Timex Ironman Global Trainer GPS Watch

The Timex Ironman Global Trainer was released in the UK in late September and is a direct competitor to the well established Garmin Forerunner 310XT. 

The Timex Ironman Global can be bought either with or without the Heart Rate Monitor, however, to get the most from the watch we would advise that you use it with a Heart Rate Monitor and any ANT+ monitor will work with the Timex Ironman Global. 

The Global Trainer is waterproof to a depth of 50 metres so there is no issue in taking it on your longer swims, however, it suffers from the same problem as the Foreunner 310XT in that it looses GPS signal and Heart Rate signal when in the water. 

Out of the box, the first thing that you will notice about the Timex Global Trainer is its size. Those of you that were expecting it to be smaller that the Forerunner 310XT are going to be disappointed. If you have small wrists you could struggle with this watch. The main reason for its size is to accommodate the four display screen. As with other GPS multisport watches it will display time, pace, speed, cadence, heart rate and altitude. For further information on the Global Trainer visit www.timex.com

The two biggest negatives of the Times Global Trainer is the battery life and GPS reception. In some cases the battery charge only lasts a few hours even though the battery indicator shows that there is charge. The GPS reception is very erratic and in some instances you could be waiting in excess of 10 minutes to get a signal.This is an issue that will have to be rectified quickly and Timex have hinted that they will be releasing firmware updates in the near future to help iron out these teething problems. Until these two major flaws are addressed by Timex you would be better off with a Garmin.