TomTom Spark 3 Multi Sport GPS Fitness Watch - Small Strap, Aqua

Product Information

It’s a running watch that I’ve found has largely stood the test of time. Its feature set for the money still makes it great value, with reliable GPS, heart rate monitor and extensive battery life. While its design is probably beginning to look more dated than ever, the four-way controls do work a treat when you’re out running and simultaneously trying to interact with the watch whilst dodging pedestrians. I can see why TomTom has been so averse to giving it a proper design overhaul. What you get instead is a watch with a simple greyscale display, large battery and robust design – something that feels like it can take a battering whether you’re getting it wet, dirty or both. The four-way navigation system will take time to get used to, and finding a feature can sometimes feel like an endless game of Snake; up-left-down-down-left-right. But it's not just a meaningless update. TomTom has added route exploration for the first time, building in a compass sensor to make it easier to find your way home or discover a new running trail. The square watch face is slightly rounded at the edges, and the whole unit is controlled by a rectangular four-way button that protrudes through the strap from underneath the screen. The whole watch face pops out of the strap for charging, but don’t imagine that means you can get a more fashionable strap for it. There are a number of third-party straps available, but I wouldn’t call any of them stylish. They still need to house its heft, after all. The screen is quite dark, but it uses power-saving reflective LCD tech, so it’s always on.

Given the impressive options for setting up and planning runs on the Spark itself, it would be great if there was an option to create a training programme, or even just a one-off session, in the app and sync it over. It would be less fiddly than setting it on the device. How often am I going to have to charge it? If you’re upgrading from the original TomTom Spark the menu system is exactly the same, but anyone used to a traditional smartwatch-style menu system should probably get practicing before pulling on the trainers.The TomTom Spark 3 is, as the name suggests, the third-generation GPS running watch from maps and satnav specialist, TomTom. It’s a great feature, and makes it that bit easier to let go, and stop running with your phone – which is an invigorating experience on its own. Add in the ability to go off-piste and run wherever you feel like going, while knowing it’s that bit harder to get irredeemably lost, and you’re in a whole new territory. The main reason you'd consider upgrading from the Spark to the Spark 3 is the new route exploration feature. This basically means you can now go out on a big run and the route will be mapped out on the watch screen, helping you navigate your way home a little easier. You can now add routes to the watch as well, which is handy if you want to run an approximate distance or just freshen up your running routes. It's a feature that usually crops up on more expensive sports watches, so it's definitely a positive to see it appear on the Spark 3. Will it be enough to convince Spark owners to upgrade? That really depends on how much you value the option to mix up your running routes. We certainly enjoyed having it and it'd definitely come in handy taking the watch abroad or into unknown territory. We think it's a great addition, and it works well. It's not 100% perfect. You will see the odd outage, perhaps twice in a two hour run, but this is absolutely a problem with chest straps as well. What you get with Spark 3 is a responsive and relatively lag-free experience that means you can effectively and reliably manipulate your heart rate to the right zone during your training – and that's what it's there for.

So if it looks and feels the same, why should you upgrade? Well, TomTom is hoping that you’re the kind of runner who likes exploring. The Spark 3 has enough storage for about 500 songs, but getting them onto your wrist isn’t as simple as we’d like.If you don't entirely trust the heart rate data that's being dished out by the on-board heart rate monitor, you do have the option to connect a range of Bluetooth Smart heart rate sensor chest straps including the Polar H7 and Mio Alpha wearable. Aside from setup, you need the PC software for when you want to upload playlists to the Spark 3, so you can stream music directly from the watch to a pair of Bluetooth headphones. You can't just drag and drop the files, though; you need to pinpoint and upload them using the app. Mac users have to use iTunes as a middleman to add music through the Connect app. It's a slow process, and I wish you could just upload files through the mobile app. The trails support is also fantastic. I moved house and so didn’t really know the running routes around here, which always makes you a little apprehensive about going out for a longer run. Thanks to the .GPX route support, I just jumped online and used PlotARoute to generate a predetermined distance based on my starting point, which can also be a circuit. You can also use MapsToGPS in conjunction with Google Maps to easily generate a .GPX route to load onto the watch. Still, I’m more inclined to trust the heart-rate readings from the TomTom, which showed a high of 174bpm and an average of 153bpm. The Fitbit, monitoring the same period, came up with a rather dubious-sounding high of 146bpm, and an average: 135bpm.

And although I came at the Spark 3 from a runner’s perspective, it also has plenty to offer treadmill warriors, cyclists and swimmers – in the case of the latter, it’ll measure strokes, lengths and speeds, with waterproofing to 40 metres. It’s Bluetooth-compatible too, so you can add extra accessories like a chest belt for better heart rate accuracy, though sadly there’s no room for ANT+. And with a recent software update the versions with heart-rate monitors can also calculate your Fitness Age, a simple metric showing how your hard work and exercise is paying off. It’s a headline grabbing list of features for any sports watch, but has TomTom done enough to tempt both first-timers and fully fledged fitness freaks away from brands like Garmin and Polar? DesignAnd you don’t even need your MP3 player or phone for music, either: assuming you buy the model labeled “Music”, the TomTom Spark 3 will stream music straight to Bluetooth headphones. The ability to stream music from your watch without your phone continues to be a feature that gets overlooked by the likes of Garmin and Polar (although that has been remedied with the new Polar M600 Android Wear running watch). The Apple Watch Series 2 and Android Wear watches let you do it, but nobody has really nailed the concept on a GPS running watch yet. With so many color screens doing the rounds you could argue the 22 x 25mm grayscale (144 x 168 pixel) display looks a bit dated, but, while slightly boring, we’d rather have practical features than bling any day of the week. That’s not to say there aren’t any flaws, though. The screen is low-res and could be brighter, removing the watch from the strap to charge is annoying, and we’d have liked some customisation for the watch faces.

If you’re upgrading from a running app, or this is your first fitness watch, you might find the number of options a bit daunting. Despite TomTom’s in-car sat-nav pedigree, don’t expect on-screen turn-by-turn navigation. Instead, the watch simply traces your journey and by using the built-in compass you can follow it safely home again.

It’s a shame you can’t link up sports for triathlon training, however. There are workouts you can activate to work on targets, such as running a 26-minute 5K pace or a 3-mile run in under 25 minutes, for example. These have you racing against a virtual partner, with the screen showing if you’re ahead or behind and by how far – a really great motivator to keep your pace up. The good news is that you can still pull your data into third party apps including Strava, Runkeeper and MapMyRun so that's TomTom's saving grace. But we were hoping for more on the app front in the future. All that said, the app is clean, easy to use and works well for the sports for which it is tailored.