I bought this watch in late March. It was quickly delivered on March 31. I had originally bought a cheaper smart watch but felt uncomfortable with the inability to turn off the blue tooth (radiation emission) with the other watch and returned it. I bought this one because it was priced pretty well and I had the choice to turn off the bluetooth. Another function that I now really appreciate but did not realize before is that this Garmin watch can constantly broadcast your heartrate while wearing the watch, rather than the 5 minute heartrates that the other watch provided. In using this broadcast function I began to notice, that at certain times my heartrates were running slightly higher than I would expect. I could be just standing talking to someone and all of a sudden my heartrate would be 105 or 110 for a few minutes and then just return into the 80's, and then a few minutes later it might run back up. I am a nurse, I decided to check the accuracy of the watch with the vitals machine at work. In doing so, I realized that the beep that tracks the pulse on the vitals machine sounded irregular. I then felt my pulse and realized that my pulse was also irregular. At this point I had not gotten any warnings from the watch (as the warnings come when the heartrate is elevated over a certain amount of time), but I did pick up from the watch that something might be going on. That night I noticed a small superficial blood clot in a varicose vein in my left leg. I called and scheduled an annual exam (which I was due for). I have a family member who has a genetic congenital heart defect. My Dr. referred me to a cardiologist for testing. I was still hesitant to believe the accuracy of the watch, but I guess she heard enough. I continued to watch broadcast and monitor my heartrates while waiting for my appointment. My watch did give me 2 irregular HR alarms during the few weeks I was waiting. I went and the cardiologist didn't seem to see much that was concerning with me (exercise regularly, good activity levels, no shortness of breath) but did an echocardiogram just to be sure. The echo came out abnormal. She then sent me for a cardiac MRI which also came out abnormal. Shortly after the result was returned I was put on medications for my heart. I am pretty unlucky to have a heart issue at 37 years old, but do consider myself very lucky to have had the problem noticed at an early stage and before my heart had enlarged which causes much more damage. I now can take some measures to try and slow the progression of the disease and prevent the enlargement. One of those measures is using this watch to watch my heartrates when I exercise to make sure that I don't overdo it. I have found there are certain things (the stair-stepper/running) that just cause my heartrate to go up to high and I can find exercises to do which don't cause me to overdo it (walking/swimming-yes I can and do broadcast my heartrate while swimming in the pool). The watch also counts laps for me in the pool but it can not do both heartrate and lap counting at the same time. You have to choose one or the other. Overall... I LOVE this watch. I am not only so happy that I bought it... but so LUCKY that I bought it. I truly believe it saved me years on my life and will continue to do so by allowing me to measure my heartrate constantly. I know also own a chest strap that pairs with the watch for maximum accuracy (which I found the watch was accurate the whole time).
I have downloaded the ECG widget (which gives a free 5 minute trial) but I can't really figure out how it is supposed to work or where the ECG actually is. It just gives me a timer looking thing and I'm not seeing a heart rhythm. In the future (when I get older) I may have to upgrade to a watch that does rhythms too, but for now I feel ok with this. I like that I can customize my own watch face with face it (which I do), and it does well at tracking several different exercises- including weight reps (which it does accurately). I love that I can use it while swimming. I like the menstrual tracking function which works pretty well. It's not an ovulation/pregnancy tracker like some but a true menstrual tracker. I find myself using the breathing (relaxation) function some, and the stopwatch too. I've also used to compass a few times. Overall I love that all of these functions are right there in one place on my wrist. I was a little concerned about the reviews about skin problems before I bought the watch, but I use the original band and have not had any issues. I do wash the band and watch with soap and water regularly after I sweat or work in the dirt in the yard though and I take the watch off and charge it while in the shower. I broadcast my heartrate a lot (which drains the battery) so I charge it about every 2 days when I shower. It If I didn't broadcast so much I could wear it at least 6 days on one charge- no problem. I don't know exactly how long it takes to charge but within the 15 minutes before I actually look at it, it's always at 100%, so battery life is great.
Thank you to Garmin for such a great product!
