Since I just got a Marq athlete, I wanted to see how good the respiratory rate tracking was. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get the raw data from either Garmin connect or the .fit file. But I have matched up the Respiratory Rate metrics from Garmin to the (very accurate) Resp Rate data from the Hexoskin shirt. The heart rate on the watch was from the Moov sweat sensor on the forehead, which is quite accurate and near identical to the Hexoskin single lead EKG. I guess one could argue that the HRV is not identical, but since I could not get the Garmin to pair to the Hexoskin, it was the best I could do.
The first comparison is a 3 minute VO2 max interval followed by a near MLSS recovery of 8 min:
Garmin derived resp rate on top, Hexoskin direct resp rate on bottom
The next was a wingate 60 with a cool down
As noted in each, the Garmin derived respiratory rate is lagging and quite different than what it should be.
The significance of this in relation to Firstbeat HRV analysis during an activity is something to consider.
Of course, a repeat using either the Hexoskin or an electrical HR sensor paired to the watch needs to be done.
