There are a number of different types of sports watches that track distance. Here is a brief summary of the different technologies used to provide this ability.

A GPS watch is a watch with an aerial mounted in the wrist watch, giving it the ability to link up to the GPS satellite network and calculate your running speed and distance travelled to a high degree of accuracy. GPS watches have only emerged in the last decade or so and have become a hot property ever since. Go to any sporting event and you will likely hear athletes and fun runners rave about their Garmin (Garmin is the leading maker of GPS watches). GPS watches are highly accurate and offer runners a wide range of useful features, but on the downside these watches are bulkier and heavier than a normal watch, although size and bulk has decreased in later models.

The second technology that has made measuring speed and distance in a runner watch possible is accelerometers. These are packaged in foot pods that clip into your shoelaces and measure the acceleration and of your leg cadence in order to measure your speed and distance. This might sound like an ineffective method, but the results are actually just as accurate as with a GPS due to the fact that the internal sensor makes 1000 measurements per second! Accelerometers are nothing like pedometers which measure your hip vibrations and can only provide an estimate of speed and distance. They are in fact a viable alternative to GPS.

The comparative advantages between GPS watches and accelerometers is that GPS watches are prone to interference by large objects whereas foot pods are not. Food pods on the other hand do not have the ability to record 3D position data and cannot provide a 3D overview of past courses you have run over in the same way as a GPS. Both these technologies are relatively new and over an exciting world of possibilities to athletes who want to take their running activities to a new level. Many of the popular GPS and foot pod watches provide wireless data transfer between your watch and PC and a wide host of advanced features that is almost guaranteed to keep the most demanding of athletes satisfied.

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