[caption id="attachment_86559" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] It's very green, but not exciting[/caption] 2023 and 2024 Sports Gadget Excitement This post is a recap of what I found exciting from this year's sports tech releases and reviews, followed by my thoughts on what would be personally exciting for me in 2024. 2023 - A Retrospective Looking back at the year with hindsight, I now realise that only two sports watches excited me. Unsurprisingly one of them is the Forerunner 965 AMOLED which is my go-to sports watch. FR965 has a larger, prettier display than the 955 I had before, obviously with all the same features. I can't see a need ever to buy another triathlon watch although I probably will ;-) The other source of excitement was the Suunto RACE AMOLED which I thoroughly enjoyed wearing and using. Not one single bike computer excited me but I was excited to get better sleep from my Eight Sleep Smart mattress. When it comes to running gadgets it was only Stryd Duo that did it for me this year and for cycling gadgets, it had to be the Streamlines FORMA smart ride position sensor. None of my smart home gadgets excited me nor did my expanding collection of sunglasses and earbuds. I have had the occasional weekend of running shoe excitement with Nike and adidas but I'm not sure that a mere two days of excitement warrants any further mention of which pairs of shoes it was that did all the exciting. 2023 Review & Releases Here are the headline releases from 2023. Many (most?) should have the ads disabled to avoid discouraging you from buying one if you want to click through to tread the summaries: Apple Watch Ultra 2 - Exciting if you like a watch that is the same as last year's one Apple Watch 9 - Exciting if you are a tech journalist who likes to be excited by things that are neither exciting nor different Garmin Vivoactive 5 - Exciting if you thought this sub-brand had died Garmin Venu 3 - Exciting if you used to like Vivoactive but thought that sub-brand had died. Now you are just confused. To be fair so is every other person buying a Garmin. Polar Vantage V3 - Exciting if you love Polar Samsung Galaxy Watch6 - Samsung no longer excites me. #Jaded Suunto RACE - Hmmm, yes! Excitement Sigma ROX 12.1 EVO - A 0.1 hardware bump was more exciting than you would expect. Suunto Vertical - Excitement superseded by the RACE Honor Watch GS4 Mobvoi Ticwatch Pro 5 (WearOS 3) Coros Pace 3 - Exciting if you prefer the number 3 to the number 2 and are prepared to pay a bit more for it. Garmin Fenix 7 Pro/Epix Pro - Great but...yawn. Not exciting. Garmin Tactix 7 AMOLED Garmin descent MK3 Garmin MARQ Carbon - Exciting if you want to trick people into buying a top-tier watch made with old tech. You've been had. Sorry. They saw you coming and knew that the word 'CARBON' would clinch the deal at the till. Garmin D2 Mach 1 Pro Amazfit T-Rex 3 Amazfit Cheetah Pro - See what I mean. There is a job for you. Amazfit GTR4/GTS4 - You also have to have a slightly older brother who's really into car names. Casio G-SHOCK MOVE GBD H2000 - Exciting if you can get the model name exactly right as I think I just did. Fitbit Charge 6 Band - Exciting if you are my age and still like bands rather than watches Garmin Instinct 2X - Exciting if you have thick wrists and like extreme chunkiness Garmin Edge 540/840 - Exciting if you like a button-based bike computer that occasionally tells you to use its non-existent touchscreen Garmin Vivomove Trend - Exciting if, well. I don't know. Somebody must be. Garmin Forerunner 965 Review - Exciting if you are me. Garmin Forerunner 265/265s - Exciting if you are a version of me who can't swim. Polar Ignite 3 (2022) - Exciting at the time Google Pixel Watch 2 - Exciting if you like smartwatches but dislike iPhones. EVE Thermo - MATTER Smart Radiator Valves, exciting if you are a domestic control freak Magene L508 Smart Tail Light - Good but not good enough to take Garmin's crown NIX Hydration Sensor - Should have got me excited Nest Gen 2 Doorbell (Matter) - Quite exciting but too slow to respond Specialized EVADE 3 Aero Road Helmet - Along with