Timex T5G971 Unisex Sports Personal Heart Rate Monitor Watch

Pros: Does exactly what it says, monitors heart rate, set your own zone and monitors time in that zone, estimates calaries based on your weight, total time excercising (or from when you start monitoring your heart rate until you turn off the monitoring). Strap is easy to adjust and easy to put on. User replaceable batteries. Bought 2 batteries at Walgreens for about $6.

Cons: Does not keep a history of workouts, you of course could write down the information. After the workout the infomation is no longer maintained. I seem to have to make the chest strap very tight or it looses the connection to the watch at higher rates (160+). Even with the strap tight it will sometimes loose the wireless connection until I hold the watch next to the front of the strap.

I probably would not purchase again due to the problem with loosing the signal.

This product is all that I hoped it would be. I have enjoyed it and it helps with my motivation for my workouts. As other have commented, it syncs with the machines and you do not need to wear the watch each time.
I am very pleased with the purchase and am very happy with the operation of this product.

I recently purchased this item and have been very satisfied with it. There are more expensive heart rate monitors out there, but this one is a great value for the money and has worked fine.

Worked fine for 3 months then became very hard to get any reading and quit during the middle of work outs. Now shows heart rate of 30 on those rare occasions when it shows anything.

I bought this heart monitor after burning through two (more-expensive) Polar F6 heart monitors in two years, part of a healthy eating/exercise plan that helped me lose 100 pounds in a year.

In general, I like the Timex T5G971 very much -- particularly for the money. It's functional, easy to program & use, and easy to read. It lacks the more sophisticated display screens of the Polar, but I don't need these any longer now that I am in weight/health-maintenance mode. I also like the fact that you can replace the battery in the sensor strap, and that I can probably get a local jeweler to replace the watch battery when it goes (both of which were not possible with the Polar).

However, I have two criticisms:

First, do yourself a favor: put a fresh battery in the sensor strap before you program and use the watch. I didn't do this, and almost gave myself a heart attack trying to get my heart rate up to my usual exercise level before realizing that the watch reading was about 50 bpms off because of a dying battery. I replaced it (easy) and the watch works fine now.

Second, the calorie counter seems to run a bit "hot." On the same 90-minute exercise program, my Polar would record 700 calories while the Timex will record 1000 or more. My Tunturi bike counter seems to run closer to the Timex, so I am guessing that the right number is somewhere in between. We will see as the weeks wear on.

Overall, I am glad that I bought this watch -- at least so far.