TOMTOM ADVENTURER Smart Watch

This is Tomtom’s signature GPS watch, with features tailored for skiing, snowboarding, hiking, swimming and mountain biking.

It records your heart rate, speed, ascent and descent, as well as tracking your route and keeping tabs on your daily and weekly stats. As such, it is primarily a tool for measuring performance, rather than a navigational aid.

Out of the box, it didn’t take long to get it up and running and I was out on a hike in no time.

The watch weighs just 55g and is comfortable to wear. I’m quite petite and found the watch looked chunky on my wrist, but when on the move, I barely noticed it was there. The watch is charged via USB and the connection is quite fiddly – I found it easier to connect by removing the watch from the strap.

Most aspects of the watch are straightforward – it operates from a single, four-way button that’s easy to use while on the go. The menu took just a few minutes to figure out, after which I found it simple and relatively intuitive for someone who’s moderately tech-savvy. I was impressed that the satellite signal remained strong even when my route took me into a narrow valley with dense forest cover. The screen is easy to read in bright sunlight.

My favourite feature is the route exploration mode which gives users the ability to load GPX tracks to the watch, which you can then follow.

Use the watch in GPS mode and you get around 11-hours out of a full charge. Use the heart rate monitor or MP3 and battery life is considerably shorter.

This is cheaper than most other GPS watches and given its features, I consider it a good-value, fun tool.