Using a garmin watch and cycle computer

Yes, everything is synced very quickly. I combine FR955 with Edge 530 and everything works very smoothly. 

No problem at all. Me combining a Descent G1 Solar (for sportdiving) with a Edge 1030 (for the racer) and a Edge 530 (for home-work travelling),

I do the same thing, with an Edge 830 and 955, mostly because I like to have the tracked Intensity Minutes across things; it seems to be the only metric that's ubiquitous regardless of activity.

I do have a no-GPS cycling activity that I (try to) always start when I go for a ride, a tip I read quite some years ago now.  This avoids the watch trying to play catch-up with the Edge, in terms of the HR data and such being in the same window. 

Both devices get HR data from an optical HR strap on my arm (one with Bluetooth Multipoint connectivity), which also seems to work well, once configured.

It looks like Garmin licensed the Intensity Minutes feature for the 840/1040, I sure wish they'd do the same for the 830/1030 series, so I could quit messing around with this dual-device stuff, but I sort of doubt that's going to happen.  Until such time as my 830 has a (timely-battery, or untimely) EOL and is replaced with a 40-series, I'll keep up the two device thing...

The trick is not to wear your watch when you record an activity on your edge. It garmin doesn't like having two sets HR data for the same time period. So just either disable HR on your watch during the activity or don't wear it (all the same data will be on the edge anyway) 

Unfortunately the watch does not do heart rate as well as a strap. There is no setting that allows you to set the strap as priority on the watch without recording an activity. My solution with the Forerunner / Edge 830 combo is before a ride I start a treadmill activity on the watch which will utilize the strap HR and then use the 830 w/ strap normally. At the conclusion of my ride I stop AND delete the treadmill activity. The strap HR is kept and is accurate with my ride data.

I bought the 830 MTB combo and the 955 for this reason. Over time, I tried only the 955. I have been using only the 955 with the HRM Chest Strap for over a year now. For a better comfort I 3D printed a mount for the 955 to install it on the handlebars. For sure it's perfect for because I used only one device for everything and give me excellent results.

Just connect the hr strap to the edge? Not sure why everyone needs to record two activities to obtain cycling metrics and hr data. The computer will do all that. 

G141592653589793238 said:

For a better comfort I 3D printed a mount for the 955 to install it on the handlebars

Funny  
I use this, simple but effective:

https://www.garmin.com/de-DE/p/11078/pn/010-11029-00

G141592653589793238 said:

For sure it's perfect for because I used only one device for everything and give me excellent results.

My thoughts and experience also!

I had the Forerunner before I bought my racing bike with powermeter and thought about buying an Edge. But I just tried it out and for me it works (also navigation!), even though the display is obviously smaller.

I agree that the watch and strap will yield proper HR data. The problem comes if you want more on the fly info from tour device on the bars. When I mtb I never really look at my cyclometer. On the road that is a completely different experience where for most the watch is inadequate.