Keeping going back and forth with my Garmin and traditional watches..

I hear you. 

I have a few nice mechanical watches and will always wear them over my Garmin. I had become obsessed with the stats but now don't want them anymore if I am honest. I need to switch off and go back to listening to my body without the need of a gadget. I am also very sceptical of the stats my T7 produces are in any way accurate, especially sleep tracking so am beginning to think why bother. 

I just would like the basics but to be able to wear my Omega. I really do wish Garmin would release a Whoop type device, no screen, just a minimal band. But they don't. 

So I just wear my Garmin now when I run, hike, cycle or walk the dog (in fact don't even do that now). The rest of the time, I am wearing my Omega or my G-shock Casioak. 

Thank you for that reply.  Yes, I agree a much smaller, non-screen Garmin tracker would be nice for sure.  At one point I did think about the Whoop but did not like the membership platform and in general did not want to have something on both wrists all the time.  But, if they could make it smaller somehow, that would be interesting to see.

Yeah, maybe one way for me to re-think everything would be to get a very cheap one (like a basic forerunner) and then only use it in the mornings in the gym / runs and just log the load and HR data of the events and forget about the all-day tracking and sleep.   I guess I could gain the benefit to see how I progress within the activities alone.  But, I do end up feeling like I am missing out on the all-day tracking for recovery and in general how fitness levels may (or may not) be changing.  This in turn creates the motivation to go harder (or the sign to slow down and rest more or go less intense the next day etc).  This is what I really love about the Garmin Eco system.

So hard..   I wish I was younger, LOL and did not know what a real watch was LMAO (I am 42). 

I'm 51 :) for me all smart watches (AW, Garmin, Suunto etc) are all ugly - they are a gadget for gathering some stats (most of which I take with a pinch of salt). Mechanical watches offer a genuine interest and fascination in how they work and are engineered - that's the appeal. 

Do what's right for you. I enjoy using my Garmin but recognise I don't need it 24/7.

100%. Yeah, I think I need to sit down and draw out some goals of mine and figure out what I need to do to accomplish them, with or without a fitness tracker.

I figured I would just add an update.   I did some more research since getting the new F7 Pro Solar Sapphire.   I decided to go back to the store and take a look at the 955 solar.  Just about as many features (certainly the ones I care about) as the F7, but in a MUCH lighter package and slightly smaller on the wrist.   After wearing the F7 for the past several days, it was easy to tell how I would feel trying on something different.

I instantly loved the 955!  No question at all.  It was shockingly comfortable, and the screen was SO much better in terms of visibility.  I know its not as scratch resistant as the sapphire, but I am very self-conscious about my wrist (many high end watches I also own) and they don't get banged up.   The screen readability is so much better now, so much lighter, it looks better on my wrist over the F7 and just in general so so much happier.  Oh, and I saved $300, LOL.  I also much perfer the digital watch faces this comes with over the ones on the F7, which are looking a bit too "out there" for my more simple taste.  Overall I think this is just a better fit with my personality vs the more impressive F7.

So, my plan is to just wear it 24/7 for the next few months.  Then, if I decide to go back to wearing my nice watches I will wear during workouts, and sleep and see how I feel about that.  Or.. I just might wear this all the time now (so comfortable!) and just wear the nice watches on the times I want to enjoy them for events, gatherings, etc.  Either way, I think this was the smart move and less money spent on something I did not feel totally happy with.   

FWIW, I also loved the 255!  But, in the end wanted to hold on to as many features as possible.

The translative display in the non-Sapphire, is so nice now.  Exactly what I wanted.

I feel seen.

I look at my mechanical on my wrist and it makes me feel happy, knowing that cool bit of mechanical ingenuity will last me a lifetime, I can take it on adventures around the world and I can hand it down to my kids and it can inspire their own adventures.

