It’s a fair few years since I decided that I needed a GPS watch. I’d been running for almost a year and I wanted to leave the gym behind and run outside, but I had no idea how far I was running outside.

This was seven years ago, I didn’t have a smart phone so couldn’t use an app to track my runs and so I’d been using a kids’ digital watch I picked up for £12 to measure the duration of my runs. GPS watches were expensive back then. I mean, some of them are very expensive now, but the entry level was a lot higher.

So I made myself a promise, if I quit the gym, in three months I’d have saved the same amount as the Garmin I wanted. Therefore I had to promise myself I’d keep running for three months. It worked, and several years later I still have that watch somewhere in my cupboard (I even used it for the run leg of the Iron Person last year) and I’m still running.

Recently I was sent a Garmin 15 to take for a run. On the first day I tried it I charged it up, turned it on and after answering a few questions (height, weight, gender), I was ready to run. the time from getting out of the box to getting it on my wrist was pretty quick with minimal set-up.

I was going Christmas shopping with my mum and sister that day, so I only had time for a short blast to the park and back. For the sake of science (and keeping my runs logged all one one device) on my other wrist I wore my own Garmin which costs about 3x as much. They both beeped in unison every mile.

When I got home, I had a shower and then headed off to meet my mum and sister. We wandered round the shops, headed for lunch and walked along the South Bank. All the while I was wearing the Garmin 15 and had the ‘activity tracking’ function switched on. So as well as having my morning run logged, it was now counting my steps, distance walked and calories burned. And if I sat still for too long ‘MOVE’ would flash up on the screen. By the end of the day, it told me I’d covered a total of 8.5 miles and 17,600 steps (including my run).

The only downside to the watch – which I think is a good basic GPS watch for new runners – is that it looks very sports watchy. That’s not a problem on the run, but if you’re to wear it as an activity tracker too you’ll probably wish it was a little bit prettier.

Post in collaboration with Argos.