wrist-top thoughts

• When I hooked up with Highgear to test the Alterra, I was clear to reveal my current love affair with the Garmin Forerunner 305.  I do love the 305.  I love that it tells me all sorts of things like pace, elevation, elapsed time, split times, HR, etc.  I love that I can download the data from it to my computer and geek out on things like percent grade, distance covered, what my pace was for specific parts of a course.  But like all love affairs, there are short comings to the Garmin.
• a.)  it is not a watch. 
• b.) it requires recharging all the time
• c.) you have to wait for it to get a satellite signal
• d.) it is large on the wrist and
• e.) it can be pricey. 
• f.) its chrono  sucks … I need to know my 200 meter stride splits to the 10th of the second, if not the 100th.  The Garmin tells me the second, assumedly rounded.
• Some follow up on this … I say it is not a watch because I cannot wear it indoors (in part because of the other reasons I provide) for long stretches.  I have seen different price points on the Garmin, ranging from 170 to 300 bucks.  
• So, by analogy … I love my Honda Element.  But I hate some features in it.  I hate the fact that it only has four seats.  I hate that the back door is not able to be opened without opening the front.  I wish the sun roof was to the top rather than the back.   It is a car that serves a lot of purposes, and it does not serve every purpose.   Like getting six Girl Scouts home.  Cars have no issue in differentiating audiences based on look, feel, price point, life style.
• And, back to the wrist-top watch conversation,  the Alterra is like that … it serves a different purpose.  It is a watch I can wear (no recharge, sizeable, not the size of a mini bus on my wrist).  It has a great chrono (to the 1/100th split).   It has an alarm clock.  It also collects altitude information based on barometric pressure, and it also collects temperature data.  It has logs of collecting altitude information (telling me the amount ascended, descended in a run, total time, and hence descent and ascent per minute).   It has a compass (but I fear that most people are losing  an idea on how to use those anymore).  I see this watch being much more geared towards the person who is interested in elevation gain, barometric pressure changes, temp … and the classic stopwatch.  Simply, it is not totally different from a Garmin, but it is differentiating enough to be potentially different for that user type. 
• Still playing with the Alterra and as I discover more features, I will post.