Consider a similar item
$129.99
Climate Pledge Friendly Similar items that may ship from close to you
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Compare with similar items
This Item  Garmin 010-01769-01 Vivoactive 3, GPS Smartwatch with Contactless Payments and Built-In Sports Apps, Black with Silver Hardware |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Price | $119.95 | $179.99 | -18% $246.30 List: $299.99 | $183.97 | $6.99 | $129.99 |
| Delivery | Get it as soon as Friday, May 17 | — | Get it as soon as Friday, May 17 | — | Get it as soon as Friday, May 17 | Get it as soon as Monday, May 20 |
| Customer Ratings | ||||||
| Mobile App | ||||||
| Battery life | ||||||
| Sleep tracking | ||||||
| Accuracy | ||||||
| Value for money | ||||||
| Sold By | Tech-Boutique | Heart Rate Monitors USA-Refurbished | Amazon.com | Heart Rate Monitors USA-Refurbished | GEAK Store | Tech-Boutique |
| display size | 1.2 inches | 33 millimeters | 1.2 inches | 1.2 inches | 44 millimeters | 1.6 inches |
| connectivity tech | Bluetooth, GPS | Bluetooth | Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi | gps | — | GPS, Bluetooth |
| supported applications | Email, Heart Rate Monitor, GPS | GPS | GPS | GPS | — | Phone |
| input interface | touch screen | touch screen | buttons, touch screen | touch screen | buttons | touch screen |
| wireless standard | 802 11 GN | — | bluetooth | bluetooth | — | bluetooth |
| water resistance | water resistant | water resistant | water resistant | waterproof | waterproof | waterproof |
Videos
Page 1 of 1Start OverPage 1 of 1
Videos for this product
2:46
Click to play video
Garmin Vivoactive 3 - Fantastic Smart Watch.mp4
DeborahD
Videos for this product
1:19
Click to play video
I don't use ALL the features, but...
Mark & Lucy Reviews
Reviews with images
+8 Days Battery Life, Good Resting and Running HR
I ordered the product on 8th of December and it was delivered within just 6 days from USA to Turkey ! Overall i'm quite happy with my purchase. Software version is the latest: 5.70, GPS 2.301) Build Quality: It's so light weight and durable. Sometimes you forget that you wear it. And also it's one of the best looking smart watches in terms of design.2) HR Accuracy: For resting hr and steady state cardio it's fantastic. But for interval and strenght training it's so poor, like most of the wrist based HR devices. I do weight training workouts 4 times a week. Due to wrist HR sensor is so poor for weight lifting, i purchased a first gen garmin chest strap around 10 usd which works flawlessly with Vivoactive3) Sleep and Step Accuracy: I think it's pretty accurate.4) I haven't made a detailed test for GPS accuracy but i haven't had any trouble so far. It connects pretty fast and functions smoothly.5) Battery Life and Charging Time: It takes only 1 hour to fully charge from 0. I get around 9 days with 1 single charge with those activity level and screen settings; - 4 times indoor weight training (gps off) and 1 hour outdoor walking (gps on) per week. - Screen brightness is sometimes %10, sometimes %20. You don't need above %20 because it's so readable. - Auto activity detection is OFF - Wrist HR is always on - Backlight gesture is only on during activity - Backlight time out is short - Vibration is medium (Medium is enough for me, low is insufficient.) - GPS is only active around 1 hour per week for outdoor walking. - Bluetooth is OFF - I wear it 7/24, both day and night.What I don't like;- While driving a car, it adds steps like most of devices do. After 135 km driving, it added 1.000 steps. We tested apple watch 3 with my friend, the apple watch counts steps too. I think it's not a very suitable device for drivers :) Garmin should find a solution like developing a driving mode or something like that.- Battery is a little buggy, but not every time. Last night i took off the device and turned it off. After waking up i tried to turn the device on but it didn't start, showing that it ran out of battery. What i discovered is that while charging the device, do not unplug when it reaches 100%, let it keep on charging 15-20 minutes more after 100%. Before unplugging; turn the device off first then unplug. Then turn it on again and check whether any battery drain exists or not. If it doesn't drop to %99 in 30 minutes, then everything is normal and you will get around 0.30-0.40 battery draining per hour. If it drops %99 and below shortly after unplugging, restart the device, recharge it and repeat the process.- If you use 3rd party watchfaces, battery life decreases, especially for the ones that shows lots of information like Gearmin. For longer battery life, you should use stock watchfaces.- If you turn the gesture on, sometimes it activates the backlight randomly even tough you don't gesture. I think it needs an software update to fix it.
Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Customer
Great watch, good battery life
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 19, 2021
Siddharth Arikadi
Light weight, good battery, GPS and Music
Reviewed in Japan on June 6, 2021