The much anticipated Garmin Forerunner 110 GPS watch finally hit the UK last week giving us here at GPSwatches the opportunity to do a first look review.  Aimed at the recreational runner rather than the hardcore athlete, the watch is significantly different to the other GPS watches which are on the market today and we believe the changes are for the better.

The first of these differences is a simplified set of functions relative to other watches in the Forerunner range.  This simplication has been a very deliberate decision by Garmin, as it has allowed them to keep the price of the watch low while also ensuring that it contains all of the features a typical user would need.  This means users no longer need to pay a premium for additional GPS watch features which they rarely if ever use.

The simplication of features has also allowed Garmin to significantly decrease the size of the Forerunner 110 relatively to other GPS watches (it is easily the smallest GPS watch on the market today), a move we believe will be very popular with users.  One of the common complaints of potential GPS watch buyers being that the current units are too bulky and heavy for their wrists. 

The other improvements made to the watch are not as radical as the size and the function changes, however they are still impressive.  A new model, a more up to date chipset has been used which boast a quicker GPS lock and more accurate GPS tracking, so no more waiting around at the start of your run while your watch tries to find the appropriate satellites.  

We also found during our Garmin Forerunner 110 review that their had been a significant increase in the size of the memory housed in the watch.  Now you can store 200 hours of runs before you need to download them to your computer.  Great for those of us who would like to know how our running is going without feeling the need to be downloading and pouring over data immediately after our run is finished.

Garmin have high hopes for the Forerunner 110 and following our review we believe they may just be onto a winner.