surfing at Yallingup beach Western Australia.  Really can't believe it came off as it was so snug. I suspect it must have been some pin failure as I can't imagine the surf action was strong enough to yank the velco apart.  I agee with yoiur comments-- it should be better than this, durability is why i bought it ...and having owned it only fo 5 mths haven't even hit the trail with it yet. Have you contacted Garmin / get a helpful response?

  • Lost mine whilst ocean swimming and the surf wasn’t big. I have sent emails to garmin with no outcome. Very disappointed as I loved the watch and it’s marketed for swimming. 

  • Yep, not me, but my mate lost his while waterskiing on a lake. Yes this is a high impact activity, but I guess it didn't really cross his mind that losing his watch was a likely outcome. Came back to shore and it was missing from his wrist. He went and bought another enduro, hard lesson learned. But definitely made me conscious of any water based activity to probably take mine off first 

  • After each daily activity I unstrap my Еnduro, so I can wash/clean properly from all the sweat and dust.. so yeah... mine started to fail after 3-4 months of daily unstrapping..

  • I had the same problem in a 4 meters deep pool. Jumped in and watch was gone.
    If you decide to swim or dive use the silicon band. For anything else nylon band. 

    The band will expand when in the shower or very heavy sweating but that is just for a moment. 
    Other then that I love the band. Its better then the silicone or the thick nylon from tactix or Fenix.

  • i just lost my watch in 1 m of water while in the low surf with my son. i cant beleoive how a watch can fall of the hand so easily im so dissappointed