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Garmin watch suitable for World Record attempt?

Wiebe
1 day ago

Next year I'm attempting an official Guinness World Record. I'm going to circumnavigate the world.

For this attempt, I need to track my route with a GPS device and I want to know if any of Garmin's watches is suitable to track this? Having the route tracked is a necessity and part of the official evidence, if my route is not tracked properly I can't set a record. 

What it needs to do is:

- Record Continuous GPS Tracks: it will be a 3+ month journey and I need to record every step. It will be on land sea. It needs to track the route in any country and ocean. 

- Store and Export GPS Data: I need export to have the whole route as a KML file or similar.

- Timestamp and Location Accuracy: GPS points must be tied to UTC timestamps

- Long Battery Life

- Automatic Syncing, I want to show my route and live position on a map on my website

Can someone inform me if a Garmin GPS watch does this, and which one? I filed this topic under Fenix 7 but applies to any series.

Thanks in advance!

  • 0 1 day ago

    Sounds like a nice event to be sponsored and equipped by garmin - maybe you should contact PR team and let them give you guarantees what can be done with their devices.

  • 0 1 day ago

    I think I you'll actually need two devices. This is certainly the case when recent round-the-world cycling records have been set and would be sensible just for redundancy too. 

    For live tracking you will also need something like an inReach to cover areas outside 4G/5G signal. 

    You're going to.need a lot of battery/power generation. Many cyclists partially get around this with the use of a dynamo hub. I doubt you'll get much benefit from a portable solar generator but I'd add it to your shopping list. 

  • 0 1 day ago in reply to druidh

    Thanks for your response. The problem is that inReach is banned in certain countries I'm planning to travel through, China for example. It's oke if there's some delay in the tracking. So let's stay, I'm using just the watch, in a remote area it won't update my location but as soon as I'm on as stable connection, did it keep track and update my location?

  • 0 1 day ago

    Garmin has a dedicated page to request sponsorships:

    https://www.garmin.com/en-US/company/sponsorship/ 

    I'd definitely recommend going through that process, however: I'd prepare a marketable presentation or flyer that details what you're trying to do and if possible also document what you did in preparation for your process (including photos for PR and previous tracked activities to document your preparations).

    Make sure to go through the proper geo for that (if it's not US but e.g. Europe), they may have a different process depending on your country of origin.

    Best of luck &
    please keep us posted on the progress of both your journey and when you're starting!

    PS: Both Yerk and druidh have valid points, but I'm sure the sponsorship people will have you covered in that department.

  • 0 1 day ago

    First, some handheld device would be good. Second, ask official organization which devices are allowed and recommended.

  • 0 1 day ago

    It will not be able to record whole track as one activity, but you can save after each day. 

    Also, sometimes issues/glitches happen resulting in crashes and losing activity in progress, so I would not rely on only one watch to record that. 

  • 0 23 hours ago in reply to Wiebe
    Wiebe said:
    So let's stay, I'm using just the watch, in a remote area it won't update my location but as soon as I'm on as stable connection, did it keep track and update my location?

    Just to make it clear for the case you are not aware of it: the live tracking happens through the feature called Live Track of the Garmin Connect app on the phone, which has to have roaming mobile data available. 

    Besides charging the watch, you will have to take care of charging the phone, too. Make sure that you test whether the phone is well compatible with Garmin Connect, and does not lose the connection to the watch due to the interference with WiFi, due to battery optimization options, or similar. Some phone brands are more prone to problems than others.

    As a backup, you could track the trip for example with the Strava app on the phone, though it may drain the phone battery pretty quickly. And Strava has a live tracking option too. In your place I'd use minimally two (or rather three) devices + a phone app to track the trip, in order to minimize the risk of missing the complete data.