gplama this is my go-to helmet. Great? Yes! Exciting?...no. KICKR Steer - Someone somewhere will have got excited about this. It wasn't me HUNT 36 Wheelset - hmmm. Yummy. My go-to summer wheels, making way for the HUNT 82 when there was no wind. HAPBEE Sleep Pillow - If a good night's sleep from psycho-tech would be exciting for you, you know what to do. BRYTON Gardia R300L Smart Radar Tail Light - Again, not a Garmin-beater Shimano RC903 - My go-to road shoes. Very good but only a shoe Stages Gen 3 Dual on Dura-Ace R9200 - I was excited to fudge a 12-speed crankset onto an 11-speed setup. I didn't disappoint myself Bluetooth Version of VASA Trainer Controller - Indoor swim ERG EightSleep Review - A mattress that is so smart it knows your sleep stage and adjusts the temperature to make it better. Coefficient Cycling RR Bars - I was excited to put some wire-hiding aero bars on my distinctly light climbing bike. No one has yet pulled me up on my biggest cycling faux pas of the year. Pirelli P Zero Race TT - These are surprisingly good and fast tyres and I used them on my TT bike. But only a new GP5000 would have excited me when it comes to tyres. ZEN8 Swim Trainer - An interesting complement to my VASA. It might get someone excited who finds it hard to get to the pool and wants to save time Coros Heart Rate Monitor armband - Would have been exciting if caching was enabled and it worked with any other app than the Coros one Coospoo HW9 armband HRM - Cycplus Cube - emergency electronic tube inflator. I was excited by the idea but have yet to get a puncture and use it CYCPLUS M2 Bike Computer - Excitingly round Wahoo KICKR Move - I will review this but I need a winter of excitement first Streamlines FORMA - A novel, smart ride position sensor with Garmin feedback Suunto WING - The rest of the household got very excited and stole them. I haven't seen them since I reviewed them. STRYD Duo Review - One Stryd is great. Two are excitingly awesome and now with FOOTPATH biomechanic visualisations Lumen Review (Updated) - It's exciting to know you are burning fat not carbs WHOOP Review (Updated) - I was too embarrassed to say that I get very excited when I use my WHOOP apparel. TACX Neo 3M - Exciting if you can remember to call it the 3M and not the 3T. Excitement for 2024 2024 is going to be a good year for running and bike tech with lots of new models, though whether there will still be shops to sell them and people rich enough to buy them is another matter entirely! I'll be excited if the Human Race can pull off another year of avoiding nuclear or economic armageddon (armagedda?) The headline watches are mostly predictable and the following post does those predictions in great detail. However, the predictability makes it far less exciting to me. I want something innovative and not simply an AMOLED version of something I've already got. But 'an AMOLED version of something you've already got' will likely be the theme for 2024 just as it was this year. My excitement for 2024 is twofold. Firstly, I can't wait to bin my Edge 540. I've been using this dreadful thing all year because that is what I said I would do. Guys out there know that once you commit to following a certain route no amount of backseat driving will deter you from trying (and failing) to reach your destination. That's me with the Edge 540. Awesome features...with a not-so-awesome implementation of them. Am I excited about a Wahoo BOLT 3?...YES. Very much so. Perhaps you will be excited by a Fenix 8? Maybe your dreams will be realised and Garmin will release one in 2024 rather than in Q1.2025 as I predict. My excitement is for something else though and has my fingers tingling even now as I type. For me, it will be the Garmin HRM FIT. No one quite knows what it will be, but I'm hoping for an all-singing, all-dancing armband that also caches swim HR. I've always had a thing for HR tech so...there we go. You know what will make me happy. Q: What will excite you? A: There are no prizes if you answer Forerunner 165 or Edge 150. https://the5krunner.com/2026/01/04/new-garmin-rumors-watches-2026-apple-coros-polar-suunto-wahoo/