At the same time, when I look at my Fenix 7 on my wrist, I think about my health and fitness and how my kids would benefit much more from having me as a fit and healthy father than they would inheriting my mechanical watches. It can also do cool things like help me if I get lost, make a record of all the cool athletic adventures I go on, connect to my phone and my inreach devices when I am out in the wilderness. On the contrary, I'm having some skin issues under my fenix at present so having to wear it on the other wrist).

I'm probably romanticising these watches more than necessary. At this point, my kids have no interest in my watches. Also I have an interest in mechanical watches, health and fitness and tech, which don't always go together, at least with the current Garmin's out there.

The bouncing back and forwards between the mechanical and Fenix probably reduces the usefulness of the metrics the fenix offers, if they're that useful at all. As someone noted, judging what to do by feeling is a pretty good starting point.

A Whoop style band would solve the problem (with complete physio true-up) (I've made a suggest to Garmin about that previously). 

I hear ya!  Yeah, I have the same plans with my automatics with my 10 yr old son.  But, it's true its a whole different world now with them so who knows.  Regardless, I know what you mean.  Well, for now I am going to enjoy the 955 and try to get on some type of better health track again.  The stats it gives daily are helpful to me, specifically the body battery and when I am doing too much and just need to relax and rest etc.   There is also something fun about this lightweight plastic watch that I just seem to adore, LOL.  Its refreshing to wear after the heavier mechanicals etc.  (like one of my retro Casio's) I think this is why I liked the 955 over the Fenix.  It just made more sense to me on the style aspect.  I know lots of people call and refer to the Fenix as the "nice" or "flashy" Garmin, but coming from the watch world I disagree, LOL.  So, for me the beauty is in what the 955 offers. 

Funny, I am also torn between both. I have a few very nice mechanical watches but now I rarely wear them (only in the weekends when I am eating out). Usually I wear a Garmin Marq Athlete Gen 2, which to me is a compromise I can live with. Nevertheless, it remains a big sports watch and when I wear it I often miss my mechanical watch(es). But when I wear my other watches, I miss the data. Wearing two watches at the same time is definitely a no go to me.   

LOL, 100%.    in 2021, I bought the Aviator and had it for about 20-days before I came to my senses and returned it (just can't deal with wanting a new one every few years).   That said, I think the 955 (that I have now) and or even the F7 is great and if I plan on keeping it every 5 years, then it makes more sense on the cost side of things.  (Technically I should be sending in my Omega and other autos every 5 to 7 years for service and this runs $500 at the min).

Regardless, I feel ya.. lol.  It's just a battle for so many of us, especially in that age range of mid 30's and above (I am 42) who grew up with "real" watches.  My son, (10) will never care as time goes on.  Crazy how everything changes.

The best solution, which Garmin hasn't quite perfected yet, but I'm sure they will someday, would be to wear a simple Garmin fitness tracker band during the day. Something that's low-profile and passively records all the same 24/7 metrics as their big-brother sports watches do. You could wear that as a bracelet on one arm (or maybe even upper arm or ankle), and still wear your nice dress watch or anything else you want on your other arm. This way you could still record all your 24/7 metrics, without having to wear your bulky sports watch all day. And then when you exercise, just swap out your fancy dress watch for your Fenix, sync it to the Garmin Connect cloud to let it pull all your current data from the fitness band, and away you go.

But the problem is twofold:

First, Garmin's ability to sync data between devices isn't perfectly seamless yet. It's getting close, but as of today it's still not quite 100% there.

And second, Garmin still doesn't really make the kind of "fitness band" that would be conducive to this. They make fitness bands, but as far as I know none of them really collect all the same 24/7 data as the bigger watches do - things like HRV, body battery, training readiness, and dozens (hundreds?) of other things are all missing.

Garmin is really missing out on a huge sales opportunity by not offering a passive fitness band designed specifically to work in tandem with their bigger brother Fenix/Epix/Forerunner watches. They do make fitness bands, but they're all meant to be used as a standalone entry-level product, rather than as an accessory for current users of their higher end watches. I suspect they'll fill that void eventually, but unfortunately today it's just not a thing yet.